My first experience with AIX was auditing some large set of application C code. It was shocking, lots of uninitialized local vars, code assuming it to be 0, and it worked!
I suppouse someone at IBM decided to systematically clear stack var area at function entry... better that than to fix the broken code!.
Programming is one of the jobs where you are routinely facing the complexity barrier (the point where the number of factors to consider exceeds the human processing capabilities), that's why it's hard, it is and it will be. From Godel we know the limits of formal systems, the best reply to this limit was Turing answer (paraphrasing) 'Errors are the natural answer to determinism'.
Turing imagined massively parallel machines, but the succes of Von Newman architectures (hardware/software) has lead to the actual state of computers. There are things that can only be achieved with massive parallel processing, but after +60 years we are still triyng to extend the current arquitecture to multiple (not massive) units. I can understand the motivations and advantages but they are still fundamentally wrong.
I still keep the faith in american people. When the objectives are correct (ie. science, progress, etc) and not dirty (ie. war, money) no other country in the world can match the american spirit.
I am not american, but it feels sad to realize the truth in your post.
Really, why not to sell personalized versions of music/video/etc?
Think about selling the real thing with titles/frontends not watermarqued, but clearly personally labelled. It will be great to have 'YOUR' own CD album / DVD movie signed from the real artist(s), with your own words, its easy to do and adds an inestimable value to the purchaser.
about software development i've ever saw was (and still is!) an almost 30 years old comic? poster, see http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsjst/gifs/swing.jpg/, or google images for 'What the user wanted' to see other versions.
'The Road to Reality' (Roger Penrose) http://www.amazon.com/Road-Reality-Complete-Guide- Universe/dp/0679454438/
Great discussion about physics laws and math, one of the bests titles of Mr Penrose, and yes, the ' dodecahedral/tetrahedral/octahedral space' possibilities are also explained from the ground up.
AOP is not a hack, is just one indirection level ahead of usual programming, I like to think about this kind of concepts as something that has full sense somewhere between the system and the programs. It's not about what a program must do, it's about what should be done when a program do something.
Really, by the comments on this page, it's amazing how people use functions they don't understand! What's this? Faith? Programming should not be based on faith but on reasoning. The article even fails to mention that the function is just a rough approximation at 1/sqrt(), this function would be better labeled RoughInvSqrt(). And yes bitwise manipulation of float point values is cool, yes, that's programming.
so that I can learn how to reuse code, and build my class hierarchies over the one provided by the toolkit?
Believe me, desiging a class hierarchy is NOT a problem, it's much more difficult to learn to design good GUIs, after all they are the 'contact point' with the user, so clarity, simplicity, predictability, etc are the real challenge, it takes a lot of imagination and experience to design GUIs that doesnt get noticed!
Now, near a base station, the situation is a little different, but don't try to scare John Q. Citizen with unfounded FUD about cellular phones causing cancer.
And you don't try to deceive Johny Q minimizing microwave effects, please.
People don't realize that the real target is KDE, that's why Novell (MS) bought Suse (main KDE supporter) and is promoting GNOME and Mono instead. Is not about to keep open choices, is about to damage MS adversaries. An 'MS blessed' Linux distribution is just a joke, a dangerous joke.
Mono (Miguel de Icaza) was the first clear move in the MS - Linux battle, the main target being KDE, so please, don't feed the beast with more crap, thanks.
It is negative dimensions, I have not read about it, but if it's related to fractals, it could be the complementary concept: If fraccional dimensions (d) can be said to be elements that try to 'fill' a d+1 dimensional space (ie, d=1.314 = a line (d=1) filling a plane (d=2)), it can be viewed backwards, and say that this d+1 space is emptied up to d extension (ie, in the previous example the plane (d=2) is emptied by a 0.686 negative dimension)
Anyway, take it as a comment, negative dimensions could be any other concept.
It's not a fundamental/logical distinction (data vs code), it's just a practical one. We already have specific hardware/microcode to help to work virtual memory systems (page faults/tbls/etc).
In the same vein let's add some help to define non-executable address ranges. The system designers will surely use-it, and exploit writers will have a harder time to try to crak our programs.
Hell, it's really weird that a program that reads some data ends excuting foreign code! Let-it crash and burn his data, that's fine, but execute the entered data? Shouldn't have the system something to say about a data area becoming code?
However, the two languages are distinct. C++ string processing isn't done with char pointers, but with a class.
That's not enough to proclame both are that different, ie: strcat/strcpy/etc funcs where translated to some asm inlining in some VC6 compilations, i am not sure that corresponding c++ compilated class doesn't do the same.
In the end, no matter the language, data have an address and a size, pointers are not a problem, are part of the description.
Slashdot Mirror
Easy, Salomon test: Tell them to split the child. The corporate one will try to negotiate.
My first experience with AIX was auditing some large set of application C code. It was shocking, lots of uninitialized local vars, code assuming it to be 0, and it worked!
I suppouse someone at IBM decided to systematically clear stack var area at function entry... better that than to fix the broken code!.
Programming is one of the jobs where you are routinely facing the complexity barrier (the point where the number of factors to consider exceeds the human processing capabilities), that's why it's hard, it is and it will be.
