General Development Archive

Gcc 4.0 Vectorizer

Submitted by Carice 2005-05-06 General Development 18 Comments

The new gcc 4.0 compiler shipped with Apple's Mac OS X 10.4 makes use of a new component, the loop vectorizer. This allows gcc to compile code that will take advantage of altivec optimizations without the need for the developer to explicitly use altivec code.

Fortress, next Fortran?

Submitted by ahmetaa 2005-05-05 General Development 33 Comments

Fortress is a new language for from a team that includes Guy Steele, Common Lisp guru and contributor of Java. Language is introduced as the "next Fortran". Fortress language spec and an early overview.

Ada 2006 Draft ISO Standard available

Submitted by Anonymous 2005-05-03 General Development 38 Comments

Ada - a modern programming language designed for large, long-lived applications - and embedded systems in particular - is set to get some extensions in its next incarnation Ada 2006. There is a talk here, highlighting the most important changes (eg. cyclic type structures, Java-like interfaces, standardization of the Ravenscar tasking profile, container libraries, etc.). Updated drafts of the standard are available here. For general information about Ada there is a Wikibook Programming:Ada.

GCC 4.0 Review

Submitted by Omega 2005-05-03 General Development 19 Comments

An interesting review and performance testing of the new GCC 4.

C++ Common Knowledge: Polymorphism

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-02 General Development 23 Comments

The topic of polymorphism is given mystical status in some programming texts and is ignored in others, but it's a simple, useful concept that the C++ language supports. Find out all about it in this sample chapter by Stephen Dewhurst.

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?