You have some good points, but two of them are problematic:
1) Documentation. Products should be easy enough that documentation is not necessary. See iOS.
That is incredibly hard, and something that most engineers suck at.
5) Descriptives. You use product names in your example. Try "Web Browser", "Photo Editor", "Media Player"
Of course he's using product names. His point is that the product names in open source software all all weird. This does not help, and is deliberately obtuse. The names are chosen to be distinctive and different from the thousand other open source projects that do the same thing.
It also has the big disadvantage that it makes maintaining branches easy. In most projects, branches should be short-lived entities, where you create it, do some world-breaking work, and then merge back into trunk. Git makes it easier to keep your changes private than to share them, which is not the behaviour that most projects want to encourage.
This is the most insightful comment I've seen here. Git encourages exactly the kind of behavior that one doesn't want to see in a well-run development environment. Commit early, commit often, update daily - that's how I like to work - and how I'd prefer others to work too. Git provides easy tools for hero developers to go off and do their own hero work and drop it all in one go onto everyone else. How is this a good thing?
But it's also a massive pain in the arse, whereas svn is simple and elegant.
I had a crack at git once, and what with the terrible windows support, long hash strings for revision numbers, millions of obscure commands, I just gave in. I mean really, what is the point? I just want to write code, not faff around with overly tricky tools.
Not to mention the fact that I didn't see any advantages with merging. If two people change the same lines in the same files, git and svn both freak out in just the same way.
If someone could explain to me in what way git is so much better at merging I'd love to know.
Or if you have a proper cellphone then there is only step 1 - the time is displayed on the LCD in a rather quaint analog format once the phone is locked.
Actually that's a very good point. The new connector isn't as safe as the old, and it's rather fiddlier to attach too. Luckily all the third-party knockoff power supplies still use the old one.
Exactly. I bet I could pull the Toshiba in question off the table with the power cord. With a macbook's magnetic connector that's simply impossible (I know, I just tried).
It seems to be a permanent magnet, but no they don't appear to pick up crap over time. I've got one a couple of years old, and another probably five years old. Neither connector looks anything other than brand new (not counting the scratched plastic shells that is).
Wrong use of 'Albeit'. You probably meant 'Although' or just 'Though'.
'Albeit' is kind of a shortened form of 'All be it'. For instance;
"It was sunny, albeit rather cold and windy."
Not trying to be snotty, though I'm sure it comes off that way. Just trying to help.
And can we stop with the analogies already? - we are computer professionals for the most part and don't need analogies to understand what it means to leave your private keys in a publicly accessible spot. Yours was a rather good one, but really, we don't need them and we just end up with threads in which the only topic of conversation is which imaginary scenario involving cars or flaming dogs or whatever most closely resembles the matter under discussion.
Shooting rape victims played as a joke is offensive for anyone. And if you don't find it offensive then I suggest that there is something wrong with you.
I suspect there is more to it than I have implied.
In windows at least, itunes exposes a COM interface that can be used to query the entire contents of the library, including where the files are actually located. It would be almost trivial to write something to even do a bi-directional sync with a USB mass-storage device. I have no idea why no-one has done this, perhaps it's just because so few people apparently know anything about this interface.
The API is *open*. You can write something as a plugin for itunes that can enable syncing to anything you please. This is not the same as pretending to be an ipod at the USB level.
I even wrote a syncing plugin for itunes, that amongst other things automatically added downloaded music to the itunes library. It wasn't hard. If Android smartphone vendors haven't bothered to write syncing plugins for itunes I would think that they are either rather lazy or rather arrogant. And judging by the syncing software I've seen for some android devices they certainly aren't lazy.
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Robot Jox
You have some good points, but two of them are problematic:
1) Documentation. Products should be easy enough that documentation is not necessary. See iOS.
That is incredibly hard, and something that most engineers suck at.
5) Descriptives. You use product names in your example. Try "Web Browser", "Photo Editor", "Media Player"
Of course he's using product names. His point is that the product names in open source software all all weird. This does not help, and is deliberately obtuse. The names are chosen to be distinctive and different from the thousand other open source projects that do the same thing.
It can't make me a damned cup of tea.
Er. Is this a trick question?
90 year old woman with a gun vs. group of thugs with guns.
