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I program in C#, and have the past 20 years. Occasionally I have to do some maintenance or conversion on VB6 or VB.NET code.
But coming from languages like FORTRAN, COBOL, Clipper, and VB6, having to go backwards to fool with curly brackets and semicolons simply added incrementally to coding time. Fortunately, the VS IDE (copied from the VB6 IDE) had enough help for me to catch the syntax errors from a missing bracket or semicolon, rather than catch it at compile time.
Curly brackets and semicolons are a legacy from an ancient time when RAM was minimal, processors were slow, and such characters were used so the compiler did not have to infer lines and code blocks, which would have made compile time much longer. They provide no real value today, and haven’t for decades, but they do add to the comfort level for C++ and Java programmers working in .NET.
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OK. Interesting. But doesn't each bracket and semi-colon take up an extra byte of RAM? 😁
Paul Sanders.
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - Blaise Pascal.
Some of my best work is in the undo buffer.
modified 3-Aug-22 6:33am.
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Not really during compile time. The compilers back then simply used them as delimiters to know when a line ended (semicolon) and the demarcation of code blocks for logic flow. They were not used for anything beyond that, and were a trifle compared to the characters in the line.
In a language like VB, the CRLF (absent a line continuation character) is used to denote the end of a line. Instead of brackets, VB uses key words (like End If) to denote logical blocks.
Developers who have known nothing but the C/C++/Java curly bracket syntax would likely not be comfortable with VB’s syntax, even though it is cleaner and appears more like natural writing than code with curly brackets and semicolons.
I adapted quickly enough to the more archaic pattern of curly brackets and semicolons, coming from the FORTRAN/COBOL/Clipper/VB syntax. Those coming from the other direction that I have known had more difficulty getting used to the cleaner syntax.
But C# developers today greatly outnumber VB developers, so MS rightly addresses that customer base by focusing on C# over VB.
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Hmmm. Missed the 'joke' emoji, methinks 
Paul Sanders.
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - Blaise Pascal.
Some of my best work is in the undo buffer.
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Probably. I had not been awake long. 🙂
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Paul Sanders.
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - Blaise Pascal.
Some of my best work is in the undo buffer.
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if like numbers, and if not morbid, maybe something that tells you how many seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, based on date input.
additional when some milestone numbers coming up. and can input all dates of new/old body parts, so can be like celebrating 1 million seconds of getting new knee, and 32bit milestone (2.1 or 4.2 billion something) when X event happened.
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Interesting question...
Myself, I'd probably go with a better calendar app. It has challenging parts and something that could be expanded beyond the initial basic cast. So many of the apps in this group just fall short of being complete in my book. I just haven't had the play time to work on it.
VS has a decent amount of desktop tools to create the parts and pieces; it wouldn't be my first choice for web-based but I haven't played with ASP in a hundred years, which may be fun too. I use VS for desktop (C# or VB) and PHP for web. Maybe that brings up another idea, too. It might be a good time to give C# a shot as a project. It's not as much of a leap today as it was before current VB.
I'm pretty meh on SQLite, but that's more because I'm not accessing local data at all.
The key is to find something you're interested in and have a go at it. Good luck!
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If you want a challenging, but doable, project that would be wildly popular in the Visual Studio (not Code) community, create a VS extension for a WYSIWYG UI designer that works for MAUI and HTML for Blazor.
MS has lost the concept and value of rapid application design (RAD) as the ones who did that well since the 90s have retired or moved on.
This project would be a huge shot in the arm for developers who want to significantly increase productivity, quality, and decrease time to market.
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If you're into human languages, I have always had in mind a vocabulary enhancer that reads from copy and pasted web page or other content, then breaks it up into words and phrases, Google Translates it, then presents it in exercises to the user over gradually increasing time spans. I just haven't had time. I used a cardboard cutout version of this over slips of paper a long time ago and managed to memorize a lot of words in three languages: French, Spanish, Russian.
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"seems beyond my ability"
Do that one then.
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This is simply the napsack problem with additional constraints...
And the constraints are what makes these problems hard. Also, what's doing the cutting?
A Shearing Device or a Laser or a water cutter.
