But is there support for anything higher-level than locks and atomic variables? (I'm asking -- I don't really know, my latest attempts didn't show anything better than that -- and that was in boost).
If not, adding multi-threading without proper data protection is just opening a whole new can of bugs. Java has synchronized and Ada tasks and protected objects. IMHO not having the monitor concept built-in into the language is just asking for trouble big time.
And being a user of boost myself I truly am thankful for its existence and it being half of the new standard, so to speak. It eases the pain of low level programming a lot, but a library can only do that much against bad/lazy practices not discouraged by the language.
I want to add that another factor is that the information displayed is to the point. The same happened with 2D point-and-click: what you got visually was there to inform. No 3D crap with camera angles that get in the way and that are totally unnecesary.
Platformers were like that: you needed to know the dynamics of the sprite and that was all; no second guessing were the terrain ended or started; what was traversable or not, etc.
Some titles manage to go 3D losing minimally from their 2D masters, but usually you end with some unplayable mess were movements are slow, go behind control, you don't know where your feet are and so on...
Do you think it is heavier? I tried ubuntu (8.10) and xubuntu in a similar computer (512MB, Atom) and it was a dog, it swapped so much once you opened firefox as to be unbearable.
Indeed, I was surprised at 9.04 working almost well in the aspire one out of the box. Maybe the whole distro has been streamlined?
Well, there's an Acer Aspire One with 512MB of RAM and 8GB of flash HDD. That's the one I have.
In this one, the ubuntu netbook remix runs decently but already hits swap from time to time. I had to uninstall some services to make it a bit more agile.
Ummm no, 512 is no longer OK, at least with a stock [K]ubuntu 8.10. I have an atom 320 box with precisely 512MB and swap starts to get used from the get go. I was quite surprised myself to find this...
I then moved to Xubuntu, but as some have already said, then you get xfce plus gnome, and the result is only marginally better.
Ada 2005 is comparatively minor (although some changes, like interfaces, are not that minor). The real improvement was Ada 95. The 95 revision managed to standardize many things that C++/java are now settling.
Ada is not trendy, but it has had built-in portable concurrency and many other killer features for more than a decade. Proper specifications are one of my favs.
Of course there are other factors, like the lack of good and free compilers. Fortunately now the gcc toolchain has put this to rest. Also there are few libraries. Really few. Binding to C is easy, but still a deterrent for the hobbyist.
It's emphasis in making maintenance easy over quick programming really pays in the end, not even in the middle/long term but shortly after getting familiar with the language. I find myself much more productive. When something compiles, I'm sure that the only bugs remaining are logical, not some funny pointer or unexpected type conversion or overflow. Nowadays I rarely fire the debugger more than once a month. My C/C++ has improved because Ada forbids the things that are considered bad practices in C/C++, but you still end doing because "you know better".
I think that Ada is getting now more exposure because, albeit a niche language, Adacore is pushing hard behind it. Also, its SPARK derivative by Praxis has made some headlines with large and difficult projects getting flying marks. SPARK has made static analysis a reality for large projects.
I'd say that anyone capable of discipline will enjoy the benefits of Ada. It's not the thing for quick hacking, but it is perfect for anything not trivial. Software engineers should love it. I have heard somewhere that it is a safe C++, and I concur: feature-wise is more or less on par, it catches bugs sooner and prevents many typical ones.
Have I already said that concurrency is built-in and portable:P? And that inter-thread communication is really well done?
This is oh-so-true. It drives me nuts every time. And then, if you hit enter too soon when selecting some file, you end with a truncated/usr/bin/oku from hell or something, instead of autocompleting its own suggestion.
And there goes another faultly sarcasm detector...;)
Re:libgcc, libstdc++, and Bison
on
GPLv2 Vs. GPLv3
·
· Score: 1
In a related note, AdaCore (the company behind the Ada compiler in gcc) did exactly this with its compiler: it switched libraries to pure GPL just a year or two ago, for its free compiler version.