I mean that's going to get pretty messy, but I don't see the outcome for her being especially good.
Oh come one, the guy survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a fridge - what's not to like?
It also has the big disadvantage that it makes maintaining branches easy. In most projects, branches should be short-lived entities, where you create it, do some world-breaking work, and then merge back into trunk. Git makes it easier to keep your changes private than to share them, which is not the behaviour that most projects want to encourage.
This is the most insightful comment I've seen here. Git encourages exactly the kind of behavior that one doesn't want to see in a well-run development environment. Commit early, commit often, update daily - that's how I like to work - and how I'd prefer others to work too. Git provides easy tools for hero developers to go off and do their own hero work and drop it all in one go onto everyone else. How is this a good thing?
Git is superior to svn.
But it's also a massive pain in the arse, whereas svn is simple and elegant.
I had a crack at git once, and what with the terrible windows support, long hash strings for revision numbers, millions of obscure commands, I just gave in. I mean really, what is the point? I just want to write code, not faff around with overly tricky tools.
Not to mention the fact that I didn't see any advantages with merging. If two people change the same lines in the same files, git and svn both freak out in just the same way.
If someone could explain to me in what way git is so much better at merging I'd love to know.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4517
"For all your dinosaur needs"
Awesome.
Or if you have a proper cellphone then there is only step 1 - the time is displayed on the LCD in a rather quaint analog format once the phone is locked.
Perhaps they grew food in the area, that would have otherwise been eaten by people outside the area?
Actually that's a very good point. The new connector isn't as safe as the old, and it's rather fiddlier to attach too. Luckily all the third-party knockoff power supplies still use the old one.
Exactly. I bet I could pull the Toshiba in question off the table with the power cord. With a macbook's magnetic connector that's simply impossible (I know, I just tried).
It seems to be a permanent magnet, but no they don't appear to pick up crap over time. I've got one a couple of years old, and another probably five years old. Neither connector looks anything other than brand new (not counting the scratched plastic shells that is).
Both still work perfectly.
Wrong use of 'Albeit'. You probably meant 'Although' or just 'Though'.
'Albeit' is kind of a shortened form of 'All be it'. For instance;
"It was sunny, albeit rather cold and windy."
Not trying to be snotty, though I'm sure it comes off that way. Just trying to help.
And can we stop with the analogies already? - we are computer professionals for the most part and don't need analogies to understand what it means to leave your private keys in a publicly accessible spot. Yours was a rather good one, but really, we don't need them and we just end up with threads in which the only topic of conversation is which imaginary scenario involving cars or flaming dogs or whatever most closely resembles the matter under discussion.
OS/2 had no applications.
Beta tapes were 1 hour long (longer ones later, but it was too late by then). Plus they wore out faster.
MCA was a closed standard, ISA open.
There's always more to the equation than simple technical superiority.
Shooting rape victims played as a joke is offensive for anyone. And if you don't find it offensive then I suggest that there is something wrong with you.
His point, obviously, is that PCs don't work for many people because they're a pain in the arse to set up, and they break in a software sense easily.
Neither of these things are true for an iPad.
Physical durability was not under discussion.
Oh god...
Yes much simpler. With the iPhone, You plug in the phone, Do nothing, And then unplug it.
It's called 'syncing'. File managers are for control freaks, I personally don't care for them.
The 'bold statement' guy was funnier.
I suspect there is more to it than I have implied.
In windows at least, itunes exposes a COM interface that can be used to query the entire contents of the library, including where the files are actually located. It would be almost trivial to write something to even do a bi-directional sync with a USB mass-storage device. I have no idea why no-one has done this, perhaps it's just because so few people apparently know anything about this interface.
The API is *open*. You can write something as a plugin for itunes that can enable syncing to anything you please. This is not the same as pretending to be an ipod at the USB level.
I even wrote a syncing plugin for itunes, that amongst other things automatically added downloaded music to the itunes library. It wasn't hard. If Android smartphone vendors haven't bothered to write syncing plugins for itunes I would think that they are either rather lazy or rather arrogant. And judging by the syncing software I've seen for some android devices they certainly aren't lazy.
That's not really syncing though, is it? Syncing is supposed to be a bit more automatic than that...
Like the fact that they just got a hamburger and it was tasty
This makes me hungry.