If someone came to me with an idea that cut the workload and was actually practical, I would accept it. The reason most ideas aren't accepted is that they inevitably cause more work overall (though they often seem to involve less work or more convenience for the person with the idea, probably not a coincidence). A lot of workers are blind to the realities that occur in other departments, they don't have to stand in front of the VP or director and get shouted at because a project is going to be late, they don't know how much stuff costs, etc.
Example, someone wants to upgrade to the latest version of the compiler. He actually starts doing this and modifying tons of code. Then I have to stop him. Because his actual job is not getting done, and he's breaking code left and right for people who aren't using the latest compiler. He says "just upgrade everybody!" Except that we're under immense pressure to meet deadlines and I can't go and tell the higher ups that we're going to delay the projects because the new kid wants to upgrade the compiler. Yes we want to upgrade, of course we want to upgrade, but we cannot do it right now. When we have free time this is already high on my to-do list. He doesn't understand though and goes off muttering.
Have seen quite a few internal unofficial skunkworks projects. They start out at bad ideas and end up as bad ideas. Then they sometimes get abandoned half completed, but because it's half completed upper management doesn't want to completely discard it so they assign someone to try and chisel it into a working idea. Or sometimes the person making the idea gets bored and leaves the project to other people to try and figure out (coming up with the idea and doing 25% of it is the fun part, after that it's the same dull grind as everything else at work).
We got new upper management. All about change. They even bad mouth the big legacy products that built the company up and is still the source of the profits that give the execs their jobs. I wish they would sit and see reality for a moment instead of chasing the latest fad.
But even before they came on board some groups were resistant to change but others were trying to change things all the time. Most change though doesn't come up from the ground upwards. It comes from sales where they promised a feature to customers that doesn't exist yet.
Resistance to change is practical too. We have a job that we have to do; we've promised to customers and have a contract, if we don't deliver it we pay a penalty. That means you can't go and steal 5 of my workers for your new amazing project. Everyone's short handed and multitasking constantly. So someone says "we need to stop what we're doing and do X" and it won't be met with applause. Or the idea just gets put onto the back burner to fizzle out because literally everything else has higher priority.
The chicken at Wendy's is real chicken. The reason it's not 100% is if you have the breading on it (crispy style), the seasonings, etc. You just can't mix up chicken with soy in a blender and have the outcome resemble chicken with the same texture. I don't think it's that small either at Wendy's, too much of it hangs out the side of the buns.
University professors. Meaning they do it for science, and grant money, not to get filthy rich. The concept is out there but the next step is to make it feasible and affordable.
I don't really care about the answer. If Detroit wins then that is good. Or if Tokyo wins. Spread around the tech a bit more, why concentrate everything in Silicon Valley?
True, but I don't think this is a big economic advantage. The companies need to learn that they don't own the machines once they're sold and that they don't need to have total control. Every other physical product on the planet works the same say, once it's sold the customer owns it. The problem is that no one with any real power has been pushing back on this and so it's gone on so long that the console makers are taking this for granted and extending the envelope of control.
No, they still want to sell their devices. So what if some people repair their own? Are they going to shut down the entire product line for a few malcontents? Have an unrepairable by any means product will drive most people away.
The right to bear arms is a good thing AND a bad thing. The problem with America is in everyone picking the most extreme view either being the number one cheerleading fan or the number one most vitriolic hater. There is no subtlety in America.
Send the bigot to Venezuela and Somalia instead? Why keep those assholes around? Just because he's the CEO's college drinking buddy doesn't mean he's worth keeping around. Awww, did the executive whine when he got laid off, send him to Uzbekistan!
This is a WORKPLACE, you have to be part of a TEAM. If you start fighting amongst yourselves and shouting abuse because your mother never taught you how to behave in public, then you deserve to be fired.
Now let's sing along together. Uber(tm), Uber(tm), Uber Alles...
