ericfontaine

9 ms·

31.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
As mentioned earlier, FPGA's do not fit this 3-part distinction. In addition, CPU microcode doesn't fit this distinction, as the microcode is software (not hardware) that is hidden behind the ISA's interface. Also, I can thin
32.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
Clever, they insert an additional chip between the cpu and wifi whose sole purpose is to load wifi firmware, and thus make it non-update-able "efectively circuitry" to bypass the silly FSF rules. Using the same logic, what if some
33.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
"Firmware that is installed during use is software; firmware that is delivered inside the device and can't be changed is software by nature, but we can treat it as if it were a circuit." So any code, gate patterns, or microco
34.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
I'm not a fan of corporations "securing" my firmware by preventing me from installing my own custom version. Currenty, I use libreboot on my X60s and Macbook2,1 with GRUB in the firmware and configured to only boot kernels s
35.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
I'm one of those people who used to use text secure, but didn't like installing google or cyanogenmon on my phone. So I would always have to self compile, but gave up recently cause I don't have any friends to text secure wi
36.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
Google Ride finder • 2007 - 2009 Wow...killed the same year Uber was founded. Missed out on a nice market opportunity...probably just needed to be refined, remarketed and keep it going. (I never even heard about it.)
37.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
Ok. What do you think was the reason C took off while Algol use diminished? Was the growth of Unix a significant reason? Do you think C's adoption was misguided? I think C's took off because C fit the sweet spot of ability to pr
38.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
I forgot about segments... Thanks for clarifications...I guess I don't know C. :)
39.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
Right. My understanding of history is compiled Algol wasn't nearly as fast as compiled C, which was needed for operating systems and performance-critical code.
40.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
"Open" to me leads me to think it is open source, but it isn't. I suppose common folk may not have that presumption. But I don't even think "Open" is descriptive to what your product does (other than maybe ho
41.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
thanks for clarification!
42.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
what I mean in my paragraph is that C has all these (nasty) details that are necessary due to C's position as being almost assembly language (but not quite) AND being cross-platform. Macro assembles like MASM and TASM use ISA-specific
43.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
#1. Tentative definitions are historical baggage from Fortan Common blocks ( https://blogs.oracle.com/ali/entry/what_are_tentative_symbol... ), which may have helped adoption of C by Fortran users. Although it rema
44.
by ericfontaine 12y ago
Although most comments use these examples to argue that C is a bad language, I would argue the opposite, that these examples show how C is an extremely useful language. C has occupied a niche position as the lowest commonly-used language t