Your mac is likely made in china btw (both my mini, and iphone 3G-S are).
However more to the point - if china stopped accepting contract work originating in the US, very little would actually get made for the US to purchase any more.
To an extent, people are willing to pay more for quality/locally made, but when you're talking 10-50% of the price of locally made, its often a no-brainer.
I get so tired of hearing this nonsense go unchallenged. If, for a given task, there is a fastest known algorithm, it's almost always going to run much faster in a compiled language than an interpreted language, period
Uh... no shit.
However, having an easier to code language that runs slower will:
show more easily measured difference between various algorithms
thus more easily showing the correct algorithm
which can then have its hot spot(s) re-written in C or even assembler
Using a low level language on 90% of the code that is not performance sensitive is masochistic, bug-prone and largely un-necessary.
Choosing a language based on fast runtime speed when
speed is not an explicit requirement
you'll get better performance benefits from getting the algorithm correct
in an educational situation, a slower language will show poor code up even more
... is retarded. There's plenty of real software out there written in python, and being easier to learn than C will make it easier for students to tweak algorithms. Getting algorithms correct is the more important programmer skill - implementing the actual algorithm in language X is a dumb task that may even be made redundant as compilers and programming languages advance.
Eve online has stacks of code written in python. If that isn't "published" enough for you, then Civ4 runs a stack of python code as well.
PHP is not really what I'd suggest as a good choice. Unless you're doing web development it is fairly unused. And even if you ARE doing web development, its had plenty of bugs and major language changes from release to release.
PERL would be a better choice from a pure "usefulness in getting a job" standpoint. It can be used for web development, and a whole heap of other tasks.
But having seen the range of things python has been used to implement, and what I've heard about how easy it is to learn (i'm not a python coder at the moment), I'd agree with the GP that it is a fine choice.
Basic (in its heavily mutated modern incarnation) allows you to debug Access Databases and Excel spreadsheets put together by accountants when they fuck up.
Not sure when you learned to read, but at age 6 I was learning to program, yes. Or at least modify existing basic programs. Pretty sure by the time i was 9 I'd modified a program that drew with the joystick (in text-mode chunk-o-vision) on the coco2 to work in graphics mode instead.
My history is similar, however i discovered Turbo Pascal and inline assembly. Couple that with the ease of getting into and programming mode 0x13 (display = array of bytes:)) and actually getting interesting things to happen was fairly straightforward and fun.
I lost interest in Window systems as well due to the amount of bullshit to get anything on the screen just killed interest. I've gotten into Cocoa with xcode and interface builder recently, and its fun again:)
I definitely agree, its the "overhead" code you need to screw around to just get anything interesting to happen these days that kills the fun.
A bad workman may blame his tools, but BASIC (traditional line numbered basic) is a tool that encourages formation of bad habits.
If you can't get your head around basic data structures, then perhaps programming isn't an ideal career path. To do anything useful at all, you ARE going to have to deal with data structures.
Pascal or even C is a much better first language, imho.
I started off with TRS-80 Color Basic on a Coco 2.
I'd argue that goto IS harmful - however like all harmful things, there are use-cases where it is either necessary or useful to accomplish a particular objective.
Much like a chain saw not being an all purpose cutting tool....
So... avoid using it when not strictly necessary, but if it is the only sane/high performance way of getting things done in a special use case, by all means...
When linux becomes a bit more homogenous we'll see it happen. You can be sure that any mac with a 3d card has working OpenGL. In linux-land? Nope. You can also be sure that any mac has a working audio system, and that any input devices are either supported and work, or not.
None of those hurdles are impossible to get over, but i'd say that you'll see Valve dipping their toes in the water with OS X first, and if things work out, they'll tackle Linux (which is likely to have more support issues) later.
Another game related issue is that there's about 52% of the population out there (read: females) who often don't give a crap about having photo-realistic 3d graphics at 120fps, because the games they want to play are cutesy 2d platformers or puzzle games.
My gf has a PC capable of running pretty much any modern game, we have a ps3, psp, iphones, etc.
What games does she play by most, by choice? shitty little app-store games on the iphone, and Mario via SNES9x.
Most 3d games hold no interest.
A bit of a tangent... but I would wager that there's a huge untapped market out there, and the mac hardware or lack thereof is no barrier to the type of games that will work in that market.
Also more to the point, you're generally getting a box that has been tested to work properly as the sum of its parts (including OS).
Some clone PC built by Joe the local computer guy (or DELL for that matter) may or may not have quirks due to the particular mix of hardware and/or driver software used.
