1) C++ is *** unfathomably *** complex compared to C. Don't take this the wrong way; C++ is a great language. But consider that it's possible for a reasonably intelligent person to read the ISO C '99 Standard, and understand most of its implications in a fairly short time (even while holding most of its definitions in your head simultaneously), assuming some prior knowledge of C. With the ISO C++ 2003 Standard, you will die of old age before that happens. If you think this is an unfair assessment, try reading the 2003 ISO C++ standard and then get back to me.
C++ is very good at *hiding* complexity, which is one of the reasons why it can be so much more powerful. But it's arguable that with C, you have a better chance of really understanding your program. All of this leads us to:
2) Compiler support: C++ compiler writers really have their life's work cut out for them. The major vendors have mostly implemented the 2003 Standard. But there are many year's worth of bug fixes left to go before before we see the kind of industry-wide uniformity of behavior from vendor to vendor that we have with modern C compilers. And remember: GNU C++ is implemented in C. Consider that, despite the youth of the Mono project, they have a fully functional C# compiler implemented in C#.
3) Heavy use of templates in large projects can cause an explosion of code size. This is important because the larger your code, the more likely/often your code will undergo a cache miss. It's a significant performance hit. Now, in the future, it's possible that compilers will be able to handle this problem more gracefully. But it's one reason why templates are out of the question for many embedded projects, for example. And templates count for one of the biggest reasons to use C++ over C.
Despite all of this, C++ really is a great language, and should be carefully considered when you choose how to implement your next program.
With the exception of the years before and during ww2, Japan has long been a rabid consumer for American culture, along with european culture.
One word: Baseball.
Ok, I'm not sure if the inclusion of that American game into the set of Japanese National Pastimes counts as "rabid" consumption, but it did happen decades before WWII. But if by "rabid" you mean "popular," then it was rabid.
OpenOffice.org is good enough that anyone who knows better won't buy MS Office.
As much as I love OpenOffice, there's no getting around this: With MS Word, I click the little launcher icon, and within a second, I can start typing text. With OpenOffice Writer, first I launch it. Then I get all of my shopping done. When I come back, I start a load of laundry and maybe read a section of the newspaper. That's usually when the OpenOffice splash screen goes away.
We could solve this in C++ by making a new assert() that takes only function objects that return bool (like say, from )....that would probably end up looking much, much uglier, though.:)
The whole Design by Contract concept seems like a very sane way to go about writing libraries (and functions/methods in general), no question about that.
But what makes DBC in Eiffel better than DBC in C/C++, where we have assert() (or exceptions, if you like)?
But on a device small enough to fit into your pocket, you want a minimum of technical complexity -- as few "Settings" options as possible.
Agreed. The UI for the device should be as simple as possible. But if a majority of my contacts primarily use MSN, Yahoo, and/or Jabber (and this happens to be true for me), I'm probably used to entering my username/password for those services. Furthermore, why should I have to configure the device by using its UI? It syncs with a PC, so I should be able to configure it with the more life-size UI on the desktop, which means it would not be more difficult than using all those IM systems on the desktop.
You can even modify your Buddy List from a desktop if you want to.
Such a feature is not IM system-dependent. They could have set it up for Jabber just as well.
Technical superiority need not be accompanied by a difficult-to-use UI. Take MacOSX 10.2 for example---people who said for years that UNIX wouldn't work on the desktop are eating their words now. The fact that most Jabber clients today have crappy UIs only means that their authors haven't thought much about the importance of a well-designed UI.
Now your Buddy Listï goes where you go. Whether you're a hack or a poet - you can now chat instantly, anywhere using AIM.
Ok, granted, the open source AIM transport for Jabber isn't quite prime-time quality yet, but that's no excuse. I think they've unnecessarily limited themselves in this respect.
Ok, so it's not Linux, but from what I've read, it probably has the best i18n support compared to any other OS. It's produced by a Japanese company, but it supports a *large* number of character encodings and at least one Chinese input method, and it is known to have Chinese users. An English language User Interface update was recently released, and a Chinese UI for it probably exists or is forthcoming.
The site's mostly in Japanese, but there's a blurb about a slightly older version of the OS here
, product info here,
and a screenshot in English mode
here.
But hey, if the Linux route works, more power to you:)
P.S. -- Runs on standard x86 hardware, and Mozilla's been ported to it.
Unfortunately, if all users try to use just Unicode for everything, their options will be limited. In its present form, Unicode will never truly become ubiquitous (and, as other posters noted, will probably never become all that popular among people who actually need support for a large number of characters).
You can read all about Unicode's shortcomings (and its competitors) here and
here.
Then it might make sense. It's not a cultrual thing: I've spoken to Japanese people who found the ending of Akira (the anime) to be a little confusing until they read the manga.
