I have used C, C++, Java, VB (pre.NET), Perl, Python, and LISP. As far as I know, you are correct in claiming that none of these languages fit all of the criteria.
Your boss seems to be very buzzword aware. Did he cite any reason for needing the various criteria? I have only found a reasonable need for multiple inheritance in a project once. And as for operator overloading, it's just sintactic sugar. It's nice, but certainly not a necesity.
As for easy to use IDEs and simple GUI design tools, C++, VB, Java, (I'm sure C# too, but I haven't used it) all have them. By simple event handling I am assuming your boss meant GUI events, which any language with a simple GUI design should have (if it doesn't, it's not a simple GUI design).
As far as abstract classes are concerned, any OO language has them, or else the language is not really OO. VB 6.0, by the way, is not really OO (VB.NET may be, I'm not sure). Function overloading (or polymorphism) is also part of any true OO language.
As for portability across platforms, your choices have been severely limited. As far as I know, the only mainstream OO language that is cross platform is Java (again, this is only as far as I know).
Garbage collection is not all it's creacked up to be. Yes it will return memory for you, but not other resources (such as closing files, sockets, etc.). Also, in Java anyway, you CAN'T force the cleaning of memory since there are no destructors, so you just have to wait for the garbage collector. The lack of destructors also makes the cleaning up of resources more difficult.
I would recommend gaining as much insite into what problem the project will be solving. Once you know this you can weigh the value of each of the criteria, and choose the best language for the project accordingly.
This is nice in theory, but how usable will it be in practice. Abstracting the File System away from the User Interface has been done before. Anyone ever use Windows 3.1?
Re:When will Mozilla Innovate?
on
Mozilla 0.9.5
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· Score: 1
Tabs, gestures, themes, these are fine but let's worry about HTML standards compliance. We're not using web browsers to look at the pretty themes, we're using them to view web pages/sites. If it doesn't do this job well, I'm not going to use it, and all of the "features" are useless to me.
Re:When will Mozilla Innovate?
on
Mozilla 0.9.5
·
· Score: 1
Bravo! A solid product is much more important than a bunch of fluff.
As for important features, let's put HTML standards compliance on the top of the list.
I may be wrong here, but I think the overhead of creating and using threads would be a more important measure than interprocess communication for high speed programming.
I just bought a JVC KD SH99 car stereo. This car stereo plays regular audio CDs, and CDs that are burned with MP3s. No way am I leaving a CD that I bought in a store in the car in freezing/boiling temperatures to warp or otherwise get damaged(OK, maybe I'm a little paraniod). I want to be able to copy all of my LEGALLY PURCHASED CDs onto MP3 CDs so that I can excersise my fair use rights and listen to them in my car (without carrying around 400 CDs).
My father runs his own business. He got one of these threatening letters, and called me over. Windows 98 came with his machine, and he purchased Word 2000. He wanted me to make cure that he had no illegal software on his machine, so I brought a copy of StarOffice 5.2 just in case he needed any replacement software. There was some software we were unsure of, that we removed. I installed StarOffice and showed him how it worked, and now he uses it in place of the corresponding MS software. He obviously still uses Windows 98, but good luck trying to get him to pay for another version of Word in the future. With StarOffice, he doesn't need it, or even want it anymore.
I have used VNC on a LAN and over the internet (DSL <-> Frac. T1 ), I have never tried it over a modem connection. It does jump arround a little, but is very useable. I have found that one of the best ways to improve it's performance is to have a background of one color. Get rid of the fancy wallpaper image, and make it one solid color.
LISP (Lost In Stupid Parenthesis (this is not the real acronym (the real acronym is LISt Processing))) is a really cool language with a really annoying syntax (lots of parenthesis (they can be a real pain to deal with)). The language was designed with recursion in mind. Recursion is a very elegant way to do tasks repeatedly until a goal is met (an in-order traversal of a tree for example). One of the biggest drawbacks with recursion is that it involves alot of overhead, and LISP is designed to minimize this.
Client/Server has it's place and so does Peer to Peer. Client/Server is nice because it is simple, you want something, as the server for it. Peer to Peer is nice because (in theory) you don't need the server. I think they each have their place, one is not better than the other.