Can I just write a description that ends with "and make it all fit in 64K, with a response time of 1ms, and zero defects." and this just magically happens? If not, then we're not out of a job. Sure *some* programmers will be out of a job, but I think the class of programmers in this position should already know that they're due to be outsourced anyway.
There's been this holy grail of automatic code generation by entering a design in some different way other than text (UML) and then clicking a button. And when something almost works but is amazingly impractical (Rational Rose) people get excited. Someone was actually bragging about using a tool which had "only" 100% overhead in its auto generated code (like saying that your diet is great since you only gained 50 lbs). And how do you even fix bugs in auto generated code? Do you assume that the design must have been wrong and start moving block around on a diagram, or do you dig into the obfuscated mess that the tool spat out?
I have on a few occasions spent time searching for code snippets online for something I needed to do. Hard stuff of course, the easy stuff I can just do in my sleep. But I would find lots of answers that were completely wrong for what I wanted, it was only for windoze, or a broken stackoverflow answer that no one downvoted, or dozens and dozens of repeated answers all copied from each other even though it was wrong, etc. If you're in a windows monoculture, doing some vaguely generic web app that every company in the world does, then maybe this works, but you can have trained monkeys with certificates do that too. Now ask how can you do that *better* than all the vaguely generic web app that everyone else does and put it onto a different platform then you have to do the leg work yourself instead of relying on code snippets from search engines.
Tomorrow there may be a new security library and the first language that uses it will be the "first" language to use a "modern" security library.
Pity the person who's been campaigning to include SSL into a language only to be told "we're deferring this because it's no longer modern enough so we will continue providing no security library."
Dear potential user: We don't understand your reluctance. Perhaps we have not sent you enough marketing literature. We will remedy this, and increase our presence here on Slashdot so that you don't miss out on any exciting Windows 10 announcements.
Sincerely, Microsoft Windows 10 Grass Roots Marketing Team
Makes no sense. Pascal is a perfectly fine language, even classic Pascal. Fortran, especially classic Fortran 77, is really lacking in many ways (newer versions add newer features but that's like comparing Visual Basic to Basic and trying to call them the same language). Granted Modula-II or Ada is much more suitable than Pascal.
Also amazingly useful for just having FM tuner. Listen to the news while you hike rather than only what you remembered to preload (I don't preload stuff on the phone, that's what an ipod is for). If I go jogging then it's nice to have the phone but I also have to carry around something else to listen to. And no I don't have a data plan that allows me to stream audio for free, and I am not always somewhere with good reception.
Oh sure, I would use the headphones on it. Without bluetooth how else would you listen to the phone without holding it to your ear? And no, I won't be using bluetooth.
Yup. Having been at a C house for some years now after having done C++ embedded systerms earlier, I am amazed at some of the early code had so little concept of encapsulation, functional coherency, extensibility, and so forth. Which is something you normally figure out very quickly in C++. Of course you can do this in C, but you need the experience on how to do it. In C++, once you have a class it's second nature to stick with that class when you have a newer variant of what you're interfacing with, maybe it's a subclass, maybe it's an interface class, but in C I see so many people just create a new API, throw in ifdefs, etc.
Well, C++ is essentially C, especially the part of it that is low level. And Android has C in the kernel, which is Linux. The point was at the bottom of it all is almost always C.
Squeak primitives are written in an extreme subset of Smalltalk that translates directly to C, much of this just for the practical ability to debug it while building Squeak from scratch. After the fact though it's possible to do Squeak totally in Squeak, once you have an assembler. And this brings up one very common reason for C being at the bottom of so many things - it's the most common portable way to do very low level code. In other words, C acts like a portable assembler. Squeak wants to be portable, so it's easier to have the primitives in C rather than port them every time you move to a new machine. Sure, Rust can do this, but it's essentially brand new.
Slashdot Mirror
If someone came to me with an idea that cut the workload and was actually practical, I would accept it. The reason most ideas aren't accepted is that they inevitably cause more work overall (though they often seem to involve less work or more convenience for the person with the idea, probably not a coincidence). A lot of workers are blind to the realities that occur in other departments, they don't have to stand in front of the VP or director and get shouted at because a project is going to be late, they don't know how much stuff costs, etc.
