I'll falme about VB's functionality, because I code using it. I've coded using mainly VB and variants from ~4 years.
1. No early exit from conditional statements. This throws errors if Var is null: If (Not IsNull(Var) And IsNumeric(Var)) The result is more bloated code.
2. The class support is abolsolutely crap. What is with the distinction between class modules and modules? Why is there no inheritance? Crazy.
3. There are little unexplained "features". For example not being able to pass type's into functions in certain circumstances. The solution to that one is to add another class module. Yah go code bloat.
4. Error handling is poor. If you are writing a function with decent error handling you need something like this:
Function Foo()
On Error GoTo Foo_Err:
Foo_Exit:
Foo =...
Foo_Err:
' error handling code
End Function
More freaking code bloat.
5. What is with Set? A native type is an object too.
6. Why is there a distinction between functions and subs? A sub is just a function that doesn't return a value. I convert enough Subs to functions and vice versa to find this annoying
7. Why do you return a value from a function by setting the name of the function to the value? What are you supposed to do when the function name changes? I like to have good descriptive names for my functions/subs and as they evolve the name changes. So you have to hunt through the code to find all instances of the old name.
8. The editor (VB6) sucks big time. Tabs coverted to spaces. Scroll wheel doesn't work. Stupid guesses as to tabbing in. As far as text editors go (things like intellisense aside), Interdev is a far superior editor.
Fortunately all lot of this has been fixed in.Net. My only whinge there is that are some features in C# that aren't there in VB.Net (eg operator overloading), but hey since I prefer the more terse style of the C style laguages I'm going with C# anyway.
This IBM thing is interesting. For quite a while I have been considering how it is possible that companies make money out of open source. The only answer I have been able to find (apart from the beggarware approach) is that they sell something else and that the open source stuff is an extra.
IBM sells solutions ie hardware + installation + support. Red Hat sells support. Suse sells support. Mandrake sells support.
I do not believe there is a viable business model is making your core product open source. Hence 90% of the code I write will not be open sourced. This is not a decision that is forced upon me by someone else, this is my decision. The 10% comes from a desire to give back to the community.
I don't think that the government should have any say whatsoever in who can live with whom, who can have sex with whom, or how, (excepting children or incompetents) or what kind of financial partnerships they can enter into. It just doesn't seem like something that ought to matter to government; marriage is a moral issue, not a legal one.
I agree by and large, however governments do play a rather large part in people's lives. For instance the choice about what should be taxed and what should be funded. Often these things can have quite indirect effects. Like it or not governments make decisions that impact how people live their lives and the moral decisions people make.
I want a small phone (I keep it with me everywhere)
I don't want some bulky thing. I need to carry phone, wallet and keys with me at all times and I don't want to decide what clothes to buy/wear to match my big phone/pda.
I want a big computer screen and a keyboard that's big enough to type fast on.
Exactly. 19", Microsoft Natural keyboard.
I want a PDA that can integrate with my other computers, but allows me to use the stylus.
Exactly.
I'd add just one, I want a laptop that is powerful enough for me to do serious work on, but small anough for me to feel comfortable carrying (T41).
How much do you want to bet someone was fiddling with the database and accidentally dropped a table, or tried to delete a record in SQL but forgot the "where" clause.
Pretty good bet. This is why you write the WHERE clause of any UPDATE/DELETE before you write anything else.
Yeah that CDROM trick is window's worst fault. Why has Microsoft rolled mounting filesystems and displaying them into the one app?
The other major "bug" in windows is that it allows one application to interrupt another. EG I type and address in mozilla and alt tab back to textpad. turns out the URL is incorrect so Mozilla pops up a message box, which grabs focus from textpad. Hello? Earth to Microsoft: people use computers in a non-linear fashion. We don't start doing something and just sit there are wait for the results.
I think what the man page need are some examples. Examples are great for showing where you might have conflicts and how to use something. Most of the time when I hit a man page I am looking for a way to do something simple. So why not cater for that.
