However, wouldn't it be nice if we (the US, if you can forgive my inclusive pronoun) were a democracy instead of a republic?
I think the jury is still out on that one. However, if California is any example of direct democracy in action (Referendum/recall/petitions)... You can draw your own conclusions.
But why? Are there really enough interested people to justify a book about ~planned~ changes to Perl? Yikes. I really don't understand most programmers.
Yeah, this game's builder tools are very
easy to use and play with. I bought it with
high hopes of making many cool modules and
playing online d&d. Unfortunately , my young
children (boys) have become addicted to
module creation and I can't get any time on the
thing!! They recently told me they
figured out how to make keys. They were very
excited about it:)
I know that the petition talks about this. But futurama really got a raw deal. Almost EVERY time i sat down to watch it, looking forward to it (with my son), it wasnt on. Instead there was football. No, not actually football, but just talking heads TALKING about football. I mean who watches these after-game talk-about-the-game-just-on shows anyway? I love football and baseball, but after the game is over, enough already! I ALREADY heard these commentators opinion for three hours. Instead they could have gone to the REGULARLY scheduled futurama show. Bad programmers. No twinkee. (Yeah, different kind of programmer... but still.)
I just looked at the docs on the comcast
site... no mention of routers or multiple computers except in the FAQ, where it
just says they will sell you multiple IP's if
you want. So where is the violation?
Anyway, I dont care. Fortunately we can vote
with our dollars.
Yes, this is not a test of quantization of
gravity, so yes the title of this Slashdot posting
is misleading ('Quantum Gravity Observed'). The
title of the actual paper is 'Quantum states of neutrons in the Earth's gravitational field' is not at all misleading.
I want to point this out because the experiment itself is super cool:). These guys have done a fairly straightforward experiment that :
A) Demonstrates quantum effects with a force with which they had not been seen before (gravity)
B) Does it with an experiment that can be understood with only freshman physics!
So, lets not take anything away from that by confusing this with quantum gravity.
However, that said, there is still the possibility that future experiments of this kind might see some quantum gravity (1 loop ???) corrections to the energy levels observed... (far future! )
I had thought is was well estabilished that these terrorists do not use cryptography. They dont want to be caught sending random data to each other. Instead they use steganography or some such where
the messages in plain text are just hidden in the "noise" of the internet traffic. So the washington post is being stupid as usual, and doing absolutely no homework, or at least stretching the truth for a 'good story'.
Phil, please sue them.
CHeers!
Explaination in physics is a difficult thing.
Part of the problem of the question of 'Why' is that is not a very well defined question! Reminds me of Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. What sort of answer would be satisfying for any 'Ultimate Question' of why?? 42?
For example.
Why do two electrons repel? Because they they have the same charge and same charges repel.
WHy to same charges repel? Because Maxwells equations tell us they do.
Why are Maxwell's equations the way they are? Because nature demands local phase invarience, so we have to gauge the electron field.
Why does nature demand local phase invarience? I dunno, because its pretty?
42
Re:The Truth Ain't Purdy
on
Why not Ruby?
·
· Score: 1
Certainly.
Why don't I use Ruby?
I looked at it. It's only different from Python/Perl/TckTk in insignificant ways.
If readers really want to learn something different, try Haskell.
Oh sure you will come back and end up using Perl/Python/TclTk with C/C++ like I did, but you will at least know how expressive and elegant a programing language really can be! That is if you can make it past the front door...
In any event, dispite all that, I dont use Haskell either. The implementations that are available leave much to be desired. That is a shame, but it is a research language, and is not at all popular.
But its fun. After looking at it, I have never looked at language wars the same way again. Maybe someday someone will put together a usuable (by the masses) implementation...
Although the 'Shoot - out' is just for fun,
I sincerely hope that it gets some Slashdotters to
take a look at OCaml. It is not the most elegant language (IMHO: Haskell ) nor the fastest (but it is pretty fast!)
But it is very expressive, and probably unlike most languages you have used before. For example: It is strongly typed , but you (almost) never have to say what type your variables have! The system infers the types before checking them. And in addition to being OO, it is also functional. (Bindings can't be rebound, higher order functions, map....)
OCaml is certainly not the 'language to end all languages', but you will learn something from learning it.
Actually, there have been some measures of development time in OCaml vs other langauges (see pointers on the Ocaml page) and Ocaml does very well.
Be forwarned slashdotters: This is not a language like you have seen before (unless you are a geek like me and learned Haskell / ML / Scheme (SICP RULES!)
Magius said:
"People don't learn to program by having all these things done for them. Hell, I'd like to see an "initial" Java programmer trying to learn C (memory leak, what's that?) C++
is a great place to start. It has all the power of C w/ OO and other goodies."
I don't think there is anything wrong with using Java as a first/ intro language. I would probably choose Python or Scheme if I had to teach such a course. But I would not kick and scream to hard if I had to use Java. All three of these languages have the following benefits to teaching:
1) Platform neutral
2) Nice GUI libraries (Dr. Scheme, Tkinker, Swing)... not needed in into course, but can make programming more fun. One might consider using GIMP and teaching script-fu. Just to make the programming examples more concrete.
3) Relatively clean semantics.
Scheme would be my first choice, only because it is so easy to express many different programming concepts, so it would be easy to extend the intro class with an advanced class.
One also has to consider the support material available. I know there are a couple of good intro books for Scheme and Python. There must be for Java too.
I have also seen Haskell mentioned a couple of times. I love Haskell. I don't use it much. The problem is that the developers are always making it better, and I can't keep up ! (* grin *). It is a truly elegant language... maybe it could work as a first language? What about Caml?
