Ah, you must be one of those people that monitor C++ and Linux newsgroups, spending more time chastising people that their posts aren't about standard C++ or Linux, rather than actually adding answers and productive content.
Or perhaps you have a Masters in computer science, proven by the fact that you're unable to grasp a simple point.
It's called "branding." You offer the consumer a free product or service to ensure that your logo and brandname is a household word. You make sure that your logo and brand are used everyday, multiple times per day, and maybe even hours at a time.
This is why companies like AOL, Yahoo and MS have 'free' chat programs and servers for you to use.
To be fair to Microsoft, it seems they can't win with the shell/OS browser/OS argument.
When Windows and IE were clearly 2 different things, people sued MS. Then when MS stitched IE into the core of the Windows interface, people talked trash about MS.
When Windows 95 came out, anti-MS people whined that it was still a shell program running on top of DOS. Then when XP came out, Linux users complained that there was no way to get to the command line. They went as far as touting Linux as superior because you can run it at the command line, or in a GUI (KDE, Gnome, etc).
It seems that in this area, no matter what MS does, it simply won't be able to please a large portion of the Linux community.
I can deal with government record-keeping of citizens -- it's just one of those things of modern American life.
But I really don't like the idea of a private company being the proprietor of public records, seeing as they have a buffer from being accountable to the general public.
The NT kernel is great, but MS hasn't done a good job of putting it to use. They constantly acquire unrelated technologies, duct tape them into Windows, and then wonder why the OS has so many holes.
Instead of building the OS, they're more focused on assembling the OS from incompatible parts. And to fix those problems, they just go buy newer apps/features to lay on top of the old ones, which adds yet another layer between applications and hardware, making the OS require double the RAM and disk space to do the same things that it did 2 years prior
Some of the benefits of ASP.Net that you listed are at a lot of times faults.
1. Component driven -- OOD/OOP isn't always the best way to develop, especially for small and focused scripts. Why create an entire database object, with dozens of properties and methods that you won't use (but they will still sit in memory)? With PHP, you can just procedurally create a connection, execute a SQL statement, then kill the connection. A B C, as simple as 1 2 3. (I hope that song sticks in your head for the rest of the day. Just kidding.)
2. Browser abstraction -- I'm not sure what you're talking about here, but Microsoft technologies are NOT known for their ability to send proper data to W3C compliant browsers. 'Browser abstraction' shouldn't be a selling point -- it should be a minimum requirement.
3. Unified Coding Model -- Unless you're making a site for a private intranet where you have control over the client browsers, you shouldn't be sending JavaScript to the browsers, because end-users have a need to disable it for security and spamming reasons. If you do have to output JavaScript, I see no problem with a skilled PHP coder also knowing JavaScript. If you're getting paid to be a web developer, then your minimum skillset should include knowing HTML, PHP/ASP, JavaScript and CSS.
4. Complex, RAD -- The majority of PHP functions can be encapsulated into classes, and there are a number of good 3rd-party kits on the web. A good developer can pick up PHP in a day or two, since its syntax and behavior are like C and JavaScript.
PHP has no need to be overly complex, because it doesn't pretend to be anything other than a webserver extension that generates dynamic web content. People have used it for more than that, but its home is on a webserver.
That entire article is ignoring the fact that Linux developers use Linux because they don't want a dummied-down OS.
Up until the last couple of years, the typical Linux user was someone that spent time learning not only the OS, but the machine and how the two interact. Just as MSDOS was an OS originally tailored towards programmers, Linux is the same way.
It's understandable that non-tech people don't find KDE intuitive, because it really wasn't designed for casual users - it was created by and continues to be maintained by geeks.
I don't see that as a bad thing.
Skinning apps is nice, but every app that uses skinning needs a way for the user to switch to a standard look and feel of the OS.
If a person has to learn how to navigate an interface, rather than learning to use the software, then customizatoin has gone too far.
I think you're putting too much stock into the use of artists. Go to any random website created by an artist, and you'll see what I mean. Three pages of Flash before you hit any real content, and when you do get to the content, all it offers you are links to more Flash and IE-specific bells and whistles.
A *good* artist is as difficult to find as a good programmer/developer.
You can sit the same 5 year old kid in front of a modern Linux or Mac machine, and they can just as easily surf the web and play games.
