Oh no! I dont hate Perl. I have no strong religous beliefs at all! I was trolling a bit. I was expecting to get modded off into oblivion. Just trying to start trouble.
Maybe, like me, you are avoiding work? I can think of no other reason why I would choose to troll on an article about Perl. I really have no hard feelings toward the language or its honorable users, as long as I'm not duty bound to use it myself.
The name 'butane_bob', for anyone interested, comes from a favorite song of mine by Aphex Twin, "Laughable Butane Bob" from the 12" titled "Hangable Autobulb".
which can be heard somewhere in this mix:
http://www.brucewang.com/071501.jsp
True, these are generalizations. We have two camps here at work, the perl guys and the OO guys. There are some who walk the fine line between, but for critical projects and rapid development, they stick to Java. I agree that it's not the fault of the language, it's the choices a programmer makes that can make code stink. Perl just gives you many more choices to choose from. I'd get out more if I didn't have to work all the time...
Thanks for the info, esp. the design patterns page. (I'll have to forward that on to some folks I work with)
Perl does have clear ways of expressing things, it's just the 9 other ways of expressing an idea that can make an it unclear (well, at least until you have seen them all a few times).
Quoting from the last page:
The vast majority of [new features and alternatives] are special-purpose, power-user techniques that you may well never need to use or even know about.
So everyone who is just getting their feet wet will have No Idea what the Power Coders are thinking, right? Maybe the intent is to build out every limitation.
The last time I wrote perl, it was to re-write portions of Bugzilla to add functionality and clean up the interface a bit. (this was 3 or 4 years ago) The state of the Bugzilla sources at the time might have _something_ to do with my apprehension to perl. Since then I think Bugzilla was re-engineer'd at least once.
It seems like constant change in a language would be a bad thing, right?
That's an interesting bit about yacc and Perl. I had forgotten that perl could probably only be parsed by perl itself. One thing I have found perl good for is writing quick and dirty hard coded parsers, which is close to it's original intent in the first place.
It's all Windows based, so what would you expect? One out of 10 peices of (not freely available) software might be stable and if you're lucky, maybe even user friendly. Although when microsoft redefines what 'user friendly' means, they almost always get it completely wrong. Like advanced server 2k3:
Try to shut down the machine, windows prompts you for a reason why you are shutting down the machine:
reason: F**k you! I dont need to give a reason!
Should the machine shut down 'improperly', Windows prompts you to enter a reason for why it crashed after it reboots! Like I have a clue why it crashed!
And you can't shut down or log in until a reason is entered! I guess this stuff is logged somewhere, but shit, make it freaking optional.
the language is becoming more obtuse if thats possible. The perl programmers I know don't get along well with other languages, mostly because they have spent so much time learning the intricacies of Perl syntax. Even coming from C, Perl syntax is unnatural. Seems like once you go Perl, you can never go back (or try to learn a new language). I've never met a perl programmer who could tell me what a design pattern is either. I guess they don't go for re-use much in perl progging. I think if I went to hell, satan would probably make me write a Perl parser. (without the help of Yacc)
I quit fixing trucks 4 years ago to write code, dont tell me its time to go back! I still have motor oil stains between my fingers. No really, programming has gotten boring. Where's my blow torch?!?
Yet Another Template Language. Or is there a YATL out there already? VTL at a glance does not look very intuative or powerful (at a glance). If I am going to have code mixed with html, might as well make it Java, cause thats what the back end is. I'll stop trolling now, it's probably OK once you get used to it. (but so is hypothermia) Ok, now I'll stop trolling.
I'd mod this up, but..
I had not heard of this incedent. I wonder how they figured two old steam engines would keep their boilers intact in a head on crash. Those things used to flatten small towns when they went critical.
This is most likely. I think he just got into writing parsers and never got tired of it. I would like to look at its parsing code when I get time, Im assuming its a huge pile of mess, but I can't really speak to that. Perl always smells to me of needless complexity. Perl coders I know tend to do things in the most unreadable, complex way they can imagine and are proud of it. But there is some merit in a language where hitting a bunch of random keys is likely to turn out a meaningful expression. Cause thats what most perl coder's code looks like.
