MyPerceptions

Knowledge Maturity Model

2012-01-04T22:50:00.000-08:00

As you deal with knowledge you go through several stages of maturity.

Knowledge Acquistion

Knowledge Assimilation

Knowledge Application

Knowledge Acquistion

This is usually the first level where you capture knowledge from the environment and store it in your brain's KnowledgeStore.This is the level where you get aware of and become acquainted with the concept.

Knowledge Assimilation

When knowledge you acquired gets organized into the format suitable to your brain, it become usable in many different ways.When you experience the "understanding" of the concept,you have assimilated Knowledge. You can use several techniques to progress from Knowledge Acquisition to Knowledge Assimilation. Your acquaintance becomes friendship. Your knowledge is accessible and effortlessly usable in any decision making effort.

Knowledge Application

This level is achieved when you start using your assimilated knowledge to solve real world problems. You now re-purpose the given knowledge in new dimensions and create innovative solutions. You start appreciating constraints presented by the application domains and find way and means to adapt your assimilated knowledge to meet this new challenges.Your friendship becomes a long lasting deep appreciation, gratitude and love.

Although, the levels shown above indicate a typical progression in an organised learning environment, real life presents a lot of recursion. It is not uncommon that while assimilating a concept you realize that you are missing some information and you need to acquire it. It is also not uncommon that while you are applying knowledge you assimilate it for the first time.Use these three levels as your measurement tool to check where you stand in your relationship with a given knowledge entity.

Essence Of Patterns

2012-01-03T13:32:00.000-08:00

Patterns and their Life Cycle

Pattern is a solution to a problem in context. It is a unit of expression that captures experience and enables reuse. It is relevant to all modern crafts including Software Development

Action packed Software Industry has its own set of problems. Technology is getting sophisticated, problems are growing complex, and software professionals are struggling with deadlines. The rate of change of contextual environment underlying the developmental activities is alarmingly high.Patterns offer a shimmer of hope.

Abstraction has always been an effective tool against complexity. Every engineering discipline offers a set of fundamental building blocks. Engineers use this off-the-self fundamental building blocks to create their products.This set of fundamental building blocks and the principles governing their use, form the context within which the product formation in envisioned. The pace of evolution of Software Engineering is unsettling from the building block's perspective.There always seems to be a need for better abstractions.

A prospective Pattern is formed when an engineer identifies a particular configuration of basic building blocks achieving a well defined motive. This newly discovered Pattern becomes graduated, if it can be re-purposed in a variety of applications while still retaining it's configuration. Graduated Patterns are named, documented and communicated for wider adoption. Successful patterns find place in widely distributed Pattern Catalogs. Patterns offer higher level of abstraction and are a larger unit of construction in comparison to the fundamental building blocks. In the process of evolution successful patterns are directly supported in the contextual environment and they eventually become fundamental building blocks. When a pattern becomes a fundamental building block it is no longer a pattern. The following diagram depicts Life Cycle of a Pattern

Pattern building is a technique which every good engineer needs to acquire. Patterns form the modern building blocks. They encourage and cultivate refined thought process. Patterns allow rapid design prototyping and elegant implementations.Patterns are not just limited to the design phase of Software Development. They are relevant to all phases of software development. From requirement specifications to maintenance, patterns and pattern languages are coming to life.For instance, there are patterns for Use Case( UML) formation and there are also patterns for GUI designs.

Patterns vary in size and scope. Be it a small elegant coding technique or an intimidating software architecture, patterns capture them all. However it is not enough to know patterns. What's more important is to be able to harness its power in day-to-day solutions. Applied in the programming context, small patterns are referred to as Idioms. Large patterns that can characterize entire systems are referred to as Architectural patterns. All patterns between this two extremes are design patterns.

Judicious use of patterns has been proved to deliver the following benefits

Rapid Design Prototyping
Increased Reliability
Effective Communication
Increased Reuse
Compact and Complete Documentation

Software Design

It is not always possible to express a Software Design completely in terms of patterns. However, the following diagram illustrates how to approximate Patterns based Software Design. The expression is in terms of patterns and the fundamental building blocks.

Pattern Activities
Activities related to Patterns

Pattern Mining
Identifying patterns in existing solutions
Pattern Formulation
Creating new Patterns
Pattern Documentation
Documenting the pattern configuration and motives
Pattern Application
Using patterns in the development process.

