Sure, but can you create a language as runtime dependent as *insert scripting language here* that can be compiled down to native machine code? C can because it's a simple abstraction from assembler. C++ can be distilled to C code. How would you do this with Perl, for example, where you may not know what kind of data you'll be dealing with until runtime. You could build a runtime (like perl.exe) that could do the runtime translations but your compiled code couldn't be run as-is without that runtime.
It's obvious that C++ can be used without resorting to all the various features that it provides. Its design allows for it to be coded as "a better C" to full-fledged C++ and all points in between. However, once unwanted 'features' begin intruding into code, I begin to have a problem.
Obviously, and this has been talked about to death, is namespaces. The idea is good, but is it really necessary? Are people really naming functions printf()? In fact, it is practices like renaming library functions that lead to unmanageable code (does this printf belong in the std namespace or the MyIO namespace?).
Now I get to write using namespace std; at the beginning of all my programs. Wow, that's a huge improvement! Thanks C++ standards!
How about trimming the C++ language back a couple of years? How about then adding these "features" as libraries? How about NOT making the language any more complicated than it needs to be.
Seriously, look at C for an example of a language that wasn't the ultimate solution to every problem, but ended up being so useful that it is used for just about every problem.
you could use one of these robots to crawl around the yard and clip grass that measures above a certian point
Sure, until its grass-identifying sensor breaks and you have a swarm of robot scorpions nipping at your heels. It's all fun and games until someone gets a pincher in the Achilles.
Anyway, piggyback providers are doomed to fail. Go with a company that has to exist for the line to exist at all. For me, that's Verizon (bet you didn't think Verizon was available at the North Pole). For you, it may be someone else.
Actually, upon further reading, the decreased brain function and the related "religious" experience could be the "light at the end of the tunnel" experience that Life-after-Death people are always talking about.
I believe that there's a direct correlation between the amount of time a product has been available and the number of holes found in that product.
Take for example W2K. When it was first released, there were zero (count 'em, zero) security holes found in it. Now that a little while has passed, we have a whole slew of them!
I noticed this also works with humans as well. When born, a human has almost a close to zero chance of having had a disease. Look 60 years later and the odds that a disease was caught goes up astronomically.
The explosive growth of AIDS here in the US came to a halt a few years back when the government made a concerted effort to educate high-risk groups (gays and drug users) about the disease. Then the education stopped and we are back in an upswing. The key, it seems, is the amount of information regarding AIDS that can be transferred to those at-risk groups.
In SA, it is tragic that so many are infected with HIV and AIDS, but it isn't too late to educate the masses. If they do have an education plan it is obviously ineffective.
AIDS is essentially a behavioral disease, it can only be caught (in 5 9 of cases) through risky behavior. Education about safer sex or clean needles or universal testing would go far to stymie the disease's growth.
Providing medicine is like putting out a forest fire with a garden hose. You can stop the symptoms, but the disease spreads unabated. It doesn't help that certain African presidents block AIDS education because they don't believe HIV causes AIDS and want to spend more precious time researching the disease.
Slashdot Mirror
Buy the best stuff so that when the vandals come by they can pick up some nice hardware at cheap prices.
Dancin Santa
My wife's friend is Japanese and thought the waitress was asking if she'd like a "super salad".
:-)
Yes please.
If you're lying on your lawn looking for Heidi Wall in clouds, you're on the way to destruction long before any mini scorpions snip your weenie off.
Dancin Santa
But if your functions like "sort" belong to templatized classes, in what way are namespaces necessary?
Dancin Santa
You're welcome AC.
Sure, but can you create a language as runtime dependent as *insert scripting language here* that can be compiled down to native machine code? C can because it's a simple abstraction from assembler. C++ can be distilled to C code. How would you do this with Perl, for example, where you may not know what kind of data you'll be dealing with until runtime. You could build a runtime (like perl.exe) that could do the runtime translations but your compiled code couldn't be run as-is without that runtime.
Dancin Santa
Gosh, and what language would those scripting languages be implemented in?
I believe this is the same question that Creationists use to debate the Big Bang...
