Yea, he was. I saw him type the comment from the conference hall.
Cope didn't mention open source, closed source, or indeed any kind of source at all during his keynote. Symmetry, symmetry breaking, beauty, truth even. No code. No source.
He might have said it to you. Didn't say it to the rest of us:)
Colin Pillinger was one of the originators of the "faster, cheaper, better" way of developing space probes. He had to be, because there's just no way that ESA could follow the NASA model of ever bigger, more expensive projects. I worked in his lab, back when Beagle2 and Cassini were just starting to be talked about. 2003 seemed so far off. It's amazing that it's actually here, and built, and ready to go.
I use this book a lot at work, and it generally gives out the straight facts, unadorned by interpretation or comment.
There are odd bits of editorializing, for instance a bizarre rant about how useless unparsed external entities are, and how we should replace them all with HREFs. Harold and Means little rant suggests that they think they're a bad idea simply because they've never found a use for them. Our clients use XML for document markup, with the documents being produced in multiple languages - they think unparsed external entities are fab.
The books a good reference. Be a bit wary of the opinion.
Well I'd hope so, but I doubt it. The Human Rights Act means that the cases that use to go to the European Court (which typically took years) can now be heard in the UK courts (hopefully taking only months). However, the HRA does not give judges the power to strike down legislation. So if a case is brought, and the courts rule the Home Secretary used his powers under RIP unlawfully, it won't mean that the RIP act *itself* is unlawful.
> If I was gonna bad mouth my boss, I'd use my
> domain as the email address, and PGP crypt the
> message.
Not enough! The RIP requires you to hand over your private keys if asked to by the Home Secretary (or some designated by him, so realistically any policeman) or face imprisonment.
Frankly it amazes me that Jack Straw can't see the contradiction between passing legislation like the Human Rights Act on one hand, and the RIP act on the other.
> What irritates me is the contention that until > now these ideas are ones we were only > subconsciously aware of.
I think the main reason to be for books like this and Design Patterns are to a) provide a common vocabulary so everyone knows what we're talking about - for example I 'discovered' the Command pattern and called had a load of classes derived from command. But I talked about compounds rather than composites. I frequently use template methods but until I read Design Patterns I had no concise way of refering to them - I had to explain it everytime. Refactoring is the same. b) show you more then you already knew, or cast new insight on something you're already familiar with.
This second reason is probably why Design Patterns is so popular and why I think Refactoring will also be. You already be using more than half of what the book describes, but the book(s) show you more then you knew. Because you're already in agreement with the authors (because some of the stuff is already familiar) the new stuff goes in easy.
Under UK law noone has a right to free speech. In fact, as subjects of the crown I don't think we don't really have any rights at all, just permission to various things gifted to us by HMtheQ.
Libel law is pretty strict - it allows you to not only sue the person you allege is defaming you, but also any one who assists in the broadcast of the alleged defamation. For example, it is very common for libel litegants to sue, say, a magazine and the magazine distributors. The burden of proof is also on the defendant, which probably why Demon took this step.
AFAI recall Godfrey asked them to delete an allegedly libelous post from their newsservers, and when they didn't he sued them. They're just being cautious. This is an important case and I think Demon have been proceeding sensibly.
It might just be me, but I always think that "There's more than one way to do it" is implicitly followed by " as long as it's in Perl" even though I know it isn't.
> This book provides information that can almost entirely be derived from man pages
That's what a desktop reference is. The point is that each entry is boiled down to the most important details. It doesn't pretend to be complete documentation of everything. To take a random example, man ps on the HP box I'm sat in front of at the moment runs to 8 or 9 pages. The Unix in a Nutshell entry runs to 24 lines. Chances are I'll find what I want quicker in the book.
This book travels with me to every job I go on - it's probably the best pure reference book I own. It's a top book and a bargain (even if, like me, you never have and probably never will use the nroff/troff section).
> I know I'd be pissed if a fellow employee wrote that my code was unreadable
I want them to. And I do the same to them. One of the best ways to learn is from other people. If someone has a criticism of your work, then you should listen. Even if you end up not doing anything as a result, the exchange of ideas is always useful.
The UK joined the EEC in 1973. The EEC became the EC, which became the EU. Easy.
Perhaps your thinking of the EMU - the European Montary Union, aka the 'Euro' zone, which is the single currency now spanning large chunks of mainland Europe.