5.times("hello") in C#

2012-01-03T13:11:00.001-08:00

(This post is an old article I wrote on Google Knol. I have shifted it here... Witness the power of Extension Methods)

My meeting with Dalpat ...

I happened to meet a Ruby Language enthusiast (Mr. Dalpat) recently. He was showing me some cool programming tricks in Ruby Language. He was bullish about power of Ruby and lamented over limitations of C# and Java. "C#(especially after version 3.0) has a bigger toolbox of idioms than Java , but Ruby is far better" he said.

Ruby being dynamic and capable of supporting internal DSL's( Domain Specific Language) has always had my due respect. However, I wanted to know what made this Ruby evangelist so strongly opinionated. One of the things that came up in his praise for Ruby was that even literals in Ruby were objects. So one could very naturally write something like

5.times{puts "Hello"}

and print Hello five times. This he said was possible because the times method had already be defined in Ruby's Integer class. "It's impossible to do such things in C# or Java" he said. I started thinking... was it really impossible?

In Search of Solution ...

I want to say 5.times("Hello") ;

And this will print hello 5 times on Console

Generally in a statically typed language most of the translation activities like name resolution and binding are performed before runtime. Typically, conformance to language rules are checked before the program runs, and this give a degree of assurance that the program is well-behaved. However, this also means that there is a reduced degree of freedom at runtime. In statically typed languages its not easy to add a new method to an object at runtime. To add a method to an object at runtime would amount to type mutation. Type validations are done before runtime and type mutation is not normally allowed at runtime. In dynamic languages it is possible to add a method to an instance or a class at runtime. Dynamic language translators can allow greater degree of freedom to program logic, as they have access to runtime context. C# is a statically typed language and the literal 5 is an instance of type Int32. There is no method named Times in Int32. So how can I possibly invoke Times on literal 5? Can I add Times method to Int32 ? Using inheritance is not an option here. I wantTimes method to appear as a method in type Int32 and not as a method in its subtype.

The Solution ... Extension Method

We can add a method to a type in C# using extension method. So I tried to add Times method to Int32.

The following class defines the extension method Times. It's first parameter indicates the type to which it can be applied.

Program ... FiveTimesSimple

/*** The following program uses the extension method to exhibit Ruby like functionality. ***/

using System;

namespace FiveTimesSimple

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

5.Times("Hello");

10.Times("bye");

Console.ReadLine();

}

static class IntegerUtility

{

public static void Times(this Int32 i, String str)

{

for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)

{

Console.WriteLine(str);

}

Output of program FiveTimesSimple ...

Hello

bye

In Search of Concurrent Solution ...

What if the job is to be done 5 times concurrently !!! . Given a unit of work to be performed, we want 5 thread to be invoked and each thread assigned a work unit. The work unit can be printing hello on console. (Trivial I understand, but it could be easily any other complex work).

I want to have a statement like.

5.TimesCon( << unit of work >>);

Program ... FiveTimesConcurrent

using System;

using System.Threading;

namespace FiveTimesConcurrent

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

5.Times("Hello");

10.Times("bye");

5.TimesCon(s=>Console.WriteLine("Hello says "+ s));

10.TimesCon(s=>Console.WriteLine("Bye says " + s));

Console.ReadLine();

}

static class IntegerUtility

{

public static void Times(this Int32 i, String str)

{

for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)

{

Console.WriteLine(str);

}

public static void TimesCon(this Int32 i, ParameterizedThreadStart ts)

{

for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)

{

new Thread(ts).Start("Thread" + j);

}

Ouput of Program FiveTimesConcurrent ...

Hello

bye

Hello says Thread1

Hello says Thread0

Hello says Thread2

Hello says Thread3

Hello says Thread4

Bye says Thread0

Bye says Thread2

Bye says Thread1

Bye says Thread3

Bye says Thread4

Bye says Thread6

Bye says Thread5

Bye says Thread7

Bye says Thread8

Bye says Thread9

Dalpat can't believe his eyes ...

Dalpat found it difficult to believe when I suggested the aforementioned solution. However, he argued that it was verbose when compared to Ruby. I was not in an argumentative mood, in-fact I was full of appreciation for features like extension methods and lambda functions in C#. Although very simple , the above code helped me express a Ruby idiom in C#. I am looking forward to express and simulate more complex idioms. I thanked Dalpat for getting me started in this interesting journey.

