The scary thing is that Gosling once said if there was one mistake that he made in Java it was to allow inheritance. He thinks interfaces would have been enough.
Advertising agencies use lots of media files and in 2001 (and probably today) was most likely doing a lot of print work, so I can well imagine the 800G of storage.
Sure, if you work with FPGAs linux is great, but then, I work with PDF's. What does FPGA's got to do with it? I am not going product a PDF pipeline in FPGA logic. Mind, you that WOULD be a hell of an interesting project and if it works.... $$$$$!
Alternate windows manager does not help me when I ACTUALLY WANT TO PRODUCE A PROFESSIONAL PDF FILE.
Linux cannot do that, but then, my customers are paying me for that. "Hey, you PDF file has the wrong fonts in, it looks like sh!t on some readers and no metas, but at leat my window manager is great".
From a hobbyist perspective, building that board is very hard. The Arduino does all the legwork for you and you only have to plug your external components into the board, which already exists. That is the main point. Arduino gives you the infrastructure to use the MCU and only worry about the externals.
When one comes from the point where learning about things like pull-up resistors is exciting (like me) building an actual board is something you leave to gurus and experts.
Ok, I will bite. I am an Arduino enthusiast. While I know there are lots of microcontrollers out there, are there any platforms out there that allows a hobbyist to quicjly build a few circuits because the infrastructure around the controller chip is very easy and foolproof to us. I am talking about a SYSTEM here, not the Microcontroller chip itself. Arduino does a lot of interfacing for you. I know about the GPIOs on the Raspberry Pi, I build a circuit with it only 4 days ago. The Arduino was much easier to use in general (for one, the pins are labelled! Imagine that!)
I used the Pi because my project required a camera (it is a alarm with a motion detector). Anything else, I will use an Arduino thank you. And yes, I have several different Arduinos with bluetooth, from Redbear, dfRobot (beetle rules!) as both Leonardo and Uno configurations so it is not as if I am not curious. I am not an electronic engineer but have a passing interest (I have a degree in Physics, and my dad was a ham and electronic freak so I grew up with this). I do have 35 years of C/C++ experience, started programming in 79 on a TRS'80. Microchips and low level machines are a non-issue.
My now-boss sent me a mail on the day my daughter was born. She was born at 4 in the morning. I sent a mail to colleagues and friend at about 6, she answered at about 10 with "Congratulations, please finish this work for me today". Same story every day after for a week.
Two weeks later I was reamed out for taking 2 days off because I had to register the little girl at the local government (she was born in a neighboring country, and I had to pick up her birth certificate).
a) If you think anyone understands the whole of Linux you are kidding yourself. Besides, I am going to contend that a single CPU is more complex to build than Linux. b) I am not offended c) I do not think that a naive bunch of OSS paranoid freaks can product something with the complexity AND performance of a modern CPU.
Maybe there is a tradeoff here, and it is probably worth look at it, perhaps by Intel putting their design in some kind of trusted escrow. But there is whole lot more complexity below the surface in a chip than it looks.
First, compiler optimisation only deal with static code, and not with the dynamic aspects of the code as it runs. Advanced CPU optimisations in silicon does this.
And highly advanced compilers are also very complex, requiring PhD level CS to get into. A simple compiler is easy to write, I have done this twice (one for a lazy Functional language, in 1989). An advanced compiler? No way.
Shifting the complexity to the compiler does not reduce the complexity, but definitely does reduce the performance. The CPU can adjust at run time (and JIT compilers at a somewhat higher level of granularity). Intel tried to shift the complexity to the compiler with the Itanium project. Look where that went.
I stand by my point. The whole Compiler-CPU toolchain is too complex for an open source low budget operation to produce a high-performance system. You need substantial investment of both money and manpower to do this, and this is not suitable for the classic OSS bazaar organisation model.
An Intel i7 Quadcore has 1.7 Billions transistors on board. A Haswell E 18 Core monster chip 5.5 billion. Even a simple ARM Cortex has 26 million transistors.
Do you think any single person at Intel knows everything about such a chip? Even the experts of the experts? How do do you think you are going to even comprehend such a thing even if it is open source? It really makes no difference, and no open source community is going to design a modern high-performance CPU. Intel invested 10.6 billion in R&D in 2013.
At some point you are going to have to start trusting someone. Why everything has to be open is beyond me.
Slashdot Mirror
Out of academic interest, where in every printer on the planet would you find LISP?
True, I live 7 km from the French border in Germany and even here you seldomly hear it...
The scary thing is that Gosling once said if there was one mistake that he made in Java it was to allow inheritance. He thinks interfaces would have been enough.
What were you buying per liter? Tritium or He3?
THere is a word for you in Geman: Korinthenkakker
In WWII, basically all the admirals were often on some kind of flagship.
Advertising agencies use lots of media files and in 2001 (and probably today) was most likely doing a lot of print work, so I can well imagine the 800G of storage.
I was talking about the ACTUAL SURFACE MOUNT BOARD. As OPPOSED to using a breadboard. And that IS beyond hobbyist use.