Client/Server breaks down when the server gets too many requests, so load balancing was invented. Peer to Peer is like taking load balancing to the next level. If all machines are servers, we theoretically do not have the problem of too many clients for not enough servers.
The ideal systems will probably combine Client/Server and Peer to Peer. Real distributed computing (such as CORBA) don't restrict you to Client/Server or Peer to Peer. Server CORBA code can go on the same machine as client CORBA code. You can build the system any way you want.
I was one of the kids that got picked on maliciously in school. I was shy and quiet, trying to figure out where I fit in the world. My problems were probably partially the cause and partially the result of the torment. I would be lying if I claimed that I never considered suicide or homicide, but I had just what I needed to get by.
I have found, at least in my life, that humor is the great savior. When someone considers harming themselves, or others it is unarguably because they are not happy. Humor makes people happy; therefore it helps combat the desire to perform these actions.
There have been many good points in the replies to this article, but I would like to add this to the list. It seems like the problem is everyone takes things too seriously. I think part of the reason I did not fall into the trap of furthering my problems by causing harm, is my father. He is a man who has some strong opinions about how the world should be, but at the same time takes everything with a grain of salt. He can see the humor in every situation. I have inherited this ability, and it is the greatest gift I could ever have received. Because of it, I now get along well with almost everyone I meet.
In High School, where it seems these problems are at their worst, I was able to maintain friendships in which humor was a big part of communication. Granted there were still rough times, but there will always be rough times. If we (the human race) can use humor to heal our wounds perhaps this and many other problems will become less prevalent. Just my 0.02 USD.
This all seems fine and good, but why does the "system" need to know where you are? VNC can be run from any machine with a web browser (not too many that don't nowadays), and if you don't answer your desk phone, can't the call just be forwarded to your cell? What does the "system's" actually knowing where you are gain?
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I have used C, C++, Java, VB (pre .NET), Perl, Python, and LISP. As far as I know, you are correct in claiming that none of these languages fit all of the criteria.
Your boss seems to be very buzzword aware. Did he cite any reason for needing the various criteria? I have only found a reasonable need for multiple inheritance in a project once. And as for operator overloading, it's just sintactic sugar. It's nice, but certainly not a necesity.
As for easy to use IDEs and simple GUI design tools, C++, VB, Java, (I'm sure C# too, but I haven't used it) all have them. By simple event handling I am assuming your boss meant GUI events, which any language with a simple GUI design should have (if it doesn't, it's not a simple GUI design).
As far as abstract classes are concerned, any OO language has them, or else the language is not really OO. VB 6.0, by the way, is not really OO (VB.NET may be, I'm not sure). Function overloading (or polymorphism) is also part of any true OO language.
As for portability across platforms, your choices have been severely limited. As far as I know, the only mainstream OO language that is cross platform is Java (again, this is only as far as I know).
Garbage collection is not all it's creacked up to be. Yes it will return memory for you, but not other resources (such as closing files, sockets, etc.). Also, in Java anyway, you CAN'T force the cleaning of memory since there are no destructors, so you just have to wait for the garbage collector. The lack of destructors also makes the cleaning up of resources more difficult.
I would recommend gaining as much insite into what problem the project will be solving. Once you know this you can weigh the value of each of the criteria, and choose the best language for the project accordingly.
Hope this helps in some way. Good luck.
If the car's steering wheel fell off, (assuming it was not loosened by anyone), would that not be the fault of the manufacturer?
So can I get an REM sleep monitor that can wake me up at the right time?
This is nice in theory, but how usable will it be in practice. Abstracting the File System away from the User Interface has been done before. Anyone ever use Windows 3.1?
Tabs, gestures, themes, these are fine but let's worry about HTML standards compliance. We're not using web browsers to look at the pretty themes, we're using them to view web pages/sites. If it doesn't do this job well, I'm not going to use it, and all of the "features" are useless to me.
Bravo! A solid product is much more important than a bunch of fluff.
As for important features, let's put HTML standards compliance on the top of the list.
I may be wrong here, but I think the overhead of creating and using threads would be a more important measure than interprocess communication for high speed programming.
