I would say it depends on the students background and where you see them going. A friend of mine wanted to learn to program, but with her background in Math, Haskell or Ocaml made more sense than the usually imperitive languages people suggest. Really, that would be a strength of Ocaml: you can learn functional programming, imperitive programming, and object-oriented. It also allows you to undertake all sorts of data structures without being tripped up by the specifics (which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you want them to learn).
If it is a truely introductory class with the intention of getting the students interested in programming, low overhead is essential. Ocaml works to a degree there, but I'd be inclinded to lean toward Python like everyone else.
I suppose the real question is whether you (and they) want to make them into people who understand the nature of programming or into good programmers. For the second option, exposure to more than one language at more than one level of abstraction would be my suggestion, along with a trying out languages with different typing systems. For the first, low barrier of entry.
Oh, and either way, REPL (read-eval-print-loop, as in a language with an interactive environment for testing) is a must.
Well, first off, it is neat technically. Not a few idea by any stretch, but fun.
However, based on the recordings, it isn't worth much to spend months building it if you're not going to tune the guitar.
Similarly, the beauty of the guitar is in the expressiveness. You can play the same note at the same dynamic level in a practically infinite number of ways. You can slide, you can bend. It's popularity as a solo instrument comes largely from its flexibility and expressiveness. When a robot can do that, I will be absurdly impressed.
To be fair, I didn't compete.
Excuse me if I don't consider the successes
and failures of USA teams my own.
It's a big country, and I don't know everybody.
Speaking as somebody who gets absurdly motion sick whenever not driving, I gotta say that having a car that drove me around would be a waste of a great many meals.
It also makes me think of the transportation industry. Truck drivers might become obsolete, but I doubt it. Look at trains: they have friggin tracks. They still have human drivers. I think cars would be the same way: the system is just too complicated and the amount of required real world understanding is too large in a real situation to just trust a computer to do it all. Heck, I don't even trust most humans to drive.
Nader knows he won't win; he must. Instead, he is running on the knowledge that if he or anyone else takes enough of the vote from one of the 2 major parties, they will alter laws so as to make 3rd party candidates not be spoilers. This, of course, benefits everyone in the long run.
However, in the short run, a lot of folks won't vote for a 3rd party candidate if there is much at stake. It could be argued that the 2 major parties want people to think there is much at stake in every election, so they always remain the only two real options.
So, what I propose is that a party (probably the democrats) create legislation before it becomes an issue to eliminate the spoiler thing, or perhaps strike a deal with Nader that "If you don't run, we'll make the process more fair".
My bad, wasn't clear. I wrote "what should be undone" so as to not imply that all of these things are necessarily bad. Homosexuality was on the list because it was on the parent's list.
Personally, I am very pro gay rights. (Or "A promoter of the homosexual agenda", depending who you ask..)
I think the grandparent couldn've been more clear.
I interpreted him as essentially saying, "In general, there is a noticable trend of liberals being from cities, and conservatives being from rural areas".
He didn't say "All city-dwellers are liberal, all rural folk are conservative".
Generalizations aren't disproven by exceptions.
(Of course, with enough exceptions, you have a really sucky and eventually wrong generalization. And, of course, generalizations aren't awesome to begin with.)
Heh. While you raise some valid points, I'd also like to point out that: 1) Universities (well, mine, at least) are places of extreme education and knowledge. There is more free thinking and intellectual curiosity about here than any of the crazy "real world" places I visit. In fact, my professors and most of my peers are more educated on the status of the nation and world than pretty well anybody else I come across (admittedly, I spend most of my time with academics).
2) Most professors I know aren't quite so "seperated from reality" as you would like to think. Most own homes and live just like normal people. Most have worked in private industry if that is possible in their field, and if not, have made an extensive and immersive study into their chosen field. The only exception is my classics professors, and they are still more intelligent and informed than your average citizen by leaps and bounds, and are certainly no less qualified to have opinions just because they happen to work at a school during the day.
3) I think Universities are also slighly liberally biased because I've noticed that a lot my liberal friends believe that one way to change the world is to ensure good education, and one good way to do that is to be a teacher. (Compassionate people also tend to be pulled to teaching, all jokes aside) So, liberals are drawn to education, making it not unreasonable for schools to be liberal... and as a side note, do you think that Universities get too much funding from the government? That they shouldn't get any? I'm curious. I think government funding of education is a positive thing.