This is quite funny. I just spent ~3 hours this weekend trying to install a Gentoo box and gave up. 1. Gentoo mounted the LiveCD I was using as hda. I admit this was a little stupid of me to take 1/2 an hour to pick it, but the fact that this might occur is not covered in the manual. 2. Unpacking the tar ball for stage 3 didn't seem to work happily.
After fighting for a few hours I gave up and went back to a net install of Debian unstable. Not counting download time, I had that up and running in next to next to no time.
Disclaimer, I bought this laptop so I guess I need to justify my purchase.
smaller hard drive
You can upsize to 80G. What annoyed me is that there was no way (according to IBM) that they could stick a 7200RPM drive in the laptop. I know they put them in similar machines like the T41P. Anyway I digress.
underpowered graphics card
Fair enough.
dvd burner
You can replace the DVDR/CDRW with a DVDRW/CDRW.
built in bluetooth
Fair enough.
backlit keyboard
There is an LED thingy at the top of the screen. It is pretty good. I've used it in low light conditions.
All this, and it's $600 more than what I paid.... If only it could be made to run OS X
I code stuff for windows so I needed a windows laptop, but your point is very well made. I was able to get 15% off through a friend who works for IBM. In incidentally the prices on the site were in AUD, not USD.
I am very happy with though. It is perfect for my needs and it does look pretty cool.
Or get the OEMs to ship an update CD to the people who bought their PCs. Heck they already ship an update CD for free, but of course they aren't publicing it all that much.
How many people have moved to XP? My guess is that an awful number of companies run Office 2000 and see no reason to upgrade. My suspicion is that OSes get upgraded before Office.
There are two categories of computer books out there, references and howtos. Most books tend to cover both to one level or another. tld is a reference, this book is a how to.
The fact that tldp may include articles on how to do things is does not change the fact. For example a howto describing automounting isn't a whole lot of use for someone who doens't know what mounting is. I do not see any article the provides a general introduction to Linux.
This is not to say that tldp isn't a great project, I've used it a number of times, but it meets different aims to the aims of this book.
About the only money Microsoft has put into emerging markets has been snuff money to buy them out and kill them. Look at browsers. Look what they did to Java. Look what they are trying to do it now with relational databases, Internet Portals, portable computing, and console gaming.
I agree with the rest, but relational databases? Microsoft builds one of the best relational database servers on the market (SQL Server). This server competes with two other major product lines (DB2, Oracle) and a host of minor ones (Postgress, MySQL, Sybase). For that matter I'm not sure that Microsoft could do much to kill competition in this market, unless they ported it to *nix, and that they will never do.
My problem with using vi is that you can't just pick it up and start working. The amount of information you need to know before you can start doing anything useful is high.
I use windows mostly, but run the odd linux box (eg the fileserver). I only use vi occasionally and in between uses I forget most of the instructions. The advantage of most of the editors I use on windows (Textpad being the favorite) is that all actions are accessible from menus, you don't need to hunt through help files to find what you need to know.
I also wonder if they are talking about business sales or sales to home users. I'm inclined to believe that this is for buiness users only. The distinction is important.
The Germans also moved them underground. At the end of the war there were many factories dicovered in disused underground railways, quarries and mines. I can't find a link to it, but in the memiours of a Frenchman flying for the RAF (The Big Show by Pierre Closterman) this is covered in some detail. He also mentions the speed at which the Germans were able to start producing equipment after a bombing raid.
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I'll falme about VB's functionality, because I code using it. I've coded using mainly VB and variants from ~4 years.
...
.Net. My only whinge there is that are some features in C# that aren't there in VB.Net (eg operator overloading), but hey since I prefer the more terse style of the C style laguages I'm going with C# anyway.
1. No early exit from conditional statements. This throws errors if Var is null:
If (Not IsNull(Var) And IsNumeric(Var))
The result is more bloated code.
