I had no interest in programming. I was just ninth grader who wanted a good calculator years before anyone else had interest in them. So my Dad was nice enough to shell out the extra ten bucks for a TI-85. Somehow I started programming and came up with a bunch of elaborate games including a clone of GoFigure (remember the old MS game?) and chess, both very much math based. I didn't know much about programming back then, but by using a slew of crude algorithms I implemented all of the rules in chess and used 64 independant variables for the board because I didn't know about matrix storage yet. When I look back at those now, I realize that they were some of the messiest programs ever written, but I've learned a lot since then and that calculator is the entire reason I learned to program. C/C++ was a good second language once I realized how limited the calculator was. Some may think my technique of teaching myself to program is horrible because I now believe C++ to be one of the most beautiful languages ever created, but who cares? You can enjoy your pascal, smallTalk, java, whatever, but I'd rather do C++ anyday (if only it was functional rather than imperative). I would suggest giving them a compiler or IDE that is geared toward their interests. I'm interested in OS foundations, compiler backends, and hardware interrupts and so C and C++ rocked my world. Just don't give them something simple because you underestimate them. Let them start with something simple and limited enough that they will out grow it quickly so that they will get an idea of what they are getting their feet into, but when they reach the limitations of what they're using, show them that there is a big world out there and let them chase out into it with blind ambition knowing that there is nothing they cannot do.
- Trane iFamRtrane@yaOhooG.com (remove the FROG if you want my email address)
Some readers are saying that driving rentals back is more damaging to the environment than the trash that would be created by this. I disagree. Chances you are going to drive somewhere for something else. There is a good chance that you'll be driving very near the video rental place. When I'm home from college I rent from the video store just across the street from the grocery store. I'm definately going to keep eating so I'll need to go to the store and why not synchronize my trips to kill two birds with one stone. If DVDs were rented via mail there would be packaging to throw away also. I believe that the postal service probably uses lasers as a part of the routing system so packaging may need to protect discs from early damage. I think that waste material like this is a dumb way to destory our planet not to mention disrespectful to the other inhabitants of Earth who would like to keep living.
I have been using vim for a little more than a year now and find it to be much better than emacs. Sure, you can tweak emacs, but you can also tweak vim. Most of the vim commands are single keys whereas emacs requires key combos to do much of anything. At work this summer I found vim to be essential for making changes to large sections of code. It is easy to develop macros to speed things up in vim. I believe that vim and emacs are relatively equal in abilities but vim is so much faster and simpler. Sure it has a learning curve but if you try to use it you will find it to become natural quite quickly. Also, I find the configuration to be easier. I stoped using emacs because I couldn't figure out how to make it stop autoformatting my C code. I think the default emacs formatting is messy. Emacs also tried its hardest to prevent me from commenting my assembly code. When I would type a semicolon emacs would automatically move to the beginning of the line and comment out the code. This was a major pain. vim has made my life easy. - enarT
According to the FAQ, ROMs are exempt from archival backup laws. If this is the case, then it would be illegal to posess images of ROMs without consent of copyright holder. It should be obviously illegal to posses a ROM cartridge and an image of the ROM and use both of them. Such practice is like installing one license of software on two machines. An emulator of a device should not be illegal assuming no illegal practicies were involved in its manufacture. Such a program can be an excellent test bed for amature game developers. There would be no doubt to the legality of such a device if it read the data directly from the actual ROM (through a hacked port). Nintendo is wrong when they say that the sole purpose of emulators is for playing illegally downloaded ROMs. This is a generalization. Such claims are the cause for persecution and hatred of people. Generalizations are claims with no basis that are used to create an enemy where one does not exist. I am sure some people have used emulators to test out games they have written. Nintendo needs to accept the fact that piracy is illegal, and hacking is not. The hackers that study these devices for long hours and learn how they work and how to mimic them are intelligent and creative people who done no wrong. Nintendo needs to put blame where it is due and stop the real problem. Hitler persecuted the Jews because there was a depression that they were not responsible for. Nintendo is persecuting these brilliant hackers because other people are breaking laws. Just think where we would be if IBM had stopped Compaq with the claim that "Clones are illegal."