Windows didn't sell millions of copies because of simplicity and good software development; it sold because MS has always had a stronghold on PC hardware.
Yes, but then Microsoft can say that even more people are using their software, which would make investors invest more money into the company.
The drawback to that would be if investors eventually wised up to the hype and started being a bit more stingy with their money. But if that happens, MS could just offshore its jobs to make the company look more profitable than it really is... then investors would be happy again for a short while.
I've been in the IT industry for 10 years, and most of the friends and associates that I've known in that time can tell you that the US didn't have a techie shortage.
Companies either didn't know what they wanted, or they wanted to hire skilled people at unskilled wages.
The good news is that as non-Microsoft platforms continue to grow, US companies will be more apt to hire people that actually know what they're doing beyond drag-and-drop development.
PHP and languages with similar syntax (C++, C, JavaScript) can all be easy to read.
It's mostly up to the coder to make that happen.
A lot of the C++/PHP code that you see is the product of people trying to be 'clever and boastful,' rather being productive and friendly to the people that will, at a later time, have to trudge through that code.
The software industry has to face up to the fact that programming is no longer such a specialist skill.
Programming IS still a specialized skill. The problem is that visual development tools allow just about anyone to piece together an application. As non-Microsoft platforms and software gain more attention, you'll realize just how awful (bloated, slow, poor GUI design) today's software is.
There will be a sizable need for quality programmers/developers, because they're the people that are going to have to fix or rewrite a decade's worth of hype-ware.
This crowd of geeks and nerds doesn't represent the average user on the web.
Go to pretty much any newsgroup, and you'll see that at least half of the people posting are using Outlook Express, which comes with every copy of Windows. To make matters worse, there are plenty of those people that are using outdated - unpatched - versions of OE and Internet Explorer.
So I think that it's safe to say that most viruses/virii [choose the spelling that makes you happy;)] are targetted and spread by Windows machines because of Windows' popularity, and also because vulnerabilities tend to go unfixed until someone actually exploits it.
Did your dad have credit cards, a hefty 401k and a house to mortgage?
Many out of work people (not just tech geeks) don't have the privilege of soft money.
Actually, if I had the money, I'd probably go back to uni.:)
I'm certain that if American companies were to advertise once $50,000 jobs as now being $20,000, you'd still have people rushing to grab up the jobs. :P
It may not level out if the jobs are flocking overseas. Those jobs could be gone for good.
Speaking from experience, a lot of people that are left in the IT field actually DON'T have any idea of what a spreadsheet is.
It's kinda sad that such a relatively young field has already bumped out the geeks that love and *know* software/hardware, and replaced them with drone opportunists.
I agree -- VB is an excellent environment because it offers tremendous abstraction.
For example, being able to pop up a message box on screen with just 1 line of code is ideal.
Of course, knowing what's going on behind the scenes, and what API functions are really responsible for that message box is important.
VB abstracts the Windows API, in the same manner that Visual C++ uses MFC to abstract the API.
As for the pointers in C++, I can understand how they could be a serious roadblock to a newb to the language, but they really are useful. Try passing a large class/structure as an argument to a function, and you stand a pretty good chance of pissing off the stack.
Most problems with the use of pointers come from the *misuse* of pointers.
No offense intended, but I honestly don't know how any C/C++ developer can be employed if he/she doesn't have a firm grasp of pointers. That's kinda like a Network Admin not understanding the concept of tcp/udp ports.
Finally, I agree with you that VBA (VB is the develoment environment; VBA is the actual language) is a great language to learn programming. No matter what language is suggested, someone is always going to oppose it.:P
If they're serious about this, I'd like to see them require the "[AD] in the beginning of the Subject" rule that I've heard about countless times. That way, email filters would catch more unwanted messages.
One scary thing about a federal spam law is that our national government tends to not know when to stop when it comes to 'protecting the rights' of the innocent.
Add to this the variable of an extremist right-wing organization... this proposal could end up taking away more rights than it protects.
Remember that fiasco known as the Communications Decency Act?
Slashdot Mirror
Ah, you must be one of those people that monitor C++ and Linux newsgroups, spending more time chastising people that their posts aren't about standard C++ or Linux, rather than actually adding answers and productive content.
Or perhaps you have a Masters in computer science, proven by the fact that you're unable to grasp a simple point.