2. The class support is abolsolutely crap. What is with the distinction between class modules and modules? Why is there no inheritance? Crazy.
3. There are little unexplained "features". For example not being able to pass type's into functions in certain circumstances. The solution to that one is to add another class module. Yah go code bloat.
4. Error handling is poor. If you are writing a function with decent error handling you need something like this:
Function Foo()
On Error GoTo Foo_Err:
Foo_Exit:
Foo =
Foo_Err:
' error handling code
End Function
More freaking code bloat.
5. What is with Set? A native type is an object too.
6. Why is there a distinction between functions and subs? A sub is just a function that doesn't return a value. I convert enough Subs to functions and vice versa to find this annoying
7. Why do you return a value from a function by setting the name of the function to the value? What are you supposed to do when the function name changes? I like to have good descriptive names for my functions/subs and as they evolve the name changes. So you have to hunt through the code to find all instances of the old name.
8. The editor (VB6) sucks big time. Tabs coverted to spaces. Scroll wheel doesn't work. Stupid guesses as to tabbing in. As far as text editors go (things like intellisense aside), Interdev is a far superior editor.
Fortunately all lot of this has been fixed in
This IBM thing is interesting. For quite a while I have been considering how it is possible that companies make money out of open source. The only answer I have been able to find (apart from the beggarware approach) is that they sell something else and that the open source stuff is an extra.
IBM sells solutions ie hardware + installation + support.
Red Hat sells support.
Suse sells support.
Mandrake sells support.
I do not believe there is a viable business model is making your core product open source. Hence 90% of the code I write will not be open sourced. This is not a decision that is forced upon me by someone else, this is my decision. The 10% comes from a desire to give back to the community.
I don't think that the government should have any say whatsoever in who can live with whom, who can have sex with whom, or how, (excepting children or incompetents) or what kind of financial partnerships they can enter into. It just doesn't seem like something that ought to matter to government; marriage is a moral issue, not a legal one.
I agree by and large, however governments do play a rather large part in people's lives. For instance the choice about what should be taxed and what should be funded. Often these things can have quite indirect effects. Like it or not governments make decisions that impact how people live their lives and the moral decisions people make.
Umm I count 444 lines of code.
"Poor Mexico: so far from God and so close to the United States"
Mexican President Porfirio Diaz
Hear hear! You describe my reqirements exactly.
I want a small phone (I keep it with me everywhere)
I don't want some bulky thing. I need to carry phone, wallet and keys with me at all times and I don't want to decide what clothes to buy/wear to match my big phone/pda.
I want a big computer screen and a keyboard that's big enough to type fast on.
Exactly. 19", Microsoft Natural keyboard.
I want a PDA that can integrate with my other computers, but allows me to use the stylus.
Exactly.
I'd add just one, I want a laptop that is powerful enough for me to do serious work on, but small anough for me to feel comfortable carrying (T41).
I prefer to have *separate* devices.
How much do you want to bet someone was fiddling with the database and accidentally dropped a table, or tried to delete a record in SQL but forgot the "where" clause.
Pretty good bet. This is why you write the WHERE clause of any UPDATE/DELETE before you write anything else.
Yeah that CDROM trick is window's worst fault. Why has Microsoft rolled mounting filesystems and displaying them into the one app?
The other major "bug" in windows is that it allows one application to interrupt another. EG I type and address in mozilla and alt tab back to textpad. turns out the URL is incorrect so Mozilla pops up a message box, which grabs focus from textpad. Hello? Earth to Microsoft: people use computers in a non-linear fashion. We don't start doing something and just sit there are wait for the results.
I think what the man page need are some examples. Examples are great for showing where you might have conflicts and how to use something. Most of the time when I hit a man page I am looking for a way to do something simple. So why not cater for that.
This is quite funny. I just spent ~3 hours this weekend trying to install a Gentoo box and gave up.
1. Gentoo mounted the LiveCD I was using as hda. I admit this was a little stupid of me to take 1/2 an hour to pick it, but the fact that this might occur is not covered in the manual.