Program ... PassingCodeBlocks

Passing Code Blocks as requested by Kunal Modi(see comments)

Idioms and Patterns used in the Program

Visitor Pattern ( for a Literal )

You can pass a code block (lambda) to a literal and the code block operates on the literal. This is a instance of Visitor Pattern. Here the code block is the visitor visiting the literal.
e.g. 5.Inject(x => x * x);

Range ( e.g. 1..10 )

You don't have direct support for range in C# . Here the Ruby's range idiom has been implemented using an array. I have considered only positive ranges for simplicity. Extending it for all possible ranges and types would be an interesting exercise.
e.g 1.Range(5).Sum();

Visitor Pattern ( for a Range)

You can pass a code block to a range. The code block will work on the range and return some result.
5.Range(10).Inject((a) => { int x = 0; foreach (int i in a) { x = x + i; } return x; });This again is an instance of Visitor pattern , but applied to a range.

This implementation can be made more sophisticated. Also a lot more can be harnessed from .Net collection API. However, I have kept it simple enough to be able to illustrate the point. You can chain the visitors on a given range if the return type of Injection is changed to that of an array. That would be an interesting exercise to try.

namespace CodeBlock

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

/* Injecting logic to print itself */

5.Inject(x => { Console.WriteLine(x); return x; });

/* Injecting logic to calculate square */

5.Inject(x => x * x);

/* Chaining Injection */

10.Inject(x => x * x).Inject(x => x * 2).Inject(x => { Console.WriteLine(x); return x; });

/* Injecting logic in a range */

5.Range(10).Inject((a) => { int x = 0; foreach (int i in a) { x = x + i; } return x; });

/* Simplified injection by creating special method sum */

int sum = 1.Range(5).Sum();

Console.WriteLine("sum = " + sum);

/* Adding numbers in the range and printing*/

3.Range(8).Sum().Inject(x => {Console.WriteLine(x); return x; });

4.Range(7).Max().Print();

Console.ReadLine();

}

static class IntegerUtility

{

public static Int32 Inject(this Int32 i,Func<Int32,Int32> p)

{

return p(i);

}

public static Int32[] Range(this Int32 i,int j)

{

int size = j - i + 1;

Int32[] list = new Int32[size];

for (int k = 0 ; k < size; k++)

{

list[k] = i++;

}

return list;

}

public static int Inject(this Int32[] i ,Func<Int32[],Int32> p)

{

return p(i);

}

public static int Sum(this Int32[] i)

{

return i.Inject((a) => { int x=0; foreach (int j in a) { x = x + j; } return x; });

}

public static string Print(this Int32 i)

{

Console.WriteLine(i.ToString());

return i.ToString();

}

Ouput of Program PassingCodeBlock ...

200

sum = 15

Program ... PythonStringMultiplication

Simulating Python's string multiplication as requested by John Morrison(see comments)

I have tried to address the Python idiom in two ways. One is adding extensions to String class as illustrated in scenario 4, 5 and 6 . Second is adding extensions to Int32 class as illustrated in scenario 1,2 and 3.

namespace Simulating_Python

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

// scenario 1

//equivalent to >>> 5 * "Hello"

Console.WriteLine("\nScenario1");

string s = 5.@p("Hello");

Console.WriteLine(s);

// scenario 2

//equivalent to >>> print 5 * "Hello"

Console.WriteLine("\nScenario2");

5.@p("Hello").print();

// scenario 3

//equivalent to >>> print 3 * (5 * "Hello" )

Console.WriteLine("\nScenario3");

3.@p(5.@p("Hello")).print();

// scenario 4

//equivalent to >>> "Hello" * 5

Console.WriteLine("\nScenario4 \nnothing to be displayed");

"Hello".x(5);

// scenario 5

// equivalent to >>> print 5 * "Hello"

Console.WriteLine("\nScenario5");

"Hello".x(5).print();

// scenario 6

//equivalent to >>> print ("Hello" * 5) * 3

Console.WriteLine("\nScenario6");

"Hello".x(5).x(3).print();

Console.ReadLine();

}

static class IntegerUtility

{

public static string @p(this Int32 i, string s)

{

string temp=null;

for (; i > 0; i--) { temp += s; }

return temp;

}

public static string print(this string s)

{

Console.WriteLine(s);

return s;

}

public static string x(this String s, Int32 i)

{

string temp = null;

for (; i > 0; i--) { temp += s; }

return temp;

}

Ouput of Program PythonStringMultiplication ...