I doubt we will be using COBOL code too :-)
Regarding your sig. Not making a statement here, just a question. Would you consider the use/reading of /. some form of embracing technology?
I just bought a JVC KD SH99 car stereo. This car stereo plays regular audio CDs, and CDs that are burned with MP3s. No way am I leaving a CD that I bought in a store in the car in freezing/boiling temperatures to warp or otherwise get damaged(OK, maybe I'm a little paraniod). I want to be able to copy all of my LEGALLY PURCHASED CDs onto MP3 CDs so that I can excersise my fair use rights and listen to them in my car (without carrying around 400 CDs).
Man I hate speed bumps!
This software shows all of the ".cda" files on the CD as ".wav" files.
Question: Is there any loss of quality in converting from the CD native ".cda" files to the ".wav" format?
Between these guys and MS, it sure looks like these things are destined to happen.
My father runs his own business. He got one of these threatening letters, and called me over. Windows 98 came with his machine, and he purchased Word 2000. He wanted me to make cure that he had no illegal software on his machine, so I brought a copy of StarOffice 5.2 just in case he needed any replacement software. There was some software we were unsure of, that we removed. I installed StarOffice and showed him how it worked, and now he uses it in place of the corresponding MS software. He obviously still uses Windows 98, but good luck trying to get him to pay for another version of Word in the future. With StarOffice, he doesn't need it, or even want it anymore.
I have used VNC on a LAN and over the internet (DSL <-> Frac. T1 ), I have never tried it over a modem connection. It does jump arround a little, but is very useable. I have found that one of the best ways to improve it's performance is to have a background of one color. Get rid of the fancy wallpaper image, and make it one solid color.
How about "Looney Tunes", and "Tom & Jerry" (the ones before they were friends)?
LISP (Lost In Stupid Parenthesis (this is not the real acronym (the real acronym is LISt Processing))) is a really cool language with a really annoying syntax (lots of parenthesis (they can be a real pain to deal with)). The language was designed with recursion in mind. Recursion is a very elegant way to do tasks repeatedly until a goal is met (an in-order traversal of a tree for example). One of the biggest drawbacks with recursion is that it involves alot of overhead, and LISP is designed to minimize this.
Client/Server has it's place and so does Peer to Peer. Client/Server is nice because it is simple, you want something, as the server for it. Peer to Peer is nice because (in theory) you don't need the server. I think they each have their place, one is not better than the other.
Client/Server breaks down when the server gets too many requests, so load balancing was invented. Peer to Peer is like taking load balancing to the next level. If all machines are servers, we theoretically do not have the problem of too many clients for not enough servers.
The ideal systems will probably combine Client/Server and Peer to Peer. Real distributed computing (such as CORBA) don't restrict you to Client/Server or Peer to Peer. Server CORBA code can go on the same machine as client CORBA code. You can build the system any way you want.
I was one of the kids that got picked on maliciously in school. I was shy and quiet, trying to figure out where I fit in the world. My problems were probably partially the cause and partially the result of the torment. I would be lying if I claimed that I never considered suicide or homicide, but I had just what I needed to get by. I have found, at least in my life, that humor is the great savior. When someone considers harming themselves, or others it is unarguably because they are not happy. Humor makes people happy; therefore it helps combat the desire to perform these actions. There have been many good points in the replies to this article, but I would like to add this to the list. It seems like the problem is everyone takes things too seriously. I think part of the reason I did not fall into the trap of furthering my problems by causing harm, is my father. He is a man who has some strong opinions about how the world should be, but at the same time takes everything with a grain of salt. He can see the humor in every situation. I have inherited this ability, and it is the greatest gift I could ever have received. Because of it, I now get along well with almost everyone I meet. In High School, where it seems these problems are at their worst, I was able to maintain friendships in which humor was a big part of communication. Granted there were still rough times, but there will always be rough times. If we (the human race) can use humor to heal our wounds perhaps this and many other problems will become less prevalent. Just my 0.02 USD.
This all seems fine and good, but why does the "system" need to know where you are? VNC can be run from any machine with a web browser (not too many that don't nowadays), and if you don't answer your desk phone, can't the call just be forwarded to your cell? What does the "system's" actually knowing where you are gain?