Dancin Santa
Would you also have
(myControl->>cntrlRectptr)->x;
Looks like hell. But that's just my opinion.
Dancin Santa
It's obvious that C++ can be used without resorting to all the various features that it provides. Its design allows for it to be coded as "a better C" to full-fledged C++ and all points in between. However, once unwanted 'features' begin intruding into code, I begin to have a problem.
Obviously, and this has been talked about to death, is namespaces. The idea is good, but is it really necessary? Are people really naming functions printf()? In fact, it is practices like renaming library functions that lead to unmanageable code (does this printf belong in the std namespace or the MyIO namespace?).
Now I get to write using namespace std; at the beginning of all my programs. Wow, that's a huge improvement! Thanks C++ standards!
Dancin Santa
Sounds better than ++C++.
Dancin Santa
How about trimming the C++ language back a couple of years? How about then adding these "features" as libraries? How about NOT making the language any more complicated than it needs to be.
Seriously, look at C for an example of a language that wasn't the ultimate solution to every problem, but ended up being so useful that it is used for just about every problem.
Dancin Santa
My bad.
PSINet, who is blah blah...
Dancin Santa
you could use one of these robots to crawl around the yard and clip grass that measures above a certian point
Sure, until its grass-identifying sensor breaks and you have a swarm of robot scorpions nipping at your heels. It's all fun and games until someone gets a pincher in the Achilles.
Dancin Santa
My wife's company is something something...
Anyway, piggyback providers are doomed to fail. Go with a company that has to exist for the line to exist at all. For me, that's Verizon (bet you didn't think Verizon was available at the North Pole). For you, it may be someone else.
Dancin Santa
Actually, upon further reading, the decreased brain function and the related "religious" experience could be the "light at the end of the tunnel" experience that Life-after-Death people are always talking about.
Dancin Santa
So they found that the brain stops functioning when a person is "talking to God". Huge surprise!
Dancin Santa
I never could beat Sargon Chess for the Apple II. Of course I was 10 and had no idea what I was doing.
Dancin Santa
You wouldn't ever have to leave the complex. You'd live on the 47th floor and go to work on the 120th. That's not that bad a ride.
Dancin Santa
So easy to say with no userID, huh?
If the polar bears don't kill you, the subzero temps will.
Imagine killing processes by directing a polar bear to bite its head off.
Dancin Santa
As any OS 'ages', more holes will be found.
I believe that there's a direct correlation between the amount of time a product has been available and the number of holes found in that product.
Take for example W2K. When it was first released, there were zero (count 'em, zero) security holes found in it. Now that a little while has passed, we have a whole slew of them!
I noticed this also works with humans as well. When born, a human has almost a close to zero chance of having had a disease. Look 60 years later and the odds that a disease was caught goes up astronomically.
You, sir, are a genius.
Dancin Santa
When my North Pole theme wins, the Dancin Santa retirement fund will see a nice $3000 boost.
Thanks for the link to Mbeki. I couldn't recall his name for my inital post.
It's a pity that SA has devolved into the hellhole that it currently is, but that's a whole nother diversion.
Dancin Santa
Perhaps 5 9's was too optimistic a number. However, for the vast majority of cases, AIDS is a result of behavior rather than accident.
Dancin Santa
The explosive growth of AIDS here in the US came to a halt a few years back when the government made a concerted effort to educate high-risk groups (gays and drug users) about the disease. Then the education stopped and we are back in an upswing. The key, it seems, is the amount of information regarding AIDS that can be transferred to those at-risk groups.
In SA, it is tragic that so many are infected with HIV and AIDS, but it isn't too late to educate the masses. If they do have an education plan it is obviously ineffective.
AIDS is essentially a behavioral disease, it can only be caught (in 5 9 of cases) through risky behavior. Education about safer sex or clean needles or universal testing would go far to stymie the disease's growth.
Providing medicine is like putting out a forest fire with a garden hose. You can stop the symptoms, but the disease spreads unabated. It doesn't help that certain African presidents block AIDS education because they don't believe HIV causes AIDS and want to spend more precious time researching the disease.
Dancin Santa