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Domain: nuvisionmiami.com

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Comments · 5

  1. Re:Well... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 0, Troll · on Why is Java Considered Un-Cool?
    It's cumbersome and unnecessary, and yes 3.00 does equal 3.

    If you think:
    0 10000000 110000000000000000000000
    is equal to:
    0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0011
    then you need to go back to school. It just so happens that 3.00 is NOT equal to 3 in binary. However, the two are equivalent (sorry for the complex math term) and can be converted to check for equality.

    Additionally, I don't need dweebs telling me what profession to be in.

    Perhaps if you were a bit more of a dweeb yourself, you'd know "simple" things like binary number encoding. This stuff isn't a secret. Many documents exist that explain encodings.

    Another thing that's explained in even the simplest of school books, is the necessity of "abstract data types". The theory behind ADTs is that situations may occur that are unknown to the compiler writer. For example, let's say I write fixed-point math code instead of floating point math. In that situation, it is imperative that I be able to test for equality in a different fashion from FP numbers. Java's equals() method exists to support situations such as this.
  2. Re:Whats the deal with floating point? by fishbowl · · Score: 3, Informative · on Ogg Vorbis For Hardware Makers
    Your example is of fixed point addition.

    Educate yourself a bit:

    Floating Point Tutorial

    Even Microsoft can help.

  3. Focus, Title by fm6 · · Score: 2 · on Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 4th edition
    According to the preface (warning, PDF file) this is strictly an IA-32 book. Which doesn't make it obsolete. Quite the contrary -- it'll be a long time before more assembly-language programming is done for Itaniums than for Pentiums and their clones. If ever.

    Omitting Linux makes a book a little more narrow than some of us would like, but that doesn't make it obsolete it either. Last time I looked, there were one or two Windows programmers gainfully employed.

    So the title is misleading. Probably chosen by the publisher, after they decided that an accurate title ("IA-32 programming for Windows and DOS"?) wouldn't sell. And it doesn't cover topics some (but not most) of us are interested in. Sounds like 90% of the computer books in print.

    I've been looking at Chapter 1 of Duntemann's book Fourteen pages of lame jokes, complicated metaphors, and totally redundant explanations of basic programming concepts. (Everybody who doesn't know what a loop is, raise your hand!) The first serious technical information is in chapter 2, where he explains non-decimal math by presenting a table labeled "Counting in Martian, base fooby." (Xip means 0, foo means 1 .. foobity-barby-foo means 25) OK, maybe you think this is very witty, but it all goes by most of us. And separating the technical detail from the hyperactive comedy requires more energy than a serious student can spare.

  4. Dummies and more by nullard · · Score: 2, Informative · on Best Computer Books For The Smart

    Actually, I learned perl with "Perl 5 for Dummies." It's a terrible book, but it let me (with mostly C and Pascal experience) fix a client's webstore.

    I also recomend:

    Oh! Pascal by Doug Cooper -- sure it's Pascal, but it has lots of general programming info that I use to this day. It's available in many flavors, including my favorite, the platform neutral one.

    Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers by Kip Irvine. It gets into all kinds of details about the x86 architecture.


    Structured Computer Organization by Andrew S. Tanenbaum will teach you how to build a processor that understands Java byte code (integer instructions only) out of transistors. It's really that good.

    Archimedes' Revenge: The Joys and Perils of Mathematics by Paul Hoffman is a wonderful book that covers everything from encryption to Turring machines to number theory. This book is a fun read that, altough somewhat dated, is still very relevant today.


    Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything by Steven Levy provides an interesting look at the history of the first personal computer with a gui. The edition I have is from pre PowerPC times, so I assume that this one (featuring an iMac rather than one of the boxy 9"screen Macs on the cover) is more current.

  5. Re:Structured Computer Organization and compilers by nullard · · Score: 2 · on General IT Books?

    Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers is also a good book for learning how computers work. I'm no Intel fan, but once again, the concepts are the key. The knowledge contained in this book is really useful. The author is really a nice guy and provides tons of materials on his web page.