It is easy to become wrapped up in the "European view of America" which is generally unrepresentative of the country.
What you are doing is granting your children access to an economic area of almost a billion people. You are granting them unprecedented access to cultural diversity. You are granting them the ability to trivially move continents should the political situation degrade on either side of the Atlantic. Yes - do it. The cost to give up the US passport is trivial if ever need be.
Having spent all week analyzing (and debugging) the mentor graphics usb driver (musb) for the omap processor, I can categorically say that there are some seriously weak drivers in linux.
I cannot see how introducing something like C++ will improve the situation. Changing the langauge doesn't get rid of evolutionary code, nor does it fix people's thinking. I can't fault the guys who evolved the musb driver into a working piece of code - the crux of the problems originate with the original Mentor documentation: Unavailable, poorly coverage of errata, poor detail on what the hardware block is doing.
What is required for good drivers are:
*Careful programming
*Open driver review
*Open test suites
-For example, the ability to run a verification test to verify that the omap (beagle board) can perform reliable control channel transfers over usb when acting as a peripheral would have saved me a lot of pain.
-How about: "Does your RS232 interface work" - hook it to an open test rig, and verify that it can run reliably at 115200 baud for a week. You'd be surprised, but the omap will most likely fail this.
If hardware vendors wish to compete for embedded linux systems, then they should promote their performance on how well they do on the open test suite with their linux drivers - not just on their arm core's performance.
Does this architecture require us to load the "NVidia processor driver" which comes with 100 megabytes of code specializations for every game shipped?
That is, after all, why their graphics drivers perform so well - they patch all shaders on top-end games...
I'm using Customer Preview 8250 right now to build the windows port of my software.
It is so much faster and more responsive than any windows I've ever used before.
Please Please Please put the start menu back. You can keep your overlay mode; I don't care, just make it work like every other version of windows out there.
By referring to "costs us" implies that realized value (e.g. money) is lost by piracy.
Until a CD is actually sold, its value is only potential - none of it is realized; it is a promise of a return on investment.
On the other-hand property in my house, money in the bank holds real value - stealing it costs the economy that value - unlike "loosing the promise of a sale."
Hopefully someone can take this thinking further than I with a hang-over can.
Hmm. Most of the discussions so-far in this thread have been about "langauges". Let us refine that into practices within a specific language:
Is not a shared pointer implementation a form of garbage collection?
What if the delete operation of a shared pointer is overridden to place that item onto a queue which is flushed when demand time is low (or memory is low)? Is this not lazy garbage collection?
What if, instead, I placed the item onto a "recycling hash-map" - then overriding operator new, I return previously allocated instances of that item - is this not a method of implementing memory reuse, without resorting to the os to perform memory allocation.
Sure, shared pointers get rid of memory leaks, but what about objects that consistently grow. Such programming errors are equivalent to "memory leaks" in the traditional sense, and plague applications written in Java, C#, Python, (and C++) etc....
The bottom line here is that C++ gives you (the programmer) the flexibility to use any of the patterns found in these "advanced scripting languages". - It is just that you have to know what you are doing.
-bms20
You have a good point about the supplied standard libraries.
Much of application development comes down to choosing the correct tool for the job these days.
I have done a hell of a lot of work in Python using Twisted these days, as it is the correct tool for the job that I am doing. C++ would have increased the amount of time required to implement the job by a large margin.
Thanks for the article reference. Unfortunately, I don't buy the argument at all.
If they re-implemented perl in java and could decisively show that "most perl benchmarks are faster in jperl than perl" then I would be interested. Until that day C/C++ will remain a faster language.
Remember, in C++ one can always implement a custom (read dynamic) allocator, specifically for the job. Or better yet, the code paths could likely be optimized to reduce the number of calls to malloc/free, reducing the overall complexity greatly.
Agreed - in part.
I have had good results using the the threading library, and spirit, but particularly poor ones with their serialization library (I ended up re-implementing it).
-bms20
Use valgrind : www.valgrind.org
It is (in my opinion) the best tool available for this purpose. In fact, I develop C++ exclusively on linux first because of valgrind, then port to Win32 later.
By the way, you're not missing out on anything special by not programming in Java or C#. Both of those languages are slow, and introduce their own language complexities.
-bms20
Why do people put these f*ing quicktime files online.
It seems like the best way not to see a film's trailer is to encode it with quicktime.