It's called "branding." You offer the consumer a free product or service to ensure that your logo and brandname is a household word. You make sure that your logo and brand are used everyday, multiple times per day, and maybe even hours at a time.
This is why companies like AOL, Yahoo and MS have 'free' chat programs and servers for you to use.
To be fair to Microsoft, it seems they can't win with the shell/OS browser/OS argument.
When Windows and IE were clearly 2 different things, people sued MS. Then when MS stitched IE into the core of the Windows interface, people talked trash about MS.
When Windows 95 came out, anti-MS people whined that it was still a shell program running on top of DOS. Then when XP came out, Linux users complained that there was no way to get to the command line. They went as far as touting Linux as superior because you can run it at the command line, or in a GUI (KDE, Gnome, etc).
It seems that in this area, no matter what MS does, it simply won't be able to please a large portion of the Linux community.
Yeah, I would *love* for my bands' music to forever be associated with dentist drilling and pain.
If you look at it that way, the music industry should be paying the dentists to not plays their music.
I can deal with government record-keeping of citizens -- it's just one of those things of modern American life.
But I really don't like the idea of a private company being the proprietor of public records, seeing as they have a buffer from being accountable to the general public.
You say that as if a $12/h college intern is as bad as a $50/h holder of a Masters degree.
...sorta.
Joking...
You're as right as you can be on this.
The NT kernel is great, but MS hasn't done a good job of putting it to use. They constantly acquire unrelated technologies, duct tape them into Windows, and then wonder why the OS has so many holes.
Instead of building the OS, they're more focused on assembling the OS from incompatible parts. And to fix those problems, they just go buy newer apps/features to lay on top of the old ones, which adds yet another layer between applications and hardware, making the OS require double the RAM and disk space to do the same things that it did 2 years prior
Some of the benefits of ASP.Net that you listed are at a lot of times faults.
1. Component driven -- OOD/OOP isn't always the best way to develop, especially for small and focused scripts. Why create an entire database object, with dozens of properties and methods that you won't use (but they will still sit in memory)? With PHP, you can just procedurally create a connection, execute a SQL statement, then kill the connection. A B C, as simple as 1 2 3. (I hope that song sticks in your head for the rest of the day. Just kidding.)
2. Browser abstraction -- I'm not sure what you're talking about here, but Microsoft technologies are NOT known for their ability to send proper data to W3C compliant browsers. 'Browser abstraction' shouldn't be a selling point -- it should be a minimum requirement.
3. Unified Coding Model -- Unless you're making a site for a private intranet where you have control over the client browsers, you shouldn't be sending JavaScript to the browsers, because end-users have a need to disable it for security and spamming reasons. If you do have to output JavaScript, I see no problem with a skilled PHP coder also knowing JavaScript. If you're getting paid to be a web developer, then your minimum skillset should include knowing HTML, PHP/ASP, JavaScript and CSS.
4. Complex, RAD -- The majority of PHP functions can be encapsulated into classes, and there are a number of good 3rd-party kits on the web. A good developer can pick up PHP in a day or two, since its syntax and behavior are like C and JavaScript.
PHP has no need to be overly complex, because it doesn't pretend to be anything other than a webserver extension that generates dynamic web content. People have used it for more than that, but its home is on a webserver.
That entire article is ignoring the fact that Linux developers use Linux because they don't want a dummied-down OS.
Up until the last couple of years, the typical Linux user was someone that spent time learning not only the OS, but the machine and how the two interact. Just as MSDOS was an OS originally tailored towards programmers, Linux is the same way.
It's understandable that non-tech people don't find KDE intuitive, because it really wasn't designed for casual users - it was created by and continues to be maintained by geeks.
I don't see that as a bad thing.
Skinning apps is nice, but every app that uses skinning needs a way for the user to switch to a standard look and feel of the OS.
If a person has to learn how to navigate an interface, rather than learning to use the software, then customizatoin has gone too far.
I think you're putting too much stock into the use of artists. Go to any random website created by an artist, and you'll see what I mean. Three pages of Flash before you hit any real content, and when you do get to the content, all it offers you are links to more Flash and IE-specific bells and whistles.
A *good* artist is as difficult to find as a good programmer/developer.
You can sit the same 5 year old kid in front of a modern Linux or Mac machine, and they can just as easily surf the web and play games.
