Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:I have a sneaking suspicion... (Score 1) 57

It was applied, you just need a slightly more basic definition of evolution. Rather than "survival of the fittest" consider "survival of the stable". With that slight modification it handles the evolution of planets, reproducing molecules, life, species, stars, etc. And "the fittest" was always defined in terms of being stable in a particular environment.

Comment Re:Hypercard could have been basis of internet (Score 1) 48

I wrote bankruptcy filing software for my own use in the late 80s on hypercard. Some things it generated itself, and some it sent a mail merge file to word 5.1 (the last version that could simply use a text file as input rather than those bizarre inserts). In fairly short order, it ended up transferred to supercars, which could have multiple stacks open (but I never transitioned back when hypercard 2.0 came out. I suppose I could have scripted that, but . . .).

I thought about making a commercial project of it, but then in '92 (?) new forms were coming out, and the court clerk told me that anything submitted would have to be pixel perfect when they got their new scanners in the coming months. Add that to Macs only having 1% market penetration in law offices at the time, and I ended up simply buy-in another program (to my secretaries' dismay!)

The next year, supercard shipped a PC version. Oh, well.

And more than 30 years later, no such scanners (nor will they ever be; we electronically submit pdfs these days).

Had I known *either* of those*, I could have been the biggest player in the field.

After being away for more than a decade and a half, I trie what was then the biggest player--and it *still* didn't do stuff that I easily did with hypercard in the 80s!

I ended up implementing it, largely from scratch, using LiveCode.

Initially metacard on the NeXT, then runner on several platforms, and now LiveCode, it's basically HyperCard on steroids able to use databases and so much more. Now they're pushing AI, and I'm retired, so not my problem any more.

Comment Re:Inefficient when programming (Score 1) 187

>The QWERTY and PC-based layout (especially for some non-EN
>layouts) are simply not suited for the prolonged use of the SHIFT-
>pinky and stretching the hand to the control characters on the
>numeric row,

Nor is EMACS, at least on a CKIE (control key in exile) keyboard.

I actually had to get medical treatment in grad school after days of heavy editing, requiring me to twist my wrist and fully extend my pinky to reach the key. He said that they could send me to physical therapy, but I could do just as well myself with rubber bands on my last two fingers, stretching against them for some amount of time a couple of times a day.

Now, I surely wouldn't be one to tamper with university equipment, but a couple of days later, there was a little piece of plastic on my desk next to the keyboard. It apparently somehow escaped from the toggle mechanism on the capslock key, allowing me to remap control to it!
 

Comment Re:Learning your IDE is more effective ... (Score 1) 187

>Nothing of this comes natural.

some does, actually, under the right circumstances.

wordstar (and I mean the original eight bit stuff, not the later extensions) was laid out rather logically and consistently with its diamonds and prefixes.

To the point that a couple of times, I instinctively used combinations that I hadn't consciously realized existed--and then sat back amazed as I realized what I'd done!

hawk, who used to type over 100wpm on a manual

Comment Re:US total research is going down too. (Score 1) 56

It's not a coincidence, but the causation is not direct. It's just that both are driven by another cause. Both funding cuts to research, arbitrary decisions about visas, etc. are driven by xenophobic paranoia.

This *isn't* to claim that there aren't real concerns, but the real concerns are a trivial proportion.

Slashdot Top Deals

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge. -- John Naisbitt, Megatrends

Working...