The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2013-11-20 Reply Admin

In case-sensitive source, you can search for, say, "End", and only get "End".

In case-insensitive source, you get to search for "end", then sort through ten times the number of results as you uncover every single instance of the word in dialog boxes, message strings, etc.

2013-11-20 Reply Admin

Anon:
In case-sensitive source, you can search for, say, "End", and only get "End".
In case-insensitive source, you get to search for "end", then sort through ten times the number of results as you uncover every single instance of the word in dialog boxes, message strings, etc.

May all of your programming be XAML UI definitions for hobby projects. For my sake.

Ragnax · 2013-11-20 Reply Admin

Dartmoor C:
Of course not everyone uses C and C++: C# and Java show what happens when you converge to BASIC instead of Pascal.

C#'s design has absolutely nothing to do with 'converging to BASIC'.

C# and the CLR were both designed by Anders Hejlsberg, who was previously involved with the language design of Turbo Pascal, Delphi and Visual J++. He has repeatedly stated in interviews and technical papers that the drive behind the fundamentals of the CLR and in turn the C# language design were the flaws he experienced in languages such as C++, Java, Delphi and Smalltalk.

VB.NET also happens to run on the CLR, but in reality is nothing more than a bad publicity stunt meant to cater to the rather large clique of VB6 developers and shops scared of (or incapable of) change. It has nothing to do with the ideas behind the CLR and C# and everything to do with retaining developers on the Microsoft platform.

2013-11-20 Reply Admin

My first WTF is.. Delphi 7? That's like.. 2002.

It's equivalent saying you're still using VB6.

Maybe XE3 is a bit new, but even 2010 gives you 8 years of advancement.

Delphi does have a break statement, btw. It's how you break out of loops early. Rarely gets used since the try/finally stuff is the normal way to do it.

My second WTF is.. that compiled? I'm sceptical but not sceptical enough to fire up delphi and try it.

chubertdev · 2013-11-20 Reply Admin

Jerome:
Looks like it's time to get your eyes tested.

The article has since been edited. It was definitely missing yesterday.

2013-11-20 Reply Admin

Beside the fact that Delphi is easier, more capable, and more elegant than Java and .Net?

Ragnax · 2013-11-20 Reply Admin

Pwoon:
Beside the fact that Delphi is easier, more capable, and more elegant than Java and .Net?

Leaving whether those claims are valid in the middle, you could claim that the VCL is more elegant than the .NET framework or you could claim that Delphi is more elegant than C# or one of the many other languages for which there is CLR support.

However, comparing a language against a framework makes no sense.

chubertdev · 2013-11-20 Reply Admin

Pwoon:
Beside the fact that Delphi is easier, more capable, and more elegant than Java and .Net?

It's nothing compared to Haskell!

Severity One · 2013-11-21 Reply Admin

The issue with Pascal is that it was never meant as a programming language for business applications. The fact that an integer is only 16 bits (-32768 to 32767) is an example of such a limitation.

Niklaus Wirth took this criticism to mind when he designed Modula-2, because that one has a Cardinal type that is still only 16 bits, but has values from 0 to 65535.

Apparently, this limitation is totally arbitrary, and based on the specific hardware that the first Pascal compiler was implemented on.

Severity One · 2013-11-21 Reply Admin

___:
As a non-programmer (but an IT guy!) I don't get the hate for case insensitivity. What's the case for func() and Func() being different functions?

It's tradition, really. The most obvious reason is that it's easier to write a case-sensitive parser than it is to write a case-insensitive parser. Or at least, it used to be in the time that standard libraries weren't common.

The case sensitivity is used in languages such as Java, for example, as a matter of convention. Classes should start with a capital, whereas instances should start with a lower case letter. So you can have the following declaration:

Object object;

where 'Object' is the class, and 'object' is the name of the instance. I use this a lot in my code, because it saves me from having to come up with a meaningful instance name that is different from the class name.

2013-11-21 Reply Admin

___:
As a non-programmer (but an IT guy!) I don't get the hate for case insensitivity. What's the case for func() and Func() being different functions?

You have to pronounce the F louder than the f. Of course, clever people use case sensitivity to produce optimal code, since it is sooo useful to have Func(), func(), FUNC() performing differents tasks, for example. It also allows more variables, if you are found in short (one letter) names: a,A,b,B,c,C... a quality jump towards legibility.

2013-11-21 Reply Admin

no laughing matter:
Dartmoor C:
Of course not everyone uses C and C++: C# and Java show what happens when you converge to BASIC instead of Pascal.
BASIC is nothing like C# or Java. In fact, Java merged C++ and Smalltalk (insufficiently).