But hey...it's Hollywood. They'll probably find some way(s) to muck it up.
it doesn't matter that it can be done; it's prohibitively expensive. Please inform me if you find an ISO compliant && free C/C++ compiler --I've looked and can't find one. If you've ever seen the language specs in dead-tree form, this will come as no surprise. the process of design and implementation was so huge and complex that it literally required a team of geniuses for it to be realized. Repeating the FSF's efforts just because RMS gets silly about the color of a doghouse is illogical even by human standards.
If you really want to learn about it, read through the source for GCC & binutils.
relevant quote from a CS professor:
"Let this be your mantra whenever you write software: 'Don't re-invent the wheel. Steal it.'"
I never really considered shipping to be much of an issue; I just assumed that Japan was used as a test region for the global market....of course, now that I think of it, a million packaged PS2s *do* take up a lot of space, and sending it all via priority shipping would only raise costs unnecessarily; Sony would then have to either raise retail prices (which would result in fewer sales) or take the loss (which would cut more into their profits).
If it were racism, we'd be talking about "those goddamn slant-eyed sushi-gobbling midgets stealing our god-given right to play with cool shit."
But we're not.
This is about venting feelings of displeasure that result from almost always getting slick tech from Nihon in a *secondhand* fasion (i.e., 6 to 9 months after the stuff starts retailing in Tokyo) -- or (and this happens a lot) not getting it at all, unless you're willing to pay extra to have something imported.
See the difference?
If some section of downtown London were the gaming Mecca of the planet (rather than akihabara), a lot of non-UK residents with names like "Smith," "Jones," and "MacPherson" would probably be saying something similar about the UK right now.
Global response ain't too hot either...
on
The Congo Tantalum Rush
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
From the last few paragraphs of the article....
When progress is being made, it often involves the
mixed blessing of coltan. In eastern Congo, two
mining entrepreneurs, Edouard Mwangachuchu, a
Congolese Tutsi, and his American partner, Robert
Sussman, a physician from Baltimore, are struggling
to build a legitimate business in an illegitimate
state.
They run a company that even their competitors
say treats miners fairly. It supplies shovels and
picks to about a thousand men who operate as
independent contractors in mines located far from
national parks, protected forests and endangered
gorillas.
...But then the UN and the Motorolas and Nokias of the world see the dead primate photos, their PR departments go apeshit, and then:
Last year, Sussman and Mwangachuchu shipped
their ore to Europe on Sabena airlines. That airline
now refuses their business, and they are scrambling
to find another shipper. They fear that a corporate
embargo could cripple their business and idle
miners who have come to depend on them.
''We don't understand why they are doing this,''
Mwangachuchu told me. ''The Congolese have a
right to make business in their own country.''
...And so it seems that not all corporations are evil ones, and that some good was about to be done for the community, and that a hasty implementation of morality is, at least in this case, limiting the welfare of the people of the Congo.
> OK, some person makes an arguably racist comment and 4 idiots mod it up as funny?
That's because it *is* funny. I lauged. No shame. No ill will, either.
You should lighten up a little. First of all, everyone's racist (though thankfully not everyone feels racial *hatred* or feels that racial hatred is morally justified).
Second: the poster's comment is funny because it reflects a truth: many naitive speakers of Aisian languages have trouble distinguishing between "r" and "l". Example: in an internet chat with one of my Japanese firends, she referred consistiently to the "amburance" (normally I correct her, 'cause she wants me to, but we were discussing an emergency, so it wasn't appropriate).
This is only natural, since most Asian languages do not include all of the types of sounds found in English. *You* try, at any age beyond your late teens, to contort your tounge in all kinds of crazy ways in order to make sounds your parents never intended for you to make back when you were getting your diapers changed on a regular basis. If you succeed quickly, you should consider yourself gifted. Do I expect to sound similarly odd to Japanese people when I try to speak with the constant rythm of their language, or to mainland Chinese people when I try to speak with the same correct pitch changes as they do? Of course. Do I expect them to crack jokes about my lingual screw-ups? Sure. Do I expect them to do so with implied ill will? Nope.
Third: I've seen plenty of evidence firsthand that indicates that Japanese people can be every bit as racist as any other group -- though by and large they seem to be more lighthearted about it. Example: While I was in Tokyo some friends and I were browsing through a toy store in Shibuya. On the "cheap rack" in the back on the first level were some trinkets, gag gifts, and party masks. One of these masks had a fake pair of wide caucasian eyes and a nice big nose. Want to know what was printed on the front in hiragana? "Konnichiwa, gaijinsan!!" I kid you not. You, too, can wear a mock-white guy costume for only 50 yen.;)
there's probably a cleaner way to do this, but it works:
in your.xinitrc, put this:
exec xterm
then run startx; when you get the prompt in the xterm window type:
[window manager of your choice] &
and once that's running, type:
startkde &
or you could just put "exec windowmanager" in your.xinitrc, then open a term window, then "startkde"
whatever. the only disadvantage for most users is that the KDE environment is then a bit dismembered. for example, you can treat the KDE desktop and control panel like any other window, and minimized windows don't get represented in KDE's panel, but they *are* represented in the window manager's windowlist (if it has one).
