Don't underestimate the differences between C# and Java. While they are very similar, the following stand out to me as significant differences:
C# compiler messages are way more intuitive to novice programmers.
The C# network access classes are more intuitive.
The C# IO namespace is more intuitive.
The event model in GUI apps is way more intuitive in C#.
All of these lower the barriers to proficiency in the language, and make it possible for more people to get started writing code, which will eventually lead to a larger population of talented coders, and to better software.
C# also enforces some very good design patterns by making them not only language features but by integrating them consistently into the.net framework.
The Mono project is my favorite of all OSS projects because it will make developing for Linux and Windows just as easy as for Windows, which will make Linux a better competetor to MS, which will make everyone better off.
This is completely reasonable. Some patients are just way more likely to sue. With malpractice insurance costing what it costs, the doctors are just avoiding risk, and they will see fewer patients and make less money due to this.
Instead of buying a high end laptop and hoping that it will last 4 years, it would make more sense to buy a low end one, enjoy it for 2 years, and plan on replacing it when necessary. That way, you avoid paying a premium for useless high-end features that will seem slow in two years when you get your second low-end laptop.
You can buy a low end Dell laptop for around 1000 bucks. Add 512 MB of RAM purhcased on pricewatch for about another $100.
Unless you're in need of a bleeding edge laptop now, you'll enjoy selecting a new model in 2 years. Just think of how much snazzier (and how much better value) laptops are today compared with two years ago.
In my opinion, the ideological reasons for not registering are quite foolish, and constitute what is known in game theory as "defection".
The NY Times doesn't provide free content, it provides content at a price equal to the value of the information. For those who choose to put in false info, then the price is just the cost of the inconvenience of typing in the false info.
The above is based on the Times being able to avoid charging a monetary fee for the site. By being able to tell advertisers "hey look, 20% of our online readership earns upwards of $100K per year" or "we have 50,000 readers who have shopped online in the last 6 months in your zip code", the Times is able to sell advertising at top dollar, and to provide the content without a monetary fee.
So, by circumventing registration you are hindering their ability to make money on ads. Do you think the Times cares whether the info is accurate? Heck no, they just want to paint an attractive picture to would-be advertisers.
When you circumvent the registration, you screw the rest of us who enjoy getting the content free.
The above post makes a good point. Most Windows.NET apps (particularly server side apps) do not rely on Win32. With Longhorn, the entire Windows API will be.NET, which will motivate the removal (or deprecation) of the win32-isms that Miguel cites.
C# code that I've written has been nearly as fast as optimized C. Not quite as fast, but it takes way less time to write and is much easier to debug.
The Mono runtime has occasionally been faster than Microsoft's own runtime in some informal benchmarks I've run.
Mono will pave the way for most of the next generation of Windows apps to run seamlessly on Linux. If you think this is a bad thing, you're nuts.
Incidentally, if you haven't tried C#, try it. As a language it's really pretty similar to Java, but with some very nice touches added.
Sun embraced the internet years before Microsoft and looked out into the future and realized that desktop computing and huge, standalone applications were going to be increasingly replaced by device computing and small, internet downloadable applications would be prevalant.
Can you point to any significant examples of the paradigm shift that Microsoft supposedly sat on the sidelines and watched?
As one of this post's sister posts mentions, nobody uses java for internet downloadable apps.
Re:Why do big companies want pseudo-compiled langs
on
How C# Was Made
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· Score: 1
The parent is the most wacko conspiracy theory I've read on Slashdot in about 2 years. Please someone, mod it "Funny"...
There will always be irrational investors who want to buy a stock based on short-term phenomena. In order to lure people with executive level skills, extremely generous packages are necessary. If you owned enough of a company to be involved in choosing a chief executive, you'd want the best person for the job and you'd discover that the person you picked likely had a few other offers and you would need to put together a generous package.
Also, if you can figure out a way to have a successful company by employing an inexpensive executive team, then you'll have figured out a way to make more money for yourself, and you might even start a new management trend.
There is no reason for you to feel like an outsider to the system. You have just as much right to participate in it as anyone else does. Instead of complaining you should be getting rich.
What you're complaining about is poor management decisions on the part of companies. That is a legitimate thing to complain about, to an extent. The question is what should you do with your complaint.