Sure, if you work with FPGAs linux is great, but then, I work with PDF's. What does FPGA's got to do with it? I am not going product a PDF pipeline in FPGA logic. Mind, you that WOULD be a hell of an interesting project and if it works.... $$$$$!
Alternate windows manager does not help me when I ACTUALLY WANT TO PRODUCE A PROFESSIONAL PDF FILE.
Linux cannot do that, but then, my customers are paying me for that. "Hey, you PDF file has the wrong fonts in, it looks like sh!t on some readers and no metas, but at leat my window manager is great".
How long do you think they are going to pay me?
Bingo
From a hobbyist perspective, building that board is very hard. The Arduino does all the legwork for you and you only have to plug your external components into the board, which already exists. That is the main point. Arduino gives you the infrastructure to use the MCU and only worry about the externals.
When one comes from the point where learning about things like pull-up resistors is exciting (like me) building an actual board is something you leave to gurus and experts.
An example? One that is easy to use and would do well as a platform to learn basic FPGA programming?
Ok, I will bite. I am an Arduino enthusiast. While I know there are lots of microcontrollers out there, are there any platforms out there that allows a hobbyist to quicjly build a few circuits because the infrastructure around the controller chip is very easy and foolproof to us. I am talking about a SYSTEM here, not the Microcontroller chip itself. Arduino does a lot of interfacing for you. I know about the GPIOs on the Raspberry Pi, I build a circuit with it only 4 days ago. The Arduino was much easier to use in general (for one, the pins are labelled! Imagine that!)
I used the Pi because my project required a camera (it is a alarm with a motion detector). Anything else, I will use an Arduino thank you.
And yes, I have several different Arduinos with bluetooth, from Redbear, dfRobot (beetle rules!) as both Leonardo and Uno configurations so it is not as if I am not curious. I am not an electronic engineer but have a passing interest (I have a degree in Physics, and my dad was a ham and electronic freak so I grew up with this). I do have 35 years of C/C++ experience, started programming in 79 on a TRS'80. Microchips and low level machines are a non-issue.
So? Any suggestions?
I work with Apple products and often use them in an production line with PDF document for publications.
Work, for real, with Excel, Photoshop, Illustrator and a slew of PDF tools every day. Both command line and GUI.
If you can tell me how Linux is better for that I will give you a medal.
My now-boss sent me a mail on the day my daughter was born. She was born at 4 in the morning. I sent a mail to colleagues and friend at about 6, she answered at about 10 with "Congratulations, please finish this work for me today". Same story every day after for a week.
Two weeks later I was reamed out for taking 2 days off because I had to register the little girl at the local government (she was born in a neighboring country, and I had to pick up her birth certificate).
In Germany you have a 3 month block on unemployment benefits if you quit.
I took a year off with both my kids. Still have my job (and I work 60%).
My 3 year old is giving me the fits at the moment. Climbs and swings on anything that is not nailed down.
Her 5 year old sister was waaaay easier to handle.
a) If you think anyone understands the whole of Linux you are kidding yourself. Besides, I am going to contend that a single CPU is more complex to build than Linux.
b) I am not offended
c) I do not think that a naive bunch of OSS paranoid freaks can product something with the complexity AND performance of a modern CPU.
Maybe there is a tradeoff here, and it is probably worth look at it, perhaps by Intel putting their design in some kind of trusted escrow. But there is whole lot more complexity below the surface in a chip than it looks.
The non-cache part of an i7 is still extremely complex.
First, compiler optimisation only deal with static code, and not with the dynamic aspects of the code as it runs. Advanced CPU optimisations in silicon does this.
And highly advanced compilers are also very complex, requiring PhD level CS to get into. A simple compiler is easy to write, I have done this twice (one for a lazy Functional language, in 1989). An advanced compiler? No way.
Shifting the complexity to the compiler does not reduce the complexity, but definitely does reduce the performance. The CPU can adjust at run time (and JIT compilers at a somewhat higher level of granularity). Intel tried to shift the complexity to the compiler with the Itanium project. Look where that went.
I stand by my point. The whole Compiler-CPU toolchain is too complex for an open source low budget operation to produce a high-performance system. You need substantial investment of both money and manpower to do this, and this is not suitable for the classic OSS bazaar organisation model.
You own a legal bazooka without a warhead? Cool!
Does it have an IR seeker?
It IS free advertising!
It intrigued me so much that I just bought an evaluation board.
An Intel i7 Quadcore has 1.7 Billions transistors on board. A Haswell E 18 Core monster chip 5.5 billion. Even a simple ARM Cortex has 26 million transistors.
Do you think any single person at Intel knows everything about such a chip? Even the experts of the experts? How do do you think you are going to even comprehend such a thing even if it is open source? It really makes no difference, and no open source community is going to design a modern high-performance CPU. Intel invested 10.6 billion in R&D in 2013.
At some point you are going to have to start trusting someone. Why everything has to be open is beyond me.