> THE STRINGS ARE EMBEDDED IN THE CODE! Christ, this is a Nightmare to try to internationalize, and it doesn't address at *all* the fact that there's more to internationalization than converting strings!
Obviously you know next to nothing about gettext. gettext works on a simple premise, *If localization hampers the developer, then the developer (usually an english-only speaking american) will say screw and not even bother.* gettext is actually pretty clever in that it has a minimal impact on the original developer and others can localize the code. And yes there are more issues than just changing strings, (dates comes to mind) but gettext's job is strings, and if you read the doc on it you would see that it makes reccomendations about things such as plurals (not all languages pluralize by adding an 's' kinda thing) In short gettext means 1) more readable code 2) more likelyhood that the program will get localization. We live in the real world, not some fantasy "everbody codes by my standards, no one would ever use a 2 digit date!" world
Technically, animals kill for the surivial of the gene(s) that make them kill. Group selection is not really big among evolutionists anymore. I'd suggest "The Selfish Gene" by Dawkins. The basic idea is that a gene is only interested in propagating itself, not the welfare of the animal as a whole. Thus, animals kill their mate because they probably share fewer genes with it than the children they'd be helping by getting that extra meal. (This type of thing is rare anyway).
The FHS is there today, and a lot of vendors don't follow it. Since all indications are that LSB will encompass the FHS, I see no reason why. Locations of XF86Config very from dist to dist and there is no reason.
If LSB is not here yet, demand support for FHS. It's a step in the right direction.
Well open-sourcing database connectivity wouldn't really make a difference anyway. You can currently connect to MS-SQL with the FreeTDS libraries (http://www.metalab.unc.edu/freetds), and Sybase has been discussing releasing all their libraries as open-source (MS-SQL is a derivative of Sybase 4.2). Plus, there are open-source ODBC driver managers such as iODBC. So is really an empty gesture.
Now, ten years out of school, I'd forgotten about all this. It really brings back some memories. I was trying to figure out why I couldn't feel digust for what happened in Colorado, just sadness at the situation.
For those still in high school, take a long term view. Those jocks generally turn out to be the biggest losers in adult life.
I started writing just such a beast. I have some signal/slot stuff working. It still relies on the Troll moc precompiler, but that is no longer an issue with 2.0. It will run some of the Qt tutorial, (read: needs lots of work). I was hoping to take some of the Harmony code for the non-visual classes. The biggest problem I've found so far is that QWidget can be directly instantiated and acts like a fixed widget in gtk, and it may be inherited as well.
If anyone is interested I can release the code, it's just sort of a fun hack for me currently.
Funny, I've been running Lotus Notes on Wine since late last year. It has some cosmetic problems but otherwise is very functional (can't dettach docs either). But, My reboots to windows are now measured in weeks instead of hours.
I'm using Samba 2.0 on our IBM S70 boxes (64bit AIX 4.3), and it runs like a dream. And the best part is not having to go through procurement to get it!
it really seems to me that Linux will make it as a (the?) mainstream OS.
Over the past few years, I've watched low end Unix applications turned over to NT boxes and worried that I'd have to spend the next 25 years of my career managing MS-SQL Server on NT. Then Linux came along. I hoped and wished for it to be successful, for purely selfish reasons of course. But, I refused to get my hopes up too high given the history of OS/2, Netscape/Java, and all the other would-be contenders.
It didn't strike me until the other day when Loki announce the Civ port that Linux may well be unstoppable. Geeks love Linux, geeks love games, games on Linux will sell disproportionately to the user base. In a couple of years, teenage boys everywhere will be installing Linux for the games.
Now, every new piece of news is just another nail in the coffin. Welcome aboard IBM!
I highly doubt many Windows programmers start out on Linux by producing entire reams of code in isolation. They'll start out like the rest of us. A small contribution here and there, maybe pick a project they like and start making some serious contributions. These projects have owners or core teams and bad code isn't going to slip by for very long.
Anyway, I'd love to see some stats on how much OSS code is produced on employers time vs. personal time. My bet is its mostly personal time and most bad programmers aren't going to contribute for no money on their own time. It just doesn't happen.