And C# is Delphi re-written by the original Delphi creator after Microsoft drove a dump truck full of money to his house. So Delphi + VB6 = C#

Ragnax · 2013-11-21 Reply Admin

toacca:
no laughing matter:
Dartmoor C:
Of course not everyone uses C and C++: C# and Java show what happens when you converge to BASIC instead of Pascal.
BASIC is nothing like C# or Java. In fact, Java merged C++ and Smalltalk (insufficiently).
And C# is Delphi re-written by the original Delphi creator after Microsoft drove a dump truck full of money to his house. So Delphi + VB6 = C#

C# and the .NET CLR are based on lessons learned from problems with C++, Delphi (i.e. Object Pascal), Smalltalk and Java. There is no Basic in that story at all.

chubertdev · 2013-11-21 Reply Admin

Severity One:
___:
As a non-programmer (but an IT guy!) I don't get the hate for case insensitivity. What's the case for func() and Func() being different functions?
It's tradition, really. The most obvious reason is that it's easier to write a case-sensitive parser than it is to write a case-insensitive parser. Or at least, it used to be in the time that standard libraries weren't common.
The case sensitivity is used in languages such as Java, for example, as a matter of convention. Classes should start with a capital, whereas instances should start with a lower case letter. So you can have the following declaration:
Object object;
where 'Object' is the class, and 'object' is the name of the instance. I use this a lot in my code, because it saves me from having to come up with a meaningful instance name that is different from the class name.

I always assume that if I can't think of a meaningful name, then I'm doing something wrong.

Object example;

2013-11-21 Reply Admin

And now, it's time for a breakdown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpugp6DIb3I&feature=youtu.be&t=3m6s

2013-11-21 Reply Admin

Severity One:
The issue with Pascal is that it was never meant as a programming language for business applications.

True. Pascal was invented as a teaching language, C was invented as a systems programming language, and neither was intended for business applications.

Severity One:
The fact that an integer is only 16 bits (-32768 to 32767) is an example of such a limitation.

Huh? That "fact" is a figment of your imagination.

Sure it was useful to figure out that systems programming and some kinds of applications benefit from having unsigned types together with signed types ... hmm, did .Net figure that out yet? I haven't used .Net for a few years but I recall warnings from C# or C++/CLI that unsigned types weren't compatible with .Net.

Meanwhile, C was standardized so that int would be at least 16 bits and short would be at least 16 bits, but it was still allowable for a machine with 36-bit words to make short and int both be 36 bits.

I don't recall any Pascal standard requirement for MAXINT, but 2147483647 was allowable.

2013-11-22 Reply Admin

Moo Cow:
Break is just a glorified GOTO and therefore evil™.

} is just a glorified GOTO and therefore evil™.

Ragnax · 2013-11-22 Reply Admin

Norman Diamond:
Sure it was useful to figure out that systems programming and some kinds of applications benefit from having unsigned types together with signed types ... hmm, did .Net figure that out yet? I haven't used .Net for a few years but I recall warnings from C# or C++/CLI that unsigned types weren't compatible with .Net.

System.UInt16, System.UInt32 and System.UInt64 have been part of .NET and C# since its inception and are used quite a lot during interop with unmanaged code.

They are not CLS compliant, sure. However, that only means you may encounter languages running on the .NET CLR that cannot work with them. The .NET framework itself has no problem with them and neither does C#...

2013-11-22 Reply Admin

I don't have .Net on any of my computers except a VM that runs Windows. I use Delphi in that VM to create OSX and iOS apps that run on my Mac and iPhone. Why would I try to use .Net or Java to create an iOS app? Or .Net to create an OSX app?

JimM · 2013-11-27 Reply Admin

chubertdev:
I always assume that if I can't think of a meaningful name, then I'm doing something wrong.

You're hired :D

2013-11-27 Reply Admin

Norman Diamond:
Severity One:
The issue with Pascal is that it was never meant as a programming language for business applications.
True. Pascal was invented as a teaching language, C was invented as a systems programming language, and neither was intended for business applications.
Severity One:
The fact that an integer is only 16 bits (-32768 to 32767) is an example of such a limitation.
Huh? That "fact" is a figment of your imagination.
Sure it was useful to figure out that systems programming and some kinds of applications benefit from having unsigned types together with signed types ... hmm, did .Net figure that out yet? I haven't used .Net for a few years but I recall warnings from C# or C++/CLI that unsigned types weren't compatible with .Net.

Meanwhile, C was standardized so that int would be at least 16 bits and short would be at least 16 bits, but it was still allowable for a machine with 36-bit words to make short and int both be 36 bits.

I don't recall any Pascal standard requirement for MAXINT, but 2147483647 was allowable.

Of course, because 640 KB are enough for everyone.

AFAIK it was Borland's Pascal compilers (which don't really have much in common with Wirth's actual Pascal language to start with) running on 16 bit Dos that naturally had 16 bit integers.

Later on the so called "Free Pascal Compiler", in its zeal to bring the power of Dos to modern 32 bit systems made integer 16 bit too and that made many Pascal programmers think this was an actual limitation of the language. (Disclaimer: I don't know if they've upgraded to 32 bit meanwhile. It's been a few years I'd looked at it.)

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Breaking Delphi

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