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My latest experience was mostly a bad one. The code was a zoo, with scarcely any encapsulation or overarching design. It had clearly never been factored, nor had it been maintained in six years. Who was it that said "software rusts?" They're right.
But still, Rolex is done and posted, sooner than I expected. It's rough around the edges but I don't care because everything important works. It's an interim release anyway until I finish my own engine.
The good news is, it supports unicode and some additional regex features like anchors (important for things like C# preprocessor directives that must appear at the beginning of a line - not counting whitespace)
I also integrated it with Visual Studio, and I'm pretty proud of my integration.
For starters, I use it as out of process from visual studio so I didn't have to create hooks into the main program. I just pass command line arguments and capture output.
I used a little trick wherein I reference the Rolex.exe as a Referenced assembly (yes, you're allowed - in .net an assembly is an assembly so an exe is just a class lib with an entry point)
That way the binary is "tied" to the devstudio project, and even though it calls it out of proc, it will carry the assembly with it due to the reference. I couldn't have called it in proc, by calling Main() directly because then I couldn't capture output.
I also use a trick wherein i scan the current project to see if the shared library code was already generated so I don't generate it again. It's cool that visual studio lets you do that. I just wish they'd get rid of the grotty COM interfaces and go managed and clean up the API, but oh well.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: Who was it that said "software rusts?" They're right.
That's nonsense; code is static. Your perception of it may change, the code doesn't. You can verify the MD5 over multiple years to confirm that.
honey the codewitch wrote: I just wish they'd get rid of the grotty COM interfaces and go managed and clean up the API, but oh well.
Without COM, a lot of Windows would stop working, wouldn't it?
Others' people code can be a source of education as well as a source of frustration. Depends on who them other people be. As for simply using other peoples codes, well, I didn't write an OS yet.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: That's nonsense; code is static.
I think the point of that quote is that
a) sourcecode lives or dies on how well it can be maintained and no matter how judicious you are, sometimes, code has maintenance issues and after 6 months or a year you may not know what you did.
b) software doesn't age well. demands changes quickly in the industry, with hardware changes and OS changes and the like not to mention just feature adds, the average software to be competitive needs to put out new versions regularly.
Eddy Vluggen wrote: Without COM, a lot of Windows would stop working, wouldn't it?
Yes, but that's not the point of my statement. Visual Studio Extensibility interfaces are not Windows, and they don't need to be COM.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: a) sourcecode lives or dies on how well it can be maintained and no matter how judicious you are, sometimes, code has maintenance issues and after 6 months or a year you may not know what you did.
Than it is bad code. Simple as that.
honey the codewitch wrote: b) software doesn't age well.
It does. A lot of VB6 projects still alive, and my bank was using NT4 for their cash-machines a few years ago, in the age of Win7.
honey the codewitch wrote: average software to be competitive needs to put out new versions regularly.
That's what sales tells you; and it is bullshit; software needs to add value. And often, new versions don't; often they introduce more bugs and incompatibilities than value, causing people to be cautious with upgrading and running outdated software because it is in their benefit.
honey the codewitch wrote: Visual Studio Extensibility interfaces are not Windows, and they don't need to be COM.
There's no longer any need for COM, but that doesn't mean that it will all be replaced within a day. Keep in mind that most of your UI is unchanged from the common controls that were available in Win3.0. Sales made a lot of sexy changes to shading and 3D, but at the heart, they're still the same controls. Proven over years, tested to death, and unbeaten.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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I understand your viewpoint regarding software, but I don't agree with it in broad strokes. The computer industry at large is an obsolescence vortex and software isn't immune. My $0.02. And win7 isn't supported by MS anymore, AFAIK. Neither is VB6, which goes to my point. Something goes wrong, you're out of luck. It's legacy.
Eddy Vluggen wrote: There's no longer any need for COM, but that doesn't mean that it will all be replaced within a day.
We're not talking a day. I worked at Microsoft in the early aughts when Whidbey shipped. I was on that team. Back then they should have started the migration to managed code.
They haven't even begun.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: Something goes wrong, you're out of luck. It's legacy.
Ehr, no, the Dutch government simply buys extended support.
honey the codewitch wrote: They haven't even begun.
That's why they the standard. You don't rewrite and kill your working and selling product.
You build on what you have.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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The could provide managed wrappers instead of forcing you to use the grotty COM interfaces.
And true, there is extended support, I'll grant you that, but it's still legacy. Old software TCO goes up. All of the sudden you're paying more money. Software rusts. 
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: The could provide managed wrappers instead of forcing you to use the grotty COM interfaces.
They could, but they'll focus on what makes sense financially.
honey the codewitch wrote: All of the sudden you're paying more money. Software rusts.
Support rusts, software doesn't.
Windows actually makes a big issue out of that; you can still run some very old software on modern windows. It runs xhack, The Secret of Monkey Island, and a lot more oldies.
That's why they popular. Not because of the new and sexy UI, or because of the improvements. But because what worked yesterday will still work tomorrow.
honey the codewitch wrote: Old software TCO goes up.
Another myth; if you need changes to a program, written in a language that no-one uses anymore, then yes, more expensive then what the current youngsters learn. Lots of old software doesn't change, meaning the TCO for that year is nada. The Secret of Monkey Island hasn't cost me money in years.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: Another myth; if you need changes to a program, written in a language that no-one uses anymore, then yes, more expensive then what the current youngsters learn. Lots of old software doesn't change, meaning the TCO for that year is nada.
Not if you suddenly have to pay for support.
Real programmers use butterflies
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It's never suddenly, and good software hardly needs "support".
Can't remember last time I called MS for support on using Windows, VS, or Sql Server. Nor the Secret of Monkey Island.
Those old games don't require updates either.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Do spiny creatures need a hedgehug?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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No one can hug them because they are super Sonic!
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Sharp criticizem, and echidna not:
Quill you tell us the point of that question?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Didn't realize you were so sharp.
It's been 6 months since I joined the gym and there's been no progress. I'm going there tomorrow in person to find out what's really going on!
JaxCoder.com
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What do porcupines pine for?
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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This made my day. Thanks. 
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Just be thankful they didn't list under butthole as a service.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: Just be thankful they didn't list under butthole as a service.
BaaS? Sounds like something related to sheep.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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Requirements:
• 64-bit Microsoft® Windows®
• 3.0 GHz or greater CPU, 4 or more cores
• Memory: 20 GB RAM or more
• Graphics: 4 GB GPU with 106 GB/S Bandwidth and DirectX 11 compliant
• Display Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (4K); Preferred scaling: 100%, 125%, 150% or 200%
• Pointing Device: MS-Mouse compliant (3DConnexion 3D Mouse optional)
• Productivity: 3DConnexion SpaceMouse®, driver version 10.5.12 or later
• Wellington boots
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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That's the added value of "free"; more buttholes should be registered.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Last night I had a dream. Don't remember much but from it but I know there was a Dutch class somewhere close as I could hear one person speaking Dutch alphabets and students reciting it. When I was half awake half asleep, I could still hear that sound of classroom. Which I found weird. I concentrated a little and noticed that it was our son's breathing sound (who has cold and blocked nose so is breathing heavily while asleep). My brain was reading these sounds and somehow changing it to classroom sound. I then wondered if I could hear that class room sound again and I could!
It was spooky and interesting.
And no, there was no alcohol (or any other stuff) involved.
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
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This is not dutch. This was parseltongue and he was actually summoning a deamon.
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But I was already next to him.
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
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