Slashdot Mirror
Yea, he was. I saw him type the comment from the conference hall.
:)
Cope didn't mention open source, closed source, or indeed any kind of source at all during his keynote. Symmetry, symmetry breaking, beauty, truth even. No code. No source.
He might have said it to you. Didn't say it to the rest of us
Colin Pillinger was one of the originators of the "faster, cheaper, better" way of developing space probes. He had to be, because there's just no way that ESA could follow the NASA model of ever bigger, more expensive projects. I worked in his lab, back when Beagle2 and Cassini were just starting to be talked about. 2003 seemed so far off. It's amazing that it's actually here, and built, and ready to go.
I use this book a lot at work, and it generally gives out the straight facts, unadorned by interpretation or comment.
There are odd bits of editorializing, for instance a bizarre rant about how useless unparsed external entities are, and how we should replace them all with HREFs. Harold and Means little rant suggests that they think they're a bad idea simply because they've never found a use for them. Our clients use XML for document markup, with the documents being produced in multiple languages - they think unparsed external entities are fab.
The books a good reference. Be a bit wary of the opinion.
Well I'd hope so, but I doubt it. The Human Rights Act means that the cases that use to go to the European Court (which typically took years) can now be heard in the UK courts (hopefully taking only months). However, the HRA does not give judges the power to strike down legislation. So if a case is brought, and the courts rule the Home Secretary used his powers under RIP unlawfully, it won't mean that the RIP act *itself* is unlawful.
> If I was gonna bad mouth my boss, I'd use my
> domain as the email address, and PGP crypt the
> message.
Not enough! The RIP requires you to hand over your private keys if asked to by the Home Secretary (or some designated by him, so realistically any policeman) or face imprisonment.
Frankly it amazes me that Jack Straw can't see the contradiction between passing legislation like the Human Rights Act on one hand, and the RIP act on the other.
> What irritates me is the contention that until > now these ideas are ones we were only
> subconsciously aware of.
I think the main reason to be for books like this and Design Patterns are to
a) provide a common vocabulary so everyone knows what we're talking about - for example I 'discovered' the Command pattern and called had a load of classes derived from command. But I talked about compounds rather than composites. I frequently use template methods but until I read Design Patterns I had no concise way of refering to them - I had to explain it everytime. Refactoring is the same.
b) show you more then you already knew, or cast new insight on something you're already familiar with.
This second reason is probably why Design Patterns is so popular and why I think Refactoring will also be. You already be using more than half of what the book describes, but the book(s) show you more then you knew. Because you're already in agreement with the authors (because some of the stuff is already familiar) the new stuff goes in easy.
Matey, a couple of things
Under UK law noone has a right to free speech. In fact, as subjects of the crown I don't think we don't really have any rights at all, just permission to various things gifted to us by HMtheQ.
Libel law is pretty strict - it allows you to not only sue the person you allege is defaming you, but also any one who assists in the broadcast of the alleged defamation. For example, it is very common for libel litegants to sue, say, a magazine and the magazine distributors. The burden of proof is also on the defendant, which probably why Demon took this step.
AFAI recall Godfrey asked them to delete an allegedly libelous post from their newsservers, and when they didn't he sued them. They're just being cautious. This is an important case and I think Demon have been proceeding sensibly.
It might just be me, but I always think that "There's more than one way to do it" is implicitly followed by " as long as it's in Perl" even though I know it isn't.
> This book provides information that can almost entirely be derived from man pages
That's what a desktop reference is. The point is that each entry is boiled down to the most important details. It doesn't pretend to be complete documentation of everything. To take a random example, man ps on the HP box I'm sat in front of at the moment runs to 8 or 9 pages. The Unix in a Nutshell entry runs to 24 lines. Chances are I'll find what I want quicker in the book.
This book travels with me to every job I go on - it's probably the best pure reference book I own. It's a top book and a bargain (even if, like me, you never have and probably never will use the nroff/troff section).
> I know I'd be pissed if a fellow employee wrote that my code was unreadable
I want them to. And I do the same to them. One of the best ways to learn is from other people. If someone has a criticism of your work, then you should listen. Even if you end up not doing anything as a result, the exchange of ideas is always useful.
The UK joined the EEC in 1973. The EEC became the EC, which became the EU. Easy.
Perhaps your thinking of the EMU - the European Montary Union, aka the 'Euro' zone, which is the single currency now spanning large chunks of mainland Europe.