2. Unpacking the tar ball for stage 3 didn't seem to work happily.
After fighting for a few hours I gave up and went back to a net install of Debian unstable. Not counting download time, I had that up and running in next to next to no time.
Disclaimer, I bought this laptop so I guess I need to justify my purchase.
.... If only it could be made to run OS X
smaller hard drive
You can upsize to 80G. What annoyed me is that there was no way (according to IBM) that they could stick a 7200RPM drive in the laptop. I know they put them in similar machines like the T41P. Anyway I digress.
underpowered graphics card
Fair enough.
dvd burner
You can replace the DVDR/CDRW with a DVDRW/CDRW.
built in bluetooth
Fair enough.
backlit keyboard
There is an LED thingy at the top of the screen. It is pretty good. I've used it in low light conditions.
All this, and it's $600 more than what I paid
I code stuff for windows so I needed a windows laptop, but your point is very well made. I was able to get 15% off through a friend who works for IBM. In incidentally the prices on the site were in AUD, not USD.
I am very happy with though. It is perfect for my needs and it does look pretty cool.
I'd prefer to put that differently. Prostitution is the greatest distortion of marriage, while tkaing some of the elements of marriage.
Not happ with something like this?
Take a look at this article
Basically a P3, with more cache and some of the features of a P4 (improved branch sheduler) and none of the crud (long pipelines).
Right. A fair proportion of the spam I get advertises cheap MS software ($45 for winxp). A slightly less cluey user would take this at face value.
Or get the OEMs to ship an update CD to the people who bought their PCs. Heck they already ship an update CD for free, but of course they aren't publicing it all that much.
How many people have moved to XP? My guess is that an awful number of companies run Office 2000 and see no reason to upgrade. My suspicion is that OSes get upgraded before Office.
tldp is not a for dummies book.
There are two categories of computer books out there, references and howtos. Most books tend to cover both to one level or another. tld is a reference, this book is a how to.
The fact that tldp may include articles on how to do things is does not change the fact. For example a howto describing automounting isn't a whole lot of use for someone who doens't know what mounting is. I do not see any article the provides a general introduction to Linux.
This is not to say that tldp isn't a great project, I've used it a number of times, but it meets different aims to the aims of this book.
What's more it is counter intuive. I learn about mount and take a punt that corresponding command will be unmount... Then there is perl's elif.
About the only money Microsoft has put into emerging markets has been snuff money to buy them out and kill them. Look at browsers. Look what they did to Java. Look what they are trying to do it now with relational databases, Internet Portals, portable computing, and console gaming.
I agree with the rest, but relational databases? Microsoft builds one of the best relational database servers on the market (SQL Server). This server competes with two other major product lines (DB2, Oracle) and a host of minor ones (Postgress, MySQL, Sybase). For that matter I'm not sure that Microsoft could do much to kill competition in this market, unless they ported it to *nix, and that they will never do.
My problem with using vi is that you can't just pick it up and start working. The amount of information you need to know before you can start doing anything useful is high.
I use windows mostly, but run the odd linux box (eg the fileserver). I only use vi occasionally and in between uses I forget most of the instructions. The advantage of most of the editors I use on windows (Textpad being the favorite) is that all actions are accessible from menus, you don't need to hunt through help files to find what you need to know.
No, we know that Microsoft suggested that Baystar take a look at SCO as an investment option. That way someone else pays for the loss.
I also wonder if they are talking about business sales or sales to home users. I'm inclined to believe that this is for buiness users only. The distinction is important.
The Germans also moved them underground. At the end of the war there were many factories dicovered in disused underground railways, quarries and mines. I can't find a link to it, but in the memiours of a Frenchman flying for the RAF (The Big Show by Pierre Closterman) this is covered in some detail. He also mentions the speed at which the Germans were able to start producing equipment after a bombing raid.
From the Question:
Everything I've looked at so far seems too complicated (Scheme, Python, VB)