Posts by Richard Plinston

The quest for faster Python: Pyston returns to open source, Facebook releases Cinder, or should devs just use PyPy?

Re: C and then some

> If you absolutely, positively need performance above all else, then there aren't really many useful alternatives to C

Several years ago I wrote a program in C that merged data into a postscript template, eventually to produce PDFs for such things as invoices and statements. Later, I rewrote it in Python and it ran several times _faster_ than the original.

The reason that the C code was slow was that it used the std library string functions. All the data merging was done using strfind and strcat and these keep scanning along the string to find the null terminator. Python keeps the string length in its object and thus has much faster string handling.

Microsoft loves Linux – as in, it loves Linux users running Linux desktop apps on Windows PCs

> fragmentation of desktops and distributions

Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Mobile 6, Windows 7, Windows Phone 7, Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8, Windows IOT 8, Windows 10, Windows Mobile 10, Windows 10S, Windows IOT 10, Windows 10 ARM, ...

Re: @Boris the Cockroach - They

> Linux dead or alive no longer matters for Microsoft.

It obviously _does_ matter to Microsoft, if it didn't they would ignore it. In fact it matters because many cloud customers run Linux workloads.

> Pay for a Windows license, sign in with your Microsoft account and you're free to run Linux.

Or: don't pay for for a Windows license, don't have a Microsoft account and you've always been free to use Linux.

I am not sure why you think that Linux users will replace their systems with Windows running Linux apps. How many Windows users replaced their Windows systems with OS/2 systems because OS/2 could run Windows apps?

In fact quite the opposite happened. Instead of there being OS/2 versions of apps, developers just made Windows versions that would run on Windows and OS/2. Now developers can just make Linux apps that will run on Linux or Windows.

Re: Yes, of course

> KDE has been available for Windows for years

So has GTK, the graphical basis of GNOME. Back in the 90s I developed GUI applicationa using Glade* and Python that ran on Linux and Windows with zero code changes, not even a recompile. It even ran on Nokia 800 with a few minor features missing.

* Glade is a graphical interface designer for GTK projects.

Re: Yes, of course

Around 1990 I was asked to develop a graphics system to augment an existing text based system. It was for loading container ships and would have graphics representation of the ship and each bay and the containers and of the various tanks. It would have bending and shear graphs, stability, hazardous separations, and much more. It wasn't just GUI dialogs, it was full graphical, it eventually even had a 'helm view' as if looking forward from the helm (or indeed any chosen point) to ensure that the loading and trim met visual sighting requirements.

At the time I was running multiuser systems with Windows 3.1 hosted and an OS/2 system. I had compilers that would produce code for Windows 3.1 and for OS/2 and so I could make a choice whether to do the graphics in Windows or Presentation Manager.

When OS/2 was released with a Windows 3.1 sub-system the choice was obvious.

Penguin takeover: We tried running some GUI Linux apps on Windows the official way – and nothing exploded

Re: Why?

> Why? would a GNU/Linux developer want to develop any GNU/Linux code on MS Windows anyway?

They don't, but MS wants to force corporates to make these developers use Windows. Clouid users run Linux VMs and developers write Linux programs to run in those VMs. MS wants those developers to use Windows to ensure 100% Windows usage in corporate sites.

Perhaps there will be some tweaks in Azure so that the Linux VMs will only run programs developed with WSL.

Re: Comparisons please? Benefits please?

> Why would you develop Linux code (NOT apps, PROGRAMS) on Windows to be deployed on Linux?

Because cloud customers use Linux VMs. "about 50 percent of all Azure compute cores are Linux."

MS wants those developers to use Windows.

IBM creates a COBOL compiler – for Linux on x86

Re: [Aside] Storage media

> But I was using an ICL mini computer, not IBM, and I'm sure the floppy discs were 9".

No, they weren't.

ICL ME29 had 8 inch discs.

