First - you do realize the 2nd edition of Code Complete has a whole chapter on Refactoring, right? AND it recommends the other book for more details?
Have you actually read the book or are you just going from the review? Most of the methods are designed to work in a very small scale.
Examples - have you... - Moved some code in the middle of a method to a separate method to make your code clear or re-usable? - Renamed a variable with an unclear name? - Added an intermediate variable for a complex calculation? - Moved a complex boolean expression into a well-named boolean function? - Added/removed a parameter to/from an existing method?
These are all refactorings, although some of the simplest. You might say that is just common sense, but that is kind of the point of it, and the particular steps are designed so that you won't screw up the code with common mistakes. Many refactoring tools exist too, and they are quite useful - for example, when adding a parameter to a method, one of my refactoring tools show me where that was used and I can edit any with a click (and also note if they all need it, or if I should give it a default value). If I change the name of a method, it can replace everywhere it is used (a search and replace can do the same, except if another object has a method with the same name it will screw things up - so you have to watch each replace carefully).
You might also note that many refactorings match other concepts in Code Complete.
None of these are supposed to "fix" a broken design by itself. They are meant to slowly improve the code so that it is easier to keep working on it.
In Brazil, electronic voting has been used for a LONG, LONG time - on all elections. There weren't any major problems or reports of fraud.
There weren't any changes in perception by the people. Well, except for the very large lines we had to take when we still used paper ballots...
Machines do break down, of course. The officials are trained to switch to paper ballots in that case. That do create extra lines and wait, but that's pretty much it.
I live in Brazil. New books can take years to arrive, and libraries tend to prefer getting only translated books - which not only takes longer, but tends to make books much worse.
Needless to say, e-books are quite a bit more interesting in my case - even when I bought regular books from Amazon/etc, shipping could easily be more expensive than a paperback edition.
Does your public library have unlimited books on all topics you want? Because my local ones were awful (at least, last time I checked), and they aren't even near... I'd much rather pay a monthly amount.
I already buy e-books at the regular Fictionwise.com prices. I didn't really mind the DRM much, till last week when I realized that while all non-DRM e-books I have will run fine on my new cell phone (N95), eReader doesn't seem to have bothered releasing their software for S60 3rd edition, and the older editions software won't install... (their DRM is not device dependent, so the e-books should work fine - if there was a version that worked on it!)
I have bought over 300 e-books at Fictionwise alone - looks like I'll just be buying DRM-free e-books from now on.
They may have bought their data at the same place, but Google bought a whole lot more data, it seems...
I've tried both again outside, with the GPS on and using WiFi. Both located where I am, but on Google Maps I get about 30 meters off my real position, with full street maps and a nice, 1.5 meter resolution satellite photo.
On Nokia Maps, I'm a few kilometers between two roads. The whole city (population: about 120,000) isn't there.
Given the disparity of the map sizes, I imagine the situation is much better in the US - if you use Nokia Maps Download, Brazil has 1.8MB , while the US has 1.3GB.
I've also tried it while I was on my apartment in Sao Paulo (the biggest city in the country), and while the street maps on Nokia Maps are pretty good, Google Maps is still better - if I try my street number Nokia Maps has it a whole block off, while you can see in the sat photo that Google Maps is pointing at the real building.
The discussion is a bit academic, though - IMHO, our packet data net is too slow, expensive and unreliable, so I'll have to mostly use Nokia Maps anyway...
I think it's pretty cool. I tried through WiFi (as my packet data connection is awful AND pricy), and I wasn't within the limit it drew, but about 800 meters off. That, in a minor town in Brasil.
That is not revolutionary, but it's clearly very useful.
And I really like that it can use my phone's GPS (which was off for the test) - Google Maps is absurdly better than Nokia Maps, as far as directions and map data goes.
Because most of the "funny" posts aren't very funny at all (i.e. the quality of "funny" moderations is lower than the quality of other moderations)?
Because Slashdot is intended to generate informative and insightful discussion rather than humor?
Deliberately using the wrong category when moderating reduces the readers ability to filter the posts in the way that they want. Moderators are supposed to categorize posts. They are not supposed to care about the karma of the authors.
That seems very easy to solve - just make funny mods give karma. Then everyone can set whatever modifiers they want to get personal post scores up or down. I personally love the funny posts on Slashdot, as well as the informative ones.