Quicktime is:
1) Not playable under windows without installing Apples crappy "take over your computer" software.
2) Not playable on Linux under MPlayer / vlc
At least Xine can play it on linux.
-bms20
Nintendo is rethinking things - the Wii controller.
Nintendo is competing in a difficult field with weaker graphics and CPU hardware.
Nintendo will come up with selling neat games that will fit the 10-20 year old market very well.
Apple is ruining the hearing of a generation.
Apple is converting people who previously used their minds into iDIOTs.
-Brett
Just a few things to point out why gaming isnt a mac thing:
1) No direct X implementation
2) Custom (crippled) PC version of graphics cards
3) Small customer base
4) Poor operating system performance
5) Poor OpenGL performance
If I were a game developer, why would I write software for the mac? If I write a game on Win32 using direct X at least the game can go onto the regular xbox or 360 without a huge amount of recoding.
I game regularly with about 10 people - we line the PCs up in the living room. One guy brings his mac laptop (because he is a mac fanboy) - he sits out most of the time because he is limited to playing Unreal Tournament 2004 and/or Red Orchestra.
The mac sucks for gaming.
-Brett
Great, I can't wait. The droning on of mac users about how "great" their system is, and how its "so much better" than Windows is what I look forward to.
I guess sales of aluminum polish and cleaning products will go up, and worldwide productivity down.
Actually, I'm a bit worried that they will wreck what is great about windows: Its the same (for the most part) where ever its installed.
It might be hard for the slashdot community to recognize a non-computer expert, but there are a lot of them. Many of them run windows XP in the 2000 look-alike mode - specifically so that they need not learn a new "look and feel".
MacOS concentrates on bling only - and this is where it fails - general users don't want zoom up icons, pan out desktops etc. What they want is just a simple environment that looks good and works the way they expect it to - and with M$ changing this it could cause many more people to stick with XP or win2k then they expect.
I really wish that they'd fix the security in XP, and improve it rather than concentrate on the bling.
-Brett
Slashdot Mirror
That is the only way I could keep my Amiga 4000 running in the summer. The only problem is that I couldn't fully close the fridge.
Definitely get them their passport!
I have done this for my two children.
It is easy to become wrapped up in the "European view of America" which is generally unrepresentative of the country.
What you are doing is granting your children access to an economic area of almost a billion people. You are granting them unprecedented access to cultural diversity. You are granting them the ability to trivially move continents should the political situation degrade on either side of the Atlantic. Yes - do it. The cost to give up the US passport is trivial if ever need be.
I cannot see how introducing something like C++ will improve the situation. Changing the langauge doesn't get rid of evolutionary code, nor does it fix people's thinking. I can't fault the guys who evolved the musb driver into a working piece of code - the crux of the problems originate with the original Mentor documentation: Unavailable, poorly coverage of errata, poor detail on what the hardware block is doing.
What is required for good drivers are:
If hardware vendors wish to compete for embedded linux systems, then they should promote their performance on how well they do on the open test suite with their linux drivers - not just on their arm core's performance.
-bms
Does this architecture require us to load the "NVidia processor driver" which comes with 100 megabytes of code specializations for every game shipped?
That is, after all, why their graphics drivers perform so well - they patch all shaders on top-end games...
I'm using Customer Preview 8250 right now to build the windows port of my software.
It is so much faster and more responsive than any windows I've ever used before.
Please Please Please put the start menu back. You can keep your overlay mode; I don't care, just make it work like every other version of windows out there.
GODDAMN RIGHT!
Well said.
Thank you :)
That is a far more polite way of putting exactly what I wanted to say.
-bms20
By referring to "costs us" implies that realized value (e.g. money) is lost by piracy.
Until a CD is actually sold, its value is only potential - none of it is realized; it is a promise of a return on investment.
On the other-hand property in my house, money in the bank holds real value - stealing it costs the economy that value - unlike "loosing the promise of a sale."
Hopefully someone can take this thinking further than I with a hang-over can.
-bms20
Glad they based it on Konqueror - Now how about contributing to KDE and or making a version for Linux? -bms20
Hmm. Most of the discussions so-far in this thread have been about "langauges". Let us refine that into practices within a specific language:
Is not a shared pointer implementation a form of garbage collection?