If a laser and it's metal, does/will it affect the tempering. (Why water cutting is preferred, IMO)
Thickness of the metal, and smallness of the part. Imagine using a Water cutter to make a 15 micron washer!
Good luck with that!
I guess my next question is... Why? Why do you want to write some software. It's a skill you have.
It seems like you could use getting involved with WALKING daily to help the ticker...
After you get a decent WHY then target helping some local Food Bank, or other Volunteer Heavy Business.
Heck, maybe get involved with the local high schools, and the Volunteering Groups, and build a system for
the groups to get HS volunteers, and to have be able to track/communicate.
Honestly, the options are endless. But there are probably more than a few such organizations that would love to have a problem solver review their problems looking for an interesting one to match...
Finally, what SKILLS are you hoping to develop in the process?
Good luck to you. It's not what you CAN or SHOULD do in life... It's what you ACTUALLY DO that matters!
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Possibly outside the scope mentioned;
1. I need an app that can track which frickin streaming service I had been watching, so when they have new episodes I can pick up where I left off. I also want to know what movies I've seen since the titles on my action movies are starting to blend together.
2. I'd like a webpage watcher that can tell when the webpage gets updated. I know that might sound weird but there are low change sites that a notification would help on. Ideally, it would have the added feature of ignoring the letterhead and other garbage.
3. A news aggregator that works like a web search engine and crosses political lines and especially includes overseas sources. It would only include news and ignore other pages. As a US citizen I'm getting more accurate news from the BBC and Al Jazeera than I am from my local news sources. Less biased, as well.
4. A PR Newswire filter that looks for specific companies or narrow industries (meaning not just "finance").
5. A piece of software that can scan all public government documents for an individual's name; meaning land purchases in adjacent counties, court cases and company filings including the person's name.
Just some ideas of toys I've always wanted. Yes, you can use the last one for stalking but I'm thinking more about public/government figures.
Beyond the tools? No harm, no foul. Just some ideas. Have fun with any of them.
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Possibly outside the scope mentioned;
1. I need an app that can track which frickin streaming service I had been watching, so when they have new episodes I can pick up where I left off. I also want to know what movies I've seen since the titles on my action movies are starting to blend together.
2. I'd like a webpage watcher that can tell when the webpage gets updated. I know that might sound weird but there are low change sites that a notification would help on. Ideally, it would have the added feature of ignoring the letterhead and other garbage.
3. A news aggregator that works like a web search engine and crosses political lines and especially includes overseas sources. It would only include news and ignore other pages. As a US citizen I'm getting more accurate news from the BBC and Al Jazeera than I am from my local news sources. Less biased, as well.
4. A PR Newswire filter that looks for specific companies or narrow industries (meaning not just "finance").
5. A piece of software that can scan all public government documents for an individual's name; meaning land purchases in adjacent counties, court cases and company filings including the person's name.
Just some ideas of toys I've always wanted. Yes, you can use the last one for stalking but I'm thinking more about public/government figures.
Beyond the tools? No harm, no foul. Just some ideas. Have fun with any of them.
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What I’d be really interested in is being able, on the fly, to block a whole country’s IP address ranges. I play GTA-Online and players from certain countries are mainly modders who spoil the game. Blocking a country’s IP address range stops them from showing up in the same public server that I’m in as GTA is has a peer to peer infrastructure. How I currently do it is added a whole IP address block to the windows firewall - it works, but it’s not a very elegant solution
modified 6-Sep-22 21:01pm.
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A Momentary Lapse of Reason wrote: a whole country’s IP address ranges.
See? That there. You're starting from an invalid assumption.
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In what respect? Russian and Chinese players invariably use mod menus as do quite a lot of Germans. And I see no problem with blocking anyone from a given country being able to connect to my computer through the game, do you? It’s not as if it will affect their game as all that will happen is I won’t be in the same server as them.
modified 6-Sep-22 21:01pm.
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Because it would prevent being able to discuss spay/neutering when the cat's around. You need a secret language for that. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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He does still wash his bits, then stare at me thoughtfully for quite a long while from time to time - and he's 11 now. Long memories, cats. They plan ahead as well ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You[^]
"It's a cat. Of course it is."
Duh. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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