My geek thread
11-18-10, 08:36 PM
#276
**** that
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They are easier since you don't have to worry about dereferncing pointers or null-terminating strings, two huge gotchas in unmanaged/native languages.
As for Verilog, etc, I'm with ya: ugh!
11-18-10, 08:38 PM
#277
**** that
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I have a really weird one.
Many years ago (mid-1970's) I was working for an engineering firm in Chicago doing some heat transfer calcs. They had access to a computer somewhere and I would dial in on an acoustic coupler modem. I thought that my code was correct (in some bastard language called "super" fortran), but it kept crashing. I put in all kinds of diagnostics (print out values of this and that, etc.) and when I did the code ran perfectly. I took them all out and it crashed.
Then I started taking out the diagnostic lines of code one by one. I could take them all out but one. If I took that line out the program crashed, but if I left it in the code ran just fine. It was a real head scratcher. Finally I replaced that line with a CONTINUE statement. And the code ran perfectly.
To this day have don't know for sure what was going on. But I was never fully confident of anything that came out of that computer after that.
Many years ago (mid-1970's) I was working for an engineering firm in Chicago doing some heat transfer calcs. They had access to a computer somewhere and I would dial in on an acoustic coupler modem. I thought that my code was correct (in some bastard language called "super" fortran), but it kept crashing. I put in all kinds of diagnostics (print out values of this and that, etc.) and when I did the code ran perfectly. I took them all out and it crashed.
Then I started taking out the diagnostic lines of code one by one. I could take them all out but one. If I took that line out the program crashed, but if I left it in the code ran just fine. It was a real head scratcher. Finally I replaced that line with a CONTINUE statement. And the code ran perfectly.
To this day have don't know for sure what was going on. But I was never fully confident of anything that came out of that computer after that.
So timing issues can arise by putting in or removing basic trace statements. Anyway, maybe your CONTINUE statement was like a NOOP that made the timing work out? Just a guess..
11-18-10, 08:39 PM
#278
Elite Fred
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I thought that Java was easy to pick up, but I learned C first.
11-18-10, 08:42 PM
#279
Elite Fred
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Trace/debug/logging can definitely mess with threading-type issues, since your whole app will ususally block to write out the buffer.
So timing issues can arise by putting in or removing basic trace statements. Anyway, maybe your CONTINUE statement was like a NOOP that made the timing work out? Just a guess..
So timing issues can arise by putting in or removing basic trace statements. Anyway, maybe your CONTINUE statement was like a NOOP that made the timing work out? Just a guess..
11-18-10, 08:44 PM
#281
slow up hills
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I have a really weird one.
Many years ago (mid-1970's) I was working for an engineering firm in Chicago doing some heat transfer calcs. They had access to a computer somewhere and I would dial in on an acoustic coupler modem. I thought that my code was correct (in some bastard language called "super" fortran), but it kept crashing. I put in all kinds of diagnostics (print out values of this and that, etc.) and when I did the code ran perfectly. I took them all out and it crashed.
Then I started taking out the diagnostic lines of code one by one. I could take them all out but one. If I took that line out the program crashed, but if I left it in the code ran just fine. It was a real head scratcher. Finally I replaced that line with a CONTINUE statement. And the code ran perfectly.
To this day have don't know for sure what was going on. But I was never fully confident of anything that came out of that computer after that.
Many years ago (mid-1970's) I was working for an engineering firm in Chicago doing some heat transfer calcs. They had access to a computer somewhere and I would dial in on an acoustic coupler modem. I thought that my code was correct (in some bastard language called "super" fortran), but it kept crashing. I put in all kinds of diagnostics (print out values of this and that, etc.) and when I did the code ran perfectly. I took them all out and it crashed.
Then I started taking out the diagnostic lines of code one by one. I could take them all out but one. If I took that line out the program crashed, but if I left it in the code ran just fine. It was a real head scratcher. Finally I replaced that line with a CONTINUE statement. And the code ran perfectly.
