On 5/11/2003 6:27:21 AM, James Lanfear wrote:
>Hey, at least you actually
>have a working plug-in. The
>best I can get is a frozen
>browser. Appletviewer to the
>rescue.

Naturally, two or so hours into the build, it died. So I am still lacking an appropriate plugin for my workstation, which means I do my Java homework on my laptop. And since putting this thing on my lap long enough to write code would result in second or third degree burns, that'll mean a trip to the library in the next day or so to actually start the homework due tomorrow - since this stuff comes so naturally to me I tend to put it off until the absolute last minute. Terrible habit, do as I say not as I do, etc.


>Forget
>about the plug-in, I don't
>even have a working JITter,
>and my windows are apparently
>sized according to smallest
>component in the frame (often
>around 1x1 pixel). And that's
>on a good day.

Impressive(ly broken).


>>I seem to remember Bill Gates
>>saying that it would be a
>>great day when someone figures
>>out a fast way to factor large
>>prime numbers.
>As it happens, I've done
>extensive research into this
>topic over the last few
>minutes, and I think I've
>found a method for doing just
>that.
>[ class Factor snipped ]
>
>Do you know of any journals
>that might be interested in my
>work?

I think several people beat you to that one back in 1995 after they actually read Gates' book. BTW, you did know that there is a second edition of the book? The first edition was quietly pulled off the shelves and essentially erased as much as possible. You see, Bill Gates saw the Internet as a passing fancy for researchers and college students. The attempt at revisionist history was impressive and rather amusing overall.


>It's worse than that: the
>constructor doesn't even
>guaranty that the number is
>prime. I can't imagine why
>they thought people would want
>to slowly generate 'probably
>prime' numbers.

Heh.


>And I don't believe for a
>second that the interpreter
>overhead is only 20% :-)

Well, it's about the same impact as the Python interpreter overall, which I have explicitly timed to be 20%. We had to know how to design for the interpreter hit for Neither, so we had to time it. Since we know how Python hits and others have demonstrated that Python is either dead even or slightly slower than Java, draw the appropriate conclusion. Then blame Sun for their class library which is not always optimal.


>>And speaking of better
>>languages producing compatible
>>classes, if Jerry's not
>>careful, I'm going to set up
>>Jython one of these days and
>>start handing him source code
>>written with that.
>Great, I just installed Kawa,
>so I can send him Scheme.

(like (read (if you can), this you will), scheme)

What annoys me about scheme and lisp are not that they are functional languages, really. I rather like the concepts involved. What gets me is that I often see )))))))))))) at the end of a function declaration. Give me Java or C like that and you'll be shot. And you'll have deserved it. Yet, among many that is perfectly acceptable style for lispish languages. I tend to hold what I deem commonly accepted abuses of a language against the language. Needless to say, you don't want to get me even started on Perl. ;)

>Well, IINM they stole them [generators]
>from either CLU or Icon (which
>itself stole them from CLU I
>believe), but Python has the
>advantage of not being dead.

You earn a cookie for even knowing that CLU and Icon exist. Other interesting languages exist besides the mainline ones. I think nowhere is this perhaps more true than it was on the Amiga, largely thanks to nutrolls like Aardappel who felt compelled to invent several of them himself. So far as I can tell he created them simply to see how they'd work when faced with real-world programming problems.

Unix invariably has more languages and has the crown for being the birthplace of the single most evil language ever, but the ones written for the Amiga were novel concepts and really very useful at times.

>>If you're interested, keep an
>>eye out for Chris Meyers'
>>Python for Programmers class.
>>It's non-credit but definitely
>>worth taking!
>My religion doesn't allow me
>to learn Python. I am allowed
>to steal ideas from it though,
>and generators seem like a
>nice justification for
>something I've been working
>on.

Try Intercal. You will never hate another programming language again. Ever. Intercal is enough to turn anyone into a gun-toting maniac - just like its author.