I tend to lean toward the philosophy of using at
least two languages: C for system stuff, for using libraries, for reading source of most everything out there, and for time critical stuff. And then some higher level language to glue it all together. (Python and Mathematica for the most part).
Slashdot Mirror
Read the proposed law. There is a 'small business' exception (Sec 4(c)) that might make this particular objection moot.
However, wouldn't it be nice if we (the US, if you can forgive my inclusive pronoun) were a democracy instead of a republic?
...
I think the jury is still out on that one. However, if California is any example of direct democracy in action (Referendum/recall/petitions)
You can draw your own conclusions.
But why? Are there really enough interested
people to justify a book about ~planned~ changes
to Perl? Yikes. I really don't understand most programmers.
Why not print the O'caml book: Developing Applications with Objective Caml
(the ICFP contest champ).
Yeah, this game's builder tools are very easy to use and play with. I bought it with high hopes of making many cool modules and playing online d&d. Unfortunately , my young children (boys) have become addicted to module creation and I can't get any time on the thing!! They recently told me they figured out how to make keys. They were very excited about it :)
Yes, this is research from Microsft Research.
:)
Pan is an embedded DSL for image manipulation,
embedded in the pure lazy functional language
Haskell.
This is not some part of the evil empire's plans
for taking over the world, so far as I know
I am quite sure that the empire is not even aware of this power that is hidden from the dark side, yet funded by it.
I know that the petition talks about this. But futurama really got a raw deal. Almost EVERY time i sat down to watch it, looking forward to it (with my son), it wasnt on. Instead there was football. No, not actually football, but just talking heads TALKING about football. I mean who watches these after-game talk-about-the-game-just-on shows anyway? I love football and baseball, but after the game is over, enough already! I ALREADY heard these commentators opinion for three hours. Instead they could have gone to the REGULARLY scheduled futurama show. Bad programmers. No twinkee. (Yeah, different kind of programmer... but still.)
I just looked at the docs on the comcast
site... no mention of routers or multiple computers except in the FAQ, where it
just says they will sell you multiple IP's if
you want. So where is the violation?
Anyway, I dont care. Fortunately we can vote
with our dollars.
Yes, this is not a test of quantization of :). These guys have done a fairly straightforward experiment that :
gravity, so yes the title of this Slashdot posting
is misleading ('Quantum Gravity Observed'). The
title of the actual paper is 'Quantum states of neutrons in the Earth's gravitational field' is not at all misleading.
I want to point this out because the experiment itself is super cool
A) Demonstrates quantum effects with a force with which they had not been seen before (gravity)
B) Does it with an experiment that can be understood with only freshman physics!
So, lets not take anything away from that by confusing this with quantum gravity.
However, that said, there is still the possibility that future experiments of this kind might see some quantum gravity (1 loop ???) corrections to the energy levels observed... (far future! )
CHeers!
I had thought is was well estabilished that these terrorists do not use cryptography. They dont want to be caught sending random data to each other. Instead they use steganography or some such where
the messages in plain text are just hidden in the "noise" of the internet traffic. So the washington post is being stupid as usual, and doing absolutely no homework, or at least stretching the truth for a 'good story'.
Phil, please sue them.
CHeers!
For example.
Why do two electrons repel? Because they they have the same charge and same charges repel.
WHy to same charges repel? Because Maxwells equations tell us they do.
Why are Maxwell's equations the way they are? Because nature demands local phase invarience, so we have to gauge the electron field.
Why does nature demand local phase invarience? I dunno, because its pretty?
42
Why don't I use Ruby?
I looked at it. It's only different from Python/Perl/TckTk in insignificant ways.
If readers really want to learn something different, try Haskell.
Oh sure you will come back and end up using Perl/Python/TclTk with C/C++ like I did, but you will at least know how expressive and elegant a programing language really can be! That is if you can make it past the front door...
In any event, dispite all that, I dont use Haskell either. The implementations that are available leave much to be desired. That is a shame, but it is a research language, and is not at all popular.
But its fun. After looking at it, I have never looked at language wars the same way again. Maybe someday someone will put together a usuable (by the masses) implementation...
Ruby ? Blah.
Cheers!
But it is very expressive, and probably unlike most languages you have used before. For example: It is strongly typed , but you (almost) never have to say what type your variables have! The system infers the types before checking them. And in addition to being OO, it is also functional. (Bindings can't be rebound, higher order functions, map ....)
OCaml is certainly not the 'language to end all languages', but you will learn something from learning it.
Be forwarned slashdotters: This is not a language like you have seen before (unless you are a geek like me and learned Haskell / ML / Scheme (SICP RULES!)
What, now memory leaks are a feature??
1) Platform neutral
2) Nice GUI libraries (Dr. Scheme, Tkinker, Swing) ... not needed in into course, but can make programming more fun. One might consider using GIMP and teaching script-fu. Just to make the programming examples more concrete.
3) Relatively clean semantics.
Scheme would be my first choice, only because it is so easy to express many different programming concepts, so it would be easy to extend the intro class with an advanced class.
One also has to consider the support material available. I know there are a couple of good intro books for Scheme and Python. There must be for Java too.
I have also seen Haskell mentioned a couple of times. I love Haskell. I don't use it much. The problem is that the developers are always making it better, and I can't keep up ! (* grin *). It is a truly elegant language... maybe it could work as a first language? What about Caml?
I tend to lean toward the philosophy of using at least two languages: C for system stuff, for using libraries, for reading source of most everything out there, and for time critical stuff. And then some higher level language to glue it all together. (Python and Mathematica for the most part).