ICL DRS20 Models 40 and 50 had 8 inch.

I still have some 8 inch discs that were used in those systems.

Chill out, lockdown ain't over yet – perhaps FUZIX on the Pi Pico could feature in your weekend shed projects

Re: Young people these days...

> 32kb of RAM

Anything with only 32Kb of RAM would be only an 8bit CPU (8080, Z80, 6502) and Linux never ran on those.

Re: Young people these days...

> Toshiba notebook which has 32kb of RAM

Most likely it had 32Kb of _Video_ RAM. This number would be displayed when booting. To run any minimal version of Linux would require at least a megabyte, probably 2 or 4 of actual RAM.

Maybe you ran Minix but this required 640Kb.

Happy birthday, Python, you're 30 years old this week: Easy to learn, and the right tool at the right time

> it's now Python3 only

To install Python 2 version on Ubuntu 20.04 open a terminal and enter one of the following commands:

$ sudo apt install python2

OR

$ sudo apt install python-minimal

Re: Why do some people not like python's indentation=code block container

> Some text editors and IDE's are set by default to ignore a programmers's clear and explicit key presses and interpret the [tab] key as what it thinks is the right number of spaces. Some people think that kind of blatant disobedience is tolerable.

'Tab' is short for Tabulate or 'make into a tabular form (a table)'. Program source code is not generally in the form of a table (OK some are, like Assembly or RPG). On typewriters the Tab key causes the platen to move along several _spaces_ until the next 'tab stop'. Having the Tab key move several spaces to the next 'stop' is the correct thing to do.

If you like to have tab characters in your source code and space characters, then don't use Python. Nobody wants to force you to use it.

Re: not so easy to learn

> PLAN?

I do have a 'PLAN Reference Manual, Student Edition' in 2 volumes here if anyone would like to learn it.

Also 'a date with JEAN'.

Re: Dumb design decisions

> but I will not use it until

That's OK. No one will care if you don't use it. It is not a cult.

Your opinion about what white space is for does not change my language choice.

Re: Dumb design decisions

> As the information is only encoded by one mechanism

And there is the problem - it isn't. There are two mechanisms available: spaces and tabs.

If one of these is eliminated entirely then there is no problem but, unfortunately, some programmers have editors which carelessly allow these to be mixed in arbitrary ways. Having a suitable editor configured appropriately*, and there are many available, that deals with this issue makes the language far more usable.

It seems that all these complaints are from programmers with unsuitable editors or configurations and then complain about the language.

* eliminate tab characters entirely, tab key generates spaces, tab characters made visible, block indent and outdent feature, ...

Raspberry Pi Foundation moves into microcontrollers with the $4 Pi Pico using homegrown silicon

Re: Annoyingly low on RAM

> display memory for code

Shades of 'Williams tubes'.

Re: No WiFi?

> At which point the power sipping stops.

Yeah, but if they did 'Power Over Wifi' ...

Python swallows Java to become second-most popular programming language... according to this index

Re: Sin tax

> non-backward-compatible changes from 2.x to 3.x

I've not had any trouble at all writing code that runs identically in Python 2 and 3.

Re: I've never understood what people have against braces (or semicolons)

> the result often ends up being machine readable at the expense of being human readable

You have that entirely the wrong way around. Python, as long as the source code use space characters and not tab characters, is read the same by the machine and the human reader. Braces and braced indent can be misused to confuse the human reader.

Re: BASIC for the 21st Century

> Microsoft's fault for Porting Dartmouth BASIC,

BASIC is not one language but is a collection of many diverse languages with vague similarities. Some of these were quite usable and maintainable, for example BBC BASIC.

Actually, Microsoft ported a DEC BASIC for the Altos, and later for several other machines. This was an open source interpreter on DEC. As 8080 development was done using cross compilers on DEC machines this was relatively easy to port the major part of it but a completely new maths module was required.

Re: Popular?