It is not the duty of companies to do what is best for the US economy. It is only their duty to do what is best (within the law) for their own profitability. Unlike 4H, companies are intended to make as large a profit as possible.
Shortsighted decision making is, as you point out, not in the best interest of profit. Nor will it be cured by companies suddenly stopping outsourcing behavior.
If what you say is true and companies are terribly mismanaged and execs are motivated only by short term considerations, it would seem that you would be able to create a company that soared past all existing competetors.
In fact, that is what you should do in this case. Take something that is not optimal and do it optimally. You can take the extra profits you've earned and do with them what you choose (including donating them to unemployed programmers).
I've been in the workforce long enough to know that the main things that I value are meritocracy and integrity. Both of these are helpful in profit making ventures, and the fact that they are not universal phenomena in all companies means that there is tons of money to be made and no reason for people to gripe (or have their gripes justified) about outsourcing.
Also, nobody complains when their morning glass of OJ was made from citrus fruit grown in South America.
Your comments are rediculous and untrue. In most large companies executives own a small fraction of shares.
It is the shareholders' company, and they (the shareholders) do not owe any employee anything.
Business owners create something from nothing by self-organizing and creating an economic entity, much like any social contract. Those who are hired come to work voluntarily and may leave voluntarily whenever they choose.
Wages should be set by the market. If you believe otherwise, then you believe that some people deserve what amounts to a welfare check on top of their salary. That may be nice for that minority of people, but it's certainly not fair to everyone else.
If you decide to obtain a Ph.D, you are banking that those skills will be relatively useful for the long term. That's a gamble.
Similarly, if you get a job that pays well and immediately take on an expensive lifestyle, that too is a gamble.
When I say that people should take responsibility, I mean that they should be aware of what gambles they are taking and hedge accordingly. One way to do this is to obtain additional certification that broadens your marketability, or to pursue hobbies that could be turned into income if the need arises.
The economy is not a static thing, it changes with time. Those who are successful are able to change with it.
The whole idea is for individual people to take some responsibility for their career choices. I thought the software industry was different from, say, UAW workers...
Your career is a very important decision that will have a lasting impact on your livlihood. Why not take control of it and develop additional skills. Also, high-end IT is not being outsourced.
That's fine. It's not the executives who get most of the money, it's the shareholders. Those shareholders will then spend it on things that they want. That's their right, as owners of the company. Why do they owe anyone a subsidy when they can find people willing to do the work for less elsewhere?
There are people in India who are happy to work for the wages they're being paid. Eventually, countries won't have an advantage due to relative poverty, but right now India does.
Who says that IT is the only industry the US should be involved in? If we outsource 100% of our IT, then we have a bunch of people available to do other things and create additional innovation. There are always going to be points of pain during economic transition (such as when automobiles replaced horse and buggies it sucked to be a blacksmith) but there has never before been a better time to life anywhere in the world than in the USA now.
Programmers are free to work for less money. If it were possible to ship a Big Mac over from India quickly enough, McDonalds would outsource its employees too. Doing so saves consumers money, makes the company more profit, or both.
If you want a welfare check, just ask for it.
Corporate managers are paid to cut costs. That may not fit into your ideal lifestyle choices, but you are free to start your own corporation and compete with the evil ones if you think you're on to a better alternative.
It's Americans hiring cheaper labor to do a job. I don't want to pay more for software products (or any products) so that some overpriced American programmers can keep being overpaid.
If you want a welfare check, just ask for it, but don't gripe about American companies doing what's best for themselves and consumers.
No. You do not deserve a job just because you have an education. It is free trade b/c American companies would rather hire someone over in India. It is their freedom to do that.
Similarly, it is your freedom to work for less money.
Uh, it's NOT a violation of privacy because nobody is forced to provide the information.
If you voluntarily provide your information, then they issue you a card, which gives you extra coupons.
So basically, you get to choose whether or not to SELL them your information.
I can't believe people think this is a privacy issue! If you didn't want them to have your info, you shouldn't have filled out the form for the free coupons!
I guess my next question would be, once you do decide on a desktop (say, Windowmaker), how much of a pain is it to get it and X working? Does it autoprobe, your video card, etc? Or do you have to know the arcane settings in advance of the install?
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C# compiler messages are way more intuitive to novice programmers.
The C# network access classes are more intuitive.
The C# IO namespace is more intuitive.
