willtim

74 ms·

691.
by willtim 9y ago
This is not true in general. Linux Desktop UIs like Gnome 3 have taken a lot of criticism precisely because they have not been copying Windows and have deviated considerably (due to patent concerns). Of course, there are some fringe &quot
692.
by willtim 9y ago
> Apple still seems to have the best hardware overall The example comparison you gave, an X1 Carbon, has a more reliable keyboard with more travel, a matte-screen option without fragile glass, a user-replaceable battery, a user-replaceab
693.
by willtim 9y ago
They appear to be evaluating the ability to learn and apply knowledge of previous published works on imperative algorithms. But, as far as I can tell, they aren't testing for much ability beyond this. Where are the questions for logic,
694.
by willtim 9y ago
It's simple to describe and all the pieces are big red flags even on their own: Speculative evaluation has side-effects (e.g. the cache is not rolled back), speculative evaluation omits security checks, timing attacks can be used to de
695.
by willtim 9y ago
Not true. It turns out that Speculative evaluation has side-effects, it changes the contents of the cache. This is the big issue. The contents of the cache are then detectable with timing attacks (the Spectre variants, but perhaps more will
696.
by willtim 9y ago
I think you have it backwards. Monolithic kernels are by their very nature more complex to reason about due to all the communication backchannels made possible when everything sits in one process.
697.
by willtim 9y ago
I disagree. The attacks are clever to focus on Speculative evaluation but are otherwise fairly simple (timing attacks are well known). I'm surprised such attacks have not been discovered earlier, as speculative evaluation seems quite b
698.
by willtim 9y ago
Yes and creating one or more "web workers" (threads) is a significant side-effect. Javascript to me, looks more like a systems-programming language (imperative with threads and sockets) than something trusted for interactive web s
699.
by willtim 9y ago
Why not use melpa-stable?
700.
by willtim 9y ago
Side-effects strike again! Not only does the hardware have observable side-effects that are not cleaned-up, but our browser languages allow pervasive side-effects which are used for exploits (e.g. precision timing).
701.
by willtim 9y ago
Such studies are very hard to do, it is almost impossible to factor out social preferences. For me personally, I am most productive in languages like Haskell and OCaml.
702.
by willtim 9y ago
What numbers do you require? If there was a metric measuring simplicity then Lisp (or perhaps a modern variant, Scheme) would probably win - it is a local optimum of language design, essentially just lambda calculus exposed via a very simpl
703.
by willtim 9y ago
IMHO the best option currently for a stable OS with up-to-date desktop apps is NixOS. NixOS allows one to have a stable base OS then install packages in the user account from a different channel. Since it uses deterministic builds, the bina
704.
by willtim 9y ago
Most programming languages are unsound logic systems which allow us to prove true==false rather too easily!
705.
by willtim 9y ago
> Corporations can't 'wield the code' because by copying it and using it it doesn't take it away from other people. The relevance of the original code can be taken away, for example by hijacking a standard or through
706.
by willtim 9y ago
GPL is about enabling freedom for end-users. An end-user could be anything from an individual to a corporate entity. Your definition of freedom appears to be just "permissive licensing". Unfortunately, permissive licensing like BS
707.
by willtim 9y ago
But he doesn't just "like the product", he attempts to criticise the competition for copying.
708.
by willtim 9y ago
I wouldn't criticise the competition for copying, when there's plenty of copying on Apple's part.
709.
by willtim 9y ago
Samsung have been shipping OLED wrap-around-screens under the "Edge" branding since at least early 2015. Phones without front physical hardware buttons have been around even longer (e.g. Google Nexus).
710.
by willtim 9y ago
I agree, but he attempts to shame other firms when they decide to copy something from Apple. He comes across as a hypocrite. Personally I find many of Apples "innovations" abhorrent and it frustrates me that they have been univers
711.
by willtim 9y ago
Perhaps one might admit that Apple are late to the game with OLED and edge-to-edge displays?
712.
by willtim 9y ago
The problem with the word "generics" is that it already meant something else in programming language theory. If I used reflection to implement a serialisation function in Java or C#, it could be generic with respect to the data-ty
713.
by willtim 9y ago
ML first appeared in 1973. Pretty impressive considering the laundry list of features, many of which are missing from mainstream industrial languages. For example: parametric polymorphism (aka "generics"), pattern-matching and typ
714.
by willtim 9y ago
In Haskell it certainly is a closed definition, you would get a "multiple declarations" syntax error if you tried to split the definition up. I would assume the same for Clean also. In the Haskell REPL, you would need to enter the
715.
by willtim 9y ago
The style is lifted straight from mathematics tradition. It is a closed definition and so it would be syntax error to insert anything between the lines. In Haskell you could always avoid that style and use the case syntax (or for this examp
716.
by willtim 9y ago
Python is extremely permissive and flexible, even for a dynamic language - a trait that makes it easy to learn and easy to throw something together quickly. But when building software at scale, we need restrictions. For example: static type
717.
by willtim 9y ago
And it appears to be a recruiter goldmine, the staff turnover is significantly high (so I am told). A codebase of this size with no static type checking is not going to be fun.
718.
by willtim 9y ago
In order for the Q interpreter to fit in that small size, the language has some rather severe limits. For example, function parameters, local variables and conditional branch sizes. Forcing users to structure code around these limits feels
719.
by willtim 9y ago
Sure they tried to make it work. But it did create a static typing and OOP backlash. IMHO, too many of us succumbed to the marketing. Many would have been better off using OCaml or Python, both of which were released about the same time (an
720.
by willtim 9y ago
I didn't bring the term up, but I personally understand it to mean complex domain-specific code. Some examples from my own workplace: pricing/risk of derivatives transactions, financial contract definition, portfolio optimisation,

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