Posts by HieronymusBloggs 408 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Oct 2015
"Whatever, if you don't like Python because of the whitespace then it's your loss as it's becoming the first computer language for a whole generation of non-programmers. Is this merely a coincidence?"
I think it's a good language for teaching non-programmers to program. That doesn't mean I have to like it for more advanced work.
Ease of use by non-techies has a downside. There are many programmers now who have never developed the mental discipline required for managing memory themselves, and have a problem when they have to write in a low level language like C.
There's a reason why many embedded devices have crap software - the programmers have never learned the necessary skills.
"I'd hate to read the code created by those who object to the use of whitespace to block code."
Are there many such people outside of an obfuscated code contest? That's an entirely different thing from preferring flexibility in the use of whitespace, rather than have its use forced by the language. I find Python quite irritating to write, but you probably wouldn't have trouble reading my C code.
"Lars Ulrich, singer for middle-of-the-road aging rockers Metallica"
Ouch. Lars is actually drummer and chief foot-in-mouth spokesman.
Few bands in the metal genre can top Metallica's groundbreaking second and third albums (including the band themselves, sadly).
"most major brand laser drivers are based off the HP laser jet 3 and 4 driver"
I've been using the Ghostscript ljet4 driver for years with a succession of Brother laser printers on Linux and OpenBSD systems. Not great for photos, but text quality is excellent and it's much faster than the printer-specific drivers.
"If you spoke to people at work the way he does you'd get fired."
In a lot of cases the person being sworn at would have been fired for incompetence or a disruptive attitude long before Linus' outburst in any conventional workplace. It's almost like context isn't a thing, judging by many of the comments here.
"Even if he does that, he still needs to do it in a less aggressive manner."
If I made a stupid mistake and someone punched me in the face I'd consider it aggressive. A bit of swearing? Not so much.
It sounds to me like Linus is feeling burned out.
"There's a huge email thread where I work of people who find it offensive."
As offensive as this (quote from Antirez)?
"After it was clear that I was not interested in his argument, Mark accused me of being fascist. Now I’m Italian, and incidentally my grand grand father was put in jail for years by fascists because he was communist and was against the regime. He was released to die in a couple of months at home. The father of my mother instead went in the north of Italy for II World War, and was able to escape from the Nazis for a miracle. Stayed 5 years as a refugee, and eventually returned home to become the father of my mother. Mark do not care about the terminology he uses against other people, if the matter at hand is to make sure people that may potentially feel offended will not."
Quite frankly the behaviour ascribed to 'Mark' in the above paragraph disgusts me, but it is all too common.
"If you think that some words aren't freighted with extra meaning, start using the 'n' word more."
In software documentation? That would be very silly. The 'offensive' words referred to here are common technical terms. Would you suggest I remove the master and slave brake cylinders from my car in case they offend other road users?
To show solidarity with this fine and sensible social movement I must immediately go through my computer systems and rip out all of the nasty fascist open source software which uses a git Master branch. It will signal what a virtuous fellow I am and everything will continue to work just f
"it's a technology to get relatively fine grained readings so the energy generators, and in the future storers, can predict and respond to real energy demands to provide guaranteed supply."
Why would this have to be per-household rather than per-substation if that is its main purpose?
"testing the security of the meters to ensure only authorised users could access the specific data they are allowed, infact legislation was passed to define all this and protect consumers"
I suspect it isn't merely ignorance that drives the scepticism, but many years of experience of other "secure" systems. If this is truly secure it would be a first.
"To write new code without some form of protection from these kind of errors is verging on irresponsible now."
You mean like understanding what you're doing and taking care to do it right? It always was irresponsible to write code without that kind of protection, regardless of language.
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