The event model in GUI apps is way more intuitive in C#.
.net framework.
All of these lower the barriers to proficiency in the language, and make it possible for more people to get started writing code, which will eventually lead to a larger population of talented coders, and to better software.
C# also enforces some very good design patterns by making them not only language features but by integrating them consistently into the
The Mono project is my favorite of all OSS projects because it will make developing for Linux and Windows just as easy as for Windows, which will make Linux a better competetor to MS, which will make everyone better off.
This is completely reasonable. Some patients are just way more likely to sue. With malpractice insurance costing what it costs, the doctors are just avoiding risk, and they will see fewer patients and make less money due to this.
do you have any links to the windows frontend? does it require cygwin?
I have to disagree with this.
Instead of buying a high end laptop and hoping that it will last 4 years, it would make more sense to buy a low end one, enjoy it for 2 years, and plan on replacing it when necessary. That way, you avoid paying a premium for useless high-end features that will seem slow in two years when you get your second low-end laptop.
You can buy a low end Dell laptop for around 1000 bucks. Add 512 MB of RAM purhcased on pricewatch for about another $100.
Unless you're in need of a bleeding edge laptop now, you'll enjoy selecting a new model in 2 years. Just think of how much snazzier (and how much better value) laptops are today compared with two years ago.
In my opinion, the ideological reasons for not registering are quite foolish, and constitute what is known in game theory as "defection".
The NY Times doesn't provide free content, it provides content at a price equal to the value of the information. For those who choose to put in false info, then the price is just the cost of the inconvenience of typing in the false info.
The above is based on the Times being able to avoid charging a monetary fee for the site. By being able to tell advertisers "hey look, 20% of our online readership earns upwards of $100K per year" or "we have 50,000 readers who have shopped online in the last 6 months in your zip code", the Times is able to sell advertising at top dollar, and to provide the content without a monetary fee.
So, by circumventing registration you are hindering their ability to make money on ads. Do you think the Times cares whether the info is accurate? Heck no, they just want to paint an attractive picture to would-be advertisers.
When you circumvent the registration, you screw the rest of us who enjoy getting the content free.
The above post makes a good point. Most Windows .NET apps (particularly server side apps) do not rely on Win32. With Longhorn, the entire Windows API will be .NET, which will motivate the removal (or deprecation) of the win32-isms that Miguel cites.
C# code that I've written has been nearly as fast as optimized C. Not quite as fast, but it takes way less time to write and is much easier to debug.
The Mono runtime has occasionally been faster than Microsoft's own runtime in some informal benchmarks I've run.
Mono will pave the way for most of the next generation of Windows apps to run seamlessly on Linux. If you think this is a bad thing, you're nuts.
Incidentally, if you haven't tried C#, try it. As a language it's really pretty similar to Java, but with some very nice touches added.
Sun embraced the internet years before Microsoft and looked out into the future and realized that desktop computing and huge, standalone applications were going to be increasingly replaced by device computing and small, internet downloadable applications would be prevalant.
Can you point to any significant examples of the paradigm shift that Microsoft supposedly sat on the sidelines and watched?
As one of this post's sister posts mentions, nobody uses java for internet downloadable apps.
The parent is the most wacko conspiracy theory I've read on Slashdot in about 2 years. Please someone, mod it "Funny"...
There will always be irrational investors who want to buy a stock based on short-term phenomena. In order to lure people with executive level skills, extremely generous packages are necessary. If you owned enough of a company to be involved in choosing a chief executive, you'd want the best person for the job and you'd discover that the person you picked likely had a few other offers and you would need to put together a generous package.
Also, if you can figure out a way to have a successful company by employing an inexpensive executive team, then you'll have figured out a way to make more money for yourself, and you might even start a new management trend.
There is no reason for you to feel like an outsider to the system. You have just as much right to participate in it as anyone else does. Instead of complaining you should be getting rich.
What you're complaining about is poor management decisions on the part of companies. That is a legitimate thing to complain about, to an extent. The question is what should you do with your complaint.
It is not the duty of companies to do what is best for the US economy. It is only their duty to do what is best (within the law) for their own profitability. Unlike 4H, companies are intended to make as large a profit as possible.
Shortsighted decision making is, as you point out, not in the best interest of profit. Nor will it be cured by companies suddenly stopping outsourcing behavior.