Slashdot Mirror
I had no interest in programming. I was just ninth grader who wanted a good calculator years before anyone else had interest in them. So my Dad was nice enough to shell out the extra ten bucks for a TI-85. Somehow I started programming and came up with a bunch of elaborate games including a clone of GoFigure (remember the old MS game?) and chess, both very much math based.
I didn't know much about programming back then, but by using a slew of crude algorithms I implemented all of the rules in chess and used 64 independant variables for the board because I didn't know about matrix storage yet. When I look back at those now, I realize that they were some of the messiest programs ever written, but I've learned a lot since then and that calculator is the entire reason I learned to program.
C/C++ was a good second language once I realized how limited the calculator was. Some may think my technique of teaching myself to program is horrible because I now believe C++ to be one of the most beautiful languages ever created, but who cares? You can enjoy your pascal, smallTalk, java, whatever, but I'd rather do C++ anyday (if only it was functional rather than imperative).
I would suggest giving them a compiler or IDE that is geared toward their interests. I'm interested in OS foundations, compiler backends, and hardware interrupts and so C and C++ rocked my world. Just don't give them something simple because you underestimate them. Let them start with something simple and limited enough that they will out grow it quickly so that they will get an idea of what they are getting their feet into, but when they reach the limitations of what they're using, show them that there is a big world out there and let them chase out into it with blind ambition knowing that there is nothing they cannot do.
- Trane
iFamRtrane@yaOhooG.com
(remove the FROG if you want my email address)
Some readers are saying that driving rentals back is more damaging to the environment than the trash that would be created by this. I disagree. Chances you are going to drive somewhere for something else. There is a good chance that you'll be driving very near the video rental place. When I'm home from college I rent from the video store just across the street from the grocery store. I'm definately going to keep eating so I'll need to go to the store and why not synchronize my trips to kill two birds with one stone.
If DVDs were rented via mail there would be packaging to throw away also. I believe that the postal service probably uses lasers as a part of the routing system so packaging may need to protect discs from early damage.
I think that waste material like this is a dumb way to destory our planet not to mention disrespectful to the other inhabitants of Earth who would like to keep living.
- enarT
I have been using vim for a little more than a year now and find it to be much better than emacs. Sure, you can tweak emacs, but you can also tweak vim. Most of the vim commands are single keys whereas emacs requires key combos to do much of anything. At work this summer I found vim to be essential for making changes to large sections of code. It is easy to develop macros to speed things up in vim. I believe that vim and emacs are relatively equal in abilities but vim is so much faster and simpler. Sure it has a learning curve but if you try to use it you will find it to become natural quite quickly. Also, I find the configuration to be easier. I stoped using emacs because I couldn't figure out how to make it stop autoformatting my C code. I think the default emacs formatting is messy. Emacs also tried its hardest to prevent me from commenting my assembly code. When I would type a semicolon emacs would automatically move to the beginning of the line and comment out the code. This was a major pain. vim has made my life easy. - enarT
Slashdot == News
BeDope == Satire (at least as far as I can tell)
'nuf said.
According to the FAQ, ROMs are exempt from archival backup laws. If this is the case, then it would be illegal to posess images of ROMs without consent of copyright holder. It should be obviously illegal to posses a ROM cartridge and an image of the ROM and use both of them. Such practice is like installing one license of software on two machines. An emulator of a device should not be illegal assuming no illegal practicies were involved in its manufacture. Such a program can be an excellent test bed for amature game developers.
There would be no doubt to the legality of such a device if it read the data directly from the actual ROM (through a hacked port). Nintendo is wrong when they say that the sole purpose of emulators is for playing illegally downloaded ROMs. This is a generalization. Such claims are the cause for persecution and hatred of people. Generalizations are claims with no basis that are used to create an enemy where one does not exist. I am sure some people have used emulators to test out games they have written.
Nintendo needs to accept the fact that piracy is illegal, and hacking is not. The hackers that study these devices for long hours and learn how they work and how to mimic them are intelligent and creative people who done no wrong. Nintendo needs to put blame where it is due and stop the real problem. Hitler persecuted the Jews because there was a depression that they were not responsible for. Nintendo is persecuting these brilliant hackers because other people are breaking laws.
Just think where we would be if IBM had stopped Compaq with the claim that "Clones are illegal."