It's pointless to try to force the moderators to do something they don't want to do - it's not like they are getting paid...
I recently got Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts on Steam. It looks great and is pretty good, but it also requires a login and contacting their servers (not Steam) even for Single Player.
I have over 40 games on Steam, and I can't remember any other (single player) game that does that.
I probably wouldn't have bought it if I had know that at the time.
Something similar happened to me, last year. A little after they made local SkypeIn phones available in Brazil, I got one. At first, it was great - quality was pretty close to a regular call, and sometimes better.
After a couple of months, the quality of the calls was awful, calls kept dropping or not connecting. So when it was time to renew, I didn't even consider it.
Now I just use SkypeOut occasionally and mostly Skype-to-Skype.
I have to say I wasn't very impressed with Team Fortress 2. It plays ok, the graphics are great, but it seems a bit simplistic...
I've been playing the Enemy Territory:Quake Wars demo and even with only one level, it seems much better. And it also has acceptable (at least to me) bots...
The article is right, but the summary says that it will be available for pre-order next week. That is incorrect - it is available now (I just got it myself).
From the summary it would seem that Peggle Extreme is an improved version of Peggle. AFAIK, it isn't - the start screen already offers you to buy Peggle Deluxe. It's more like a themed trial.
I played the original trial, and the "themed" stuff is pretty funny, though.
I don't have any of the problems you mention. You might want to note that you can click on Cancel when it's logging on and it will stay off-line. I haven't tried it lately, but when I only had dial-up on one of my computers, all games still worked fine on off-line mode.
Sudden updates when you want to run a game and THEN has to wait for an update to download are very annoying, though.
Just a minor comment - I have Daemon Tools installed and the Securom that Steam downloaded didn't seem to care. It would be extra lame if it did, of course (i.e.: why would a downloadable game's protection care?)
That's also one of the reasons I rarely buy games in CDs anymore - it's my computer, and I expect to run whatever I want in it. Made-up conflicts are not acceptable.
I've seen plenty of servers that would only accept one connection per IP - it's not even hard to do. The reason most don't is that some connections really suck if you don't use multiple connections. When I used dial-up some servers were unusable if I only ran one connection. Cable or ADSL aren't so bad, but it still can get pretty bad.
Also, Steam is not a free service. When they sell at the same price a store does, without having to ship anything but bytes, I don't think getting 1Mbps is an absurd speed demand on my side. They could also distribute across their many servers, or use a P2P protocol.
I wouldn't be okay with it, except for the detail that 30 seconds after my first attempt on activation I ran it again and it went through fine.
I was really ready to get angry (I had pre-loaded days before and it had the gall to make me wait another 2 hours since download speeds were awful - but that isn't activation related, AFAIK), but it's hard to make much of an issue of a 30 seconds delay.
Also, I live in Brazil. Sometimes games would take months, sometimes years and on occasion, they would never be available here in a legal form. Buying from the USA is of course possible, but even then it would something like US$20+80% customs taxes. And sometimes it would be translated (poorly) - argh! Prices are about the same as the US, sometimes a bit higher, sometimes a bit lower.
So I consider being able to download major releases (instead of just indie games) and play at the same time as anyone else major progress.
Steam could improve their download client a lot, though. I get 460K/s routinely on Getright with multiple connections, but sub-100K/s is the norm on Steam.
AFAIK, the Steam version really comes with Securom. I bought and pre-loaded it as a pre-release, and after the regular Steam decryption (and also regular re-downloading of content - EVERY single game I pre-loaded through Steam always had to download more stuff on release!), it needs to activate. The first time I tried it failed (for obvious reasons - the server should be overloaded as it was 2-3 hours after the release), but after that it worked fine.
BTW, the graphics are very impressive and the atmosphere too, but from the first few levels it seemed good but not all that revolutionary as I kept hearing it was...
As others mention and the FA clearly says, it's not a rootkit, just a regular service. This is a case where I wouldn't mind someone being sued for libel - they really deserve it.
Slashdot Mirror
It does save a lot of space on the left, but it looks really weird on a widescreen monitor...
First - you do realize the 2nd edition of Code Complete has a whole chapter on Refactoring, right? AND it recommends the other book for more details?
Have you actually read the book or are you just going from the review? Most of the methods are designed to work in a very small scale.