Example, someone wants to upgrade to the latest version of the compiler. He actually starts doing this and modifying tons of code. Then I have to stop him. Because his actual job is not getting done, and he's breaking code left and right for people who aren't using the latest compiler. He says "just upgrade everybody!" Except that we're under immense pressure to meet deadlines and I can't go and tell the higher ups that we're going to delay the projects because the new kid wants to upgrade the compiler. Yes we want to upgrade, of course we want to upgrade, but we cannot do it right now. When we have free time this is already high on my to-do list. He doesn't understand though and goes off muttering.
Have seen quite a few internal unofficial skunkworks projects. They start out at bad ideas and end up as bad ideas. Then they sometimes get abandoned half completed, but because it's half completed upper management doesn't want to completely discard it so they assign someone to try and chisel it into a working idea. Or sometimes the person making the idea gets bored and leaves the project to other people to try and figure out (coming up with the idea and doing 25% of it is the fun part, after that it's the same dull grind as everything else at work).
We got new upper management. All about change. They even bad mouth the big legacy products that built the company up and is still the source of the profits that give the execs their jobs. I wish they would sit and see reality for a moment instead of chasing the latest fad.
But even before they came on board some groups were resistant to change but others were trying to change things all the time. Most change though doesn't come up from the ground upwards. It comes from sales where they promised a feature to customers that doesn't exist yet.
Resistance to change is practical too. We have a job that we have to do; we've promised to customers and have a contract, if we don't deliver it we pay a penalty. That means you can't go and steal 5 of my workers for your new amazing project. Everyone's short handed and multitasking constantly. So someone says "we need to stop what we're doing and do X" and it won't be met with applause. Or the idea just gets put onto the back burner to fizzle out because literally everything else has higher priority.
The chicken at Wendy's is real chicken. The reason it's not 100% is if you have the breading on it (crispy style), the seasonings, etc. You just can't mix up chicken with soy in a blender and have the outcome resemble chicken with the same texture. I don't think it's that small either at Wendy's, too much of it hangs out the side of the buns.
The fact that he shot someone in a bar strongly implies that he's a bad problem solver and won't make it past that part of the interview.
University professors. Meaning they do it for science, and grant money, not to get filthy rich. The concept is out there but the next step is to make it feasible and affordable.
I don't really care about the answer. If Detroit wins then that is good. Or if Tokyo wins. Spread around the tech a bit more, why concentrate everything in Silicon Valley?
True, but I don't think this is a big economic advantage. The companies need to learn that they don't own the machines once they're sold and that they don't need to have total control. Every other physical product on the planet works the same say, once it's sold the customer owns it. The problem is that no one with any real power has been pushing back on this and so it's gone on so long that the console makers are taking this for granted and extending the envelope of control.
No, they still want to sell their devices. So what if some people repair their own? Are they going to shut down the entire product line for a few malcontents? Have an unrepairable by any means product will drive most people away.
Right, so Trump has to put his blessing on it now before it's not fake news?
Never mind that this unskilled redneck would never get a job at Garmin anyway if all the immigrants left, not even to clean the toilets.
The right to bear arms is a good thing AND a bad thing. The problem with America is in everyone picking the most extreme view either being the number one cheerleading fan or the number one most vitriolic hater. There is no subtlety in America.
Send the bigot to Venezuela and Somalia instead? Why keep those assholes around? Just because he's the CEO's college drinking buddy doesn't mean he's worth keeping around. Awww, did the executive whine when he got laid off, send him to Uzbekistan!
This is a WORKPLACE, you have to be part of a TEAM. If you start fighting amongst yourselves and shouting abuse because your mother never taught you how to behave in public, then you deserve to be fired.
Now let's sing along together. Uber(tm), Uber(tm), Uber Alles...
Deliver in the form of functioning code written in a functional language so that there is no ambiguity.