From Godel we know the limits of formal systems, the best reply to this limit was Turing answer (paraphrasing) 'Errors are the natural answer to determinism'.
Turing imagined massively parallel machines, but the succes of Von Newman architectures (hardware/software) has lead to the actual state of computers.
There are things that can only be achieved with massive parallel processing, but after +60 years we are still triyng to extend the current arquitecture to multiple (not massive) units.
I can understand the motivations and advantages but they are still fundamentally wrong.
I still keep the faith in american people. When the objectives are correct (ie. science, progress, etc) and not dirty (ie. war, money) no other country in the world can match the american spirit. I am not american, but it feels sad to realize the truth in your post.
SPAMTV! (adds, adds, adds, adds at infinitum)
Ooops... sorry that's already done. :(
Better Siesta and between noon and 5! :)
Really, why not to sell personalized versions of music/video/etc?
Think about selling the real thing with titles/frontends not watermarqued, but clearly personally labelled. It will be great to have 'YOUR' own CD album / DVD movie signed from the real artist(s), with your own words, its easy to do and adds an inestimable value to the purchaser.
Sorry, bad url, the good one is http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsjst/gifs/swing.jpg
about software development i've ever saw was (and still is!) an almost 30 years old comic? poster, see http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsjst/gifs/swing.jpg/, or google images for 'What the user wanted' to see other versions.
'The Road to Reality' (Roger Penrose) http://www.amazon.com/Road-Reality-Complete-Guide- Universe/dp/0679454438/
Great discussion about physics laws and math, one of the bests titles of Mr Penrose, and yes, the ' dodecahedral/tetrahedral/octahedral space' possibilities are also explained from the ground up.
AOP is not a hack, is just one indirection level ahead of usual programming, I like to think about this kind of concepts as something that has full sense somewhere between the system and the programs.
It's not about what a program must do, it's about what should be done when a program do something.
Really, by the comments on this page, it's amazing how people use functions they don't understand! What's this? Faith?
Programming should not be based on faith but on reasoning.
The article even fails to mention that the function is just a rough approximation at 1/sqrt(), this function would be better labeled RoughInvSqrt(). And yes bitwise manipulation of float point values is cool, yes, that's programming.
so that I can learn how to reuse code, and build my class hierarchies over the one provided by the toolkit?
Believe me, desiging a class hierarchy is NOT a problem, it's much more difficult to learn to design good GUIs, after all they are the 'contact point' with the user, so clarity, simplicity, predictability, etc are the real challenge, it takes a lot of imagination and experience to design GUIs that doesnt get noticed!
The last work of Mandelbort (the 'fractals' father) 'The (Mis)behaviour of markets' http://www.amazon.com/Misbehavior-Markets-Benoit-M andelbrot/dp/0465043550/ is quite interesting.
Sigh, markets are chaotic, much more chaotic than current market analisis states.
is annoying to lose Karma
Take it easy, Karma is never lost, it's just displaced...Now, near a base station, the situation is a little different, but don't try to scare John Q. Citizen with unfounded FUD about cellular phones causing cancer.
And you don't try to deceive Johny Q minimizing microwave effects, please.This is using frequency resonation, Tesla's system didn't.
Sorry, but Tesla was a master in electromagnetic resonance.The plain and simple fact is that DNA does not interact with light at microwave/radiowave frequencies.
And your prouve isPeople don't realize that the real target is KDE, that's why Novell (MS) bought Suse (main KDE supporter) and is promoting GNOME and Mono instead.
Is not about to keep open choices, is about to damage MS adversaries.
An 'MS blessed' Linux distribution is just a joke, a dangerous joke.
Mono (Miguel de Icaza) was the first clear move in the MS - Linux battle, the main target being KDE, so please, don't feed the beast with more crap, thanks.
It is negative dimensions, I have not read about it, but if it's related to fractals, it could be the complementary concept: If fraccional dimensions (d) can be said to be elements that try to 'fill' a d+1 dimensional space (ie, d=1.314 = a line (d=1) filling a plane (d=2)), it can be viewed backwards, and say that this d+1 space is emptied up to d extension (ie, in the previous example the plane (d=2) is emptied by a 0.686 negative dimension)
Anyway, take it as a comment, negative dimensions could be any other concept.
No
See the Architas (428 BC) mechanical bird, or the Antikyithera (87 BC)orbit calculator.
It's not a fundamental/logical distinction (data vs code), it's just a practical one. We already have specific hardware/microcode to help to work virtual memory systems (page faults/tbls/etc).
In the same vein let's add some help to define non-executable address ranges. The system designers will surely use-it, and exploit writers will have a harder time to try to crak our programs.
Hell, it's really weird that a program that reads some data ends excuting foreign code! Let-it crash and burn his data, that's fine, but execute the entered data? Shouldn't have the system something to say about a data area becoming code?
However, the two languages are distinct. C++ string processing isn't done with char pointers, but with a class.
That's not enough to proclame both are that different, ie: strcat/strcpy/etc funcs where translated to some asm inlining in some VC6 compilations, i am not sure that corresponding c++ compilated class doesn't do the same.
In the end, no matter the language, data have an address and a size, pointers are not a problem, are part of the description.