Re: As programmers...have we come a long way since 1993?
From: Richard Heathfield (dontmail_at_address.co.uk.invalid)
Date: 10/08/03
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Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 20:32:17 +0000 (UTC)
gswork wrote:
> Thinking back i
> wonder how we managed to get so many apps on a 100mb hard disk(
> answer: because they were small!)
They'd have to be /extremely/ small to fit into 100 millibits. (Sorry, pet
peeve.)
>> it was 1996 when I first came across the Internet - in a "cybercafe" in
>> the Tottenham Court Road, IIRC. Literally within 60 seconds of being
>> shown how to use the browser, I'd managed to locate detailed instructions
>> on how to build an atomic bomb. And the rest, as they say, is history.
>
> That's the first thing you looked for? Should we be worried?
Yes, and no, at least not for the time being (I am having some trouble
locating a reasonably-priced tritium supply in the UK).
>
>> > Now, it's all very OOP, very structured framework GUI, RAD/STL
>> > approaches, DirectX/OpenGL and other big media libraries, 32 bit
>> > memory models,
>>
>> That's about to change. 64-bit Windows is almost upon us.
>
> I haven't been keeping up with all that. Will things change
> radically, or will it be gentler than the 16->32bit migration?
Hard to say. I browsed briefly through the AMD 64-bit manual today and
didn't see anything desperately radical, but I didn't look very hard. I
guess it'll be same as last time - those who program with an eye for
portability will have few or no problems, whereas those who don't give a
damn will struggle.
> To some extent, with 'kitchen sink' software tools like java, c++/stl,
> delphi & c# much of the data structures and algorithms are prepackaged
> into the likes of Vectors, Tlists or whatever.
True enough, but...
> They're good stuff,
> but perhaps mask some of the 'advanced fundamentals' from people
> trying to learn about programming.
...this is the problem. If you don't know about, say, trees and lists, how
will you know when to use a map and when to use a vector?
>> We've certainly come a long way. But have we progressed? IMHO, with
>> regard to quality, robustness, and efficiency, we have /regressed/ to
>> quite a large extent.
>>
>> And that's a shame.
>
> Regressed? Perhaps in a sense of machine efficiency ('most work per
> cpu cycle'), i'm not so convinced we've regressed in terms of overall
> software quality and robustness though. At least i can think of no
> overwhelming experience of mine, or research/anecdotes that point to
> an actual regression.
Find one of those touch-screen public information terminals - the kind you
get in libraries, for example. (No, I don't have a particular model in
mind.) Play with it for half an hour or so. Explore as many options as you
can. (Try going Back/Forward/Back/Forward/Back/etc...) The chances are good
that you'll be able to provoke either a Java null pointer exception or a
Blue Screen of Death within the half hour. (And that exception is rather
ironic, given that everyone /knows/ that Java doesn't have pointers!)
Look at the voting machine in Florida that recorded -16022 votes for Al
Gore. Yes, MINUS 16022.
Look at Windows XP and Windows 2000, with that very scary DCOM exploit.
Suddenly, the mantras of "don't use pirate software" and "don't open email
attachments" and "don't run strange binaries" are no longer sufficient to
protect you against viruses.
Linux is nice, though. I think that was the most significant innovation of
the 1990s wrt programming. It gives us a place to stand. Archimedes, bless
his heart, would have leapt at the chance to use Linux.
-- Richard Heathfield : binary@eton.powernet.co.uk "Usenet is a strange place." - Dennis M Ritchie, 29 July 1999. C FAQ: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html K&R answers, C books, etc: http://users.powernet.co.uk/eton
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