Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 14th Jan 2013 23:15 UTC, submitted by MOS6510
"Programming languages are living phenomena: They're born, the lucky ones that don't die in infancy live sometimes long, fruitful lives, and then inevitably enter a period of decline. Unlike real life, the decline can last many, many years as the presence of large legacy codebases means practiced hands must tend the code for decades. The more popular the language once was, the longer this period of decline will be."
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 17:26 UTC
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.More Features »
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2006-11-28
I think that would depend on the particular piece of code. The following might help:
http://cyclone.thelanguage.org/wiki/Cyclone%20for%20C%2...
OTOH, Cyclone already has an 'extern "C"' feature for interfacing to C code, so it wouldn't be a big leap to extend that to Obj-C 2.0, which could be kept around for as long as needed. There's also the option of cross-compiling - I suspect with backing from the likes of Apple and LLVM it wouldn't take long for big improvements to appear there. The 'Porting C code to Cyclone' section of the Cyclone user manual has more info:
http://cyclone.thelanguage.org/wiki/User%20Manual/
Really, at age 40-something it's long past time C grew up and stopped behaving like a sloppy, stroppy teenager. The question is, who has the motivation to drag it up by its bootstraps? MS has no need to do so since it's already invested in C# and C++. The Linux world won't push it forward either, since it's even more sloppy and stroppy than C is.
The only real hope (for better or worse) is Apple, since C remains a foundation stone of their whole platform and therefore developer community, so as more (often less skilled) developers take up Cocoa development, the more of a liability C's flaws become. To their credit they have been trying to modernize the Obj-C language a bit, but so far the front-of-house changes are just nibbling at the edges. OTOH, now the move to LLVM is done, they're in a much stronger position to aggressively innovate.
Remember, Apple have pulled this sort of trick off before, in the transition from 'Mac' OS 9 to 'Mac' OS X. It'd be nice to see Apple demonstrate the same sort of boldness in their tool chain that they've shown in their hardware design and supply chain to such great success.
Personally I really wish Dylan had worked out - it had a far more powerful and elegant OO model than ObjC/Smalltalk. Infinitely better macro system than [Obj]C too. <wistful-sigh>
OTOH, even Unix Philosophy says it's better to have a compliment of dedicated tools that play well together than a single Swiss-army tool that tries to do it all. And OS X is nothing if not opportunist, happy to integrate whatever works.