The big difference is that 15 years ago uploading your program or game to an FTP server wasn't getting you any downloads. Sure, you shared it with friends, family, maybe some nerds on some forum, but unless you were doing some serious promotion, it wasn't going to get any downloads.
Today there are quite a number of very good central platforms where people come to check out new software, and their audience isn't limited to tech savvy people. Apples AppStore, Android Market (excuse me, Play Store), Chrome Web Store and possibly even Steam are just a few examples of platforms to which you can upload your program and have exposure simply from the fact that it's on a well known distribution platform.
I know, I know, it's naive to think your software will automatically be popular or successful just because it's available through the AppStore, but it does help to have your software available at such a source. If anything, it will give beginning programmers the idea that their software is reaching, or is at least available for a large audience.
Spot on. And I think programming is going to be more popular now with the mobile platforms making it extremely easy to make your software available for the masses.
Noticed that question mark at the end of my sentence? That means it is a question. An inquiry to see if, in this case, A equals B (or rather, M equals G). I'm not saying M equals G, I'm asking if M equals G. There's a big difference.
But who am I kidding anyway, responding to an anonymous troll...
What I find more interesting (and perhaps there's already a perfectly good explanation known for this) is why women generally live so much longer than men?
Yes, I'm sure women who feel they were singled out in a body scanner so male security personnel could look at blurry pictures of their bodies would much rather be physically touched by those same men.
I guess they're not interested in the phone as it being a phone but in the materials that it was made up of. There's still a good amount of materials in a phone that can be recycled and sold again. They probably check if the phone still works to make sure that it isn't just an empty casing of a phone.
Most of the time the problem doesn't lie with the developer. The developer who actively refuses to document is rare. In my experience, the real problem lies in managers not taking documentation seriously. It is caused by developers being under the stress of deadlines with a manager that really needs this piece of software to be finished yesterday. Managers just don't schedule in any time for documentation.
Another issue the article touches (and I really shouldn't have to say this because of course you have already thoroughly read the entire article. Twice) is that there's the question of when to start documenting, because software and APIs are often subject to change all the time, not in the least because managers keep asking for new or different features.
Personally, I often enjoy writing technical documentation. If I've written good portions of an API or framework that I'm particularly fond of, because it's all done oh-so-clever, you know, I enjoy committing the inner workings to paper to explain to my colleagues how it works and how it's supposed to be used. Unfortunately, like I said before, there often isn't any time to write good documentation and that's a real shame.
Wait, I find this to be a bit of a mindfuck.
The Irish government creates laws. Judges are there to judge if things are done in compliance with the law. If there's no law against file sharing then the judge couldn't ever judge file sharing to be unlawful, could he? What do they expect from the judge other than him saying "you are right, there are indeed no laws against this. Now what?"
Installed size of SumatraPDF really is 4.4MB here for me, as the setup file is a ZIP containing a single.exe file. So the install footprint of Adobe PDF Reader is 76 times the size of SumatraPDF. Adobe creates bloatware. Same with Apple and iTunes/QuickTime.
Like korgitser mentions in this comment, exceptions can be made, but by default it shouldn't be possible. I'm not saying it should be absolutely impossible to do this, but add another layer of protection which prevents admins from accidentally doing something like this. If an admin intentionally wants to do this and sets a specific configuration flag which allows him to do so, then that's a different story.
I do not agree.
Software should prevent people, including even the most experienced admins, from making such mistakes. The fact that it's possible to make such a mistake is a flaw in the software.
I welcome you to my world, where patches are tested in a half-assed way because the customer is demanding that this fix is being made available RIGHT NOW!!!! (only to install it 3 weeks later...)
Slightly off topic, but the reason id Tech 5 (the engine Rage was built on) is used by so few studios is because
1: it's relatively new
2: other studios are only allowed to use it if the game is published by Bethesda
And I think that latter reason will completely kill id Tech 5.
They (Creative) already did. id Software and Creative Labs made an agreement that id Software could use the algorithm without paying any fees if they included support for Creative's EAX and branded the game with Creative Labs logos.
See http://techreport.com/discussions.x/7113
Talking to a device is just awkward. You try popping out your iPhone 4s in public transport and start giving voice commands to the thing. People will look funny at you. And this won't change in the next two years. So that's why this 2 year head start (assuming that's not hugely over-estimated) is a head start in a direction that's dead to begin with.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, it's us Europeans that got it backward. really?
The big difference is that 15 years ago uploading your program or game to an FTP server wasn't getting you any downloads. Sure, you shared it with friends, family, maybe some nerds on some forum, but unless you were doing some serious promotion, it wasn't going to get any downloads.
