Software in 2014 • Hacker News Board

Re: Software in 2014

#171

Post by 14113 » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:18 PM UTC

ksk wrote: post #113

72deluxe wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps not thousands. But do you use an online accounting package or do they use Sage or Pegasus? Do you use an online 3D modelling system or do you use Maya / Blender / 3DS Max / SolidWerks etc.? Do you use an online media player or do you use MPlayer / VLC / FFMPEG etc.? Do you play games online in a browser or do you play games written under DirectX / OpenGL that run natively? Was your time scheduled at work usin…

How many small businesses are making money shipping software on windows ?

Quite a lot! However, quite a lot of them aren't exactly writing for consumers, but for the business market.

Re: Software in 2014

#172

Post by cowsandmilk » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:23 PM UTC

grey-area wrote: post #48

xd wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He works on Go at Google. A skilled professional no doubt, could he not have made some valid points rather than simply calling PHP disgusting. It didn't add anything to the conversation. If you where in the pub and someone spent some time listing the virtues of the pint they where drinking, and then someone joined in the conversation and called it disgusting with no basis .. wouldn't you find that to be odd behavior?

He probably didn't elaborate because he felt the basis for the view was clear - there are clearly areas of PHP which still need work. PHP is often frowned upon because the APIs are a mess of legacy cruft like addslashes, magic_quotes, mysql_escape_string, mysql_real_escape_string, mysqli_real_escape_string versus prepared statements. Efforts are being made to clean it up, but for a language to ever end up in a place…

mysql_escape_string [1] mysql_real_escape_string [2]

Why is exposing a C library's functions and their names PHP's fault?

[1] http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/mysql-escape-string.h... [2] http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/mysql-real-escape-str...

Re: Software in 2014

#173

Post by fit2rule » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:28 PM UTC

Alphasite_ wrote: post #152

fit2rule wrote: post #29

The client-side mess? I just use MOAI. Lua is a lovely language, and the MOAI engine itself is so well thought out, that I can manage to build our client apps for Windows, Linux, MacOSX, Android, iOS, Chrome NaCL, and even HTML5+JS target platforms. With the exact same code. At this point I just don't see any point to doing things natively. Actually, the tools that MOAI provides (and some of the other community frame…

To be frank, except for games (and even then it's not disagreeable to provide a nice, native UI), I disagree with you quite strongly. As is the usual case, language choice is completely arbitrary, but intentionally aiming for constancy across your narrow range of apps, instead of focusing on working to the platforms strengths is a very dangerous, and damaging approach to take imo. Although i will say, i do not have a…

Its a valid concern to have, but the counter-argument is this: the app looks the same, and works the same, no matter what computer you're using. My users love that.

Re: Software in 2014

#174

Post by BlackDeath3 » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:34 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #19

Notice how everything he writes about mobile development is wrong? > First of all, you have to do your mobile development twice Nope, there are plenty of frameworks with large user bases, both OSS and with corporate backend to do it once. From Xamarin to PhoneGap. Especially 2D game developers are spoiled for choice. > The devices are memory-starved, CPU-starved, and battery-starved. The devices have never been bette…

>the battery lasts the whole day

In my pocket, maybe. I get to practically watch my battery indicator drain before my eyes trying to do any sort intensive activity, or (god forbid) watch video.

Re: Software in 2014

#175

Post by cehlen » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:37 PM UTC

This blog almost immediately reminded me of grandma’s speech to Gil in the movie Parenthood. “…that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited and so thrilled all together. some didn’t like it. they went on the merry-go-round. that just goes around… nothing… I like the roller-coaster. you get more out of it”. Yes, there is a giant mess around building applications for today’s users! But that is where is the fun, excitement, and innovation is coming from. If you require safe, secure, and boring I’m sure there is bank somewhere in the world that need a good COBOL developer.

Re: Software in 2014

#176

Post by FrankenPC » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:42 PM UTC

I used to think JavaScript sucked until I read a JavaScript pattern/anti-pattern book. I then realized it was I who sucked. IMO JavaScript is perfectly suited for its environment.

Re: Software in 2014

#177

Post by pswenson » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:53 PM UTC

Eleutheria wrote: post #155

Firefox and Ubuntu are blazing the trails in the mobile client unification. It's just too early to notice. We need more devices with Firefox OS and Ubuntu installed. Web developers will come en masse to show you how it should have been done from the beginning. One app, searchable, upgradable, that runs everywhere.

Awfully late to displace iOS/Android

Re: Software in 2014

#178

Post by daphneokeefe » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:55 PM UTC

seabee wrote: post #85

jokoon wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but that can't really work on the long term...

It's the equivalent of smacking a malfunctioning (mechanical) appliance to try and make it work again. Maybe you just want something to last long enough until you can get a better-designed, more reliable appliance.

Percussive maintenance

Re: Software in 2014

#179

Post by twerquie » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:58 PM UTC

adobriyan wrote: post #154

twerquie wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, JS doesn't ship with a large standard library. But that has turned out to be one of its greatest strengths and a key reason for it's runaway success.

> runaway See "runaway chain reaction".

I'm not following, is this just snark or am I missing a point?

Re: Software in 2014

#180

Post by 10098 » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 6:16 PM UTC

weland wrote: post #62

I think this paints a rather meagre picture of software development in 2014: > More or less everything is expected to talk HTTP, and it’s really easy to make things talk HTTP. A lot of things that shouldn't talk HTTP are expected to just because there's an army of programmers who don't know better. Also, it's actually hard to make things talk HTTP, partly due to HTTP itself. However, much of this complexity is hidden…

> A lot of things that shouldn't talk HTTP are expected to just because there's an army of programmers who don't know better.

Agree with this. Actually, I'd love it if Google released some kind of an RPC library for passing around protocol buffers between applications. It would be so much better than the crazy pseudo-REST mess we have.