Mind you, this is a special case because they submit their patches to gcc, and the Ada compiler under FSF control still retains the LGPL license (and AdaCore has not a say on this, since I assume copyright is transferred for the patches under the FSF tree, so they do this with full knowledge of the situation). So there are in practice three Ada compiler versions:
* GnatPro: for paying customers, the compiler itself is GPL but I guess the binaries it produces are totally proprietary (support IS expensive for this compiler version). * GnatGPL: released by AdaCore, pure GPL (including the runtime!) so programs compiled with it are also GPL (the case the grandparent feared). Free support by AdaCore for universities through their Academia program (and this is good support, I've used it). * gcc-ada: from FSF, receiving patches from AdaCore (and any volunteers, of course). GPL compiler, LGPL libraries. Programs can have the license you choose, but you're on your own in which concerns to support for the compiler.
So, while I don't see neither the FSF switching the license, it's not as if this were impossible.
Europe won't be safe harbor for very long. It's clear, even with the strong public opposition, that someone with big bucks has bribed people there to get softpatents passed. Last time we where lucky because there was so much exposure that it was crazy to force the hand. Sadly, this cannot be struck down definitely, and can be resubmitted (and will be), and it will suffice one failure at fighting it that it will be enabled forever.
I find it nauseating, but just like regular politics.
It all boils down to that, the same you consider an expert on that article's field, probably the other "morons" consider also themselves experts.
A solution is to add citations for sources. That way you back your claim of expertise. More and more, articles I check have lots of citations.
Actually, from my remembrances of playing fs2, the video doesn't make full honor to the game, even if they've now enhanced the graphics. It truly is the space sim all wing commander fans were dreaming of.
I remember the missile launchings... the energy lances around you... the first mission in the nebulae.
This happened to me also with some of the beta updates. What I did was frankly rude, but worked: booted into single user, hitting Ctrl-C like crazy in the console during boot up to avoid the PCMCIA thing. Once I reached a shell, I removed that service from rc.d
So yeah, it's a big pain but you haven't lost your installation.
A "nice" first step from Microsoft in the direction of a fully DRManaged PC. Of course we are reaching the critical point where hardware will come with full DRM crap and we'll see which has more weight: the mass dumbness to swallow anything big corps throw at them, or the desire for convenience.
0.20 cents of euro from every blank CD and 0.70c from every DVD and over 1 from every dual layer DVD goes straight to the spanish equivalent of RIAA. No wonder their stats show an exponential grow of income.
I wonder how many of these "insightful" posters have had a N-Gage QD in their hands. Because I'm greatly pleased with it. No side talking, cheap with everything I want and telco-free. There are a lot of nice games (nothing to do with the crapfest you can get for java) plus you can "preview" them for free; the unmount-to-change card is solved; you can plug 1GB MMC which is more than enough; you can read e-books, even see some anime while in a trip. There are also lots of utilities for symbian: metronome, guitar tuner come very handy for a musician.
All in all I think is quite a good deal. Maybe the first ngage had too bad a reputation for the QD to overcome it.
I swear, as an amateur musician, I don't know another collective which is more prone to critizising colleages than musicians. It's almost as if any musician which is not your personal friend must be critizised and flamed without pity. Musicians have a need to declare that, if they wanted, they could do the same as the other guy.
This thread shows that another time. How many of the people critizising this guy could sit at their piano right now and start to play these very same songs? Everything requires time, even for the most skilled one, so trashing his videos is simply jealously. He's getting attention and you not, swallow it, life is like that.
I bet it's the 90%/10% rule again. 90% of musicians do suck even if they have studied for years and can play a lifeless Tempest or Revolutionary study. So they feel the urge to stablish with words what they can't when doing music. See? I'm doing it too! It's endemic.
I say: kudos to this guy who's having a lot of fun playing what he wants. The rest of you saying "he's mediocre" have my permission to go back to your gray hours of "I'm a great musician; but I have no [time/luck/whatever], is not lack of talent".
Slashdot Mirror
But is there support for anything higher-level than locks and atomic variables? (I'm asking -- I don't really know, my latest attempts didn't show anything better than that -- and that was in boost).