Examples - have you...
- Moved some code in the middle of a method to a separate method to make your code clear or re-usable?
- Renamed a variable with an unclear name?
- Added an intermediate variable for a complex calculation?
- Moved a complex boolean expression into a well-named boolean function?
- Added/removed a parameter to/from an existing method?
These are all refactorings, although some of the simplest. You might say that is just common sense, but that is kind of the point of it, and the particular steps are designed so that you won't screw up the code with common mistakes. Many refactoring tools exist too, and they are quite useful - for example, when adding a parameter to a method, one of my refactoring tools show me where that was used and I can edit any with a click (and also note if they all need it, or if I should give it a default value). If I change the name of a method, it can replace everywhere it is used (a search and replace can do the same, except if another object has a method with the same name it will screw things up - so you have to watch each replace carefully).
You might also note that many refactorings match other concepts in Code Complete.
None of these are supposed to "fix" a broken design by itself. They are meant to slowly improve the code so that it is easier to keep working on it.
I've read both - while Code Complete is pretty good too, I think Refactoring is a bit better, in a practical sense.
In Brazil, electronic voting has been used for a LONG, LONG time - on all elections. There weren't any major problems or reports of fraud.
There weren't any changes in perception by the people. Well, except for the very large lines we had to take when we still used paper ballots...
Machines do break down, of course. The officials are trained to switch to paper ballots in that case. That do create extra lines and wait, but that's pretty much it.
If he kept the copyright notices in the source code, but not on any user-visible interface, wouldn't that be enough to satisfy the GPL?
I live in Brazil. New books can take years to arrive, and libraries tend to prefer getting only translated books - which not only takes longer, but tends to make books much worse.
Needless to say, e-books are quite a bit more interesting in my case - even when I bought regular books from Amazon/etc, shipping could easily be more expensive than a paperback edition.
Does your public library have unlimited books on all topics you want? Because my local ones were awful (at least, last time I checked), and they aren't even near... I'd much rather pay a monthly amount.
I already buy e-books at the regular Fictionwise.com prices. I didn't really mind the DRM much, till last week when I realized that while all non-DRM e-books I have will run fine on my new cell phone (N95), eReader doesn't seem to have bothered releasing their software for S60 3rd edition, and the older editions software won't install... (their DRM is not device dependent, so the e-books should work fine - if there was a version that worked on it!)
I have bought over 300 e-books at Fictionwise alone - looks like I'll just be buying DRM-free e-books from now on.
Personally, I really liked Ufo:Afterlight... A few minor problems, but other than that I thought it was as good as the original X-COM.
They may have bought their data at the same place, but Google bought a whole lot more data, it seems...
I've tried both again outside, with the GPS on and using WiFi. Both located where I am, but on Google Maps I get about 30 meters off my real position, with full street maps and a nice, 1.5 meter resolution satellite photo.
On Nokia Maps, I'm a few kilometers between two roads. The whole city (population: about 120,000) isn't there.
Given the disparity of the map sizes, I imagine the situation is much better in the US - if you use Nokia Maps Download, Brazil has 1.8MB , while the US has 1.3GB.
I've also tried it while I was on my apartment in Sao Paulo (the biggest city in the country), and while the street maps on Nokia Maps are pretty good, Google Maps is still better - if I try my street number Nokia Maps has it a whole block off, while you can see in the sat photo that Google Maps is pointing at the real building.
The discussion is a bit academic, though - IMHO, our packet data net is too slow, expensive and unreliable, so I'll have to mostly use Nokia Maps anyway...
I think it's pretty cool. I tried through WiFi (as my packet data connection is awful AND pricy), and I wasn't within the limit it drew, but about 800 meters off. That, in a minor town in Brasil.
That is not revolutionary, but it's clearly very useful.
And I really like that it can use my phone's GPS (which was off for the test) - Google Maps is absurdly better than Nokia Maps, as far as directions and map data goes.
That seems very easy to solve - just make funny mods give karma. Then everyone can set whatever modifiers they want to get personal post scores up or down. I personally love the funny posts on Slashdot, as well as the informative ones.
It's pointless to try to force the moderators to do something they don't want to do - it's not like they are getting paid...
...and even if you are right...
Good thing Google is much richer than Netscape! Maybe eventually we will get a monopoly charge that sticks... And does appropriate damage.
