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F# 3.0 is about to be released, bundled in with the new all-grey, ALL-CAPS Visual Studio 2012. The biggest new feature is type providers, bringing some of the benefits of dynamic languages into type safe world. Innovations like type providers deserve more industry attention. I really hope these ideas will spread and hopefully languages like Scala will pick them up pretty soon so more developers (including me) can enjoy the benefits. OK, that's cool, but how is good old F# doing? Well, about the same. It lumbers on in obscurity under the massive shadow of Microsoft and whatever crazy idea the company is currently peddling. How do we save this gem of a language?
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: How do we save this gem of a language?
That's a complicated question. I tried 3 different responses, then realized, that's a complicated question! I'm hoping to write an article on type providers for Oracle (if someone doesn't beat me to it), after I update a certain *cough* article that I promised you guys something like 6 months ago.
Then, people need to see the benefit of F#, and that's not really easy to accomplish. It's a different way of thinking, the OO support is great but that isn't what FP is about, and who needs type providers for DB's anyways given the number of ORMs one can choose from.
It's a good question, and one I struggle with.
[edit]Oh, and at the moment, I disagree with the statement ...F# is superior to C# in every single way, for any application. That's just "jump on the latest tech bandwaggon" blabbering, IMHO.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: F# is superior to C# in every single way, for any application. That's just "jump on the latest tech bandwaggon" blabbering, IMHO.
one position himself ahead of the curve simply by not jumping on every latest bandwagon - focusing on capability instead.
dev
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Marc Clifton wrote: I'm hoping to write an article on type providers for Oracle
Yes please!
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Marc Clifton wrote: It's a different way of thinking, the OO support is great but that isn't what FP is about
I agree, and I see that as a problem. F# is fundamentally a functional language, yet it is bound to a Smalltalk-style object oriented framework with class hierarchies, null references and all that jazz. The result is a little bit like C++ - too many features crammed together and not necessarily well composed.
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: the new all-grey, ALL-CAPS Visual Studio 2012 I guess all you young'ns would have died back in the day of ASR-33 teletypes that did only black (gray when the ribbon was thin) all caps text.
You sound like my kids when I show a movie in B&W ("Eww, black and white? Yuck!") Or at least until I played THEM! and they heard the sounds of the giant ants, nary a peep out them after that and their eyes were glued to the screen.
Relax, you'll get used to it.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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meh
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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What does it actually mean to be ‘senior’ in this discipline? I certainly have an opinion of what it means, given that I’m charged with hiring, supporting, and retaining engineers whome are deemed to be senior. This notion that there is a bar to be passed in terms of career development is a good one, but I’d also add that these criteria exist on a spectrum, as opposed to a simple list of check-boxes. You don’t wake up one day and you are “senior” just because your title reflects that upon a promotion. Senior engineers don’t know everything. They’re not perfect in their technical knowledge, and they’re OK with that. We don't call it "old," we call it "experienced."
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i'm senior developer in my firm - strange i am not getting discount bus fare just yet.
dev
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What a good find! I enjoyed this article very much!
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As software professionals, when was the last time we went to our bosses and said “No problem. I’ll build that brand new production system for you in 8-16hrs”? Probably never. Certainly not as often as we’ve freaked-out when the boss came to us with some impossible deadline. “You can’t expect me to build something effective, reliable, great in N-months!” we scream. “Be reasonable!” So why do we sell the myth of the 2-day app to non-profits and other mission driven organizations? Maybe we like the buzz of seeing ourselves as heroes able to jump tall-buildings with our nerd super-powers. Maybe we just like the pizza.
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I think in some ways Microsoft really is Apple circa 1999. There are some differences of course. IT for business simply isn’t going to shift away from Microsoft. There really isn’t a competitor in that space. However more and more users (such as salespeople) may find they don’t need traditional desktop operating systems. I think Win8 is primarily an attempt to show to IT departments that they can have it all. That is the “have it all” is oriented towards Microsoft’s primary customer. And it ain’t end users. Is Windows RT really about enterprise sales after all?
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Stuxnet proved that any actor with sufficient know-how in terms of cyber-warfare can physically inflict serious damage upon any infrastructure in the world, even without an internet connection. In the words of former CIA Director Michael Hayden: “The rest of the world is looking at this and saying, ‘Clearly someone has legitimated this kind of activity as acceptable international conduct’.” Governments are now alert to the enormous uncertainty created by cyber-instruments and especially worried about cyber-sabotage against critical infrastructure. Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?
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In this article, I will present all of the post-mortems and figures I’ve found interesting, and I will also explain how SQUIDS fits into the overall picture. But first, I would like to quickly give my opinion on few of the App Store myths you may believe if you’re not an experienced iOS developer. There are plenty of ways to view the App Store, but my point is that you might be a bit surprised by what the App Store really means in terms of money. Anyone can play. The rules are different than you think, though.
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You woke up some memories there...
Thanks for sharing!
So long,
Chris
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I remember purchasing Win95 from a Walmart store in Oak Ridge. I got home and realized I'd picked up the CD-ROM version and I didn't have a CD-ROM drive at the time. I returned it and picked it up on 3 1/2" disks, about 20 of them IIRC
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Yup. I moved to Oak Ridge when TVA was conducting hot functional testing on Watts Bar Nuclear Plant unit #1. For the prior 2-years, I lived in Spring City, about 2-3 miles from the plant. Once unit #1 passed HFT, we knew we'd shortly be looking for work and I didn't want to get stuck in a one horse town like Spring City. That was back in the days we were developing DOS applications using FoxPro v2.x, Clipper S'87 and 5.x. Those were the days...
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Those were the days...
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I really loved 95 - though perhaps because I'm seeing it though the dirty fog of the last 20 years. Loved the article mentioning the Weezer video - I don't know how many times I listened to that. But Windows 98 SP2 is still my favorite.
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Microsoft Bob The interface formerly known as Metro was a misguided attempt to layer a cartoon-style interface over the whole operating system, evidently to make it more user-friendly.
There you go - I've just made the article ready for 2029!
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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That is hilarious!
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For those luckily (or unluckily which ever the case may be) enough to order a Windows 8 device,
which are you going to order Windows 8 RT or Windows 8 Pro?
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