OK. I don't even watch these shows. Maybe they're OK. But, now the Today Show, with the execrable Katie Curric is streaming to the web. I could be wrong, but won't large numbers of stream customers degrade quality for the rest of us who just want to use the web to, say, read the NYT or some interesting BLOG?
I'm very sensitive to the effect my web use has on others who RF-share my T1 line. If someone on this T1 starts watching commercial TV on it, quality goes to hell.
Maybe there really IS a reason to start charging for use of the web.
As a matter of fact, before the "invention" of MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) my friend and I were looking for an easy way to build some sophisticated Windows software. We ended up building a PostScript interpreter and a relational database to accomplish the task. We never really got around to doing the app we started out doing. Instead, the PostScript along with a bunch of builtin "classes" turned out to have a life of its own. We used the PostScript as a server-side database language. Eventually, we dropped the PostScript and my friend developed an interpreted C++-like language with automatic memory mgmt and late binding -- all this coming from PostScript, originally, and before the invention of Java back in the '80's.
The Java-like language and the database still survive in the form of a web application server.
OK. The argument about numerical efficiency -- I'll cave on that. But, Fortran vs. C/C++, it's got to be very close.
The real issue here is about the culture of language.
You can tell by my nickname that I go back aways - my first language was Fortran in the (19)60's. It was great. Back then.
Then Cobol, PL/I, 20 different assembly languages, APL, Bliss, Pascal, C, C++, Perl and, finally, Java, Python, PHP.
The real important differences in languages are the ways they help you to think about the problem. I have some old colleagues who still insist that Fortran is best for what they do. However, when I probe, I discover that they have many types of objects they're dealing with. If they knew an object-oriented language their code would be simpler, probably would more accurately reflect the physical model they're trying to emulate. (recall: (legend has it that) C++ was invented to simulate phone systems.)
So, though Fortran may still live, it's unfortunate. Java or C++ would be better to help clarify thinking. C++ would be better for performance. C++ is better than Java because in the real world we really do have multiple inheritance.
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So, I tried WordNet and it didn't work! Natual! Indeed!
OK. I don't even watch these shows. Maybe they're OK. But, now the Today Show, with the execrable Katie Curric is streaming to the web. I could be wrong, but won't large numbers of stream customers degrade quality for the rest of us who just want to use the web to, say, read the NYT or some interesting BLOG? I'm very sensitive to the effect my web use has on others who RF-share my T1 line. If someone on this T1 starts watching commercial TV on it, quality goes to hell. Maybe there really IS a reason to start charging for use of the web.
As a matter of fact, before the "invention" of MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) my friend and I were looking for an easy way to build some sophisticated Windows software. We ended up building a PostScript interpreter and a relational database to accomplish the task. We never really got around to doing the app we started out doing. Instead, the PostScript along with a bunch of builtin "classes" turned out to have a life of its own. We used the PostScript as a server-side database language. Eventually, we dropped the PostScript and my friend developed an interpreted C++-like language with automatic memory mgmt and late binding -- all this coming from PostScript, originally, and before the invention of Java back in the '80's. The Java-like language and the database still survive in the form of a web application server.
OK. The argument about numerical efficiency -- I'll cave on that. But, Fortran vs. C/C++, it's got to be very close. The real issue here is about the culture of language. You can tell by my nickname that I go back aways - my first language was Fortran in the (19)60's. It was great. Back then. Then Cobol, PL/I, 20 different assembly languages, APL, Bliss, Pascal, C, C++, Perl and, finally, Java, Python, PHP. The real important differences in languages are the ways they help you to think about the problem. I have some old colleagues who still insist that Fortran is best for what they do. However, when I probe, I discover that they have many types of objects they're dealing with. If they knew an object-oriented language their code would be simpler, probably would more accurately reflect the physical model they're trying to emulate. (recall: (legend has it that) C++ was invented to simulate phone systems.) So, though Fortran may still live, it's unfortunate. Java or C++ would be better to help clarify thinking. C++ would be better for performance. C++ is better than Java because in the real world we really do have multiple inheritance.