I recently got Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts on Steam. It looks great and is pretty good, but it also requires a login and contacting their servers (not Steam) even for Single Player.
I have over 40 games on Steam, and I can't remember any other (single player) game that does that.
I probably wouldn't have bought it if I had know that at the time.
Something similar happened to me, last year. A little after they made local SkypeIn phones available in Brazil, I got one. At first, it was great - quality was pretty close to a regular call, and sometimes better.
After a couple of months, the quality of the calls was awful, calls kept dropping or not connecting. So when it was time to renew, I didn't even consider it.
Now I just use SkypeOut occasionally and mostly Skype-to-Skype.
I have to say I wasn't very impressed with Team Fortress 2. It plays ok, the graphics are great, but it seems a bit simplistic...
I've been playing the Enemy Territory:Quake Wars demo and even with only one level, it seems much better. And it also has acceptable (at least to me) bots...
The article is right, but the summary says that it will be available for pre-order next week. That is incorrect - it is available now (I just got it myself).
The TF2 beta is what will be available next week.
From the summary it would seem that Peggle Extreme is an improved version of Peggle. AFAIK, it isn't - the start screen already offers you to buy Peggle Deluxe. It's more like a themed trial.
I played the original trial, and the "themed" stuff is pretty funny, though.
I don't have any of the problems you mention. You might want to note that you can click on Cancel when it's logging on and it will stay off-line. I haven't tried it lately, but when I only had dial-up on one of my computers, all games still worked fine on off-line mode.
Sudden updates when you want to run a game and THEN has to wait for an update to download are very annoying, though.
Just a minor comment - I have Daemon Tools installed and the Securom that Steam downloaded didn't seem to care.
It would be extra lame if it did, of course (i.e.: why would a downloadable game's protection care?)
That's also one of the reasons I rarely buy games in CDs anymore - it's my computer, and I expect to run whatever I want in it. Made-up conflicts are not acceptable.
I've seen plenty of servers that would only accept one connection per IP - it's not even hard to do. The reason most don't is that some connections really suck if you don't use multiple connections. When I used dial-up some servers were unusable if I only ran one connection. Cable or ADSL aren't so bad, but it still can get pretty bad.
Also, Steam is not a free service. When they sell at the same price a store does, without having to ship anything but bytes, I don't think getting 1Mbps is an absurd speed demand on my side. They could also distribute across their many servers, or use a P2P protocol.
I wouldn't be okay with it, except for the detail that 30 seconds after my first attempt on activation I ran it again and it went through fine.
I was really ready to get angry (I had pre-loaded days before and it had the gall to make me wait another 2 hours since download speeds were awful - but that isn't activation related, AFAIK), but it's hard to make much of an issue of a 30 seconds delay.
Also, I live in Brazil. Sometimes games would take months, sometimes years and on occasion, they would never be available here in a legal form. Buying from the USA is of course possible, but even then it would something like US$20+80% customs taxes. And sometimes it would be translated (poorly) - argh! Prices are about the same as the US, sometimes a bit higher, sometimes a bit lower.
So I consider being able to download major releases (instead of just indie games) and play at the same time as anyone else major progress.
Steam could improve their download client a lot, though. I get 460K/s routinely on Getright with multiple connections, but sub-100K/s is the norm on Steam.
AFAIK, the Steam version really comes with Securom. I bought and pre-loaded it as a pre-release, and after the regular Steam decryption (and also regular re-downloading of content - EVERY single game I pre-loaded through Steam always had to download more stuff on release!), it needs to activate. The first time I tried it failed (for obvious reasons - the server should be overloaded as it was 2-3 hours after the release), but after that it worked fine.
BTW, the graphics are very impressive and the atmosphere too, but from the first few levels it seemed good but not all that revolutionary as I kept hearing it was...
As others mention and the FA clearly says, it's not a rootkit, just a regular service. This is a case where I wouldn't mind someone being sued for libel - they really deserve it.
It should be easy to get one - just go to http://www.keytronicems.com/home/shop/ProductList. asp?CATID=48&SubCATID=1 and there are several models available with trackballs, all at US$99.
A simple search on Google found several resellers as well.
I played it on a 4-year old computer, and it worked fine... Obviously not with all the settings on their max, but still perfectly playable.