If what you say is true and companies are terribly mismanaged and execs are motivated only by short term considerations, it would seem that you would be able to create a company that soared past all existing competetors.
In fact, that is what you should do in this case. Take something that is not optimal and do it optimally. You can take the extra profits you've earned and do with them what you choose (including donating them to unemployed programmers).
I've been in the workforce long enough to know that the main things that I value are meritocracy and integrity. Both of these are helpful in profit making ventures, and the fact that they are not universal phenomena in all companies means that there is tons of money to be made and no reason for people to gripe (or have their gripes justified) about outsourcing.
Also, nobody complains when their morning glass of OJ was made from citrus fruit grown in South America.
Your comments are rediculous and untrue. In most large companies executives own a small fraction of shares.
It is the shareholders' company, and they (the shareholders) do not owe any employee anything.
Business owners create something from nothing by self-organizing and creating an economic entity, much like any social contract. Those who are hired come to work voluntarily and may leave voluntarily whenever they choose.
Wages should be set by the market. If you believe otherwise, then you believe that some people deserve what amounts to a welfare check on top of their salary. That may be nice for that minority of people, but it's certainly not fair to everyone else.
mod the parent up!
Lots of people overspecialized.
If you decide to obtain a Ph.D, you are banking that those skills will be relatively useful for the long term. That's a gamble.
Similarly, if you get a job that pays well and immediately take on an expensive lifestyle, that too is a gamble.
When I say that people should take responsibility, I mean that they should be aware of what gambles they are taking and hedge accordingly. One way to do this is to obtain additional certification that broadens your marketability, or to pursue hobbies that could be turned into income if the need arises.
The economy is not a static thing, it changes with time. Those who are successful are able to change with it.
Uh, nobody is going to train you.
The whole idea is for individual people to take some responsibility for their career choices. I thought the software industry was different from, say, UAW workers...
Your career is a very important decision that will have a lasting impact on your livlihood. Why not take control of it and develop additional skills. Also, high-end IT is not being outsourced.
Try doing that from jail.
That's fine. It's not the executives who get most of the money, it's the shareholders. Those shareholders will then spend it on things that they want. That's their right, as owners of the company. Why do they owe anyone a subsidy when they can find people willing to do the work for less elsewhere?
There are people in India who are happy to work for the wages they're being paid. Eventually, countries won't have an advantage due to relative poverty, but right now India does.
Who says that IT is the only industry the US should be involved in? If we outsource 100% of our IT, then we have a bunch of people available to do other things and create additional innovation. There are always going to be points of pain during economic transition (such as when automobiles replaced horse and buggies it sucked to be a blacksmith) but there has never before been a better time to life anywhere in the world than in the USA now.
Programmers are free to work for less money. If it were possible to ship a Big Mac over from India quickly enough, McDonalds would outsource its employees too. Doing so saves consumers money, makes the company more profit, or both.
If you want a welfare check, just ask for it.
Corporate managers are paid to cut costs. That may not fit into your ideal lifestyle choices, but you are free to start your own corporation and compete with the evil ones if you think you're on to a better alternative.
It's Americans hiring cheaper labor to do a job. I don't want to pay more for software products (or any products) so that some overpriced American programmers can keep being overpaid.
If you want a welfare check, just ask for it, but don't gripe about American companies doing what's best for themselves and consumers.
No. You do not deserve a job just because you have an education. It is free trade b/c American companies would rather hire someone over in India. It is their freedom to do that.
Similarly, it is your freedom to work for less money.
thanks to whoever moderated the parent down! What a jerk, and an AC no less.
Uh, it's NOT a violation of privacy because nobody is forced to provide the information.
If you voluntarily provide your information, then they issue you a card, which gives you extra coupons.
So basically, you get to choose whether or not to SELL them your information.
I can't believe people think this is a privacy issue! If you didn't want them to have your info, you shouldn't have filled out the form for the free coupons!
I guess my next question would be, once you do decide on a desktop (say, Windowmaker), how much of a pain is it to get it and X working? Does it autoprobe, your video card, etc? Or do you have to know the arcane settings in advance of the install?
I've never installed any *bsd before. How does this release compare overall with, say, Redhat 9?
I mean in terms of its general usability immediately after install, general performance, available software, etc.
Is it friendly for use as a desktop/development workstation?