Scenario1

HelloHelloHelloHelloHello

Scenario2

HelloHelloHelloHelloHello

Scenario3

HelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHello

Scenario4

nothing to be displayed

Scenario5

HelloHelloHelloHelloHello

Scenario6

HelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHello

Comments

Narayana Rao

Manish

Fantastic application of c# to beat Ruby

Fantastic application of c# to beat Ruby.This is great exercise and article to know how deep knowledge/research of C# environment and compiler is been done by you.
Will C# be taking up Ruby market ?

Last edited Mar 17, 2010 1:21 AM

John Morrison

How about Python??

print "hello"*5

Last edited Mar 15, 2010 9:09 AM

Rushabh Lathia

Dalpat

Hi Sir,

Really very nice and helpful post .. and yes I still remember Dalpat is you fav :).

I think which language is good is very subjective topic, one should focus what he want to develop (project) and then need to decide which is better language to use ... rather then going into market for the fav language ..

regards,
Rushabh

Last edited Mar 15, 2010 12:17 AM

Kunal Modi

Can code blocks be passed into statically typed languages

Nice one Sir, But let me play Dalpat's role here.
The notion of primitives being objects is so exciting. I would love to see if C#/Java can handle code blocks if passed to it. For instance the following code block

5.times{|x| puts "this code block can be executed " + x.to_s + " times" }

or another trivial one which calculates the sum of x consecutive numbers like

(1..10).inject{|sum,number| sum+number}

I miss these notions in statically types languages. I believe this can definitely be integrated into them, but at end of the day having something out of the box is pretty cool
As of now I am not too sure of Ruby's threading model. Will comment on it soon.

Let me know if I can make your journey more interesting. :)

Last edited Mar 14, 2010 9:10 AM

Project Oriented Learning

2011-11-14T01:48:00.001-08:00

Learning programming languages is now becoming a mainstream requirement. What once, was considered as forte of a software engineer, has now become a necessity for a manager, an accountant or even a musician.This is mainly due to the proliferation of script-able software tools. Non IT-professionals, avoiding programming tasks are increasingly becoming aware of their restraint in leveraging the power of software tools, critical to their profession. Now, they are willing to go an extra mile to learn programming.

There are several way in which they can learn programming.How they learn depends on variety of factors like age group, professional requirements, academic requirements etc. Their learning also depends on where they learn, from whom they learn and the teaching strategy.There is already a huge effort from educational Institutions and Software Industry to improve quality in teaching methods and learning environments.

I would like to classify the Learning strategies for programming languages in three broad categories.

Certification Oriented Learning
Subject Oriented Learning
Project Oriented Learning.

Certification Oriented Learning.

In this approach the learner is targeting a certification to be cleared. This certification can be any of the certifications provided by software vendors or may entail university examination. The goal is to clear the exam in flying colors. Majority of the courses offered fall in this category. This types of courses are suitable for university students with programming courses. This course is also suitable for professionals who are targeting a particular vertical in the industry and the certification is recognized in that industry.

Subject Oriented Learning.

In this approach the learner is not targeting any particular exam but wants to understand the subject of programming and develop skills of reading and writing programs.Here the learning energy can be utilized in understanding of the subject. I would like to point out here that in Certification Oriented Learning a lot of learning energy gets invested in details of hows and whats of the particular certification. Unlike, Certification Oriented Learning where the primary goal is to clear the certification, Subject Oriented Learning's primary goal is to understand the subject. This course is suitable for those who are doing research activities, teachers teaching certification courses, Managers who want to get the feel of the subject.

Project Oriented Learning.

In this approach the learner is not just interested in understanding the subject but is also focused on applying it. In the case of programming languages this would mean, undertaking of a software project. Project Oriented Learning places utmost importance to the ability to deliver the knowledge in terms of solution to a problem. This type of learning is most intensive and need maximum learning energy. Project Oriented Learning makes you ready for the industry. Those who are seeking employment, or are undertaking projects with deadlines, must go for Project Oriented Learning.