... C could do the job as it was significantly faster due to being more object oriented and using a just in time compiler.
Um.. I don't think you are talking about plain old C there. (Or maybe this is a grammatical problem)
I dont know how even significantly faster code could keep up with things happening at the sub-particle level (but then, I know very little about particle physics). I dont see how this could be just a software speed issue. Maybe Java is not the tool for the job, but most of the time it is a matter of preference. (unless the need for realtime measurements come into play)
DARPA is also funding a research project that eventually hopes to create software that is self-aware. I believe this was posted previously on/.
article here
This might also tie into the Genoa II and Sensit projects. There are many projects with similar aims funded by darpa.
I had to say it: A computer would have a helluva poker face.
No really, I am not going to bother reading the article now (maybe later), but is this article about probability factoring on a card deck, or are we talking about a computer that plays poker? Knowing what cards your opponents hold is half reading the cards, half reading the opponents.
Faster cheaper LCD screens? Thats the best think to come? What about disks on a chip? Adaptive camo? Armored T-shirts? Hypersonic travel? Think of the applications for robotics! Nanomuscle?
You can find heavy carbon composite rifle barrels for for many tactical (and some hunting) rifles. The Rem. Model 700 VS and a few other 700s can be had with synthetic barrels (and stocks). I've heard they kick like crazy due to the lower weight of the barrel (lighter rifles tend to do that, heavy rifle absorb some of the impact so your shoulder doesnt have to). They should be just as accurate (more?) and durable as their steel counterparts. I use carbon fiber arrows sometimes with my compound bow, those things are very cool. Same as a composite barrel, if you did manage to damage it enough, it would explode into tiny splinters when you tried to fire/release it.
"...they are assuming difficult and unsolved problems can be surmounted."
Is that not that the point of advanced research? To probe the cloudy grey areas? I agree with you though, it sounds like a lot of engineers and scientists will be pushed to the limits of sanity. Maybe they have had a materials breakthrough that would make it more feasible at this point(spin the whole thing from carbon nanotubes!!!), or maybe they are just confident that a solution will prevent itself. As far as the shuttles are concerned, I have always been amazed at the size and capabilities of those things. The shuttle design is almost ancient. We have had many years of research data from shuttle launches and landings, hopefully some of that will be useful to this project. Sometimes DARPA projects find uses outside the DOD, and any research can have fringe benefits.
To switch from a portrait view to a landscape view, the user just rotates the handset by 90 degrees.
I tried the exact opposite with my computer monitor. It works! Granted thats a little less complicated with a handheld. So I did a test: I took a regular photo, rotated it 90 degrees, and shazaaam! Instant landscape view!
...bendable interfaces
Otherwise we will all be standing around shaking our phones like cans of spray paint to scroll through selection menus. That will look silly, although in Japan they will probably make popular dance games for cell phones(mobile maraca madness?). Accelerometer controls are cool, unless you're like most Americans who go offroading every day in their giant SUVs on the way to the office.
If life was pervasive on mars, we should have seen at least a few fossils by now. I was canoeing on a river a few weeks ago, every time I stopped to camp I found a fossil in every third rock I turned over. I do think there were life forms there, maybe similar to early life on earth. Life on mars may not have been as abundant as on earth, maybe it was restricted to a few 'fertile crescents' around waterways (if indeed any existed).
If oxygen were somehow leeched out of our polar ice caps, would giant frozen hydrogen deposits be left behind? Just grasping at straws here, there may not have been that much H20 on mars, if any.
Ok, like everyone else said, that's a tv show, metal ash trays, smoking on subs?
But here is a real case: the army buys optics for their rifles now from US Optics (or plan to). These scopes are anywhere from $3000-5000 each. Put that on on the rail of a $2000 rifle, with other goodies and you have one very expensive gun. You can however, unmount the scope from your M4, hammer a nail or two, remount it and it will keep its zero.
This is probably a better example than safety glass ash trays.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh no! I dont hate Perl. I have no strong religous beliefs at all! I was trolling a bit. I was expecting to get modded off into oblivion. Just trying to start trouble.