Slashdot Mirror
Finally, they'll make one of these with all dictionaries (including the Oxford English Dictionary) *unabridged*. :D
"Say, is that a WordTank in your pocket, or are you just really happy that I brought up the subject of etymology?"
1) C++ is *** unfathomably *** complex compared to C. Don't take this the wrong way; C++ is a great language. But consider that it's possible for a reasonably intelligent person to read the ISO C '99 Standard, and understand most of its implications in a fairly short time (even while holding most of its definitions in your head simultaneously), assuming some prior knowledge of C. With the ISO C++ 2003 Standard, you will die of old age before that happens. If you think this is an unfair assessment, try reading the 2003 ISO C++ standard and then get back to me.
C++ is very good at *hiding* complexity, which is one of the reasons why it can be so much more powerful. But it's arguable that with C, you have a better chance of really understanding your program. All of this leads us to:
2) Compiler support: C++ compiler writers really have their life's work cut out for them. The major vendors have mostly implemented the 2003 Standard. But there are many year's worth of bug fixes left to go before before we see the kind of industry-wide uniformity of behavior from vendor to vendor that we have with modern C compilers.
And remember: GNU C++ is implemented in C. Consider that, despite the youth of the Mono project, they have a fully functional C# compiler implemented in C#.
3) Heavy use of templates in large projects can cause an explosion of code size. This is important because the larger your code, the more likely/often your code will undergo a cache miss. It's a significant performance hit. Now, in the future, it's possible that compilers will be able to handle this problem more gracefully. But it's one reason why templates are out of the question for many embedded projects, for example. And templates count for one of the biggest reasons to use C++ over C.
Despite all of this, C++ really is a great language, and should be carefully considered when you choose how to implement your next program.
w00! An Free Software platform against which we can create iTRON apps! (see here)
:-)
'course, there's already an open-source (or Public Domain) iTRON OS out there, but all the source comments are in Japanese.
With the exception of the years before and during ww2, Japan has long been a rabid consumer for American culture, along with european culture.
One word: Baseball.
Ok, I'm not sure if the inclusion of that American game into the set of Japanese National Pastimes counts as "rabid" consumption, but it did happen decades before WWII. But if by "rabid" you mean "popular," then it was rabid.
In a k-12 school, we run many 3rd party apps that don't run on Linux
Have you looked at WINE and/or Crossover Office?
A lot of 3rd party apps work with it quite well, including Photoshop, FlashMX, QuickTime, etc. Microsoft packages like Office also work fine.
Ok, that's pretty good. Would be nice if we could code contracts into pure abstract classes.
We could solve this in C++ by making a new assert() that takes only function objects that return bool (like say, from )....that would probably end up looking much, much uglier, though. :)
The whole Design by Contract concept seems like a very sane way to go about writing libraries (and functions/methods in general), no question about that.
But what makes DBC in Eiffel better than DBC in C/C++, where we have assert() (or exceptions, if you like)?
Oh, piffle.
:p
I piffle your piffle
But on a device small enough to fit into your pocket, you want a minimum of technical complexity -- as few "Settings" options as possible.
Agreed. The UI for the device should be as simple as possible. But if a majority of my contacts primarily use MSN, Yahoo, and/or Jabber (and this happens to be true for me), I'm probably used to entering my username/password for those services. Furthermore, why should I have to configure the device by using its UI? It syncs with a PC, so I should be able to configure it with the more life-size UI on the desktop, which means it would not be more difficult than using all those IM systems on the desktop.
You can even modify your Buddy List from a desktop if you want to.
Such a feature is not IM system-dependent. They could have set it up for Jabber just as well.
Technical superiority need not be accompanied by a difficult-to-use UI. Take MacOSX 10.2 for example---people who said for years that UNIX wouldn't work on the desktop are eating their words now. The fact that most Jabber clients today have crappy UIs only means that their authors haven't thought much about the importance of a well-designed UI.
AOLî Instant Messengerï (AIMî) Service
Now your Buddy Listï goes where you go. Whether you're a hack or a poet - you can now chat instantly, anywhere using AIM.
Ok, granted, the open source AIM transport for Jabber isn't quite prime-time quality yet, but that's no excuse. I think they've unnecessarily limited themselves in this respect.
Damn credits and their half-truths....
According to IMDB, David Hayter should probably take credit for that. Joss apparently had nothing to do with X-Men.