Today there are quite a number of very good central platforms where people come to check out new software, and their audience isn't limited to tech savvy people. Apples AppStore, Android Market (excuse me, Play Store), Chrome Web Store and possibly even Steam are just a few examples of platforms to which you can upload your program and have exposure simply from the fact that it's on a well known distribution platform.
I know, I know, it's naive to think your software will automatically be popular or successful just because it's available through the AppStore, but it does help to have your software available at such a source. If anything, it will give beginning programmers the idea that their software is reaching, or is at least available for a large audience.
Spot on. And I think programming is going to be more popular now with the mobile platforms making it extremely easy to make your software available for the masses.
Noticed that question mark at the end of my sentence? That means it is a question. An inquiry to see if, in this case, A equals B (or rather, M equals G). I'm not saying M equals G, I'm asking if M equals G. There's a big difference.
But who am I kidding anyway, responding to an anonymous troll...
Hasn't MS done the same with MSN passport, where you use one login for Hotmail, MSN Messenger, XBox Live and various other services?
What I find more interesting (and perhaps there's already a perfectly good explanation known for this) is why women generally live so much longer than men?
Yes, I'm sure women who feel they were singled out in a body scanner so male security personnel could look at blurry pictures of their bodies would much rather be physically touched by those same men.
I don't use any form of Internet at all.
Funny, this Iranian way of justice sounds exactly like how SOPA works.
I guess they're not interested in the phone as it being a phone but in the materials that it was made up of. There's still a good amount of materials in a phone that can be recycled and sold again. They probably check if the phone still works to make sure that it isn't just an empty casing of a phone.
Bite my shiny metal ass
What a shame that Slashdot doesn't allow posts to be rated as "ignorant"
Most of the time the problem doesn't lie with the developer. The developer who actively refuses to document is rare. In my experience, the real problem lies in managers not taking documentation seriously. It is caused by developers being under the stress of deadlines with a manager that really needs this piece of software to be finished yesterday. Managers just don't schedule in any time for documentation.
Another issue the article touches (and I really shouldn't have to say this because of course you have already thoroughly read the entire article. Twice) is that there's the question of when to start documenting, because software and APIs are often subject to change all the time, not in the least because managers keep asking for new or different features.
Personally, I often enjoy writing technical documentation. If I've written good portions of an API or framework that I'm particularly fond of, because it's all done oh-so-clever, you know, I enjoy committing the inner workings to paper to explain to my colleagues how it works and how it's supposed to be used. Unfortunately, like I said before, there often isn't any time to write good documentation and that's a real shame.
Wait, I find this to be a bit of a mindfuck.
The Irish government creates laws. Judges are there to judge if things are done in compliance with the law. If there's no law against file sharing then the judge couldn't ever judge file sharing to be unlawful, could he? What do they expect from the judge other than him saying "you are right, there are indeed no laws against this. Now what?"
php coders. pah.
Installed size of SumatraPDF really is 4.4MB here for me, as the setup file is a ZIP containing a single .exe file. So the install footprint of Adobe PDF Reader is 76 times the size of SumatraPDF. Adobe creates bloatware. Same with Apple and iTunes/QuickTime.
Like korgitser mentions in this comment, exceptions can be made, but by default it shouldn't be possible. I'm not saying it should be absolutely impossible to do this, but add another layer of protection which prevents admins from accidentally doing something like this. If an admin intentionally wants to do this and sets a specific configuration flag which allows him to do so, then that's a different story.
I do not agree.
Software should prevent people, including even the most experienced admins, from making such mistakes. The fact that it's possible to make such a mistake is a flaw in the software.
Pretty stupid thing to say. Garbage in should never mean "protected resources out".
Maybe I should have used the word "feature" instead of "fix".
It happens.
I welcome you to my world, where patches are tested in a half-assed way because the customer is demanding that this fix is being made available RIGHT NOW!!!! (only to install it 3 weeks later...)
but instead you have to go get a DVD, rip the DVD
Which, lets not forget, is illegal.
Slightly off topic, but the reason id Tech 5 (the engine Rage was built on) is used by so few studios is because
1: it's relatively new
2: other studios are only allowed to use it if the game is published by Bethesda
And I think that latter reason will completely kill id Tech 5.
They (Creative) already did. id Software and Creative Labs made an agreement that id Software could use the algorithm without paying any fees if they included support for Creative's EAX and branded the game with Creative Labs logos. See http://techreport.com/discussions.x/7113
Talking to a device is just awkward. You try popping out your iPhone 4s in public transport and start giving voice commands to the thing. People will look funny at you. And this won't change in the next two years. So that's why this 2 year head start (assuming that's not hugely over-estimated) is a head start in a direction that's dead to begin with.