Before you folks even THINK about implementing outrageous and curiously new features like... Tabbed Browsing or ActiveX, why don't you seriously think about the fact that the core part of IE is a load of junk. How about making the render engine RENDER XHTML and CSS2 properly?! IMPLEMENT THE STANDARDS *COMPLETELY.*
I, along with so many other developers are sick and tired of hacking our otherwise perfectly valid and conforming CSS and markup to make it display properly in the hack you call a browser, which has remained virtually unchanged since the *conception* of Mozilla's Gecko engine. Before you start implementing *parts* of CSS3, why don't you fully and *PROPERLY* implement CSS2? Have you seen the numerous sites dedicated to Internet Explorer specific CSS hacks? You are the most HATED browser. Developers are outraged. It's ridiculous. No one CHOOSES to use IE.
I feel guilty about flaming you on CSS support. I'd much rather see the browser and company just collapse under the power and superior quality of Free and Open Source software. But since that's not going to happen any time soon, and since you're not going to be shipping Firefox or an alternative with your POS software you call an Operating System, and since it's unfortunate that somewhere like 90% of the population uses that abomination you call Internet Explorer... my head would stop spinning so fast if I could just write valid XHTML markup and valid CSS and... what a concept... have it render properly in IE!
Just stop trying and give up, for the good of the common man. Really. Your days are numbered, so why not take some time to think about the good old days, and just let natural progression drag you under.
I took the test yesterday, at about 8 AM. Only two other APCS students took the exam from my school, so we were considered "special" and took it in a conference room. I took the AB version (the "harder" of the two available, A and AB).
AB covers things like heaps, queues, stacks, and trees, along with more advanced sorting and searching methods.
The point is, and should be... language does in fact NOT matter. Actually learning the language is very simple. Learning how to *use* the language to accomplish classic and very useful techniques (tree searching/sorting, recursion, etc.) is the real test of knowledge.
Even though College Board switched from C++ to Java (and I prefer C++... well, C, actually) really makes no difference. They provide a supplemental booklet that describes briefly the standard features in Java (Maps, Lists, Strings, etc.), so you can really just focus on solving the PROBLEM.
While we're not allowed to go into specifics, I am going to say, for the benefit of all who may take the exam in years to come, learn the ins and outs of the Marine Biology Case Study!
I was having absolutely no problem with the exam until I hit the problem (with three sub-sections) based on the MBCS. In my APCS class, we hardly ever "played" with the case study. The result was that I spent 30 minutes reading the provided code to the case study in order to familiarize myself with its API so I could write the code necessary to complete the requirements for the problem.
This hangup ultimately cost me 1/4 of my free response section (there were only 4 problems), because I simply ran out of time - and 30 minutes was more than enough time to complete the last problem, and I was more than capable of doing it (it was on binary trees).
The bottom line... 1) the exam does a great job on testing how to solve problems; it does not specifically test your knowledge on Java, so the language switch shouldn't be much of an issue at all. 2) Know the case study! They publish publicly the material that is given as supplemental material on the exam.
Also, I read in a thread that we had "all day" to take the exam compared to only three hours in previous years... this is false. The exam has two parts: a multiple choice section that takes 1:15, and the free response section that takes 1:45. A five minute break was allowed for between sections.
A quick look around the disgusting Infinium Labs site reveals an even more repulsive "Phantom Reservation" form... it was so disgusting, it left me wondering... how is this thing submitted?
1. It's commerical
2. There are MUCH better alternatives under GNU/Linux: QT and GTK... both are solid, native frameworks used in the two most popular Desktop environments for GNU/Linux. They're also much more mature and aren't ports from VCL code written for Windows 10 years ago.
Borland was just trying to get a share of the GNU/Linux market, but they failed - tough.
GPL it! Hah! Riiight.
The voting software should be Free Software, but that's highly unlikely. However, maybe this raises a (seemingly insignificant) question: if voting systems are all front-end-software-based, will true believers in the Free Software movement even vote? Could the government be creating a situation where people feel obligated not to vote, simply because of the software which is used to register their potential votes? Maybe absentee ballet is the answer? Will we still have paper ballets? I hope so!
Though this problem does raise some questions, no matter how you feel morally towards software, you should vote regardless of the recording method (if you can vote using half a brain, and pick a candidate who will actually do something for this country).
Slashdot Mirror
I 3 Studio with all my heart.
Tux with tits!