> I can't think of a single large project that's written in Python.

Your inability to think is not a constraint on the use of Python.

Re: Sin tax

> WTF will Python not let me use this?

Maybe your computer just hates you because Python lets me do that.

filename = 'this-is-a-file-of-mine.txt'

fd = open(filename)

print(fd.read())

Re: Python is not turned for speed

> I find illogical and stupid

I find your argument to be illogical and stupid. Your argument is simply: "This language isn't C++".

Re: Sin tax

> an editor that doesn't preserve whitespace properly

Get better tools, or configure the ones that you have to suit.

Re: Sin tax

> *I* will decide,

That's fine. No one cares if you don't use Python.

Re: Sin tax

> Fucking. White. Space.

Get better tools, or learn to configure your tools.

'white space' is only a problem when your tools deal with this inconsistently.

Apple now Arm'd to the teeth: MacBook Air and Pro, Mac mini to be powered by custom M1 chips rather than Intel

Re: Confusing much?

> Is that eleven or the roman numeral two?

Roman numbers do not use the digit '1', they use the letter capital 'I' to represent one.

How is Trump's anti-Chinese rhetoric playing out? 70% of smartphones sold in the US are – surprise – made in China

Re: Then let him do something about it

> Yet, you want him to pump public money into financially nonviable industries?

Corporate Socialism is a Republican thing. They are pumping subsidies into coal, oil and fracking. The Federal Reserve has pumped 7 Trillion into corporate bonds by just printing money in the last year or two to support the stock market.

ALGOL 60 at 60: The greatest computer language you've never used and grandaddy of the programming family tree

Re: .. never used .. ?

> a batch system called George

GEORGE (GEneral ORGanization Environment) was an ICL 1900 batch operating system with various versions from 1S to 4. I doubt that it had anything to do with Elliott machines.

(I actually joined I.C.T., one of the companies that formed ICL).

> So do you remember the significance of 7036875 ?

No, but 8,388,608 still haunts me!

Hint: PIC S1(23) SYNC RIGHT.

First it became Middle Earth, now New Zealand will transform into Azure region number 60

> Another related problem is time difference.

That can be an advantage rather than a problem. A few years ago I was developing a fairly large system for a UK based company while residing in NZ. I would develop and code during the day and early evening and then send the new code to the UK agent (using 56k modems) and they would test and I would have the results and comments by breakfast. We got a lot done in a very short time.

If you're writing code in Python, JavaScript, Java and PHP, relax. The hot trendy languages are still miles behind, this survey says

Re: Python and the minus in a filename

> this-is-a-file-name.txt ... Yet I've never been able to get Python to allow me to do this. Is it really forbidden?

You are talking nonsense. A filename in Python must be in a string, such as in quotes or apostrophes, and thus almost any character is allowed, including hyphens.

fd = open("this-is-a-file-name.txt", mode)

is perfectly valid.

Re: Java tied for #2

> #2 for so long is generally followed eventually by being #3 and then #4, etc

The ranking is based on the number of people asking questions. To bring a language back to number one just put out a new release with lots of new features that programmers will want to try to use.

Re: COBOL

> lots of dinguses asking stupid questions...

Yes. These types of rankings may actually list the number of programmers who don't know the languages (ie counting questions asked) or by counting the number of empty desks where currently no one is programming (ie job ads).

Re: COBOL

> You don't implement the Quicksort algorithm in COBOL.

I have done that, in CIS COBOL on 64Kb CP/M. While COBOL does have a SORT verb, at the time it only worked on files and the program needed an array sorted. Since the mid 80s SORT has worked on arrays.

> but that's not its problem space so just don't.

Sorting is very much part of COBOL's problem space.

Flat Earther and wannabe astronaut killed in homemade rocket

> [most likely an oral account penned to papyrus by Moses or one of his scribes]

it is unlikely that _anything_ in the bible was written down before 'fist temple' around 10C BCE. The main reason for this is that before then there was no written form of Hebrew. This is several centuries after the alleged time of Moses. Most of the stories in Genesis are retellings of older stories taken from other tribal groups, and are just stories (and not 'accounts').

