The first thing to remember is that a first year CS undergraduate doesn't necessarily have a computing background. Most universities will let you on such a course with high school maths and science qualifications, and basic computer literacy. This means that at some point you're going to have to define the terms 'compiler' and 'interpreter'. If you're teaching Java programming, it's basic common sense to say, "You'll be using the javac compiler and the java interpreter." That's all that's really necessary.
Ant is quite a complex tool. I wouldn't expect any lecture time to be given over to it, but I'd expect a lab on it. (I'm also quite surprised that your labs were optional. They were a core part of my course.)
If a student thinks that such things are beneath them, they can always go for advanced entry straight into second year.
I've got a program that runs on a GSM/GPRS device that communicates over the serial port. To open the serial port, you have to pass a string that looks like "comm:com0;blocking=on;autocts=off;autorts=off;baudrate=4800". That's not the kind of thing you do a university degree to learn, that's the kind of stuff that goes in the device manual, under "Using the serial port".
It depends on what kind of GUI you're asking them to build. A CS degree won't teach you how to build a complete GUI with only pixel manipulation to play with, for example. It'll teach the basics on pixel manipulation, it'll teach the concepts of good GUI design and will probably teach GUI building using a high-level library, but that may not be adequate for your task.
They were also completely baffled when it came to not using an IDE to develop software. Makefiles had to be explained several times.
That's a teaching problem, not a Java problem (you can teach badly in any language). If they can't function without an IDE then they've obviously not been taught how to use Ant, or even java and javac come to think of it.
Why not use Objective-C as a teaching language? It's a strict superset of C so you can teach bare C for the first part of the course and then move on to Objective-C when you need to start teaching OO programming. It's not as batshit crazy as C++, and avoids all the little C/C++ incompatibilities. You're free to teach pointers, and it also has manual memory management (which is actually quite easy to get to grips with).
The core language can be compiled by GCC, so it's available on Linux, but as it's the primary language of Mac OS X it's also an excellent way to justify spending the university's money on a new lab full of Macs.
Apple also provides a reasonable amount of documentation for its libraries. I keep hearing from a friend of mine who does Python programming for a living that what he misses most about Java is the excellent documentation. Although that may be a bad example given the "The code is the documentation" mantra some Python programmers follow.
I think you've missed the point of WriteRoom. It's basically Apple's TextEdit, with some UI options added that make it full-screen and make the colours configurable. The idea is that you don't have all the UI widgets that you're not using (menu bar, dock, desktop and other programs that may be open) distracting you from what you're writing. It's the equivalent of "I type into Emacs" in your post.
Scrivener has a lot of features (including a WriteRoom-like environment), most of which I don't use. I find it useful for organising different parts of a large work. When I write I tend not to write consecutively, and Scrivener helps me not lose stuff.
MacPorts installation locations are "more standard" from a unix perspective.
That might be an advantage if you've got 30 years experience in Unix... personally, the fact that everything Fink installs goes into its/sw folder is a big selling point for me. I'm not a fan of things being spread around my filesystem, particularly things that are third party products.
Haven't had any problems with things compiling yet, but then I only use Fink occasionally.
My ADSL router (a Netgear DG834G) uses a web interface for its configuration panel. I might have a hard time getting on the internet to download a browser if I don't have a browser to set up my internet connection.
Then perhaps we can conclude that the advantage of online (Xbox360) over offline (Wii) multiplayer gaming is not cost (as we are not really comparing like for like), but the ability to locate other players with the necessary equipment?
Re:Couple Thoughts
on
Where are Wii?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
That's not really a fair comparison, because online play requires that each player has his or her own console. If you assume the same for the Wii, that all the people you will play with have their own Wii, then they all have their own Wiimote and Nunchuk, so there's no reason to buy any extra controllers.
The problem is the technology involved. Devices like the iPod have been successful because it's impossible to play pre-recorded music without some kind of powered device (whether that power is provided by a battery, mains power or a hand crank). There's always been a need for some form of technology, and that technology has been evolving continuously for centuries.
Books don't require any powered device, meaning that the need for an e-reader just hasn't been there and hence very little development has happened. I think it's encouraging that we finally have some proper, high-profile (all over the BBC News website for instance) competition in the e-reader market, so we might get to see some interesting devices down the line. Books do have some disadvantages, such as the inability to search, and the option to read books electronically is much appreciated.
