wading through a game’s source code can be fun 😉
Category: programming
Producing Open Source Software
A must-read for everyone wanting to bootstrap an open source project. Very Practical! And free downloadable 🙂
go http://producingoss.com/
I think it’s a nice service to the open source community.. thanks!
C++: Const rule (or rule the const)
how about:
- const char *
- char const *
- char * const
“const applies to what is on its left”
So 1 and 2 are the same, they both point to fixed text with variable pointer. 3 has fixed pointer with variable text. If const is first, move it one token to the right.
this is just a reminder for myself 😉
Netbean probs
Some while ago, I start coding a feed reader in J2ME to run on mobile phones. After some searching, it seemed like Netbeans would be the way to go.. They provide a nice UI builder including modeling of the flow between the different screens, tailored towards cell phones. Also, it seems the Sony Ericsson SDK provides nice integration with Netbeans.
My favorite java IDE IntelliJ doesn’t seem to support mobile development at all. (for the record, I wouldn’t use IntelliJ if I had to pay for it myself ;)) The next best thing, Eclipse, seems to be less mature in this area, although they are progressing fast. So Netbeans it became.
To my surprise, I even found a tutorial on the netbeans site which already gave me a bootstrap to my task! 🙂
So, where’s the problem?
Well, I set up netbeans and created a project and all, so I could get to serious work on my 2h train trip. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to write a single line of code! 🙂 As soon as I opened my laptop, the Netbeans IDE seemed to have become very unresponsive! Opening a menu could take 10 seconds, scrolling through the code is impossible. I couldn’t believe my eyes at first, so I rebooted because I thought my laptop was having trouble waking up after having the short nap. However, not improved. I had to give up.
At home, I searched the internet, and indeed, netbeans has problems with my ATI X600 ‘s PowerPlay function! Who would have imagined that. 😉 Especially since this is the only Java app I have trouble with… Anyhow, just disabling the PowerPlay function solves the problem! It’s probably related to my ATI drivers, but since I have a fricking Dell laptop, I’m not allowed to install drivers other than from Dell, so, as you can imagine, Dell never supplies updates to the driver! If anyone knows how to circumvent the checks going on in the driver installer from ATI, please let me know…
Dutch SoC
I recently found out, Google is not the only one issueing summers of code! The Netherlands are showing the example, I hope other countries follow! *sigh*, wish I were student again.. 😉
Google code search
Do you ever use Google to assist in debugging? 🙂 I do, sometimes. Mostly to see the usage of a particular function in a similar scenario. “Programming by example” 😉
Now Google has made this even easier by providing the Google code search.
Write your own MSN virus
Microsoft wants to invite everyone to write their own MSN bot. That’s right, let’s spam some more. 😉 Except, after 6 months, you’ll be paying for your spam. 😉
Seriously, it’s a nice initiative, but certainly not innovating when you compare with all the open source IM clients out there. Who wants/uses MSN anyhow?
What’s wrong with MNG?
Recently, I wanted to make a simple animation to put on a webpage. I have a background image and a rendered 3D animation which should be on top of that.
When it comes to lossless image compression, PNG is my all-time favorite. It has layer support, full transparency, lossless non-patented compression, open format, … So the PNG-derived MNG would be a logical choice for animation, right? Wrong! 🙂 Almost none of the current browsers support it out of the box! Mozilla supported it for some time, but gave up due to bloated implementation. Konqueror is the only one supporting MNG! Can you believe that? 😕 Maybe you can, if you see the popularity of Flash. But what if you just want a simple animation? Is the loading of a full flash player justified for a simple animation? And why prefer a closed proprietary format if there are open ones? So I went on a quest for better formats. 🙂 Continue reading What’s wrong with MNG?
Bruce Eckel on python
Python seems on a revive to me. Actually for some time now… 🙂
First time I heard someone “still” programming with it, was about 4 years ago. The guy used it more as a glue language to combine several image registration scripts. But these days, it is very “in” again to be programming in python. It seems to be used heavily in web related stuff too. So it made me wonder: should I try it out once in a time? What’s the fuzz all about?
I found an interview with Bruce Eckel about Python. I know it’s a bit outdated by now, but still an interesting read from the guy who dissected C++ and Java in his “Thinking in