Linden Script ( DSL for scripting objects in Second Life)

2011-11-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

Second Life

Second Life is a virtual world created by Linden Labs. A virtual world is a 3D world, which has 3D structures built in it. Virtual world tries to simulate the real world and thus has lakes, rivers, trees and even people in it. People moving around in the virtual world are called avatars. To be a part of this virtual world you have to create your avatar by registering with Second Life. After moving around in the virtual world for a while, you would get interested in building your own 3D artifacts.Second Life allows you to purchase a piece of land and construct 3D structures on it. Depending on your land size, you are allocated a fixed set of prims. These prims are your fundamental building blocks for creating your virtual world. For viewing, creating and manipulating your virtual world you need to install a special software called Second Life viewer. Second Life offers a rich set of 3D editing WYSIWYG ( what you see is what you get) features for manipulating the virtual world and the objects within it. The most interesting part of Second Life for developers like me, is a facility for scripting the objects with Linden Script.

Linden Script

Linden script is a DSL ( Domain Specific Language) for imparting behavior to prims. Each prim can have a set of scripts associated with it.These scripts can be used for several purposes

Change the prim's dimensions and other properties like colors and textures.
Change the prim's location and orientation.
Allow prim to react to events received from the virtual environment.
Exchange messages with other prims.
Exchange messages with user agents.

Linden script is a state based , event driven, imperative programming language.

White Rabbit..

2010-04-05T02:19:00.000-07:00

Wanderer
I want to know about White Rabbit?

StoryTeller
Adobe is releasing its new product Photoshop CS5 on 12th April 2010, code named White Rabbit . It is setting a new benchmark in the space of image editing. Photoshop is now Content Aware.

Wanderer
What does it mean to be Content Aware?

StoryTeller

My digital camera picks up what it sees (WYSIWYG -- What you see is What you get) . It models the real world in terms of pixels. Greater the number of pixels ,better the approximation of real world. However , my camera doesn't have a look behind feature. If I take a photograph of a brick wall, I will surely get the pixel representation of wall. However , I won't get a second layer of pixel representation of things behind the wall. Surprised !! . Thats what I call look behind feature.

That day in the garden, I met a very beautiful tree. As a token of love, I took a close-up snap, with the tree smiling right at the center of my photograph. I missed the look behind feature. I wanted to capture a playful small white rabbit just behind the tree's trunk. Hey , that sounds crazy. How would my camera ever know what's behind the tree? Don't worry, It doesn't know. So now, I had this snap ready with a big huge tree smiling at me and with the mountains in the backdrop and a lush green lawn giving my subject(the tree) a soothing company.

My wife liked the snap. But she complained that the tree was obstructing her view !!! "What are you trying to see in this picture?" . "How do you ever know about the white rabbit ?" I asked . My wife starred at me. "What white rabbit ? I can't see the mountains, the tree is coming in the way" ,she said. "If you want the coffee, get rid of that tree from the photograph. You have 2 minutes" she ordered. Oh, I got it. I would need to change the subject of my photograph. The tree had to go and the mountains and the lawn had to stay. But how?

Wanderer
What about the coffee?

StoryTeller
I missed my coffee. I wish I had Photoshop CS5.

Wanderer
How would Photoshop CS5 help?

StoryTeller
Photoshop CS5 has a magic wand . It has a Content Aware Fill ( PatchMatch ) functionality. You can select the tree in the photograph and delete it. The texture synthesizer algorithm will figure out that the tree has a backdrop filled with mountains and is surrounded by a lawn. It auto-fills the hole created by deleting the tree.

The end result is a photograph with mountains and lawn, but no tree. No one else would notice the absence of the tree from the photograph except me. Thanks to Content Aware feature of Photoshop CS5.

Wanderer
Wow, are there any other interesting features?

StoryTeller

Yes, you can adjust the lens setting for your photograph. This would help you correct a mistaken camera lens setting or experiment with new lens settings. They have also introduced a puppet warp feature. This allows you to pin a puppet present in the photograph at certain strategic places like say knee joints. You can then alter and manipulate the puppet's anatomy in several sophisticated ways.

Wanderer

What about the white rabbit playing behind the tree?

StoryTeller
Rabbit's busy preparing for it first appearance on 12th April. I guess we will have to wait until Adobe releases CS6.. or CS7 ...with some new omniscient algorithm that will detect and retain the rabbit behind the tree. Though, I will also need a camera with look behind feature. Till then, its the lawn and the mountains.

Watch its really impressive sneak peak.

Chrome

2008-09-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

Wanderer
Blogosphere is buzzing with talks about Chrome, Google's new browser. What is so special about this browser?