We are our genetics, and our environmental influences. I've not been able to find anything else that determines the state of a person. That being the case, pretty well everything can be attributed to prior events or circumstance.
However, the difference is how this is dealt with. If somebody murders because they have inbalanced brain chemistry and an absurdly skewed worldview due to childhood abuse, it doesn't make it okay. However, it would be silly to say, "He chose to, it's his fault." With a knowledge of the causes of fatness, drunkeness, homosexuality, etc, we can take steps toward undoing what should be undone and preventing what may be.
(disclaimer: as a believer in some sort of pseudo-determinism, I don't really believe in free will in the "any of a person's choices are possible" sense.)
I'm not expert, but my understanding of the music industry leads me to believe that the "fat guys in suits" do serve a genuine purpose. They may get paid too much for what they do, but they do stuff.
Artists cannot go national on their own; they somebody to invest in studio time, radio distribution, etc. From what I've seen, most artists in this day and age just go where they are told and say what they are told by their Handlers.
In short, you don't become big without luck or a very talented promotional team. I, for one, would prefer the artists get to concentrate on performing and writing.
I've made a fairly obvious realization: Every Ask Slashdot has a healthy bunch of comments questioning the validity of the ask slashdot, telling the person to google, and whatnot.
Maybe it's time to just hardcode that into the Ask Slashdot section to save all these folks their precious time?
Whoa. I actually can't tell if I'm being sarcastic.
I would advise the use of Syzygy. We use it here at the U of I, it's GPL, and it really excellent as far as power and stability go.
More importantly, it can run on a off-the-shelf PC. It can also run on windows or linux.
I don't know if I trust these results.
Music speaks to people, but almost entirely through the performance. It is the nuance and the timing that the performer put into it that make it speak, the notes on the page are almost secondary as far as expression goes.
After all, when was the last time you were moved by sheet music? Or even midi, for that matter.
My campus will disconnect any computer it finds vulnerable. I suppose this could be considered the next step in that direction, but this time students have a way to be sure that they don't end up disconnected at an inconvenient time.
If this were my school, however, I think I'd find it easier to make my computer not look like a windows machine to the network, then deal with stuff on my own instead of trusting their software.
Umm.. apache? I imagine there a few database apps and other servers too. Just a guess.
X is for desktop and workstation stuff. Things that a user interacts with at the screen. It gives the option of the console also, so the user tends to loose nothing.
Applications that run on servers and daemons don't need a bunch of clicky buttons, and are often not connected to a monitor.
But, I guess you were asking for console desktop apps. There are a few, but as a user interface, text only is mildly crippled. The only time I use console desktop stuff is when I bork X or when all I've got is SSH (at least once a day).
Other than that, pork is probably my favorite IM client. It's patterned after ircII.
Y'know, I did essentially that, and I still get maybe 10 spam per day.
Know why?
My friends have worms.
Yep, all those blasted addressbook-reading pieces of crap tried to propagate themselves using my email, and as a result spammers are very much aware of my existence.
Moral of the story: Don't make friends with insecure people.
Whoa. It seems that Lisp holds the record for "Longest Lived Language That Is Still Relevant Yet Underappreciated"
It just amazes me that something concieved that long ago is still going strong. I guess it makes sense, as it was concieved initially as a language for describing algorithms, then later implemented. With abstraction on the rise as it seems to be, this quality of being much closer to theory than practice is quite a useful one.
Wow, who'da thunk it?
I just gave some of his stuff a test run, and it looks like he's right.
The JVM stuff is nearing 2x the speed of my G++3.3.3 stuff on some tests.
I would like to see it tried with 3.4.1 or even the new 3.5 stuff, if possible.
Anybody else do at home comparisons?
Slashdot Mirror
I would say it depends on the students background and where you see them going.
A friend of mine wanted to learn to program, but with her background in Math, Haskell or Ocaml made more sense than the usually imperitive languages people suggest. Really, that would be a strength of Ocaml: you can learn functional programming, imperitive programming, and object-oriented.
It also allows you to undertake all sorts of data structures without being tripped up by the specifics (which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you want them to learn).
If it is a truely introductory class with the intention of getting the students interested in programming, low overhead is essential. Ocaml works to a degree there, but I'd be inclinded to lean toward Python like everyone else.
I suppose the real question is whether you (and they) want to make them into people who understand the nature of programming or into good programmers.
For the second option, exposure to more than one language at more than one level of abstraction would be my suggestion, along with a trying out languages with different typing systems. For the first, low barrier of entry.