Personally I think e-readers might take off if paper-thin, flexible e-paper ever becomes cheap enough to become commonplace. Imagine a hardback 'book' of such sheets, into which you could load any book you wanted. That would be cool.
The experience from the sale of 3G licences in the UK is that the bidding process put the winners in such a bad financial situation that they couldn't proceed with the rollout of 3G services in the expected timescales. The public purse might have swollen, but consumers definitely lost out.
There's also the sad reality that the spectrum is divided among a handful of big players. Auctioning the spectrum works against small, innovative players.
The summary ended sort of ominously, didn't it? "Bluetooth, it seems, is safe for the moment."
I feel relatively safe with my bluetooth Logitech keyboard (which I wouldn't give up for the world), but my worry is that the bluetooth implementation is not necessarily up to scratch. My particular keyboard is designed to be used with the USB dongle that came in the box, and Logitech don't officially support the keyboard's use with other bluetooth devices, which makes me wonder why (although it will work with my Apple laptop's built-in bluetooth receiver for basic functions).
If legal proceedings are being brought because of slanderous/libellous things being written in an anonymous blog, then some work is required to ascertain the identity of that person. To reduce this work, it is logical to remove the right to anonymity. The problem is that, if writing anonymously is breaking the law, then you have to put that same work in to ascertain the identity of the writer.
Uh, I'm not explaining this very well... but by removing the right to anonymity you don't actually solve the problem at all.
Not that I agree with the sentiment. If you're not willing to put your name to your opinion, then your opinion's worthless.
- Chris Walker (yeah, like I was going to fall for that one!)
Because Apple provide Java on Mac OS, not Sun. Remember how Microsoft provided the Windows version of Java, before Sun got pissed off with what they were doing with it and demanded it back? Same thing here, only Sun haven't got pissed off yet (hopefully soon!).
Can't be bothered looking for anything to back up what I've just said, but go to http://java.sun.com/ and look for any Mac OS X download. There aren't any.
I might get the chance! My boss was making noises yesterday about an N810 as a Christmas present to himself, and no doubt he'll want to bring it in to work and show it off.
We talk about positions of power being abused by governments and corporations. Take, for example, patent trolls abusing the patents system. The general consensus is that if a law can be abused, then it will be.
There is no law more ripe for abuse than the Official Secrets Act (or your country's equivalent).
Governments in democratic countries are legitimised by elections. The people of the country make a decision on who should represent them in parliament, where decisions are made on the running of the country. But such decisions are only valid if they are informed decisions, i.e. you should know how your representative is going to vote in parliament, and what actions they will take should they form a government. If your decision is uninformed, your representative cannot truly represent you.
When governments start to hide their actions behind the Official Secrets Act, your decision ceases to become informed, and the government can no longer be seen as democratic.
If you describe yourself as a patriot, are you patriotic towards your government or towards the people of your country? There is a difference.
I've tried the qwerty keyboards on a Nokia E61 and an iPod Touch. The iPod Touch keyboard is far superior, in my opinion. The E61 keys are lined up in a grid and not like a real qwerty keyboard, they're smaller and closer together and they have to be pushed quite hard for them to register (in comparison, the iPod Touch only requires the lightest touch). It's also difficult to see at a glance which key is which, because it's cluttered up with symbols and numbers (as you can't switch keyboards like you can on the iPod Touch).
For business emails, I'd expect the sender to proof-read before hitting send, no matter what type of keyboard they used.
From the website, under "Making BBC iPlayer available on Mac, Linux and other platforms":
Concurrently, we're continuing to develop the platform for use with Windows Vista, Apple Macintosh and Linux operating systems.
It may work on Vista, I don't know, I don't have a copy to test it on. But it isn't supported and it's 'still under development', which I think makes any 'In bed with MS' theories less than credible.
I'm bemused by the CIA World Factbook's statement on the UK page that says, "more than one-half of the days are overcast". Is this unusual in the rest of the world?
I suspect that it's showing international data only, data transfers within a country aren't being shown. Notice that the same is true for the east and west coast of the States.
Slashdot Mirror
Porsche still do. And I don't know if RMR-layout cars have the same problem, but there are still plenty of them about.
