...we weren't born to run but the gene survived because it had the features needed to run???
geeks or intelectuals?
on
Science Askew
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· Score: 1
Are geeks, intelectual persons, or are intelectual persons, geeks?
Are we mixing both by poor definition or poor understanding of what a geek is or an intelectual is? or are they the same?
I personnaly thing geeks are a intellectuals, but not the kind of geeks that the media and other geeky fashioned propaganda has been promoting the last few years...
Of course it is. But Asimov (and other before and after him...) helped shaping what a robot is. Its like saying we will be surrouded by cyborgs in a hundered years while they already are around us. If you cant walk you can use an electric wheel chair. Arent those cyborgs?
Of course you'll be able to install Linux in it though I suspect XP to be installed in it in a few months. With all the new range of possibilities that web applications can offer and the new xml libraries that XP offers, there's no doubt that XBOX is the new WEBtv of M$.
C source code compatibility. Extensions to C that maintain source compatiblity have already been done (C++ and ObjectiveC). Further work in this area is hampered by so much legacy code it is unlikely that significant improvements can be made.
Link compatibility with C++. The C++ object model is just too complicated - properly supporting it would essentially imply making D a full C++ compiler too.
Multiple inheritance. It's a complex feature of dubious value. It's very difficult to implement in an efficient manner, and compilers are prone to many bugs in implementing it.
Templates. Templates are a way to implement generic programming. Other ways are using macros, or having a variant data type. Using macros is out. Variants are straightforward, but the loss of type checking is a problem. The difficulties with C++ templates are their complexity, they don't fit well into the syntax of the language, all the various rules for conversions and overloading fitted on top of it, etc. What's needed is a smoother way to integrate them into the language, so they have a much more natural and obvious feel to them. I am searching for this solution.
Namespaces. An attempt to deal with the problems resulting from linking together independently developed pieces of code that have conflicting names. The idea of modules is simpler and works much better.
Include files. A major cause of slow compiles as each compilation unit must reparse enormous quantities of header files. Include files should be done as importing a symbol table.
Creating object instances on the stack. In D, all objects are by reference. This eliminates the need for copy constructors, assignment operators, complex destructor semantics, and interactions with exception handling stack unwinding.
Trigraphs and digraphs. Unicode is the modern solution to international character sets.
Preprocessor. Modern languages should not be text processing, they should be symbolic processing.
Operator overloading. The main applications for operator overloading seem to be implementing a complex floating point type, a string class, and smart pointers. D provides the first two natively, smart pointers are irrelevant in a garbage collected language. When using operator overloading for non-trivial purposes with multiple non-trivial classes, the interaction complexity of the overloading coupled with user-defined conversions, overloading in general, leads the person maintaining the code wondering whether it was all worth it.
Object oriented gradualism. Class instances in D are object oriented, the other data types are not.
Bit fields of arbitrary size. Bit fields are a complex, inefficient feature rarely used.
Support for 16 bit computers. No consideration is given in D for mixed near/far pointers and all the machinations necessary to generate good 16 bit code. The D language design assumes at least a 32 bit flat memory space. D will fit smoothly into 64 bit architectures.
After using C++ how can someone want to use this???
First: C++ isn't a simple language! It takes time (between a year or two...) to understand all the caracteristics that makes C++ the language it is! The Deitel & Deitel book isn't the greatest C++ book on the market but it's a good starting point. (Actually I learned C++ with this book and then moved to Bjarne's book right after!).
remember: a year or two forget learn C++ in 21 days beuark!
"The software engineer must learn to mimic nature,...,from the most elementary to the most complex, always searches for a stable balance and minimal energy consumption;..." -Pierre-Alain Muller
Slashdot Mirror
...we weren't born to run but the gene survived because it had the features needed to run???
Are geeks, intelectual persons, or are intelectual persons, geeks?
Are we mixing both by poor definition or poor understanding of what a geek is or an intelectual is? or are they the same?
