This is a fairly serious problem. I can store my data as ASCII now, but that will be out-dated. I could store it as paper but that sucks, too. Magnetic tape? CD? MO? None of this really answers the problem. Think about the problem in more of a "time-capsule" sense. While information is never lost (this is a law of physics), it can be rendered for all intents useless. The truth is, there is NO solution in terms of long-term storage. All backups should be thought of a error-prone and faulty and therefore should be done regularly. (Like, *duh*, right?) I suggest trying not to throw away anything, constant translations into new formats, and a constant practice of leaving archaeological evidence. (I LIKE the idea of being the anonymous inventor of a future-day Rosetta wheel.)
No, his virtual class "crap" isn't fluff, just a poor choice of words. I have done classes in C, so I KNOW you can do virtual classes in C++/Java. Just not without TONS of comments. The whole idea is to make a programming language where comments are unnecessary.
Sweeney gave some good unspoken advice, That is to say, keep learning new languages. Check out "The Pragmatic Programmer" [2000 Hunt, Thomas.] You can find it in any good bookstore.
The book has some useful advice on the practice of programming. Things like "How not to be stuck programming in a dead language." (I'm paraphrasing), and it expands upon the concepts that Sweeney mentioned, like orthogonality.
Just a little extra material, if you bought the gospel the Sweeney was preaching. Otherwise...
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This is a fairly serious problem. I can store my data as ASCII now, but that will be out-dated. I could store it as paper but that sucks, too. Magnetic tape? CD? MO? None of this really answers the problem. Think about the problem in more of a "time-capsule" sense. While information is never lost (this is a law of physics), it can be rendered for all intents useless. The truth is, there is NO solution in terms of long-term storage. All backups should be thought of a error-prone and faulty and therefore should be done regularly. (Like, *duh*, right?) I suggest trying not to throw away anything, constant translations into new formats, and a constant practice of leaving archaeological evidence. (I LIKE the idea of being the anonymous inventor of a future-day Rosetta wheel.)
No, his virtual class "crap" isn't fluff, just a poor choice of words. I have done classes in C, so I KNOW you can do virtual classes in C++/Java. Just not without TONS of comments. The whole idea is to make a programming language where comments are unnecessary.
Sweeney gave some good unspoken advice, That is to say, keep learning new languages. Check out "The Pragmatic Programmer" [2000 Hunt, Thomas.] You can find it in any good bookstore.
The book has some useful advice on the practice of programming. Things like "How not to be stuck programming in a dead language." (I'm paraphrasing), and it expands upon the concepts that Sweeney mentioned, like orthogonality.
Just a little extra material, if you bought the gospel the Sweeney was preaching. Otherwise...