Didn't the government close this lab in the 90's already? I remember
watching a documentary where Mulder had to infiltrate the little
building and listen to Bach's Brandenburgh Concerto #2, broadcast back
by the aliens.
PHP is a great, scalable language for writing cross-platform web applications.
As far as cross-platform desktop apps - you got me. With cross-platform desktops you're either looking at a) writing c/c++ apps with gtk, or b) using a 'managed' platform like.net/mono or java.
I agree. I switched to Linux from Windows, and while I find SuSE a lot more intuitive than RedHat 9 used to be, it's still not ready to compete with Windows in terms of simplicity; especially in the out-of-the-box department. Example: mp3 support. Yes, a commercial distro will include things like MP3 support, but the free distros have no support for mp3's, dvd's mpeg's, and anything else that's become a staple media format.
As for myself, I almost went mad trying to get Rhythmbox installed on SuSE 10.1. For someone who isn't proficient at googling, and/or package management (including running rpm or yum to see what dependencies are missing), this is enough to not consider Linux altogether. I'm totally enjoying XGL, but eyecandy is probably not enough of a compensation for the average user, for daily pains-in-the-ass.
It seems that the less-than symbol did not show up in my post. Anyway, the following sentence:
"Unlike any other well-designed language, VB versions.net allowed"
should read
"Unlike any other well-designed language, VB versions PRIOR TO.net allowed"
I write VB code (and C#, when I can get away with it) for a living. My boss is also adamant about using VB on all large projects, largely because it's the only language he's comfortable (familiar?) with.
As someone who started out with BASIC, and moved to better and brighter pastures (like C++), Visual Basic syntax sickens me. It's comparable to pretty much all other haphazard Microsoft project (DOS and Windows, anyone)? As a result, the language is bloated with bad syntax, poor design, and speed that probably only surpasses slow, esoteric languages like Squeak. The average programmer probably will not notice such problems, but I dare anyone to move to a higher-level language and not be sickened by VB's inefficiency and poor syntax.
I could write an entire article about how badly the language is designed, but let it just suffice to make a couple of points:
a) Unlike any other well-designed language, VB versions.net allowed dilapidated DOS BASIC-type syntax such as
canvas.Line(x1,y1)-(x2,y2),b
Mind you, no one who developed libraries could ever write functions that accepted such input, but some built-in language constructs did.
b) Language is bloated with keywords such as Overridable, Overloadable, Shared, Static, etc... I know programmers who've been working on VB most of their lives and they still don't remember when to 'override' and when to 'overload'
c) Still no operator overloads
And that's just the top of the iceberg.
VB.net is a lot better than its predecessors, but it suffers from most of the same problems - language is bloated, and its syntax is so arbitrary, as to make it near-useless. If your boss is willing, at least try to get them to switch to C#. While it's still a "bytecode" language (pox on Sun from turning that idiotic idea into a trend), it's far more superior to Visual Basic, and its syntax will not make you bang your head against the wall.
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Didn't the government close this lab in the 90's already? I remember watching a documentary where Mulder had to infiltrate the little building and listen to Bach's Brandenburgh Concerto #2, broadcast back by the aliens.
the answer is 42, of course
PHP is a great, scalable language for writing cross-platform web applications. As far as cross-platform desktop apps - you got me. With cross-platform desktops you're either looking at a) writing c/c++ apps with gtk, or b) using a 'managed' platform like .net/mono or java.
I agree. I switched to Linux from Windows, and while I find SuSE a lot more intuitive than RedHat 9 used to be, it's still not ready to compete with Windows in terms of simplicity; especially in the out-of-the-box department. Example: mp3 support. Yes, a commercial distro will include things like MP3 support, but the free distros have no support for mp3's, dvd's mpeg's, and anything else that's become a staple media format. As for myself, I almost went mad trying to get Rhythmbox installed on SuSE 10.1. For someone who isn't proficient at googling, and/or package management (including running rpm or yum to see what dependencies are missing), this is enough to not consider Linux altogether. I'm totally enjoying XGL, but eyecandy is probably not enough of a compensation for the average user, for daily pains-in-the-ass.
It seems that the less-than symbol did not show up in my post. Anyway, the following sentence: "Unlike any other well-designed language, VB versions .net allowed"
should read
"Unlike any other well-designed language, VB versions PRIOR TO .net allowed"
I write VB code (and C#, when I can get away with it) for a living. My boss is also adamant about using VB on all large projects, largely because it's the only language he's comfortable (familiar?) with. As someone who started out with BASIC, and moved to better and brighter pastures (like C++), Visual Basic syntax sickens me. It's comparable to pretty much all other haphazard Microsoft project (DOS and Windows, anyone)? As a result, the language is bloated with bad syntax, poor design, and speed that probably only surpasses slow, esoteric languages like Squeak. The average programmer probably will not notice such problems, but I dare anyone to move to a higher-level language and not be sickened by VB's inefficiency and poor syntax. I could write an entire article about how badly the language is designed, but let it just suffice to make a couple of points: a) Unlike any other well-designed language, VB versions .net allowed dilapidated DOS BASIC-type syntax such as
canvas.Line(x1,y1)-(x2,y2),b
Mind you, no one who developed libraries could ever write functions that accepted such input, but some built-in language constructs did.
b) Language is bloated with keywords such as Overridable, Overloadable, Shared, Static, etc... I know programmers who've been working on VB most of their lives and they still don't remember when to 'override' and when to 'overload'
c) Still no operator overloads
And that's just the top of the iceberg.
VB .net is a lot better than its predecessors, but it suffers from most of the same problems - language is bloated, and its syntax is so arbitrary, as to make it near-useless. If your boss is willing, at least try to get them to switch to C#. While it's still a "bytecode" language (pox on Sun from turning that idiotic idea into a trend), it's far more superior to Visual Basic, and its syntax will not make you bang your head against the wall.
FIX MY CHICKEN COOP!