Comment Re:This is awesome (Score 1) 217
"He did it too, mommy!" is a valid position to take in a debate only if you're 8 years old.
I totally agree, now please explain how am I using this argument, because I don't see it.
"He did it too, mommy!" is a valid position to take in a debate only if you're 8 years old.
I totally agree, now please explain how am I using this argument, because I don't see it.
What are you blathering on about? It's got nothing to do with the EU.
The ECHR he is ranting about is the European Court of Human Rights. It is one of the reasons rightwing parties all over Europe are against the EU: it annoying insists that humans have rights.
It seems like taint tracking and sanitation should be pervasive and explicit. This can be partially enforced by type enforcement, no?
This is possible in almost any modern language, although in some languages the code will be so horrible you can wonder if the cure isn't worse than the disease. For example, in C you could wrap tainted data in a struct that is only touched by a few select sanitisation functions. (You would still have to make sure no lazy or malicious code pokes around in the struct, or casts away this protection, but you could write a tool to check that.) Similar for languages like Python, although again it is easy to get around the isolation, so discipline and checking is still required. Languages like Java (or Swift
I think it is fair to say that an important reason that these techniques are not used is cultural. Building a watertight taint wrapper in C (the most common language for this kind of code) is tricky and boring, and there is a lot of Real-Programmers-don't-Need-Handholding mentality among C programmers.
More like a mixture of functional languages, Python, Java, Objective C, and C#, but you have to know those languages to recognise that.
A pretty solid mixture, in fact. So far what I see I like a lot!
Why do you think Swift is platform specific? I think it is will almost certainly not be; Apple will be more interested in getting the new language adopted rather than locking in people. Therefore at least the core language is very likely to be neutral. In fact, there is a pretty good chance it will be available through the llvm channels, and have a BSD license.
Metal is more likely to be platform specific because the goal is to give more direct access to the hardware.
For sufficiently loose definitions of "working tablet", you are of course right. Like those Microsoft thingies that everyone stayed away from in droves. Or Apple's own Newton.
So why was the iPad the first massively popular one? Because Apple produced one that was actually useful rather than started people cursing in the first few minutes. That took them years of experimentation and polishing; there is a reason there had been rumours about an Apple tablet for years before it was actually introduced.
It's easy to think up the concept of a tablet, and even to build some vaguely functional prototypes, but until Apple came up with hardware that was light and sturdy enough to be practical, and software that made the limited environment useful, tablets were something you only used if you absolutely had to. And Apple had nobody to `sponge off', this was Apple's effort only.
As far as I'm concerned this effort deserves the word 'invented', but by all means go for `reinvented' if it makes you feel better.
Steve did not redefine personal computing, just a designer who sponged off other's engineering accomplishments. He invented nothing, conceived nothing other than perhaps artistic case and keyboard designs.
By that standard the Wright brothers were not inventors either, because all they did was sponge of real inventors, and bolt a lightweight combustion engine to some pieces of wood and cloth. By any sensible definition, Apple invented the tablet. Yes, there had been attempts at tablets before the iPad, but they were just as effective as airplanes before the Wright brothers. You're still allowed to hate Apple and Jobs all you want, but fair is fair: they did invent the tablet.
... The other bubble car - Mercedes Smart is a failure in every sense of the word.
For a failure it is doing remarkably well. Here in Europe it has now been for sale for more than a decade, and there are no signs that its market is collapsing. It's true that not everyone is driving it, but if that is the benchmark, nowadays all cars are failures.
And the Google bubble car will be as popular as Segway.
The Segway also doesn't look like it will go away in the near future, it has found a few niches (e.g. getting around fast in large buildings such as airports and shopping malls, and guided tours for tourists).
Also, Google's bubble car is just an experimental platform for now.
So because some people might use the information to do harm then no of us are allowed to see it? That makes sense!
It is more like: because the only reason to get this information is to do harm, none of us are allowed to see it. Makes sense, no?
But still, somehow, you know and it makes him even better in your eyes. Interesting that.
There can be many reasons why this knowledge became public. Yet you seem to imply one particular reason. Interesting that.
Nice idea that is long overdue, but perhaps a better way to get this accepted is to implement this in a real high-profile compiler such as llvm/clang.
I'm afraid, however, that the Real Men Don't Need Bound Checks mentality that is prevalent among C programmers will be a big obstacle.
What makes you think Linus has not tried this level of politeness? From what I've read of him, he is normally very friendly towards the clueless and the sloppy. The problem is that not everyone learns. What would YOU do if the same developer would commit the same offence again and again despite your politely phrased teaching moments? Remember you cannot fire the developer, because you're not employing him.
I would say that a more sharply worded rebuke is appropriate here. Personally I would not use swear words even in these circumstances, but that's a matter of style. Grumbling about prima donnas certainly makes sense to me.
"More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined." -- Fred Brooks, Jr., _The Mythical Man Month_