Windows didn't sell millions of copies because of simplicity and good software development; it sold because MS has always had a stronghold on PC hardware.
Yes, but then Microsoft can say that even more people are using their software, which would make investors invest more money into the company.
The drawback to that would be if investors eventually wised up to the hype and started being a bit more stingy with their money. But if that happens, MS could just offshore its jobs to make the company look more profitable than it really is... then investors would be happy again for a short while.
*wink wink*
I've been in the IT industry for 10 years, and most of the friends and associates that I've known in that time can tell you that the US didn't have a techie shortage.
Companies either didn't know what they wanted, or they wanted to hire skilled people at unskilled wages.
The good news is that as non-Microsoft platforms continue to grow, US companies will be more apt to hire people that actually know what they're doing beyond drag-and-drop development.
PHP and languages with similar syntax (C++, C, JavaScript) can all be easy to read.
It's mostly up to the coder to make that happen. A lot of the C++/PHP code that you see is the product of people trying to be 'clever and boastful,' rather being productive and friendly to the people that will, at a later time, have to trudge through that code.
The software industry has to face up to the fact that programming is no longer such a specialist skill.
Programming IS still a specialized skill. The problem is that visual development tools allow just about anyone to piece together an application. As non-Microsoft platforms and software gain more attention, you'll realize just how awful (bloated, slow, poor GUI design) today's software is.
There will be a sizable need for quality programmers/developers, because they're the people that are going to have to fix or rewrite a decade's worth of hype-ware.
This crowd of geeks and nerds doesn't represent the average user on the web.
;)] are targetted and spread by Windows machines because of Windows' popularity, and also because vulnerabilities tend to go unfixed until someone actually exploits it.
Go to pretty much any newsgroup, and you'll see that at least half of the people posting are using Outlook Express, which comes with every copy of Windows. To make matters worse, there are plenty of those people that are using outdated - unpatched - versions of OE and Internet Explorer.
So I think that it's safe to say that most viruses/virii [choose the spelling that makes you happy
Harsher spankings for the people that still haven't grasped the concept of NOT clicking that email attachment with a .vbs extension. :P
Did your dad have credit cards, a hefty 401k and a house to mortgage?
:)
Many out of work people (not just tech geeks) don't have the privilege of soft money.
Actually, if I had the money, I'd probably go back to uni.
I'm certain that if American companies were to advertise once $50,000 jobs as now being $20,000, you'd still have people rushing to grab up the jobs.
:P
That would be nice, but:
No job = no money.
It may not level out if the jobs are flocking overseas. Those jobs could be gone for good.
Speaking from experience, a lot of people that are left in the IT field actually DON'T have any idea of what a spreadsheet is.
It's kinda sad that such a relatively young field has already bumped out the geeks that love and *know* software/hardware, and replaced them with drone opportunists.
As others have said before, the URL should have been interpreted as a relative URL, and yes, your browser should have choked on it.
;)
Some browsers simply do a better job than others when it comes to sticking to W3C HTTP standards.
I agree -- VB is an excellent environment because it offers tremendous abstraction.
:P
For example, being able to pop up a message box on screen with just 1 line of code is ideal.
Of course, knowing what's going on behind the scenes, and what API functions are really responsible for that message box is important.
VB abstracts the Windows API, in the same manner that Visual C++ uses MFC to abstract the API.
As for the pointers in C++, I can understand how they could be a serious roadblock to a newb to the language, but they really are useful. Try passing a large class/structure as an argument to a function, and you stand a pretty good chance of pissing off the stack.
Most problems with the use of pointers come from the *misuse* of pointers.
No offense intended, but I honestly don't know how any C/C++ developer can be employed if he/she doesn't have a firm grasp of pointers. That's kinda like a Network Admin not understanding the concept of tcp/udp ports.
Finally, I agree with you that VBA (VB is the develoment environment; VBA is the actual language) is a great language to learn programming. No matter what language is suggested, someone is always going to oppose it.
If they're serious about this, I'd like to see them require the "[AD] in the beginning of the Subject" rule that I've heard about countless times.
That way, email filters would catch more unwanted messages.
One scary thing about a federal spam law is that our national government tends to not know when to stop when it comes to 'protecting the rights' of the innocent.
Add to this the variable of an extremist right-wing organization... this proposal could end up taking away more rights than it protects.
Remember that fiasco known as the Communications Decency Act?