:)
It does sound like a very Jossy line though
The site's mostly in Japanese, but there's a blurb about a slightly older version of the OS here , product info here, and a screenshot in English mode here.
But hey, if the Linux route works, more power to you :)
P.S. -- Runs on standard x86 hardware, and Mozilla's been ported to it.
You can read all about Unicode's shortcomings (and its competitors) here and here.
Then it might make sense. It's not a cultrual thing: I've spoken to Japanese people who found the ending of Akira (the anime) to be a little confusing until they read the manga.
But hey...it's Hollywood. They'll probably find some way(s) to muck it up.
> At least the original pointy ears respected the
;)
humans.
(assuming you mean Spock)
That's because Spock's *mamma* was human! You gonna dis your mamma's race?
it doesn't matter that it can be done; it's prohibitively expensive. Please inform me if you find an ISO compliant && free C/C++ compiler --I've looked and can't find one. If you've ever seen the language specs in dead-tree form, this will come as no surprise. the process of design and implementation was so huge and complex that it literally required a team of geniuses for it to be realized. Repeating the FSF's efforts just because RMS gets silly about the color of a doghouse is illogical even by human standards.
If you really want to learn about it, read through the source for GCC & binutils.
relevant quote from a CS professor:
"Let this be your mantra whenever you write software: 'Don't re-invent the wheel. Steal it.'"
True; but it's a much more acceptable alternative, yes? No one ever burned down a church because he/she didn't have the latest & greatest silicon. ;)
I never really considered shipping to be much of an issue; I just assumed that Japan was used as a test region for the global market....of course, now that I think of it, a million packaged PS2s *do* take up a lot of space, and sending it all via priority shipping would only raise costs unnecessarily; Sony would then have to either raise retail prices (which would result in fewer sales) or take the loss (which would cut more into their profits).
:)
thanks
If it were racism, we'd be talking about "those goddamn slant-eyed sushi-gobbling midgets stealing our god-given right to play with cool shit."
But we're not.
This is about venting feelings of displeasure that result from almost always getting slick tech from Nihon in a *secondhand* fasion (i.e., 6 to 9 months after the stuff starts retailing in Tokyo) -- or (and this happens a lot) not getting it at all, unless you're willing to pay extra to have something imported.
See the difference?
If some section of downtown London were the gaming Mecca of the planet (rather than akihabara), a lot of non-UK residents with names like "Smith," "Jones," and "MacPherson" would probably be saying something similar about the UK right now.
> OK, some person makes an arguably racist comment and 4 idiots mod it up as funny? That's because it *is* funny. I lauged. No shame. No ill will, either. You should lighten up a little. First of all, everyone's racist (though thankfully not everyone feels racial *hatred* or feels that racial hatred is morally justified). Second: the poster's comment is funny because it reflects a truth: many naitive speakers of Aisian languages have trouble distinguishing between "r" and "l". Example: in an internet chat with one of my Japanese firends, she referred consistiently to the "amburance" (normally I correct her, 'cause she wants me to, but we were discussing an emergency, so it wasn't appropriate). This is only natural, since most Asian languages do not include all of the types of sounds found in English. *You* try, at any age beyond your late teens, to contort your tounge in all kinds of crazy ways in order to make sounds your parents never intended for you to make back when you were getting your diapers changed on a regular basis. If you succeed quickly, you should consider yourself gifted. Do I expect to sound similarly odd to Japanese people when I try to speak with the constant rythm of their language, or to mainland Chinese people when I try to speak with the same correct pitch changes as they do? Of course. Do I expect them to crack jokes about my lingual screw-ups? Sure. Do I expect them to do so with implied ill will? Nope. Third: I've seen plenty of evidence firsthand that indicates that Japanese people can be every bit as racist as any other group -- though by and large they seem to be more lighthearted about it. Example: While I was in Tokyo some friends and I were browsing through a toy store in Shibuya. On the "cheap rack" in the back on the first level were some trinkets, gag gifts, and party masks. One of these masks had a fake pair of wide caucasian eyes and a nice big nose. Want to know what was printed on the front in hiragana? "Konnichiwa, gaijinsan!!" I kid you not. You, too, can wear a mock-white guy costume for only 50 yen. ;)
there's probably a cleaner way to do this, but it works:
.xinitrc, put this:
.xinitrc, then open a term window, then "startkde"
in your
exec xterm
then run startx; when you get the prompt in the xterm window type:
[window manager of your choice] &
and once that's running, type:
startkde &
or you could just put "exec windowmanager" in your
whatever. the only disadvantage for most users is that the KDE environment is then a bit dismembered. for example, you can treat the KDE desktop and control panel like any other window, and minimized windows don't get represented in KDE's panel, but they *are* represented in the window manager's windowlist (if it has one).
The top of the press release states:
For immediate use March 30th, 2000
What gives?