Not saying PC hardware / software is crap (I own and use both) - just that there's a lot more variation out there and problems are more difficult to deal with because of it.
CPU architecture is different, memory is more constrained, and maybe the developer tools just aren't there to do what they want to do?
Mac and PC architecture is nearly identical these days - sure you need some glue code around the edges to hold the game together (minor UI details, filesystem access, etc), but the main game engine (the bit that does the heavy lifting) is going to be x86/x64 optimized and thus just fine on both platforms.
I suspect Xbox 360 is supported either because the dev tools are easier to port X86 code with, Microsoft money is involved, or both.
A mate played left4dead on his 9400M equipped Dell just fine. Given that the games are going to be cross platform with Xbox 360 anyway, i'm guessing top end video isn't such a major problem.
Slashdot Mirror
see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_sponsored_regime_change
However more to the point - if china stopped accepting contract work originating in the US, very little would actually get made for the US to purchase any more.
To an extent, people are willing to pay more for quality/locally made, but when you're talking 10-50% of the price of locally made, its often a no-brainer.
The other 2/3 of the population?
You can buy a lot of that stuff locally, but many/most of the components going into the locally assembled product are likely made in china anyway.
Because a large proporrtion of the userbase are smug, albeit clueless assholes?
Uh... no shit.
However, having an easier to code language that runs slower will:
Using a low level language on 90% of the code that is not performance sensitive is masochistic, bug-prone and largely un-necessary.
For values of "best" meaning "best for kool-aid drinkers"
Choosing a language based on fast runtime speed when
PHP is not really what I'd suggest as a good choice. Unless you're doing web development it is fairly unused. And even if you ARE doing web development, its had plenty of bugs and major language changes from release to release.
PERL would be a better choice from a pure "usefulness in getting a job" standpoint. It can be used for web development, and a whole heap of other tasks.
But having seen the range of things python has been used to implement, and what I've heard about how easy it is to learn (i'm not a python coder at the moment), I'd agree with the GP that it is a fine choice.
Basic (in its heavily mutated modern incarnation) allows you to debug Access Databases and Excel spreadsheets put together by accountants when they fuck up.
Not sure when you learned to read, but at age 6 I was learning to program, yes. Or at least modify existing basic programs. Pretty sure by the time i was 9 I'd modified a program that drew with the joystick (in text-mode chunk-o-vision) on the coco2 to work in graphics mode instead.
I lost interest in Window systems as well due to the amount of bullshit to get anything on the screen just killed interest. I've gotten into Cocoa with xcode and interface builder recently, and its fun again :)
I definitely agree, its the "overhead" code you need to screw around to just get anything interesting to happen these days that kills the fun.
Pointless.
If you can't get your head around basic data structures, then perhaps programming isn't an ideal career path. To do anything useful at all, you ARE going to have to deal with data structures.
Pascal or even C is a much better first language, imho.
I started off with TRS-80 Color Basic on a Coco 2.
Much like a chain saw not being an all purpose cutting tool....
So... avoid using it when not strictly necessary, but if it is the only sane/high performance way of getting things done in a special use case, by all means...
doesn't work for me.
None of those hurdles are impossible to get over, but i'd say that you'll see Valve dipping their toes in the water with OS X first, and if things work out, they'll tackle Linux (which is likely to have more support issues) later.
Yeah but the PC is tax deductible. The xbox isn't.
Most macs are aluminium, not plastic...
My gf has a PC capable of running pretty much any modern game, we have a ps3, psp, iphones, etc.
What games does she play by most, by choice? shitty little app-store games on the iphone, and Mario via SNES9x.
Most 3d games hold no interest.
A bit of a tangent... but I would wager that there's a huge untapped market out there, and the mac hardware or lack thereof is no barrier to the type of games that will work in that market.
Some clone PC built by Joe the local computer guy (or DELL for that matter) may or may not have quirks due to the particular mix of hardware and/or driver software used.
Not saying PC hardware / software is crap (I own and use both) - just that there's a lot more variation out there and problems are more difficult to deal with because of it.
Mac and PC architecture is nearly identical these days - sure you need some glue code around the edges to hold the game together (minor UI details, filesystem access, etc), but the main game engine (the bit that does the heavy lifting) is going to be x86/x64 optimized and thus just fine on both platforms.
I suspect Xbox 360 is supported either because the dev tools are easier to port X86 code with, Microsoft money is involved, or both.
A mate played left4dead on his 9400M equipped Dell just fine. Given that the games are going to be cross platform with Xbox 360 anyway, i'm guessing top end video isn't such a major problem.
If you're limited to 8 character passwords (and like it or not, some systems still are), that isn't an option.