Before you folks even THINK about implementing outrageous and curiously new features like... Tabbed Browsing or ActiveX, why don't you seriously think about the fact that the core part of IE is a load of junk. How about making the render engine RENDER XHTML and CSS2 properly?! IMPLEMENT THE STANDARDS *COMPLETELY.*
... what a concept ... have it render properly in IE!
I, along with so many other developers are sick and tired of hacking our otherwise perfectly valid and conforming CSS and markup to make it display properly in the hack you call a browser, which has remained virtually unchanged since the *conception* of Mozilla's Gecko engine. Before you start implementing *parts* of CSS3, why don't you fully and *PROPERLY* implement CSS2? Have you seen the numerous sites dedicated to Internet Explorer specific CSS hacks? You are the most HATED browser. Developers are outraged. It's ridiculous. No one CHOOSES to use IE.
I feel guilty about flaming you on CSS support. I'd much rather see the browser and company just collapse under the power and superior quality of Free and Open Source software. But since that's not going to happen any time soon, and since you're not going to be shipping Firefox or an alternative with your POS software you call an Operating System, and since it's unfortunate that somewhere like 90% of the population uses that abomination you call Internet Explorer... my head would stop spinning so fast if I could just write valid XHTML markup and valid CSS and
Just stop trying and give up, for the good of the common man. Really. Your days are numbered, so why not take some time to think about the good old days, and just let natural progression drag you under.
Thank you.
I took the test yesterday, at about 8 AM. Only two other APCS students took the exam from my school, so we were considered "special" and took it in a conference room. I took the AB version (the "harder" of the two available, A and AB).
AB covers things like heaps, queues, stacks, and trees, along with more advanced sorting and searching methods.
The point is, and should be... language does in fact NOT matter. Actually learning the language is very simple. Learning how to *use* the language to accomplish classic and very useful techniques (tree searching/sorting, recursion, etc.) is the real test of knowledge.
Even though College Board switched from C++ to Java (and I prefer C++... well, C, actually) really makes no difference. They provide a supplemental booklet that describes briefly the standard features in Java (Maps, Lists, Strings, etc.), so you can really just focus on solving the PROBLEM.
While we're not allowed to go into specifics, I am going to say, for the benefit of all who may take the exam in years to come, learn the ins and outs of the Marine Biology Case Study!
I was having absolutely no problem with the exam until I hit the problem (with three sub-sections) based on the MBCS. In my APCS class, we hardly ever "played" with the case study. The result was that I spent 30 minutes reading the provided code to the case study in order to familiarize myself with its API so I could write the code necessary to complete the requirements for the problem.
This hangup ultimately cost me 1/4 of my free response section (there were only 4 problems), because I simply ran out of time - and 30 minutes was more than enough time to complete the last problem, and I was more than capable of doing it (it was on binary trees).
The bottom line... 1) the exam does a great job on testing how to solve problems; it does not specifically test your knowledge on Java, so the language switch shouldn't be much of an issue at all. 2) Know the case study! They publish publicly the material that is given as supplemental material on the exam.
Also, I read in a thread that we had "all day" to take the exam compared to only three hours in previous years... this is false. The exam has two parts: a multiple choice section that takes 1:15, and the free response section that takes 1:45. A five minute break was allowed for between sections.
Hope this helps! KNOW THE CASE STUDY!
--Aaron
A quick look around the disgusting Infinium Labs site reveals an even more repulsive "Phantom Reservation" form... it was so disgusting, it left me wondering... how is this thing submitted?
Preorder Now!
It's been many years since I've seen a form submitted through a mailto: trick!
1. It's commerical 2. There are MUCH better alternatives under GNU/Linux: QT and GTK... both are solid, native frameworks used in the two most popular Desktop environments for GNU/Linux. They're also much more mature and aren't ports from VCL code written for Windows 10 years ago. Borland was just trying to get a share of the GNU/Linux market, but they failed - tough. GPL it! Hah! Riiight.
The voting software should be Free Software, but that's highly unlikely. However, maybe this raises a (seemingly insignificant) question: if voting systems are all front-end-software-based, will true believers in the Free Software movement even vote? Could the government be creating a situation where people feel obligated not to vote, simply because of the software which is used to register their potential votes? Maybe absentee ballet is the answer? Will we still have paper ballets? I hope so! Though this problem does raise some questions, no matter how you feel morally towards software, you should vote regardless of the recording method (if you can vote using half a brain, and pick a candidate who will actually do something for this country).