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> THE STRINGS ARE EMBEDDED IN THE CODE! Christ, this is a Nightmare to
try to internationalize, and it doesn't address at *all* the fact that
there's more to internationalization than converting strings!
Obviously you know next to nothing about gettext.
gettext works on a simple premise, *If localization
hampers the developer, then the developer (usually
an english-only speaking american) will say screw
and not even bother.* gettext is actually pretty clever in that it has a minimal impact on the original developer and others can localize the code. And yes there are more issues than just changing strings, (dates comes to mind) but gettext's job is strings, and if you read the doc on it you would see that it makes reccomendations about things such as plurals (not all languages pluralize by adding an 's' kinda thing)
In short gettext means 1) more readable code 2) more likelyhood that the program will get localization. We live in the real world, not some fantasy "everbody codes by my standards, no one would ever use a 2 digit date!" world
Technically, animals kill for the surivial of the
gene(s) that make them kill. Group selection is
not really big among evolutionists anymore. I'd
suggest "The Selfish Gene" by Dawkins. The basic
idea is that a gene is only interested in propagating
itself, not the welfare of the animal as a whole.
Thus, animals kill their mate because they probably
share fewer genes with it than the children they'd
be helping by getting that extra meal. (This type
of thing is rare anyway).
The FHS is there today, and a lot of vendors don't
follow it. Since all indications are that
LSB will encompass the FHS, I see no
reason why. Locations of XF86Config very from
dist to dist and there is no reason.
If LSB is not here yet, demand support for FHS.
It's a step in the right direction.
Well open-sourcing database connectivity wouldn't really make a difference anyway. You can currently connect to MS-SQL with the FreeTDS libraries (http://www.metalab.unc.edu/freetds), and Sybase has been discussing releasing all their libraries as open-source (MS-SQL is a derivative of Sybase 4.2). Plus, there are open-source ODBC driver managers such as iODBC. So is really an empty gesture.
Now, ten years out of school, I'd forgotten about
all this. It really brings back some memories. I was trying to figure out why I couldn't feel digust for what happened in Colorado, just sadness at the situation.
For those still in high school, take a long term view. Those jocks generally turn out to be the biggest losers in adult life.
I started writing just such a beast. I have some signal/slot stuff working. It still relies on the
Troll moc precompiler, but that is no longer an
issue with 2.0. It will run some of the Qt tutorial, (read: needs lots of work). I was hoping to take some of the Harmony code for the non-visual classes. The biggest problem I've found so far is that QWidget can be directly instantiated and acts like a fixed widget in gtk, and it may be inherited as well.
If anyone is interested I can release the code, it's just sort of a fun hack for me currently.
Brian
some of the old Amiga games like Fairy Tale (sp?).
I used to play that for hours.
Funny, I've been running Lotus Notes on Wine since
late last year. It has some cosmetic problems but
otherwise is very functional (can't dettach docs
either). But, My reboots to windows are now measured
in weeks instead of hours.
I'm using Samba 2.0 on our IBM S70 boxes (64bit AIX 4.3), and it runs like a dream. And the best part is not having to go through procurement to get it!
it really seems to me that Linux will make it as a (the?) mainstream OS.
Over the past few years, I've watched low end Unix applications turned over to NT boxes and worried that I'd have to spend the next 25 years of my career managing MS-SQL Server on NT. Then Linux came along. I hoped and wished for it to be successful, for purely selfish reasons of course. But, I refused to get my hopes up too high given the history of OS/2, Netscape/Java, and all the other would-be contenders.
It didn't strike me until the other day when Loki announce the Civ port that Linux may well be unstoppable. Geeks love Linux, geeks love games, games on Linux will sell disproportionately to the user base. In a couple of years, teenage boys everywhere will be installing Linux for the games.
Now, every new piece of news is just another nail in the coffin. Welcome aboard IBM!
I highly doubt many Windows programmers start out on Linux by producing entire reams of code in isolation. They'll start out like the rest of us. A small contribution here and there, maybe pick a project they like and start making some serious contributions. These projects have owners or core teams and bad code isn't going to slip by for very long.
Anyway, I'd love to see some stats on how much OSS code is produced on employers time vs. personal time. My bet is its mostly personal time and most bad programmers aren't going to contribute for no money on their own time. It just doesn't happen.