StoryTeller

Browser is an indespensible tool. An average user meets the internet through browser interface. In fact, his browsing defines his internet experience. Google with its search service has redefined the browsing experience. Furthering its vision to organize knowledge on the net, Google developed services like Gmail, Calendar and now Google apps. However, this is all on the server side. Client side has traditionally not been a strong hold of Google. With release of Google desktop, Google declared its presence on the client side. Technologies like Google Gears are already in place to be used by the developers to develop offline applications, that automatically synchronize themselves online.

To create a strong presence on the client side, Google needed its own browser. Chrome has finally emerged after gestation period of two years. As you know, Internet Explorer and Firefox have been instrumental in defining the browsing experience. Today, you have several options, when selecting your browsing tool. Browsers like Opera, Flock, Safari carry their own distinctive personalities and do have huge fan following. Google Chrome is dubbed to unleash next generation browsing experience.

Amidst a constantly evolving eco-system on the Internet. Browsers need to adapt quickly to new realities. Browsers have been keeping pace with and even defining the direction of Internet's evolution. Early day browsers had a simple goal of rendering HTML pages, but now they have grown into a full-fledged platform capable of accessing variety of services and information scattered on the net. The existing browser architectures are buckling under the pressure of these new demands. Chrome is an effort to redefine the browser architecture in ways that will eliminate known bottlenecks and make browser ready for cutting edge web applications.

Wanderer
What is the major architectural change?

StoryTeller

They have changed the process model. Browsers like Firefox run in a single process. Tabs in Firefox share the same process space. In Chrome, each tab gets its own process Each process has its own independent address space. Applications running in one tab are isolated from applications running in the other tab at the process boundaries. If one application misbehaves then it can crash it's own tab, but not the whole browser.

Wanderer
Have they really written in from scratch?

StoryTeller

No, they have used several existing open source libraries. They have used "WebKit" which is a layout engine responsible for rendering HTML content. They selected webkit because of its simplicity. Other option could have been "gecko", a layout engine used by Firefox. However they wrote V8 from scratch. V8 is a high performance javascript engine that uses concepts like hidden classes to enhance performance. They have also used sandbox model to keep the tabs isolated and secure.

Wanderer
What is a minimalist design?

StoryTeller

This means, that Chrome must not come in the way of browsing experience. Browsers show the web contents in their client area. All the other elements like menus, toolbars etc taken together forms the chrome of the browser. Goggle wanted Chromes's chrome to be minimalist. If you see the browser's UI , it is very simple, useful and intelligent. For example you have a universal box. The same box can be used for searching and pointing to a URL. The box displays contextual intelligence and remembers the history. It offers options and narrows them down as it gets more details. Opening a new tab gets you fast dial service, which means that the new tab will display the thumbnails of most recently visited sites. You can go to the desired site , just by clicking on the relevant thumbnail.

Wanderer
What are the central design goals of Chrome?

StoryTeller
The central design goals are

Simplicity
Speed
Stability
Security

Wanderer
Do you think people will now stop using Firefox and start using Chrome?

StoryTeller

Firefox is a matured product. One of the reason why people use Firefox is the variety of plugins available for Firefox. Google has not declared any plugin architecture for Chrome. So Chrome will be what Google wants it to be. Developers cannot extend it. I think ,Firefox power users will still continue using Firefox, till Google really comes up with compelling plugin architecture and a lots of plugins.

Wanderer
What do you think of flock?

StoryTeller

Flock is an interesting browser. It is a browser with a social focus. It has solid inbuilt support for socializing. Its integrated with blogging tools, mailing tools and sites like digg, twitter etc. It has quite a few plugins and its community is active and thriving.

Wanderer
How do you compare flock with Chrome?

StoryTeller

Flock is about turning a simple browser into a socializing specialist. You get many socializing features inbuilt. In Firefox these features would need plugins. In Chrome, these features are simply not available. Chrome is not trying to specialize in any domain. Its trying to rethink and revamp the browser architecture. So both these products have separate goals. For those heavily in socializing can try flock . Those who are early adopters, looking for complex and cutting edge web application development, can think on Chrome. Chrome can easily integrate with google gears.

Wanderer
Is Chrome Open Source?

StoryTeller
Yes it is.

Second Life - Linden Script

2008-09-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

Wanderer
What is Second Life?