I personnaly thing geeks are a intellectuals, but not the kind of geeks that the media and other geeky fashioned propaganda has been promoting the last few years...
"If PacMan had affected us as kids we'd be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to electronic music"
...then, what are rave's?
Of course it is. But Asimov (and other before and after him...) helped shaping what a robot is. Its like saying we will be surrouded by cyborgs in a hundered years while they already are around us. If you cant walk you can use an electric wheel chair. Arent those cyborgs?
funny... the document properties indicates:
created: August 14, 1996
please search Peter Fromherz
wait till you see the price of a X-Box with XP in it!!!
Of course you'll be able to install Linux in it though I suspect XP to be installed in it in a few months. With all the new range of possibilities that web applications can offer and the new xml libraries that XP offers, there's no doubt that XBOX is the new WEBtv of M$.
Come on, wake up people...
forget DotGNU it's way behind... unless...
There is no:
-
C source code compatibility. Extensions to C that maintain source compatiblity have already been done (C++ and ObjectiveC). Further work in this area is hampered by so much legacy code it is unlikely that significant improvements can be made.
-
Link compatibility with C++. The C++ object model is just too complicated - properly supporting it would essentially imply making D a full C++ compiler too.
-
Multiple inheritance. It's a complex feature of dubious value. It's very difficult to implement in an efficient manner, and compilers are prone to many bugs in implementing it.
-
Templates. Templates are a way to implement generic programming. Other ways are using macros, or having a variant data type. Using macros is out. Variants are straightforward, but the loss of type checking is a problem. The difficulties with C++ templates are their complexity, they don't fit well into the syntax of the language, all the various rules for conversions and overloading fitted on top of it, etc. What's needed is a smoother way to integrate them into the language, so they have a much more natural and obvious feel to them. I am searching for this solution.
-
Namespaces. An attempt to deal with the problems resulting from linking together independently developed pieces of code that have conflicting names. The idea of modules is simpler and works much better.
-
Include files. A major cause of slow compiles as each compilation unit must reparse enormous quantities of header files. Include files should be done as importing a symbol table.
Creating object instances on the stack. In D, all objects are by reference. This eliminates the need for copy constructors, assignment operators, complex destructor semantics, and interactions with exception handling stack unwinding.
Trigraphs and digraphs. Unicode is the modern solution to international character sets.
Preprocessor. Modern languages should not be text processing, they should be symbolic processing.
-
Operator overloading. The main applications for operator overloading seem to be implementing a complex floating point type, a string class, and smart pointers. D provides the first two natively, smart pointers are irrelevant in a garbage collected language. When using operator overloading for non-trivial purposes with multiple non-trivial classes, the interaction complexity of the overloading coupled with user-defined conversions, overloading in general, leads the person maintaining the code wondering whether it was all worth it.
-
Object oriented gradualism. Class instances in D are object oriented, the other data types are not.
-
Bit fields of arbitrary size. Bit fields are a complex, inefficient feature rarely used.
Support for 16 bit computers. No consideration is given in D for mixed near/far pointers and all the machinations necessary to generate good 16 bit code. The D language design assumes at least a 32 bit flat memory space. D will fit smoothly into 64 bit architectures.
After using C++ how can someone want to use this???It would have been interesting to have a complete map though. Alaska isn't even there!
First: C++ isn't a simple language! It takes time (between a year or two...) to understand all the caracteristics that makes C++ the language it is! The Deitel & Deitel book isn't the greatest C++ book on the market but it's a good starting point. (Actually I learned C++ with this book and then moved to Bjarne's book right after!). remember: a year or two forget learn C++ in 21 days beuark! "The software engineer must learn to mimic nature,...,from the most elementary to the most complex, always searches for a stable balance and minimal energy consumption;..." -Pierre-Alain Muller
Bill Gates has you're gadget in mind! It's called TabledPC.