The first thing to remember is that a first year CS undergraduate doesn't necessarily have a computing background. Most universities will let you on such a course with high school maths and science qualifications, and basic computer literacy. This means that at some point you're going to have to define the terms 'compiler' and 'interpreter'. If you're teaching Java programming, it's basic common sense to say, "You'll be using the javac compiler and the java interpreter." That's all that's really necessary.
Ant is quite a complex tool. I wouldn't expect any lecture time to be given over to it, but I'd expect a lab on it. (I'm also quite surprised that your labs were optional. They were a core part of my course.)
If a student thinks that such things are beneath them, they can always go for advanced entry straight into second year.
I've got a program that runs on a GSM/GPRS device that communicates over the serial port. To open the serial port, you have to pass a string that looks like "comm:com0;blocking=on;autocts=off;autorts=off;baudrate=4800". That's not the kind of thing you do a university degree to learn, that's the kind of stuff that goes in the device manual, under "Using the serial port".
It depends on what kind of GUI you're asking them to build. A CS degree won't teach you how to build a complete GUI with only pixel manipulation to play with, for example. It'll teach the basics on pixel manipulation, it'll teach the concepts of good GUI design and will probably teach GUI building using a high-level library, but that may not be adequate for your task.
That's a teaching problem, not a Java problem (you can teach badly in any language). If they can't function without an IDE then they've obviously not been taught how to use Ant, or even java and javac come to think of it.
Why not use Objective-C as a teaching language? It's a strict superset of C so you can teach bare C for the first part of the course and then move on to Objective-C when you need to start teaching OO programming. It's not as batshit crazy as C++, and avoids all the little C/C++ incompatibilities. You're free to teach pointers, and it also has manual memory management (which is actually quite easy to get to grips with).
The core language can be compiled by GCC, so it's available on Linux, but as it's the primary language of Mac OS X it's also an excellent way to justify spending the university's money on a new lab full of Macs.
Apple also provides a reasonable amount of documentation for its libraries. I keep hearing from a friend of mine who does Python programming for a living that what he misses most about Java is the excellent documentation. Although that may be a bad example given the "The code is the documentation" mantra some Python programmers follow.
I think you've missed the point of WriteRoom. It's basically Apple's TextEdit, with some UI options added that make it full-screen and make the colours configurable. The idea is that you don't have all the UI widgets that you're not using (menu bar, dock, desktop and other programs that may be open) distracting you from what you're writing. It's the equivalent of "I type into Emacs" in your post.
Scrivener has a lot of features (including a WriteRoom-like environment), most of which I don't use. I find it useful for organising different parts of a large work. When I write I tend not to write consecutively, and Scrivener helps me not lose stuff.
That might be an advantage if you've got 30 years experience in Unix... personally, the fact that everything Fink installs goes into its /sw folder is a big selling point for me. I'm not a fan of things being spread around my filesystem, particularly things that are third party products.
Haven't had any problems with things compiling yet, but then I only use Fink occasionally.
My ADSL router (a Netgear DG834G) uses a web interface for its configuration panel. I might have a hard time getting on the internet to download a browser if I don't have a browser to set up my internet connection.
Then perhaps we can conclude that the advantage of online (Xbox360) over offline (Wii) multiplayer gaming is not cost (as we are not really comparing like for like), but the ability to locate other players with the necessary equipment?
That's not really a fair comparison, because online play requires that each player has his or her own console. If you assume the same for the Wii, that all the people you will play with have their own Wii, then they all have their own Wiimote and Nunchuk, so there's no reason to buy any extra controllers.
The problem is the technology involved. Devices like the iPod have been successful because it's impossible to play pre-recorded music without some kind of powered device (whether that power is provided by a battery, mains power or a hand crank). There's always been a need for some form of technology, and that technology has been evolving continuously for centuries.
Books don't require any powered device, meaning that the need for an e-reader just hasn't been there and hence very little development has happened. I think it's encouraging that we finally have some proper, high-profile (all over the BBC News website for instance) competition in the e-reader market, so we might get to see some interesting devices down the line. Books do have some disadvantages, such as the inability to search, and the option to read books electronically is much appreciated.