Maybe, like me, you are avoiding work? I can think of no other reason why I would choose to troll on an article about Perl. I really have no hard feelings toward the language or its honorable users, as long as I'm not duty bound to use it myself.
The name 'butane_bob', for anyone interested, comes from a favorite song of mine by Aphex Twin, "Laughable Butane Bob" from the 12" titled "Hangable Autobulb". which can be heard somewhere in this mix: http://www.brucewang.com/071501.jsp
True, these are generalizations. We have two camps here at work, the perl guys and the OO guys. There are some who walk the fine line between, but for critical projects and rapid development, they stick to Java. I agree that it's not the fault of the language, it's the choices a programmer makes that can make code stink. Perl just gives you many more choices to choose from. I'd get out more if I didn't have to work all the time...
Thanks for the info, esp. the design patterns page. (I'll have to forward that on to some folks I work with)
Perl does have clear ways of expressing things, it's just the 9 other ways of expressing an idea that can make an it unclear (well, at least until you have seen them all a few times).
Quoting from the last page:
The vast majority of [new features and alternatives] are special-purpose, power-user techniques that you may well never need to use or even know about.
So everyone who is just getting their feet wet will have No Idea what the Power Coders are thinking, right? Maybe the intent is to build out every limitation.
The last time I wrote perl, it was to re-write portions of Bugzilla to add functionality and clean up the interface a bit. (this was 3 or 4 years ago) The state of the Bugzilla sources at the time might have _something_ to do with my apprehension to perl. Since then I think Bugzilla was re-engineer'd at least once. It seems like constant change in a language would be a bad thing, right?
That's an interesting bit about yacc and Perl. I had forgotten that perl could probably only be parsed by perl itself. One thing I have found perl good for is writing quick and dirty hard coded parsers, which is close to it's original intent in the first place.
It's all Windows based, so what would you expect? One out of 10 peices of (not freely available) software might be stable and if you're lucky, maybe even user friendly. Although when microsoft redefines what 'user friendly' means, they almost always get it completely wrong. Like advanced server 2k3: Try to shut down the machine, windows prompts you for a reason why you are shutting down the machine: reason: F**k you! I dont need to give a reason! Should the machine shut down 'improperly', Windows prompts you to enter a reason for why it crashed after it reboots! Like I have a clue why it crashed! And you can't shut down or log in until a reason is entered! I guess this stuff is logged somewhere, but shit, make it freaking optional.
the language is becoming more obtuse if thats possible. The perl programmers I know don't get along well with other languages, mostly because they have spent so much time learning the intricacies of Perl syntax. Even coming from C, Perl syntax is unnatural. Seems like once you go Perl, you can never go back (or try to learn a new language). I've never met a perl programmer who could tell me what a design pattern is either. I guess they don't go for re-use much in perl progging. I think if I went to hell, satan would probably make me write a Perl parser. (without the help of Yacc)
Faster machines can be had for free! Really, if they are having heat problems they should be using a transmeta. I've thrown away faster machines.
I quit fixing trucks 4 years ago to write code, dont tell me its time to go back! I still have motor oil stains between my fingers. No really, programming has gotten boring. Where's my blow torch?!?
Yet Another Template Language. Or is there a YATL out there already? VTL at a glance does not look very intuative or powerful (at a glance). If I am going to have code mixed with html, might as well make it Java, cause thats what the back end is. I'll stop trolling now, it's probably OK once you get used to it. (but so is hypothermia) Ok, now I'll stop trolling.
I'd mod this up, but.. I had not heard of this incedent. I wonder how they figured two old steam engines would keep their boilers intact in a head on crash. Those things used to flatten small towns when they went critical.
This is most likely. I think he just got into writing parsers and never got tired of it. I would like to look at its parsing code when I get time, Im assuming its a huge pile of mess, but I can't really speak to that. Perl always smells to me of needless complexity. Perl coders I know tend to do things in the most unreadable, complex way they can imagine and are proud of it. But there is some merit in a language where hitting a bunch of random keys is likely to turn out a meaningful expression. Cause thats what most perl coder's code looks like.
when I installed linux on this machine.