Oh, and either way, REPL (read-eval-print-loop, as in a language with an interactive environment for testing) is a must.
Well, first off, it is neat technically.
Not a few idea by any stretch, but fun.
However, based on the recordings, it isn't
worth much to spend months building it if you're
not going to tune the guitar.
Similarly, the beauty of the guitar is in the expressiveness. You can play the same note at the same dynamic level in a practically infinite number of ways. You can slide, you can bend. It's popularity as a solo instrument comes largely from its flexibility and expressiveness. When a robot can do that, I will be absurdly impressed.
Until then, neat gadget you have there.
You know... funny doesn't always mean ;-)
we're laughing _with_ you.
To be fair, I didn't compete.
Excuse me if I don't consider the successes and failures of USA teams my own.
It's a big country, and I don't know everybody.
Speaking as somebody who gets absurdly motion sick whenever not driving, I gotta say that having a car that drove me around would be a waste of a great many meals.
It also makes me think of the transportation industry. Truck drivers might become obsolete,
but I doubt it.
Look at trains: they have friggin tracks. They still have human drivers. I think cars would be the same way: the system is just too complicated and the amount of required real world understanding is too large in a real situation to just trust a computer to do it all. Heck, I don't even trust most humans to drive.
Excellent timing!
Right around Halloween, the "dead" comes back to life!
Congrats and good work to the OpenBSD team!
Keep it up.
Nader knows he won't win; he must.
Instead, he is running on the knowledge that if he or anyone else takes enough of the vote from one of the 2 major parties, they will alter laws so as to make 3rd party candidates not be spoilers.
This, of course, benefits everyone in the long run.
However, in the short run, a lot of folks won't vote for a 3rd party candidate if there is much at stake. It could be argued that the 2 major parties want people to think there is much at stake in every election, so they always remain the only two real options.
So, what I propose is that a party (probably the democrats) create legislation before it becomes an issue to eliminate the spoiler thing, or perhaps strike a deal with Nader that "If you don't run, we'll make the process more fair".
My bad, wasn't clear.
I wrote "what should be undone" so as to
not imply that all of these things are
necessarily bad.
Homosexuality was on the list because
it was on the parent's list.
Personally, I am very pro gay rights.
(Or "A promoter of the homosexual agenda", depending
who you ask..)
For saying things like that,
my conservative professors would shoot
you if you ever came on their property.
Hmm... probably eat you too.
I think the grandparent couldn've been more clear.
I interpreted him as essentially saying,
"In general, there is a noticable trend of liberals being from cities, and conservatives being from rural areas".
He didn't say "All city-dwellers are liberal, all rural folk are conservative".
Generalizations aren't disproven by exceptions.
(Of course, with enough exceptions, you have a really sucky and eventually wrong generalization. And, of course, generalizations aren't awesome to begin with.)
Heh. While you raise some valid points,
.. and as a side note, do you think that
I'd also like to point out that:
1) Universities (well, mine, at least) are places of extreme education and knowledge. There is more free thinking and intellectual curiosity about here than any of the crazy "real world" places I visit. In fact, my professors and most of my peers are more educated on the status of the nation and world than pretty well anybody else I come across (admittedly, I spend most of my time with academics).
2) Most professors I know aren't quite so "seperated from reality" as you would like to think. Most own homes and live just like normal people. Most have worked in private industry if that is possible in their field, and if not, have
made an extensive and immersive study into their chosen field. The only exception is my classics professors, and they are still more intelligent and informed than your average citizen by leaps and bounds, and are certainly no less qualified to have opinions just because they happen to work at a school during the day.
3) I think Universities are also slighly liberally biased because I've noticed that a lot my liberal friends believe that one way to change the world is to ensure good education, and one good way to do that is to be a teacher. (Compassionate people also tend to be pulled to teaching, all jokes aside) So, liberals are drawn to education, making it not unreasonable for schools to be liberal.
Universities get too much funding from the government? That they shouldn't get any?
I'm curious. I think government funding of
education is a positive thing.
Don't be so surprised.
Effects have a cause.
We are our genetics, and our environmental influences. I've not been able to find anything else that determines the state of a person.
That being the case, pretty well everything can be attributed to prior events or circumstance.
However, the difference is how this is dealt with.
If somebody murders because they have inbalanced brain chemistry and an absurdly skewed worldview due to childhood abuse, it doesn't make it okay.