StoryTeller

Second Life is a virtual world created by Linden Labs. A virtual world is a 3D world, which has 3D structures built in it. Virtual world tries to simulate the real world and thus has lakes, rivers, trees and even people in it. People moving around in the virtual world are called avatars. To be a part of this virtual world you have to create your avatar by registering with Second Life. After moving around in the virtual world for a while, you would get interested in building your own 3D artifacts.Second Life allows you to purchase a piece of land and construct 3D structures on it. Depending on your land size, you are allocated a fixed set of prims. These prims are your fundamental building blocks for creating your virtual world. For viewing, creating and manipulating your virtual world you need to install a special software called Second Life viewer. Second Life offers a rich set of 3D editing WYSIWYG ( what you see is what you get) features for manipulating the virtual world and the objects within it. The most interesting part of Second Life for developers like me, is a facility for scripting the objects with Linden Script.

Wanderer
What is Linden Script?

StoryTeller

Linden script is a DSL ( Domain Specific Language) for imparting behavior to prims. Each prim can have a set of scripts associated with it.These scripts can be used for several purposes

Change the prim's dimensions and other properties like colors and textures.
Change the prim's location and orientation.
Allow prim to react to events received from the virtual environment.
Exchange messages with other prims.
Exchange messages with user agents.

Linden script is a state based , event driven, imperative programming language.

Open Source License

2008-08-19T03:59:00.000-07:00

Wanderer
There are so many open-source licenses being approved by OSI( Open Source Initiative). On what basis should I decide on the license to be adopted for my new opensource project?

StoryTeller
There are some licenses that are permissive and some that are reciprocal. Generally, permissive licenses allow you to take the code , modify it or enhance it and sell it without any obligation. For instance, BSD is a permissive license. In a reciprocal license, if you make enhancements to open source code, you are suppose to give your enhancements back to the community. GPL(GNU General Public License), is an example of reciprocal license. That's all I can tell you now. Better consult your lawyer before you take any decision.

Wanderer
I heard Java is opensourced by sun, which license does java use?

StoryTeller
Sun has released Java under GPL( version 2).

JavaFx

2008-08-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

Wanderer
What is JavaFx?

StoryTeller
How many times have you seen a car dealer unable to sell a fully functional and robust car, for the want of a good interior? What are the prospects, if the car has a few visible dents and scratches?

Wanderer
It's substance that has enduring value ,but looks do matter.

StoryTeller
Java has proven its strength on the server side. Java developers can write powerful Web Applications using Java. Java has concentrated on substance for over a decade, but now its working on its looks. Great looking Internet ( Web) applications are dubbed as RIA ( Rich Internet Applications) . JavaFx technology enables Java Web Application Developers to develop RIAs. Next generation Java Web Applications will be powered by JavaFx technology. The current generation of Java Web Applications are Intelligent. The next generation will be Intelligent and Gorgeous.

Wanderer
Is JavaFx the only alternative for RIA?

StoryTeller
No, there are other technologies in RIA space. They say that the whole RIA movement started with AJAX. Now, you have Adobe's Flex technology, Microsoft's Silverlite and Curl. JavaFx will have to compete with these technologies to be the leader in RIA space.

Wanderer
Will a Java Developer need to learn a new language to use this technology or is knowledge of Java sufficient?

StoryTeller
You can create good looking screens with animation, 2D and 3D graphics in Java. However, it will be too much work. It is always better to use a DSL ( Domain Specific Language ) for such specific purpose. JavaFx is a scripting language just designed towards this end. Its a DSL for HCI ( Human Computer Interaction). JavaFx scripts are declarative in nature and can take advantage of rich and powerful Java Libraries.

The C Story...

2008-03-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

Wanderer
What is C ?

StoryTeller
C is a programming language. Programming languages are used to write software. C is called a high level programming language. There are several ways of classifying programming languages. One way is mentioning its generation. C is referred to as a third generation programming language.

First Generation : Machine Language
Second Generation : Assembly Language
Third Generation : C, Fortran, Pascal etc.

Another way of classifying languages is placing them in one or more of the following groups

Imperative
Object Oriented
Functional
Logical

C is an imperative programming language.

Wanderer
Where is C programming used?

StoryTeller
It has been widely used in creating Industrial strength Software. The following list of Software developed using C , suggest the power and flexibility of C programming.

Linux ( Operating System)
MySQL ( Database)
GIMP ( Image editing program)
PHP ( Web Application programming Language)

C is a preferred language in developing Embedded Systems. C is also heavily used in Gaming industry. A very popular virtual world "Second Life" has its client written in C.