What if the delete operation of a shared pointer is overridden to place that item onto a queue which is flushed when demand time is low (or memory is low)? Is this not lazy garbage collection?
What if, instead, I placed the item onto a "recycling hash-map" - then overriding operator new, I return previously allocated instances of that item - is this not a method of implementing memory reuse, without resorting to the os to perform memory allocation.
Sure, shared pointers get rid of memory leaks, but what about objects that consistently grow. Such programming errors are equivalent to "memory leaks" in the traditional sense, and plague applications written in Java, C#, Python, (and C++) etc....
The bottom line here is that C++ gives you (the programmer) the flexibility to use any of the patterns found in these "advanced scripting languages". - It is just that you have to know what you are doing. -bms20
You have a good point about the supplied standard libraries.
Much of application development comes down to choosing the correct tool for the job these days.
I have done a hell of a lot of work in Python using Twisted these days, as it is the correct tool for the job that I am doing. C++ would have increased the amount of time required to implement the job by a large margin.
-bms20
Thanks for the article reference. Unfortunately, I don't buy the argument at all.
If they re-implemented perl in java and could decisively show that "most perl benchmarks are faster in jperl than perl" then I would be interested. Until that day C/C++ will remain a faster language.
Remember, in C++ one can always implement a custom (read dynamic) allocator, specifically for the job. Or better yet, the code paths could likely be optimized to reduce the number of calls to malloc/free, reducing the overall complexity greatly.
-bms20
Agreed - in part. I have had good results using the the threading library, and spirit, but particularly poor ones with their serialization library (I ended up re-implementing it). -bms20
Use valgrind : www.valgrind.org It is (in my opinion) the best tool available for this purpose. In fact, I develop C++ exclusively on linux first because of valgrind, then port to Win32 later. By the way, you're not missing out on anything special by not programming in Java or C#. Both of those languages are slow, and introduce their own language complexities. -bms20
Why do people put these f*ing quicktime files online. It seems like the best way not to see a film's trailer is to encode it with quicktime. Quicktime is: 1) Not playable under windows without installing Apples crappy "take over your computer" software. 2) Not playable on Linux under MPlayer / vlc At least Xine can play it on linux. -bms20
Just a basic question: Will this system ever save the world any energy?
Energy_to_install = installation_transport_energy + manufacturing_energy
My suspicion is that far more fossil fuel will be burned building and installing this system than it will ever generate for running a light railway.
This same systems analysis makes a hummer look competitive with a prius in terms of total energy consumption during its lifetime.
What really would have been innovative is a way to make the average American car more efficient
-bms20
Nintendo is rethinking things - the Wii controller. Nintendo is competing in a difficult field with weaker graphics and CPU hardware. Nintendo will come up with selling neat games that will fit the 10-20 year old market very well. Apple is ruining the hearing of a generation. Apple is converting people who previously used their minds into iDIOTs. -Brett
Just a few things to point out why gaming isnt a mac thing: 1) No direct X implementation 2) Custom (crippled) PC version of graphics cards 3) Small customer base 4) Poor operating system performance 5) Poor OpenGL performance If I were a game developer, why would I write software for the mac? If I write a game on Win32 using direct X at least the game can go onto the regular xbox or 360 without a huge amount of recoding. I game regularly with about 10 people - we line the PCs up in the living room. One guy brings his mac laptop (because he is a mac fanboy) - he sits out most of the time because he is limited to playing Unreal Tournament 2004 and/or Red Orchestra. The mac sucks for gaming. -Brett
OS/2? VMS Please; or, even better: VOS! -Brett
Great, I can't wait. The droning on of mac users about how "great" their system is, and how its "so much better" than Windows is what I look forward to.
I guess sales of aluminum polish and cleaning products will go up, and worldwide productivity down.
-Brett
Actually, I'm a bit worried that they will wreck what is great about windows: Its the same (for the most part) where ever its installed. It might be hard for the slashdot community to recognize a non-computer expert, but there are a lot of them. Many of them run windows XP in the 2000 look-alike mode - specifically so that they need not learn a new "look and feel". MacOS concentrates on bling only - and this is where it fails - general users don't want zoom up icons, pan out desktops etc. What they want is just a simple environment that looks good and works the way they expect it to - and with M$ changing this it could cause many more people to stick with XP or win2k then they expect. I really wish that they'd fix the security in XP, and improve it rather than concentrate on the bling. -Brett