Slashdot Mirror


User: brianstoler

brianstoler's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
4
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 4

  1. Admin user can sudo to root ... on Michael Robertson of Lindows Responds · · Score: 1

    On OS X admin users are not running as root but can become root when needed (via sudo or su), either at the command line or because an application requested such access.

    One simple example is the Software Update app, which prompts the admin user for his password to do the update, which behind the scenes is doing a sudo to root to update the system files.

    I think this is a very cool and flexible system that prevents the user from shooting himself in the foot most of the time (and prevents virii from being able to write to system areas without permission) but makes it fairly easy for the user to become root as needed.

  2. Ability to evaluate (any) expressions at runtime on Even Sun Can't Use Java · · Score: 1
    DrJava has an "interactions window" where you can enter arbitrary Java expressions and statements and they are evaluated in a context that can see you code.

    (It uses the DynamicJava project internally, which is another Java source interpreter. I don't have the link handy.)

    -brian, a former developer on the DrJava project

  3. Most IDEs are stupid (shameless plug) on Are GUI Dev Tools More Advanced than CLI Counterparts? · · Score: 1

    The problem with these discussions of IDEs vs. CLI tools is that most IDEs contain so many features (most of which no real programmer wants to use) that the tool ends up getting in the way more than it helps.

    <shameless plug>
    This is the motivation behind the research project I'm a part of, DrJava, to create a simple but powerful Java IDE. (I don't want to hear about Java vs. other languages, we are only targeting Java.) DrJava is targetted most specifically at beginners, but it's pretty useful even for experience developers. It's also in active development and getting new features every day. (See the link for more info, including an academic paper describing DrJava's rationale for teaching students.)
    </shameless plug>

  4. A *legal* way to post the spec ... on Our Attorney's Response To Microsoft · · Score: 1

    One simple way to post the spec is to quote it in pieces with some commentary along with each quoted piece. This would clearly fall under the "commentary" aspect of fair use.