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A census of OpenStack code contributions set off discussions (some heated) on the value of code contributions. [ITworld]
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As a programmer, I can honestly say that I am lazy. Forget the menial job of repeating tasks... if it takes me an hour to complete an iteration, I would rather spend 3 hours automating the process. You never know when you might need to do it again, and the click of a button is much more satisfying than an hour of processing data. Don't repeat yourself... especially if you can get a tool to do it for you.
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When you’re working in a strongly typed language like C# or Visual Basic, instantiating an object is done with the new keyword. It’s important that we recognize the significance of using this keyword in our code. Any time you use the new keyword, you are gluing your code to a particular implementation. You are permanently hard-coding your application to work with a particular class’s implementation. That’s huge. Using new isn’t wrong, it’s a design decision. It should be an informed decision, not a de facto one.
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PHP is an embarrassment, a blight upon my craft. It’s so broken, but so lauded by every empowered amateur who’s yet to learn anything else, as to be maddening. It has paltry few redeeming qualities and I would prefer to forget it exists at all. But I’ve got to get this out of my system. So here goes, one last try. Virtually every feature in PHP is broken somehow.
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Even worse from a development viewpoint than the inconsistent naming conventions, lack of stacktraces and truly cranky equality operator are the code examples you get from 99% of PHP community sites and contributors. Quite simply the worst code I've ever seen. Years ago I demoed some fairly simple PHP classes to a prospective employer who didn't get functions, let alone OO: he didn't believe you could or should code that way. Even when I showed it working and debugged it using Zend, he didn't trust what he was seeing and I didn't get the job, a decision I am thankful for every day I wake up. C# is Microsoft and costs actual money, but you get what you pay for rather than a free-of-charge mess that is primarily the object of affection for people that shouldn't be let near a computer.
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In-memory DBMSs have been around for some time. They were originally employed in performance sensitive applications serving telephony and financial services markets. There is a resurgence of interest around in-memory database technology and we are starting to see in-memory DBMS technology reach a disruptive tipping point for a number of scenarios. Here's why. Why in-memory databases are important, and what Microsoft is doing about it.
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When personal clouds begin to act as peers with other network services, people gain unprecedented power and leverage. Personal clouds can change how we relate to everything in our lives, rearrange how we buy and sell products and services, and revolutionize how we communicate with each other. For these changes to take place, personal clouds must be able to un applications for you, under your direction. Your own, personal GLaDOS.
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The PC industry is so young that a remarkable percentage of its most significant figures are still with us. But it lost a key one on Sunday when Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore, died at 83. Commodore was one of the first important PC companies, and Tramiel, in his own idiosyncratic manner, played a vital role in getting the PC revolution underway. My first computer was a PET. What was yours?
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Atari 400; best machine I ever owned.
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Have you ever wondered why a supercomputer is called a supercomputer? Is it the number of processors or the amount of RAM? Must a supercomputer occupy a certain amount of space, or consume a specific amount of power? Let's walk back through the history of these machines to see what made them so super. I feel the need... the need for speed!
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One Laptop Per Child was a good idea, a noble and ambitious one at that. Originally proposed in 2006, OLPC aimed to build an inexpensive laptop that would be sold to governments in the developing world and made available in turn to the children in those countries via their respective ministries of education. Easier said than done. What were they expecting, cargo-cult hackers?
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Windows Phone 8 is now starting to show up in the browser statistics of analytics services. Is Microsoft being too slow with updates for the phone? I'd say no, and here's why. Microsoft's update timeline is clever. Android is shipping way too quickly.
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As nice as it is to simplify your code and iterate over many different types of collections, the real improvement comes when you start to reuse the functions passed to the iterators. But, you ask, how can I reuse my big, complicated function? Here's how. For loops are so last year.
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How will history judge the donation of $200 million in code? [ITworld]
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Microsoft starts XP retirement countdown[^]
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
"Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction." ― Francis Picabia
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With IE10 Metro going plugin-free, it’s incredibly important to document steps to help developers provide their users with great experiences without the need for proprietary 3rd party add-ons. If you’ve built a plug-in-free browsing experience for the iPad, a few changes will make it ready for the new IE10 plug-in-free experience on Windows 8. Here's how. The web thanks you.
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The world does not want a new programming language, especially from me. But since you are hell bent on creating a new one, you might as well make it an improvement. Here are 8 tips to help make your toy language actually useful. Please, please. please, don't make a new language.
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While I may agree with some of his points, were I to create a new language it would be what I want, not what he wants. And while I do like veal, I really like lamb.
I also really like using a very feature-poor IDE (text editor) that loads quickly and doesn't waste time and space parsing the code in order to offer features I don't (usually) want -- syntax highlighting, Intellisense, refactoring, etc. I want to be able to choose the right tool for the job -- full-blown IDE some times, text editor other times -- for the same language and code base. I would not want a language that requires a full-blown IDE.
I have given the idea of a language that is stored in some other format some thought over the years, but I just don't think it would be worth the trouble. If anyone develops one, it might be interesting to see.
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The article misses one huge thing which is how proprietary a language becomes if you make it depend on an IDE.
I don't like IDEs. I prefer an integrated development environment (lower case). That means I have a nice text editor, which knows how to open the current file in my favourite XML editor, and I have a command line that builds the software and can also find a function and open it in my favourite text editor. And now we have a database I also have a command line toy that will let me talk to the database. It means any task I have to repeat more than a couple of times ends up as a script (yes, edited by my text editor!)
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sweavo_new wrote: a command line toy that will let me talk to the database.
I have one too and it can talk to several different database systems, and it's separate from the IDE.
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XSLT is kind of a "programming" language in a way, and it's encoded in XML .. which is still just text of course.
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Right, and it's not general purpose either.
P.S. XAML came to mind as well, but also doesn't fit the bill.
modified 10-Apr-12 9:20am.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: syntax highlighting
That's the one point I have to disagree with. The other stuff I can live without, but syntax highlighting is important enough that I've actually created it myself for a few languages in various editors. And there are plenty of lightweight editors that offer syntax highlighting so there's no realistic cost to using it (sure, any of those editors may load a fraction of a second slower than something like Notepad, but can you really tell the difference?).
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