However, it would be silly to say, "He chose to, it's his fault." With a knowledge of the causes
of fatness, drunkeness, homosexuality, etc, we can
take steps toward undoing what should be undone and preventing what may be.
(disclaimer: as a believer in some sort of pseudo-determinism, I don't really believe in free will in the "any of a person's choices are possible" sense.)
I'm not expert, but my understanding of the music industry leads me to believe that the "fat guys in suits" do serve a genuine purpose.
They may get paid too much for what they do, but they do stuff.
Artists cannot go national on their own; they somebody to invest in studio time, radio distribution, etc.
From what I've seen, most artists in this day and age just go where they are told and say what they are told by their Handlers.
In short, you don't become big without luck or a very talented promotional team.
I, for one, would prefer the artists get to concentrate on performing and writing.
I've made a fairly obvious realization:
Every Ask Slashdot has a healthy bunch of comments questioning the validity of the ask slashdot, telling the person to google, and whatnot.
Maybe it's time to just hardcode that into the Ask Slashdot section to save all these folks their precious time?
Whoa. I actually can't tell if I'm being sarcastic.
In other news, up is down, left is right,
and OS X is ugly.
I don't have kids (yet), but I feel pretty certain that stepping on children is not a productive solution.
Well, I guess it depends where you step.
I would advise the use of Syzygy.
We use it here at the U of I, it's GPL, and it really excellent as far as power and stability go.
More importantly, it can run on a off-the-shelf PC. It can also run on windows or linux.
I strongly advise looking into it.
I don't know if I trust these results. Music speaks to people, but almost entirely through the performance. It is the nuance and the timing that the performer put into it that make it speak, the notes on the page are almost secondary as far as expression goes. After all, when was the last time you were moved by sheet music? Or even midi, for that matter.
My campus will disconnect any computer it finds vulnerable. I suppose this could be considered the next step in that direction, but this time students have a way to be sure that they don't end up disconnected at an inconvenient time.
If this were my school, however, I think I'd find it easier to make my computer not look like a windows machine to the network, then deal with stuff on my own instead of trusting their software.
Umm.. apache?
I imagine there a few database apps and
other servers too. Just a guess.
X is for desktop and workstation stuff.
Things that a user interacts with at the screen.
It gives the option of the console also, so the user tends to loose nothing.
Applications that run on servers and daemons don't need a bunch of clicky buttons, and are often not connected to a monitor.
But, I guess you were asking for console desktop apps. There are a few, but as a user interface,
text only is mildly crippled. The only time I use console desktop stuff is when I bork X or when all I've got is SSH (at least once a day).
Other than that, pork is probably my favorite IM client. It's patterned after ircII.
Y'know, I did essentially that, and I still get maybe 10 spam per day.
Know why?
My friends have worms.
Yep, all those blasted addressbook-reading pieces of crap tried to propagate themselves using my email, and as a result spammers are very much aware of my existence.
Moral of the story: Don't make friends with insecure people.
Whoa.
It seems that Lisp holds the record for
"Longest Lived Language That Is Still Relevant Yet Underappreciated"
It just amazes me that something concieved that long ago is still going strong. I guess it makes sense, as it was concieved initially as a language for describing algorithms, then later implemented. With abstraction on the rise as it seems to be, this quality of being much closer to theory than practice is quite a useful one.
Oh boy! There is a "Manufacture your own results" cgi! Now we can all play the "change the weighting so your language of choice wins" game!
I changed everything to '1', and Ocaml won.
I just did my own benchmarks for Ocaml, C++ (with O3, march, ftracer), and Java with the code for matrix, ackermann, and heapsort.
In all 3, Ocaml came out fastest on my machine.
Results:
Matrix: G++ - 2.467s
Java - 2.462s
Ocaml - 1.062s
Ackermann: G++ - 2.147s
Java - 1.023s
Ocaml - 0.603s
Heapsort: G++ - 1.266s
Java - 1.327s
Ocaml - 1.116s
(Note: the argument to heapsort was 1000000 and to
ackerman was 11)
I'm a wee bit surprised by this, but not much.
Wow, who'da thunk it? I just gave some of his stuff a test run, and it looks like he's right. The JVM stuff is nearing 2x the speed of my G++3.3.3 stuff on some tests. I would like to see it tried with 3.4.1 or even the new 3.5 stuff, if possible. Anybody else do at home comparisons?