Re: e to the i pi

Malcolm McLean wrote:
"Keith Thompson" <kst-u@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
"Malcolm McLean" <regniztar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
[...]
Anyway I have registered and agreed not to distribute any programs
compiled
with it as open source, etc, etc, etc. I've no real choice. A computer
isn't
a computer without a programming environment - it's just a glorified
typewriter.

Do they *really* require you to agree to that? How can they enforce a
restriction like that? If you distribute your own source code, how
can the fact that you've fed it to their compiler affect your rights?
I suspect the situation isn't that simple.

You can always install Cygwin, which includes gcc (I'm not sure how
much support it has for Windows-specific programming, though).

I think actually the open source restriction applies to anything based on
their samples.
Since the API is so intricate the only sensible way to to take a working
program and modify it, this could be very broad. They are obviously scared
of GNU.

I didn't read the agreement very carefully. I doubt the thing has any legal
force because you are logging into a computer, not signing a binding
contract.

The saga continues. I installed the free C compiler. It compiles "hello
world". But it won't do a Windows program. I didn't buy Vista for its
command shell capabilities, so I download the SDK. Fair enough. The compiler
won't recognise it. After about two hour rooting about on the web, I find a
Microsoft page telling me how to edit various configuration files to get it
to work - two of them, plus paths. Meanwhile the OS merrily throws threats
at every edit. Of course I make a typing mistake. At 1.00 in the morning, I
finally get a "Hello World" - in C++, I haven't figiured out how to get C
mode yet.

I am a programmer not a hacker. Some people might see this as an interesting
challenge. Personally I just see it as a total nuisance which takes times
from what I should be doing, like adding subroutines to BASICdraw. Two days
wasted. This sort of thing is often rationalised as "teething troubles". In
fact it is a constant situation. At work I am struggling with two new
programming environments - R and a new Lisp compiler. In computing, you are
very frequently using software for the first time.

Yes.

Tools are now so complex that they tend to create more problems than
they purport to solve. These problems are typically solved by yet more
tools and the vicious cycle continues, feeding the growth of software
engineering and quality assurance.

Standard C is a breath of fresh air in all this quagmire of complexity.

.

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