To this day have don't know for sure what was going on. But I was never fully confident of anything that came out of that computer after that.
bane of my existence
11-18-10, 08:49 PM
#282
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I had a program that would always crash on one particular test machine. I figured that it must have been memory related and eventually convinced someone to replace the memory (it was expensive back then!). Problems gone.
11-18-10, 09:03 PM
#283
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That "4:" is a label. You can actually use old BASIC syntax like "GOTO 4" to jump to that line. It wasn't really "best practices" even for VB6.
11-18-10, 09:10 PM
#285
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11-18-10, 09:29 PM
#286
negligent.
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Can any of you guys recommend a web monitoring tool, one that tracks what an end user does on the internet and can report back? One of my clients wants to watch his employees. I looked at work examiner, seems to have a bunch of bells and whistles but all I need is web monitoring. Many moons ago we used webtrends at work, other then that I haven't used anything.
11-18-10, 09:35 PM
#287
Elite Fred
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11-18-10, 09:38 PM
#288
negligent.
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11-18-10, 09:43 PM
#289
negligent.
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speaking of VB, my first introduction to programming (other than LOGO, haha..) was watching my buddy write a D&D character generator in VB - I suppose v2? - on his desktop while we downloaded Linux (slackware I think, kernel v .96) from AOL on to floppy disks. I actually have a pretty vivid memory of this.
11-18-10, 10:02 PM
#291
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don't be a language snob. VB3-VB6 got the job done for millions of small/medium (and quite a few large) companies back in the day. Yes you could make a mess of things with it. But you can do that with any language. (I made quite a bit of money with it so I'm a bit prejudiced.)
11-18-10, 10:02 PM
#292
Elite Fred
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I learned VB back in the early to mid 1990's. The reason was that I was running my department's first webserver off of my desktop and that was "running" Windows 3.1. I found that running CGI scripts in anything other than a "native" language would quickly crash the server due to horrible memory leakage and there wasn't that much memory in that old 486 machine. Each "call" invoked a virtual machine and you never did get all of the memory back. Can you imagine running Perl scripts in that environment? Running CGI's in VB solved that problem.
11-18-10, 10:10 PM
#293
negligent.
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yikes, i was just poking a bit of fun! ;p
i've got my opinions and preferences sure, but there's no way i could ever be a real language snob - not at the company i work for. we've got products dozens of years old with ingrained dependencies on languages that are even older.
i've got my opinions and preferences sure, but there's no way i could ever be a real language snob - not at the company i work for. we've got products dozens of years old with ingrained dependencies on languages that are even older.
11-18-10, 10:13 PM
#294
**** that
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I learned VB back in the early to mid 1990's. The reason was that I was running my department's first webserver off of my desktop and that was "running" Windows 3.1. I found that running CGI scripts in anything other than a "native" language would quickly crash the server due to horrible memory leakage and there wasn't that much memory in that old 486 machine. Each "call" invoked a virtual machine and you never did get all of the memory back. Can you imagine running Perl scripts in that environment? Running CGI's in VB solved that problem.
11-18-10, 10:21 PM
#295
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Sorry if this is old but it's good geek humor:
Step 1: Go to Google Maps.
Step 2: Write Japan as your departure point.
Step 3: Write United States as your arriving point.
Step 4: Get Directions
Read step No. 27
Step 1: Go to Google Maps.
Step 2: Write Japan as your departure point.
Step 3: Write United States as your arriving point.
Step 4: Get Directions
Read step No. 27
11-18-10, 10:24 PM
#296
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yikes, i was just poking a bit of fun! ;p
i've got my opinions and preferences sure, but there's no way i could ever be a real language snob - not at the company i work for. we've got products dozens of years old with ingrained dependencies on languages that are even older.
i've got my opinions and preferences sure, but there's no way i could ever be a real language snob - not at the company i work for. we've got products dozens of years old with ingrained dependencies on languages that are even older.
11-18-10, 10:25 PM
#297
negligent.
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don't be a language snob. VB3-VB6 got the job done for millions of small/medium (and quite a few large) companies back in the day. Yes you could make a mess of things with it. But you can do that with any language. (I made quite a bit of money with it so I'm a bit prejudiced.)
11-18-10, 10:27 PM
#299
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