In an effort to avoid work, I started searching the internet for new sources of entertainment. I stumbled upon Best Tech videos.
There are many many videos for your enjoyment, covering a wide range of topics. Since the OnSoftware Podcast series seems to be slowing, this should keep me amused for a while longer!
Enjoy!
Best Tech Videos
Short Update
You'll notice that there's a severe lack of posts in the last few weeks; I'm moving house, and it seems to be impossible to get an Internet connection in a timely fashion.
Got lots to post about, so hopefully I'll be back online this weekend.
Stay tuned!
Yes, we DO care!
Jeff Atwood writes a brilliant blog over at coding horror. My only gripe is that he's a .NET kinda guy - which is fine, most of the time. However, his recent post, entitled "Why Doesn't Anyone Give a Crap About Freedom Zero?" seems a little short sighted. For those of you who have never heard of freedom 0, It's one of the four freedoms that the free software foundation have set out to protect. The FSF define it as:
I don't have a problem with Jeff's love of .NET and microsoft in general, but when you post a blog with a title like that, it sidelines and marginalises everyone who does care.
Jeff - there are many of us who do care about Freedom 0 - and the other three. Take some time out of your busy schedule to investigate Linux and the BSDs. You'll find a community full of bright, innovative developers who all want to make a better computing platform.
This brings me to my second point. Okay, so this is probably really obvious to the rest of you, but I had a sudden realization the other day. It went something like this:
The more I look into the KDE project the more I realize that I'm right. There are some truly brilliant bits of code in there; It's a pity that they're never appreciated by the general public.
The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
I don't have a problem with Jeff's love of .NET and microsoft in general, but when you post a blog with a title like that, it sidelines and marginalises everyone who does care.
Jeff - there are many of us who do care about Freedom 0 - and the other three. Take some time out of your busy schedule to investigate Linux and the BSDs. You'll find a community full of bright, innovative developers who all want to make a better computing platform.
This brings me to my second point. Okay, so this is probably really obvious to the rest of you, but I had a sudden realization the other day. It went something like this:
The reason why there are so many technically brilliant innovations found only in open source platforms (Yes, I genuinely believe that to be true) is that the pressures of software development aren't there. Commercial software vendors are always struggling to maintain a balance between allocating time to develop new features, maintain existing features, test / QA the product, and get it out the door. I don't believe that there's a single software product that was 100% complete when it was shipped. That's the nature of commercial software development. Too often the "right" way of doing things is sacrificed for a cheaper, faster way of doing things.
On the one hand this means that deadlines and schedules are met (everyone gets paid), but on the other hand the software quality is lacking. In an open source project however, there are no commercial pressures at all. Developers are left to their own devices to code what they want. Package maintainers are allowed to choose their own schedule - and who better to choose that balance between release frequency and code quality than the programmers who know the product best?
The more I look into the KDE project the more I realize that I'm right. There are some truly brilliant bits of code in there; It's a pity that they're never appreciated by the general public.
On C++ programming IDEs
I've been doing a bit of programming work under Linux for the last few days, and I'm very disappointed with the selection of integrated development environments on offer. Read on for my complaints.
First though, a bit of history. I usually write code under Windows for my job. I use Microsoft's visual studio 6. For those of you who haven't tried it, compiling code with the VS6 C++ compiler is a bit like pulling teeth. For example, Microsoft thinks that the following is perfectly valid code:
However, The scope of the variable "i" is limited to the contents of the for loop (in this case it's en empty loop), and so shouldn't be available to the printf line. This becomes even more painful when you want multiple for loops within a function, and you want to be able to use the "i" variable for each loop. Under windows, you can do this:
Note that I don't need to re-declare "i" in the second loop, since it already exists? If you try and compile this code under a compiler that observes the C++ standard, you'll get compilation errors. So, how do you turn this into cross-compiler code? AFAIK the only way is to use a second variable inside the second for loop, OR to wrap each for loop in it's own additional scope block, like this:
However, I digress from the true subject of this post. For all it's compiler digressions, the user interface actually isn't that bad. Sure, the toolbars seem to move to random positions on your screen every time you debug a project. Sure, you can't use it on a second screen because all the tooltips draw themselves on the first screen, and yes, if you want decent code completion you need to use a plugin like visual assist X, and no, there's no code folding either. But apart from all that, the UI is just right. It's not overcomplicated, it's easy to use.... simple!
So, let's look at KDevelop, KDE development environment. I have several problems with it:
In the mean time, I'm going back to my old IDE: Kate, with the scons build system, activated from the console, and gdb as a debugger. What more could you want?