Can I just write a description that ends with "and make it all fit in 64K, with a response time of 1ms, and zero defects." and this just magically happens? If not, then we're not out of a job. Sure *some* programmers will be out of a job, but I think the class of programmers in this position should already know that they're due to be outsourced anyway.
There's been this holy grail of automatic code generation by entering a design in some different way other than text (UML) and then clicking a button. And when something almost works but is amazingly impractical (Rational Rose) people get excited. Someone was actually bragging about using a tool which had "only" 100% overhead in its auto generated code (like saying that your diet is great since you only gained 50 lbs). And how do you even fix bugs in auto generated code? Do you assume that the design must have been wrong and start moving block around on a diagram, or do you dig into the obfuscated mess that the tool spat out?
I have on a few occasions spent time searching for code snippets online for something I needed to do. Hard stuff of course, the easy stuff I can just do in my sleep. But I would find lots of answers that were completely wrong for what I wanted, it was only for windoze, or a broken stackoverflow answer that no one downvoted, or dozens and dozens of repeated answers all copied from each other even though it was wrong, etc. If you're in a windows monoculture, doing some vaguely generic web app that every company in the world does, then maybe this works, but you can have trained monkeys with certificates do that too. Now ask how can you do that *better* than all the vaguely generic web app that everyone else does and put it onto a different platform then you have to do the leg work yourself instead of relying on code snippets from search engines.
Tomorrow there may be a new security library and the first language that uses it will be the "first" language to use a "modern" security library.
Pity the person who's been campaigning to include SSL into a language only to be told "we're deferring this because it's no longer modern enough so we will continue providing no security library."
Dear potential user:
We don't understand your reluctance. Perhaps we have not sent you enough marketing literature. We will remedy this, and increase our presence here on Slashdot so that you don't miss out on any exciting Windows 10 announcements.
Sincerely,
Microsoft Windows 10 Grass Roots Marketing Team
I have mine on my floor. It's a bit too heavy to carry by myself safely. So I've been putting it off.
Makes no sense. Pascal is a perfectly fine language, even classic Pascal. Fortran, especially classic Fortran 77, is really lacking in many ways (newer versions add newer features but that's like comparing Visual Basic to Basic and trying to call them the same language). Granted Modula-II or Ada is much more suitable than Pascal.
But you can make your own AM radio using a crystal and a safety pin.
Also amazingly useful for just having FM tuner. Listen to the news while you hike rather than only what you remembered to preload (I don't preload stuff on the phone, that's what an ipod is for). If I go jogging then it's nice to have the phone but I also have to carry around something else to listen to. And no I don't have a data plan that allows me to stream audio for free, and I am not always somewhere with good reception.
NPR.
Oh sure, I would use the headphones on it. Without bluetooth how else would you listen to the phone without holding it to your ear? And no, I won't be using bluetooth.
Yup. Having been at a C house for some years now after having done C++ embedded systerms earlier, I am amazed at some of the early code had so little concept of encapsulation, functional coherency, extensibility, and so forth. Which is something you normally figure out very quickly in C++. Of course you can do this in C, but you need the experience on how to do it. In C++, once you have a class it's second nature to stick with that class when you have a newer variant of what you're interfacing with, maybe it's a subclass, maybe it's an interface class, but in C I see so many people just create a new API, throw in ifdefs, etc.
Well, C++ is essentially C, especially the part of it that is low level. And Android has C in the kernel, which is Linux. The point was at the bottom of it all is almost always C.
Squeak primitives are written in an extreme subset of Smalltalk that translates directly to C, much of this just for the practical ability to debug it while building Squeak from scratch. After the fact though it's possible to do Squeak totally in Squeak, once you have an assembler. And this brings up one very common reason for C being at the bottom of so many things - it's the most common portable way to do very low level code. In other words, C acts like a portable assembler. Squeak wants to be portable, so it's easier to have the primitives in C rather than port them every time you move to a new machine. Sure, Rust can do this, but it's essentially brand new.