Personally I think e-readers might take off if paper-thin, flexible e-paper ever becomes cheap enough to become commonplace. Imagine a hardback 'book' of such sheets, into which you could load any book you wanted. That would be cool.
There's already a solution to the fire engine problem.
The experience from the sale of 3G licences in the UK is that the bidding process put the winners in such a bad financial situation that they couldn't proceed with the rollout of 3G services in the expected timescales. The public purse might have swollen, but consumers definitely lost out.
There's also the sad reality that the spectrum is divided among a handful of big players. Auctioning the spectrum works against small, innovative players.
The summary ended sort of ominously, didn't it? "Bluetooth, it seems, is safe for the moment."
I feel relatively safe with my bluetooth Logitech keyboard (which I wouldn't give up for the world), but my worry is that the bluetooth implementation is not necessarily up to scratch. My particular keyboard is designed to be used with the USB dongle that came in the box, and Logitech don't officially support the keyboard's use with other bluetooth devices, which makes me wonder why (although it will work with my Apple laptop's built-in bluetooth receiver for basic functions).
I'm not sure it's right to deny someone the means to retaliate based on what they might do.
Just a practical consideration...
If legal proceedings are being brought because of slanderous/libellous things being written in an anonymous blog, then some work is required to ascertain the identity of that person. To reduce this work, it is logical to remove the right to anonymity. The problem is that, if writing anonymously is breaking the law, then you have to put that same work in to ascertain the identity of the writer.
Uh, I'm not explaining this very well... but by removing the right to anonymity you don't actually solve the problem at all.
Not that I agree with the sentiment. If you're not willing to put your name to your opinion, then your opinion's worthless.
- Chris Walker (yeah, like I was going to fall for that one!)
Because Apple provide Java on Mac OS, not Sun. Remember how Microsoft provided the Windows version of Java, before Sun got pissed off with what they were doing with it and demanded it back? Same thing here, only Sun haven't got pissed off yet (hopefully soon!).
Can't be bothered looking for anything to back up what I've just said, but go to http://java.sun.com/ and look for any Mac OS X download. There aren't any.
That statistic doesn't mean anything on its own, so I'm going to contribute an article.
I might get the chance! My boss was making noises yesterday about an N810 as a Christmas present to himself, and no doubt he'll want to bring it in to work and show it off.
We talk about positions of power being abused by governments and corporations. Take, for example, patent trolls abusing the patents system. The general consensus is that if a law can be abused, then it will be.
There is no law more ripe for abuse than the Official Secrets Act (or your country's equivalent).
Governments in democratic countries are legitimised by elections. The people of the country make a decision on who should represent them in parliament, where decisions are made on the running of the country. But such decisions are only valid if they are informed decisions, i.e. you should know how your representative is going to vote in parliament, and what actions they will take should they form a government. If your decision is uninformed, your representative cannot truly represent you.
When governments start to hide their actions behind the Official Secrets Act, your decision ceases to become informed, and the government can no longer be seen as democratic.
If you describe yourself as a patriot, are you patriotic towards your government or towards the people of your country? There is a difference.
I've tried the qwerty keyboards on a Nokia E61 and an iPod Touch. The iPod Touch keyboard is far superior, in my opinion. The E61 keys are lined up in a grid and not like a real qwerty keyboard, they're smaller and closer together and they have to be pushed quite hard for them to register (in comparison, the iPod Touch only requires the lightest touch). It's also difficult to see at a glance which key is which, because it's cluttered up with symbols and numbers (as you can't switch keyboards like you can on the iPod Touch).
For business emails, I'd expect the sender to proof-read before hitting send, no matter what type of keyboard they used.
From the website, under "Making BBC iPlayer available on Mac, Linux and other platforms":
It may work on Vista, I don't know, I don't have a copy to test it on. But it isn't supported and it's 'still under development', which I think makes any 'In bed with MS' theories less than credible.
If MS and the BBC were in cahoots, don't you think there would be a Vista version? Microsoft doesn't want you buying XP any more.
I'm bemused by the CIA World Factbook's statement on the UK page that says, "more than one-half of the days are overcast". Is this unusual in the rest of the world?
I suspect that it's showing international data only, data transfers within a country aren't being shown. Notice that the same is true for the east and west coast of the States.