General Development Archive

Boo 0.5.3 released

Submitted by Arron Washington 2005-04-29 General Development 6 Comments

Boo celebrates its 0.5.3 release today, featuring a host of bug fixes and features. Boo is a new object oriented statically typed programming language for the Common Language Infrastructure with a python inspired syntax and a special focus on language and compiler extensibility. It features ASP.NET support and dynamic duck-typing. For SharpDevelop users, BooBinding has been updated to work with the latest SharpDevelop release. MonoDevelop users will be interested to know that a Boo Addin is available in SVN.

Open Source Report Generator

Submitted by Ned 2005-04-26 General Development 16 Comments

OpenMFG, the makers of open source ERP software, have released OpenRPT, a report writer for ad-hoc Web-based reporting. It creates graphical, embeddable reports, similar to the commercial software Crystal Reports or Microsoft Access report designer, but runs on on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It supports graphs, integrated barcodes, label printing, and watermarks and report definitions can be stored in a PostgreSQL database as XML, or exported to individual files.

Programming Linux Sockets Effectively

David Adams 2005-04-26 General Development 16 Comments

The code examples in these tutorials are in Python and C, but translate well to other languages. Part 1 covers the basics, such as an echo server and client, which connect over TCP/IP, fundamental network, layer, and protocol concepts. Part 2 is an intermediate level tutorial that demonstrates how to write UDP sockets applications.

First look at Transactional NTFS

Submitted by Malx 2005-04-26 General Development 38 Comments

Transactional NTFS, coming in Longhorn, allows developers to group filesystem operations into transactions, and make those changes atomically. Changes made by transactions are isolated from each other, so that one transaction can 'see' a different set of files compared to another transaction. Transactions can also be used to view a frozen version of a file, fixed at a point in time, while another task updates the same file.

C++ creator upbeat on its future

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-22 General Development 123 Comments

The creator of the C++ programming language claims there has been a backlash against some of the newer programming languages such as Java and C#, with developers moving back to using C++.

wxWidgets 2.6.0 Released

Submitted by Jan Jeżabek 2005-04-22 General Development 49 Comments

wxWidgets 2.6.0 was released yesterday. This is the first stable release in over 18 months. Release notes and downloads are available here.

GCC 4.0 Released

Submitted by J@F 2005-04-21 General Development 46 Comments

GCC 4.0 was released yesterday. Read all about it.

Porting Windows IPC apps to Linux

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-21 General Development No Comments

The wave of migration to open source in business has the potential to cause a tremendous porting traffic jam as developers move the ever-pervasive Windows application to the Linux platform. In this three-part series, get a mapping guide, complete with examples, to ease your transition from Windows to Linux. Part 1 introduces processes and threads.

Move Win32 C/C++ apps to Linux Part 3: Semaphores

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-21 General Development 12 Comments

Linux provides Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) semaphores, as well as pthread conditional variables to map the Win32 semaphore APIs. Both have their share of pros and cons. Get detailed code examples illustrating how to map Win32 to Linux with respect to semaphore application program interfaces (APIs).

Visual Studio 2005 Beta2 is out

Submitted by Thomas Magnum 2005-04-18 General Development 22 Comments

A developer's blog about it here says that MSDN subscribers can download now and you can order free copies of it here with free shipping for US/Canadian residents.

Introduction to Aspect-Oriented Analysis and Design

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-17 General Development 11 Comments

"What's this new 'aspect-oriented' thing I've been hearing so much about?" If you've been asking yourself this question, check out this sample chapter to learn about aspect-oriented programming and how it can enhance your projects.

Exceptional C++ Style: Index Tables

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-17 General Development 9 Comments

It may seem obvious, but clear, concise code benefits everyone in the process. This sample chapter from Exceptional C++ Style explains in detail how clear code enhances productivity at every step of the way, not just for programmers and debuggers.

GCC 4.0 Release candidate 1 Available

Submitted by Anonymous Reader 2005-04-15 General Development 38 Comments

The world's most popular Free software program and the best portable compiler has made available a release candidate for GCC 4.0 version.

Mastering the Enterprise Volume Management System

Guest post by Andrew Schulman 2005-04-13 General Development 11 Comments

The Enterprise Volume Management System, or EVMS, is a disk, partition, and file system manager for Linux that claims to be a comprehensive tool for all disk management tasks. I ran across EVMS and found the idea appealing, so I decided to try it out. I've been working with it for a couple of weeks now, and this article describes what I found.

Naturally occurring standards

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-13 General Development 7 Comments

The phrase "de facto standard" can denote anything from proprietary tyranny to a healthy, vibrant, market. What makes a standard viable without the formal blessing of a standards organization? Should you use such informal standards, or ignore them?

HOWTO: Apt For RPM

Submitted by Falko Timme 2005-04-11 General Development 12 Comments

Here is a tutorial about apt on rpm-based distributions. This tutorial is split into two parts: in the first it demonstrates how to install and use apt based on an example (apt on SUSE 9.2), and in the second part it will give you an overview of the packages to install and the package repositories for each distribution mentioned above.

C++ Common Knowledge: Capability Queries

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-11 General Development 8 Comments

Most times when an object shows up for work, it's capable of performing as required, because its capabilities are advertised explicitly in its interface. However, life is not always that straightforward. This chapter will help you learn what to do when capabilities aren't readily apparent.

Higher Order Functions

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-06 General Development 28 Comments

Functions are the wonderful and powerful building blocks of computer programs. Functions allow you to break code down into simpler, more manageable steps. They also allow you to break programs into reusable parts -- parts that are both reusable within the program and in other programs as well. In this article, learn how to create new functions at runtime based on templates, how to create functions that are configurable at runtime using function parameters, and how the Scheme language can be a valuable tool with functions.

Marketplace Fills Void on VB

Submitted by Tom Bartlett 2005-04-05 General Development 28 Comments

Visual Basic developers who are being left behind with Microsoft's discontinuing of "classic" VB have a short time to take advantage of an interesting offer. The makers of REALBasic will give registered VB6 users a free license to their software.

Metafunctions in C++; Assignment and Initialization

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-03 General Development 15 Comments

This chapter looks at a practical example from science and engineering that can find applications in almost any numerical code. Along the way, you'll learn some important new concepts and get a taste of metaprogramming at a high level using the MPL. Also, this chapter explains the difference between assignment and initialization in C++ in simple terms, with examples to illustrate each.