If not, adding multi-threading without proper data protection is just opening a whole new can of bugs. Java has synchronized and Ada tasks and protected objects. IMHO not having the monitor concept built-in into the language is just asking for trouble big time.
And being a user of boost myself I truly am thankful for its existence and it being half of the new standard, so to speak. It eases the pain of low level programming a lot, but a library can only do that much against bad/lazy practices not discouraged by the language.
I stopped buying anything sony when all their floppy disks demonstrated to be crap that developed faulty sectors with a hard stare.
I want to add that another factor is that the information displayed is to the point. The same happened with 2D point-and-click: what you got visually was there to inform. No 3D crap with camera angles that get in the way and that are totally unnecesary.
Platformers were like that: you needed to know the dynamics of the sprite and that was all; no second guessing were the terrain ended or started; what was traversable or not, etc.
Some titles manage to go 3D losing minimally from their 2D masters, but usually you end with some unplayable mess were movements are slow, go behind control, you don't know where your feet are and so on...
Do you think it is heavier? I tried ubuntu (8.10) and xubuntu in a similar computer (512MB, Atom) and it was a dog, it swapped so much once you opened firefox as to be unbearable.
Indeed, I was surprised at 9.04 working almost well in the aspire one out of the box. Maybe the whole distro has been streamlined?
Well, there's an Acer Aspire One with 512MB of RAM and 8GB of flash HDD. That's the one I have.
In this one, the ubuntu netbook remix runs decently but already hits swap from time to time. I had to uninstall some services to make it a bit more agile.
No, but I remember Winamp 4...
Ummm no, 512 is no longer OK, at least with a stock [K]ubuntu 8.10. I have an atom 320 box with precisely 512MB and swap starts to get used from the get go. I was quite surprised myself to find this...
I then moved to Xubuntu, but as some have already said, then you get xfce plus gnome, and the result is only marginally better.
Ada 2005 is comparatively minor (although some changes, like interfaces, are not that minor). The real improvement was Ada 95. The 95 revision managed to standardize many things that C++/java are now settling.
:P? And that inter-thread communication is really well done?
Ada is not trendy, but it has had built-in portable concurrency and many other killer features for more than a decade. Proper specifications are one of my favs.
Of course there are other factors, like the lack of good and free compilers. Fortunately now the gcc toolchain has put this to rest. Also there are few libraries. Really few. Binding to C is easy, but still a deterrent for the hobbyist.
It's emphasis in making maintenance easy over quick programming really pays in the end, not even in the middle/long term but shortly after getting familiar with the language. I find myself much more productive. When something compiles, I'm sure that the only bugs remaining are logical, not some funny pointer or unexpected type conversion or overflow. Nowadays I rarely fire the debugger more than once a month. My C/C++ has improved because Ada forbids the things that are considered bad practices in C/C++, but you still end doing because "you know better".
I think that Ada is getting now more exposure because, albeit a niche language, Adacore is pushing hard behind it. Also, its SPARK derivative by Praxis has made some headlines with large and difficult projects getting flying marks. SPARK has made static analysis a reality for large projects.
I'd say that anyone capable of discipline will enjoy the benefits of Ada. It's not the thing for quick hacking, but it is perfect for anything not trivial. Software engineers should love it. I have heard somewhere that it is a safe C++, and I concur: feature-wise is more or less on par, it catches bugs sooner and prevents many typical ones.
Have I already said that concurrency is built-in and portable
And also important is that the remaining middlemen are hired by you, because you need them, instead of you working for them under slavish terms.
This is oh-so-true. It drives me nuts every time. And then, if you hit enter too soon when selecting some file, you end with a truncated /usr/bin/oku from hell or something, instead of autocompleting its own suggestion.
And there goes another faultly sarcasm detector... ;)
In a related note, AdaCore (the company behind the Ada compiler in gcc) did exactly this with its compiler: it switched libraries to pure GPL just a year or two ago, for its free compiler version.