First though, a bit of history. I usually write code under Windows for my job. I use Microsoft's visual studio 6. For those of you who haven't tried it, compiling code with the VS6 C++ compiler is a bit like pulling teeth. For example, Microsoft thinks that the following is perfectly valid code:
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++);
printf("After loop, i = %d", i);
However, The scope of the variable "i" is limited to the contents of the for loop (in this case it's en empty loop), and so shouldn't be available to the printf line. This becomes even more painful when you want multiple for loops within a function, and you want to be able to use the "i" variable for each loop. Under windows, you can do this:
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
// do something
}
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
// do something else
}
Note that I don't need to re-declare "i" in the second loop, since it already exists? If you try and compile this code under a compiler that observes the C++ standard, you'll get compilation errors. So, how do you turn this into cross-compiler code? AFAIK the only way is to use a second variable inside the second for loop, OR to wrap each for loop in it's own additional scope block, like this:
{
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
// do something
}
}
{
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
// do something else
}
}
However, I digress from the true subject of this post. For all it's compiler digressions, the user interface actually isn't that bad. Sure, the toolbars seem to move to random positions on your screen every time you debug a project. Sure, you can't use it on a second screen because all the tooltips draw themselves on the first screen, and yes, if you want decent code completion you need to use a plugin like visual assist X, and no, there's no code folding either. But apart from all that, the UI is just right. It's not overcomplicated, it's easy to use.... simple!
So, let's look at KDevelop, KDE development environment. I have several problems with it:
- Code completion requires the user to jump through waaaay too many hoops. As far as I'm concerned it should be turned on by default, or, if that ruffles too many feathers, have one checkbox to turn it on. I shouldn't have to root around in the KDevelop settings, and project settings, add the library include directories I want to use for the project, exit KDevelop, install ctags, re-load project, tweak settings, and then find that code completion is actually not that brilliant.
- The User interface is way too cluttered. Many of the menus are so full of entries that they cascade off the bottom of my screen. There are so many toolbars and sidebars that I can barely see my work. Many of the sidebars don't even work properly! The documentation sidebar seems particularly useless. I could probably find out what I have to do to get it going, but my point is that it should work out of the box! When I fire up KDevelop, I want to write some code, not mess about with the environment.
In the mean time, I'm going back to my old IDE: Kate, with the scons build system, activated from the console, and gdb as a debugger. What more could you want?
Maintaining Binary Compatability
It seems to be common practice for software development companies to patch individual parts of a released product. Usually this means distributing a second installer that creates new shared object (.so or .dll) files, so the next time the application in question runs it loads the new object files, and thus runs the new code.
In practice this is a great idea - it means that companies don't need to re-release and re-ship the entire product. Unfortunately, it's not always that easy. The biggest problem is that the new libraries must be binary compatible with the old ones. Essentially this means making sure that all objects within the library are the same size as they were, and that things like vtables haven't changed.
For a while now I've been looking around for a definitive list of guidelines to help me maintain binary compatible libraries. I finally found it on the KDE website.
Behold: Binary Compatible Issues with C++
Anyway, I thought that might be useful to some of you. Enjoy!
In practice this is a great idea - it means that companies don't need to re-release and re-ship the entire product. Unfortunately, it's not always that easy. The biggest problem is that the new libraries must be binary compatible with the old ones. Essentially this means making sure that all objects within the library are the same size as they were, and that things like vtables haven't changed.
For a while now I've been looking around for a definitive list of guidelines to help me maintain binary compatible libraries. I finally found it on the KDE website.
Behold: Binary Compatible Issues with C++
Anyway, I thought that might be useful to some of you. Enjoy!
New Tools!
I've started to use scribefire to publish posts on this blog. The built-in blogspot editor was just too clunky. Ideally I'd like to use a separate KDE application, but the ones available simply aren't good enough for me to use yet.
Speaking of KDE, I'm currently downloading the KDE sources from subversion - I'll see what small contributions I can make.
Finally - I know this is old news, but if you haven't already, head over to the GIMP website, and check out gimp 2.4. It's been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait. The new version contains (amongst other things) a whole raft of bug fixes, improved icons, scalable brushes, and (my personal favorite) a new and improved selection tool!
Speaking of KDE, I'm currently downloading the KDE sources from subversion - I'll see what small contributions I can make.
Finally - I know this is old news, but if you haven't already, head over to the GIMP website, and check out gimp 2.4. It's been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait. The new version contains (amongst other things) a whole raft of bug fixes, improved icons, scalable brushes, and (my personal favorite) a new and improved selection tool!
post-vacation blues.
Well, I'm back from my holiday, with a slight tan and some great photos. Works has been busier than usual, so I'm struggling to find spare time to domuch at all.
My next hobby project will be to build my own ADSL / Ethernet / Wireless router box. I'm planning on using a Soekris net 4501 motherboard running a cut down version of Debian Linux. I'll update the blog when I get the parts, and I plan on writing a short HOWTO document which will include selecting the hardware, putting it all together, and the software as well.
I've added a selecton of photos from New Zealand to the main page - these haven't been edited in any way - yes, the country really does look like that!
Until next time!
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