Hi, On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 11:56 AM, Charles Belhumeur <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks for filling me in folks. Its been 20 years or since I wrote and > distributed freeware. My calculator has true floating point IO with 16 > digit base ten precision including decimal point when it appears in the 16 > count. I think the precision was higher in the actual internal calcs of the > compiler. If I remember right I used Quick Cs long double data type.
Well, just for example, IIRC, OpenWatcom only supports "long double" same as "double", which is not what some code expects (even if such behavior is standards compliant). So if that were important to somebody in FreeDOS, they'd have to use DJGPP (or something else) instead. No idea about Quick C, but as long as you're happy with it .... > I heard Windows 8 will have a key and any box that wants to run Windows 8 > will have to have a matching key in the firmware to run it. A box with such > a key will not run any other OS. I've heard some manufacturer's are > grudgingly complying but with a dip switch on the motherboard that will > disable the feature and allow other OSs to run on the box. Secure Boot. It can (sometimes) be disabled locally, at least on x86 machines. The main idea (however flawed) seems to be that commercial hardware meant for Windows isn't going to be compatible to other OSes. > On another note I'm noticing a problem with C++ writing my app. The code > doesn't really show enough information about the class or character of the > objects and the operators that join objects, mostly the good old . (dot), > don't give enough information about how the objects interact. I'm not sure I understand. (Well, I don't know C++.) Do you just want a class browser or cross-reference tool? > After all the > platforms and compilers I've used I have a weird organic intuitive way of > writing code so it didn't create a lot of problems for me, but I can see how > the conventions of C++ can be as confusing and awkward as the problems it > was designed to address, especially in team environments or for newbies. > They should have spent the effort that went into C++ on writing a smarter C > compiler that handled the problems transparently or at the very least gave > the code writer a better idea of the bug. C++ is a lot like the IBM PC: it's grown a lot in 30 years. So it's not going to be totally obvious what is going on sometimes. > Some of the errors and exceptions > are still fairly cryptic and generic for what often turns out to be a fairly > specific minor flaw. I'm not sure I like this compartmentalized > Sea.Bottom.Hole.Log.Bump.Frog.Wart.Hair style of coding. I mean yeah I get > it, but, its awkward for small simple apps and it would be a real pain in > the ass and time user explaining your structure in team environments. C++ is not a perfect solution for every problem. That's why we have other languages (and why C is still a separate language and not just a subset, even if some would prefer otherwise). > The > actual base functions of any CPU are pretty simple and straightforward. > Hard to believe all this complexity is required to use that simplicity these > days. Ah maybe one day you'll just be able to tell the box in everyday > language what you want to do and it'll handle it all. In the meantime we're > stuck with the flaky compilers and awkward languages. http://lang-index.sourceforge.net/ There are a lot more languages than just C++. However, it is popular and well-supported. It just depends on what you can tolerate, I guess. > Sea.Bottom.Hole.Log.Bump.Frog.Wart.Hair See what I mean about what's > missing in explicitly describing the relationships? You need to much a > priori information about the objects and how the relate to each other to > effectively understand the structure. I still don't understand here. I'm not sure any language is better in this way. All I can weakly suggest is maybe take a look at a clearer language like Oberon (or Object Pascal, some variant, presumably TP or Delphi). Then again, maybe OOP is being forced down our throats too much. Perhaps if you don't direly need it, don't use it. But I understand that peer pressure is quite powerful! ;-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. This 200-page book is written by three acclaimed leaders in the field. The early access version is available now. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/neotech_d2d_may _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
