I did the test they sent. Then they wanted to have two developers sit there and watch me. I just didn't feel comfortable with that--it creeped me out. I declined for that reason more than any other.
The compiler in MSVC++ doesn't support the latest C++ standard, especially in the area of templates. In addition, it doesn't support the Standard C++ Library as described in the latest version of Stroustroup.
Also, having the full source for the system libraries and the operating system is important when debugging. I've been able to fix/extend things that I couldn't on Windows.
Thread support in Linux is robust and follows the POSIX standard. If you have to write portable code, this can be important. Also, most textbooks and references on threading address the POSIX standard pthreads library.
A rather big one: sockets and file descriptors are unified under Linux/Unix. This means that the system API's that apply to files also apply to sockets. Because TCP/IP was added to Windows later in the evolution of Windows, the socket descriptors are not interchangeable with other system objects, so WaitForMultipleObjects() in Windows cannot wait for a system object and a socket at the same time. This can complicate socket programming.
Windows takes a huge performance hit because its DLL's are not relocateable code, and the runtime loader in Windows must patch each call and jump instruction in the code when the DLL loads. In addition to taking a huge amount of time when a DLL is loaded, it pollutes the swapfile with multiple copies of the DLL because of the patched instructions. Under Linux, shared libraries are position-independent, so they do not have to be patched at load time and they may be paged directly from the shared object file, thus not polluting the swap file.
That's all I can think of off of the top of my head.
In the compilers I've used (MSVC & GCC), exception specifications are not that well supported, and I've had people on the GCC list say that they're going away anyway. I feel that this is a useful feature, especially if the compiler gave warnings about violations of the specifications. What does the future of exception specifications look like?
Any sort of ecosystem, from the one the fish live in to the media you describe follows the law of the minimum. The least-present quantity of a necessary ingredient regulates the rate at which proliferation can happen. Your codfish can only proliferate up to the limits set by food and predation. I would argue that your modern media does also follow the law of the minimum and the regulating ingredient is attention.
Let's take web sites as an example. Web sites aren't run for free. They're supported via advertising revenues, corporations, and sometimes goodwill on the part of the hosting provider. If people don't look at a web site, then the ad revenues or corporate sponsorship doesn't come in, or the hosting provider gets bored with it. Since there are a finite number of people looking at the web sites, and there's only so much time in the day, then there's only a finite amount of attention (i.e. page views for web sites). If the amount of attention slips below the threshold set by ad revenues/corporate sponsorship/goodwill vs. cost of running the site, then the site will die.
Don't make the mistake of 1998 stock market investors who thought that the uphill run was forever because that's all they had ever seen.
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This is a troll. Every election year in the US this one makes the rounds. It's a dig against "liberal intelligentsia".
I did the test they sent. Then they wanted to have two developers sit there and watch me. I just didn't feel comfortable with that--it creeped me out. I declined for that reason more than any other.
No, it's just stupid. He went climbing alone and left a note at home that said "Utah".
Sounds like some marketing droid sent in a press release anonymously.
The compiler in MSVC++ doesn't support the latest C++ standard, especially in the area of templates. In addition, it doesn't support the Standard C++ Library as described in the latest version of Stroustroup.
Also, having the full source for the system libraries and the operating system is important when debugging. I've been able to fix/extend things that I couldn't on Windows.
Thread support in Linux is robust and follows the POSIX standard. If you have to write portable code, this can be important. Also, most textbooks and references on threading address the POSIX standard pthreads library.
A rather big one: sockets and file descriptors are unified under Linux/Unix. This means that the system API's that apply to files also apply to sockets. Because TCP/IP was added to Windows later in the evolution of Windows, the socket descriptors are not interchangeable with other system objects, so WaitForMultipleObjects() in Windows cannot wait for a system object and a socket at the same time. This can complicate socket programming.
Windows takes a huge performance hit because its DLL's are not relocateable code, and the runtime loader in Windows must patch each call and jump instruction in the code when the DLL loads. In addition to taking a huge amount of time when a DLL is loaded, it pollutes the swapfile with multiple copies of the DLL because of the patched instructions. Under Linux, shared libraries are position-independent, so they do not have to be patched at load time and they may be paged directly from the shared object file, thus not polluting the swap file.
That's all I can think of off of the top of my head.
In the compilers I've used (MSVC & GCC), exception specifications are not that well supported, and I've had people on the GCC list say that they're going away anyway. I feel that this is a useful feature, especially if the compiler gave warnings about violations of the specifications. What does the future of exception specifications look like?
Any sort of ecosystem, from the one the fish live in to the media you describe follows the law of the minimum. The least-present quantity of a necessary ingredient regulates the rate at which proliferation can happen. Your codfish can only proliferate up to the limits set by food and predation. I would argue that your modern media does also follow the law of the minimum and the regulating ingredient is attention.
Let's take web sites as an example. Web sites aren't run for free. They're supported via advertising revenues, corporations, and sometimes goodwill on the part of the hosting provider. If people don't look at a web site, then the ad revenues or corporate sponsorship doesn't come in, or the hosting provider gets bored with it. Since there are a finite number of people looking at the web sites, and there's only so much time in the day, then there's only a finite amount of attention (i.e. page views for web sites). If the amount of attention slips below the threshold set by ad revenues/corporate sponsorship/goodwill vs. cost of running the site, then the site will die.
Don't make the mistake of 1998 stock market investors who thought that the uphill run was forever because that's all they had ever seen.