Around 3C BCE the various different collections of stories and other writings were combined with some being discarded to arrive at what later became the OT.

> let the flat-earth crowd say what they want,

Unfortunately some of these people get into government or on school boards and then try to make their ideas compulsory.

> If you want to tst things out for yourself you don't rely on optical instruments when the Mk 1 eyeball suffices.

Mk 1 eyeballs are completely unreliable in so many ways. They are also only backed up by human memory which is even more unreliable. If you have two observers of an event you are likely to get three or more incompatible descriptions of what happened.

Optical instruments can be calibrated and corrections applied. They can also record so that comparisons can be made.

Re: I doubt he was bright enough to build a rocket

> anyone that believes it has to be so batshit crazy

Not any more so than your average fundamentalist christian bible believer. Most of those seem to function OK in normal society, most of the time. Geocentralism is the next stage because why would their god create earth in a backwater of a massive galaxy among millions. They want to feel that they personally are the centre of the universe and the reason for everything.

Yea, OK, they are batshit crazy.

> Why not 3 parachutes

Because once you have increased the weight of the craft to greater than the thrust of the rocket the parachutes will no longer be required.

Re: Don't underestimate steam

> partly there to make sure you come out alive and uninjured every time

A good landing is where you can walk out. A great landing is where the vehicle can be used again after landing.

> your flat earther friend does not exist.

He didn't say he was a friend. Flat earthers do exist but are best avoided.

Re: Stupid is as Stupid does

> Powered using a steam engine. Not sure that counts as a rocket.

Stephenson thought it counted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenson%27s_Rocket

> a religious belief connected to biblical literalism.

As one flat earther put it: "If we are monkeys on a spinning ball then there is no god."

They want to have been created as the centre of the universe. Being on an insignificant rock around a mediocre sun on the edge of one of millions of galaxies just doesn't make them feel important enough to overcome the failure that they were told they were all through school.

Oracle tells Supremes: Fair use? Pah! There's nothing fair about 'Google's copying'

Re: A plague on both of them

> original creators of the APIs (AT&T?).

AT&T -> Unix System Labs -> Novell -> Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) -> The SCO Group?

Microsoft boffin inadvertently highlights .NET image woes by running C# on Windows 3.11

Re: "Visual Studio is a paid-for product"

> those Brits who see that as a version of a weight-describing Pound symbol!

You are confused. The 'Brits' do not use 'hash' as pound weight. It happens that on a US keyboard the 'hash' is shift-3 while on a UK keyboard that is where the pound money symbol (stylized L) is. The use of hash as a form of 'lb' (pound weight), according to Wikipedia, is chiefly in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_(mass)

Re: VisualBasic developers are daft enough to fail to realize this

> in the cloud ... real money in your pocket.

No. That translates to 'money in Microsoft's pocket'.

Re: 32 bit processors were common from 1985

> backwards compatible with earlier ... 8 bit processors. (8080/8085,

No, it wasn't, not with 8 bit stuff.

There was a V20 and V30 that were 8088/8086 compatible and also could run 8080/8085 stuff but the 80386 and later could not.

Don't mention the seam! Microsoft releases Surface Duo Android SDK, more on Windows 10X

Re: RE: You ain't Spartacus! I'm Spartacus!

> You really need to take criticism of Android less personally.

But your post wasn't an actual 'criticism of _Android_'.

Python overtakes Java to become second-most popular language on GitHub after JavaScript

Re: Hardly representitive!!

> 'the most popular language' = what shows up in 'wanted, experience in ...'

Ahh, the 'empty desk count'. That has been used to claim 'popularity' in some form, as if the lack of people willing to fill the desk that requires working in that language represents it being popular.