Mind you, this is a special case because they submit their patches to gcc, and the Ada compiler under FSF control still retains the LGPL license (and AdaCore has not a say on this, since I assume copyright is transferred for the patches under the FSF tree, so they do this with full knowledge of the situation). So there are in practice three Ada compiler versions:
* GnatPro: for paying customers, the compiler itself is GPL but I guess the binaries it produces are totally proprietary (support IS expensive for this compiler version).
* GnatGPL: released by AdaCore, pure GPL (including the runtime!) so programs compiled with it are also GPL (the case the grandparent feared). Free support by AdaCore for universities through their Academia program (and this is good support, I've used it).
* gcc-ada: from FSF, receiving patches from AdaCore (and any volunteers, of course). GPL compiler, LGPL libraries. Programs can have the license you choose, but you're on your own in which concerns to support for the compiler.
So, while I don't see neither the FSF switching the license, it's not as if this were impossible.
Europe won't be safe harbor for very long. It's clear, even with the strong public opposition, that someone with big bucks has bribed people there to get softpatents passed. Last time we where lucky because there was so much exposure that it was crazy to force the hand. Sadly, this cannot be struck down definitely, and can be resubmitted (and will be), and it will suffice one failure at fighting it that it will be enabled forever.
I find it nauseating, but just like regular politics.
It all boils down to that, the same you consider an expert on that article's field, probably the other "morons" consider also themselves experts. A solution is to add citations for sources. That way you back your claim of expertise. More and more, articles I check have lots of citations.
Actually, from my remembrances of playing fs2, the video doesn't make full honor to the game, even if they've now enhanced the graphics. It truly is the space sim all wing commander fans were dreaming of.
I remember the missile launchings... the energy lances around you... the first mission in the nebulae.
Get it, you won't regret it.
This happened to me also with some of the beta updates. What I did was frankly rude, but worked: booted into single user, hitting Ctrl-C like crazy in the console during boot up to avoid the PCMCIA thing. Once I reached a shell, I removed that service from rc.d
So yeah, it's a big pain but you haven't lost your installation.
A "nice" first step from Microsoft in the direction of a fully DRManaged PC. Of course we are reaching the critical point where hardware will come with full DRM crap and we'll see which has more weight: the mass dumbness to swallow anything big corps throw at them, or the desire for convenience.
0.20 cents of euro from every blank CD and 0.70c from every DVD and over 1 from every dual layer DVD goes straight to the spanish equivalent of RIAA. No wonder their stats show an exponential grow of income.
Not really for administrators, but...
When you'd bet your life that your code is right and the problem is in the compiler, 99.9% chances are the fault is yours.
I wonder how many of these "insightful" posters have had a N-Gage QD in their hands. Because I'm greatly pleased with it. No side talking, cheap with everything I want and telco-free. There are a lot of nice games (nothing to do with the crapfest you can get for java) plus you can "preview" them for free; the unmount-to-change card is solved; you can plug 1GB MMC which is more than enough; you can read e-books, even see some anime while in a trip. There are also lots of utilities for symbian: metronome, guitar tuner come very handy for a musician.
All in all I think is quite a good deal. Maybe the first ngage had too bad a reputation for the QD to overcome it.
I hear the editors have been exploiting this bug for years on Slashdot....
It's the same as the pharaohs did: kill the architect after the work is done.
We want the latest technology and huge battleships kicking ass, no more prequels thanks. Let's go forward please.
This thread shows that another time. How many of the people critizising this guy could sit at their piano right now and start to play these very same songs? Everything requires time, even for the most skilled one, so trashing his videos is simply jealously. He's getting attention and you not, swallow it, life is like that.
I bet it's the 90%/10% rule again. 90% of musicians do suck even if they have studied for years and can play a lifeless Tempest or Revolutionary study. So they feel the urge to stablish with words what they can't when doing music. See? I'm doing it too! It's endemic.
I say: kudos to this guy who's having a lot of fun playing what he wants. The rest of you saying "he's mediocre" have my permission to go back to your gray hours of "I'm a great musician; but I have no [time/luck/whatever], is not lack of talent".
And remember too that CherryOS is making money and 99% music sharers not. That is enough difference to make the second legal in my country.