The Mad Bug - Latest Comments

Re: The DON’Ts of software workplace tools.

James Telfer — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:50:02 -0000

The exception to the VM rule: booting from a VHD (Win7). The only virtual thing is the hard disk.

Having done this, I found the big pro was system backup (copy the VHD). (There are other tools for this, of course.) My machine crashed, and I was back up within an hour on a different machine.

Re: probe_newgame

madbug — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 23:59:03 -0000

Ha cheers, (clearly I need to update my Disqus plugin to notify me when I get new messages). I'm just getting back to it after spending time changes jobs.

Re: probe_newgame

Webmaster@madbug.co.uk — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:11:53 -0000

Hi I like the image of the game especially the background.

I think you should persevere and complete it as soon as possible :)

All the best from a fellow madbug site.

Paul - madbug.co.uk

Re: A poor workman doesn’t look for better tools

GAGCAT — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 10:36:47 -0000

It's not just code. Other things I can think of in a language comparison are:

Speed of write/compile/test loop: compare hitting reload on javascript file (or editing live in a browser console), GWT developer mode when you can edit files to a small extent (not change interface) without a restart of a debugging instance to header files and C programs.

A lot of the time now you're not writing just code, you're interfacing with different things (think how nice JSON is vs constructing SQL using C's primitive string functions?). How nicely you can layout this "foreign" code in your code base is important. There's a lot (xml/html/css/javascript) - so using "+" for string concatenation is good, as is having less code in general by moving things to configuration, conventions, annotations, etc.

Entering data is very important - it's nice to be able to initialise large data structures inline eg "String[] = { "foo", "bar" };". Java is nowhere near as nice as dynamic languages here.

Amount of google hits for solutions for "no fault of your own, hard to find, easy once you know" fuckups in everything so you don't get stuck there.

Free libraries and frameworks and example code you can steal.

Finally - having a fast enough computer and enough ram that you don't care about speed or memory, and can write solutions in nice languages that think in huge cognitive chunks like maps and sets instead of ints and chars and arrays. All this speed and sharing makes it harder on the computers, easier on the programmers (though of course, expectations of output are much higher today)

Re: A poor workman doesn’t look for better tools

Dave — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 10:35:00 -0000

It's not just code. Programmers are expected to do a lot more now, languages not being crap makes you more productive.

A lot of the time now you're not writing just code, you're interfacing with different things (think how nice JSON is, vs constructing SQL using C's primitive string functions?). So how nicely you can layout this "foreign" code in your code base the better. Using "+" for string concatenation is good, as is removing lots of code to configuration, conventions, annotations, etc.

Entering data is very important - it's nice to be able to initialise large data structures inline eg "String[] = { "yay", "yay" };". Java is nowhere near as nice as dynamic languages here.

Re: Game setup

madbug — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:24:20 -0000

Moral choice number one, you're in a dream and there are two vials at a giant's desk, which one do you drink?
I've read Ender's Game, but not the sequels, also working my way through your recommended "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman!"

Re: Game setup

Nick Lothian — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:12:00 -0000

Moral Choices.. sounds like "Ender's Game". You should read that