... C could do the job as it was significantly faster due to being more object oriented and using a just in time compiler.
Um.. I don't think you are talking about plain old C there. (Or maybe this is a grammatical problem) I dont know how even significantly faster code could keep up with things happening at the sub-particle level (but then, I know very little about particle physics). I dont see how this could be just a software speed issue. Maybe Java is not the tool for the job, but most of the time it is a matter of preference. (unless the need for realtime measurements come into play)
Thanks for breaking it down for us simpler folk. Thats what I meant to say, really..
DARPA is also funding a research project that eventually hopes to create software that is self-aware. I believe this was posted previously on /.
article here
This might also tie into the Genoa II and Sensit projects. There are many projects with similar aims funded by darpa.
I had to say it: A computer would have a helluva poker face. No really, I am not going to bother reading the article now (maybe later), but is this article about probability factoring on a card deck, or are we talking about a computer that plays poker? Knowing what cards your opponents hold is half reading the cards, half reading the opponents.
Faster cheaper LCD screens? Thats the best think to come? What about disks on a chip? Adaptive camo? Armored T-shirts? Hypersonic travel? Think of the applications for robotics! Nanomuscle?
You can find heavy carbon composite rifle barrels for for many tactical (and some hunting) rifles. The Rem. Model 700 VS and a few other 700s can be had with synthetic barrels (and stocks). I've heard they kick like crazy due to the lower weight of the barrel (lighter rifles tend to do that, heavy rifle absorb some of the impact so your shoulder doesnt have to). They should be just as accurate (more?) and durable as their steel counterparts. I use carbon fiber arrows sometimes with my compound bow, those things are very cool. Same as a composite barrel, if you did manage to damage it enough, it would explode into tiny splinters when you tried to fire/release it.
"...they are assuming difficult and unsolved problems can be surmounted."
Is that not that the point of advanced research? To probe the cloudy grey areas? I agree with you though, it sounds like a lot of engineers and scientists will be pushed to the limits of sanity. Maybe they have had a materials breakthrough that would make it more feasible at this point(spin the whole thing from carbon nanotubes!!!), or maybe they are just confident that a solution will prevent itself. As far as the shuttles are concerned, I have always been amazed at the size and capabilities of those things. The shuttle design is almost ancient. We have had many years of research data from shuttle launches and landings, hopefully some of that will be useful to this project. Sometimes DARPA projects find uses outside the DOD, and any research can have fringe benefits.
To switch from a portrait view to a landscape view, the user just rotates the handset by 90 degrees.
I tried the exact opposite with my computer monitor. It works! Granted thats a little less complicated with a handheld. So I did a test: I took a regular photo, rotated it 90 degrees, and shazaaam! Instant landscape view!
...bendable interfaces
Otherwise we will all be standing around shaking our phones like cans of spray paint to scroll through selection menus. That will look silly, although in Japan they will probably make popular dance games for cell phones(mobile maraca madness?). Accelerometer controls are cool, unless you're like most Americans who go offroading every day in their giant SUVs on the way to the office.
If life was pervasive on mars, we should have seen at least a few fossils by now. I was canoeing on a river a few weeks ago, every time I stopped to camp I found a fossil in every third rock I turned over. I do think there were life forms there, maybe similar to early life on earth. Life on mars may not have been as abundant as on earth, maybe it was restricted to a few 'fertile crescents' around waterways (if indeed any existed).
If oxygen were somehow leeched out of our polar ice caps, would giant frozen hydrogen deposits be left behind? Just grasping at straws here, there may not have been that much H20 on mars, if any.
Hey, they fit that think in an old Hayes 9600 baud modem case. Nice.
Ok, like everyone else said, that's a tv show, metal ash trays, smoking on subs?
But here is a real case: the army buys optics for their rifles now from US Optics (or plan to). These scopes are anywhere from $3000-5000 each. Put that on on the rail of a $2000 rifle, with other goodies and you have one very expensive gun. You can however, unmount the scope from your M4, hammer a nail or two, remount it and it will keep its zero. This is probably a better example than safety glass ash trays.