Most of the people I've worked with not only knew what software was on their computer, they knew what rev it was, and most or all of the information about the computer itself, because the "IdioT" department liked to make changes without telling you. This conversation occurred at a place I worked, between the production manager and "IT".
"Where is the computer off my desk? Don't worry, we moved all your files. Where is the computer you took? You didn't transfer the dual Black Box RS-485 card for the time clock system. Oh, that's what that card was? You weren't authorized to have it, so we threw it away. Can't you just go back to a sign in sheet?"
There was about 20% of the people who didn't care what they used, but most of them were using older computers as 9600 baud terminals to the Prime minicomputer used for MRP by manufacturing.
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Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.
Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
Stopped wrestling with 'PB for windows' because of just that feature. Saw it as a 'state of mind' and a glaring C derived inanity that should have been handled by the compiler, hence transparent to the user. Mr Zale there couldn't understand how such a trivial item could possibly offend a customer who is 100% supportive of his DOS PB product. For the occasional windows fluff, I now use Purebasic. john
If only build a couple dozen of the things to control model railways, may be not. But imagine, just for a moment, you were doing a mass-market product; say a million units in the field. That means you get two of those faults in your user base every day. If those devices control something critical, and you deliver the million units within one year, you'll have injured someone within the three weeks after start of production.
If that's not something to lose sleep over, what would be?
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Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.
The book "Practical Software Requirements" by Benjamin L. Kovitz gives a very good overview of a practical workable process in the context of writing a workable Software Requirement.
IMO the problem is probably that there is nothing in the spec that says it should not corrupt files, hence since non-corruption of files is not arequirement, the final product need not comply. Often specs are bad not because they put silly things in, but because they leave important things out.
If we are going to talk about that stuff then we ought to be aware of the effect of chip geometry and feature sizes in the susceptability factors. One of my colleagues at work recently gave a talk on the subject and had some figures. He has now, alas, transferred back to the Cadarache establishment.
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Paul E. Bennett ....................
Forth based HIDECS Consultancy .....
Mob: +44 (0)7811-639972
Tel: +44 (0)1235-811095
Going Forth Safely ..... EBA. www.electric-boat-association.org.uk..
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I probably should have added a smiley to my original comment. I also doubt that if your board explodes when plugged into the PCI bus, that it did conform to the spec in the first place. Also I dont think one can specify that when something explodes it should not kill people :-)
To an experienced person , or someone that know what they are doing, many things are "obvious". From all accounts MS neither wants or can get either of these types of persons.
I've heard firsthand that MS has a lot of competant and dedicated programmers. But the structure of Windows, as cobbled up by Bill and pals (you couldn't use the word "designed" anywhere near Windows) make the module interfaces an unholy mess, and the combination of thousands of programmers, hundreds of millions of lines of code, and insane vicious management means they *can't* really write code that works properly. Look at Vista: it has more "features" than XP, uses far more resources to implement Apple-wannabe cosmetics, is missing - after 7 years of work - major promised elements, and will no doubt be less stable and more frustrating than XP when released.
Come to think of it, Apple does most of Microsoft's "design" these days, and Google does the rest.
Its about profits and jobs ( i heard that from Bill Gates ) Thus no one will ever sell nor use good s/w , it puts too many people out of work . Nothing puts humans out of work like a new computer ......
Long ago assemblers belabored the fundamental concept of a Macro , Forth did the opposite and the concept of software "leverage" was born . Some continued to evolve Forth for the new hardware . Its just a matter of time before Linux ,WXP ,UNIX ,C+ et al are tossed . and billions of $$ in Applications !
Its so simple , you dont want to think at a low level or an "obtuse" level , you want it to be intuitive , so you create an OpSys thats structured and simple . But if you listen to C programmers or Linus , you'd think its really hard ! They're belaboring to keep their "job" . When the new free OpSys arrives for the ARM , everyone gets the axe , Microsoft , Linus , GCC ,GNU , Millions of jobs , gone ....
Why use C when a scipting HLL produces an App in 15 minutes without any bugs ? It does this because there is no text , its a GUI , you put images and icons together .... Now you argue that no one can create number stuff with using Fortran or I.E.E.E. 966 Floating point ec etc .... Math is easy , especially if you stay away from the college grads and people with software jobs . How about asking a college professor how to create an OpSys ? Well first ya gotta take my class where i'll tell ya which books ya gotta buy then you'll have to take 3 more classes where i'll tel ya to take 12 more classes .....and at the end where ya get ya diploma , and read my book which tells ya in da summary what i taught ya .
Gall ! a software author writes a book and in the Intro tells ya what he will teach you , in the body tells ya what you should know , but fails to teach ya , and in the summary tells ya what he taught you !!! Then says you're unteachable !! Like Albert Eistein , told by his prof's , he would amount to nothing , he can't learn ... Now same colleges want credit for part of his work . We taught him everything he knows .......
Nothing more Luddite than software ! Nothing so easily obsoleted ..
Creating the first part of OpSys is called the insulation layer , it insulates you from the instruction set / Assembly code . Everything else is so "human" and intuitive , it takes 15 minutes to create an App . You cant create bugs , the kernel tells ya immediately . Kernel does this cause its very structured which allows the Kernel to think exactly like you do . Do you want to [Allocate] 65KB of upper memory ? There is no [allocate] in New Forth , everything is in a Dictionary . Push 2 vars on the [STACK] .... New Forth has auto VARS , you never have to think about Locals/Globals, all you do is move images around and the OpSys learns what TYPE they are , so it knows all about managing what others force you to deal with . Like WXP and Linux force you to manage your own Files/Folders/Objects. New Forth manages ALL for you .
Pick a newsgroup and stick with it. This cross posting looks awfully like flame-bait. Either you've got a valid point to make but you're just inexperienced at doing it, or you're just a vandal trying to insert chaos into the system.
If you've got all the answers, go raise some capital, create this magical NewForth you're talking about, and prove it's the answer to all our problems. I like passion but it's easy to come off sounding like a nut case.
-Dave
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David Ashley http://www.xdr.com/dash
Embedded linux, device drivers, system architecture
That can be very different. When I hired mine she became the administrative assistant of our division, not just my secretary. This way she was exposed to all kinds of other software. Of course, I made sure I hired someone who would be a self-starter. Then I found out that admins here in the western US are used to doing everything with Word and Excel. So, I introduced the database concept to her. Now that our company has been bought and neither of us is there anymore she does the same thing in other companies, weening them off those dreaded Excel calcs and into databases. And that does not have to be MS-Access.
Yup. I read the specs for a Swiss made hand grenade, this thing was supposed to deliver 80 fragments per m^2 at two meters distance with minimum energy of 50J each! I bet that hurt!!
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