Today I spent almost all the day trying to build some samples with both the conservative Boehm and the Electrical Fire's generational garbage collectors. With the first, which is conservative and uses a mark and sweep algorithm, I could do a small example and looks easy to use. With the second (the one from the Electrical fire project) I couldn't build it, because of the old and bad Make files (it looks like they are not updated).
However, the papers I've found on google don't satisfy me, and I'm thinking I should buy a book about GC written by Richard Jones. So, if you want to contribute, you can give $ 0.1 and with 800 person helping me I will be able to buy that book ;-).
lunes, julio 19, 2004
viernes, julio 16, 2004
Avoiding showing errors is bad
I have just finished installing Fedora Core 2 and well, just running some problems (ntfs support, usb ports, etc). But the biggest problem is that I still can't run the graphical mode, adn worse, I don't get error messages.
In some manner, it is normal in software to have some problems. But, what about showing good errors? In my opinion, good error messages can really help to know where the error is. Bad error messages can help, but maybe they won't give you enough information. Finally, if you are only giving some messages to some errors, well, then the problems for the user will be wrong.
Finally, I would like to say that I've been receiving a huge amount of critics. It used to be good when I only receive critics (and most importan, constructives ones) when asked for them. But, what about when you receive them without asking for them? And the worst of all, it's when you got critics about things that all the persons do every minute. Advantes of living in an exotic country like Mexico is.
In some manner, it is normal in software to have some problems. But, what about showing good errors? In my opinion, good error messages can really help to know where the error is. Bad error messages can help, but maybe they won't give you enough information. Finally, if you are only giving some messages to some errors, well, then the problems for the user will be wrong.
Finally, I would like to say that I've been receiving a huge amount of critics. It used to be good when I only receive critics (and most importan, constructives ones) when asked for them. But, what about when you receive them without asking for them? And the worst of all, it's when you got critics about things that all the persons do every minute. Advantes of living in an exotic country like Mexico is.
jueves, julio 08, 2004
Garbage Collection in the .Net Framework
Some time ago I was reading some papers about Garbage Collection, which is the process of managing the allocations and deallocations of memory in an environment. Unfortunately, that information is hard to find in the web, since only some little info or slides are avalaible (I found an interesting book at amazon about GC, but it is so expensive).
Since that, I'm trying to read that little info, and since I could access the ACM digital library, I'm going to check some related papers. However, I have the experience that this kind of papers only cover the theorical part, and thus are not enough for me (I have more than a just theorical interest on GC).
However, I found good papers in the MSDN site and currently I'm reading the GC internal. Those papers are interesant, but again, they do not cover the area I'm interesting in (of course that I'm interested in the area they cover, it is just that I need some more information).
Something very interesant is a process called Resurrection, by which a dead object (unreachable and thus marked for being deleted from the memory) can be resurrected. Imagine you have an object that has a Finalizer method (destructor syntaxis in C#) that assigns a global/static variable a pointer to your current object:
~MyClass ()
{
// 'this' refers to the current instance
MyNamespace.AnyClass.AnStaticObject = this;
}
When and object has a Finalizer (destructor in C#), is added to an internal GC data structure called F-Reachable queue, that contains pointers to object that need to be finalized before they get deleted. However, if you have something like the previous code, your object will live again, but its Finalize method won't be called when it becomes -again- unreachable.
In fact, resurrection should NEVER happen. Just for the purpose of 'security', if the object needs to be finalized, an internal boolean flag could be added, keeping the state (finalized or not) and throw an expection when a method is called (throwing an expeption from the Finalizer would only finish the method).
Since that, I'm trying to read that little info, and since I could access the ACM digital library, I'm going to check some related papers. However, I have the experience that this kind of papers only cover the theorical part, and thus are not enough for me (I have more than a just theorical interest on GC).
However, I found good papers in the MSDN site and currently I'm reading the GC internal. Those papers are interesant, but again, they do not cover the area I'm interesting in (of course that I'm interested in the area they cover, it is just that I need some more information).
Something very interesant is a process called Resurrection, by which a dead object (unreachable and thus marked for being deleted from the memory) can be resurrected. Imagine you have an object that has a Finalizer method (destructor syntaxis in C#) that assigns a global/static variable a pointer to your current object:
~MyClass ()
{
// 'this' refers to the current instance
MyNamespace.AnyClass.AnStaticObject = this;
}
When and object has a Finalizer (destructor in C#), is added to an internal GC data structure called F-Reachable queue, that contains pointers to object that need to be finalized before they get deleted. However, if you have something like the previous code, your object will live again, but its Finalize method won't be called when it becomes -again- unreachable.
In fact, resurrection should NEVER happen. Just for the purpose of 'security', if the object needs to be finalized, an internal boolean flag could be added, keeping the state (finalized or not) and throw an expection when a method is called (throwing an expeption from the Finalizer would only finish the method).
miércoles, junio 23, 2004
I need to move to Fedora
I've been haing some trouble with RH 9 and the ext3 file system. Some time ago I tested Mandrake and ReiserFS and it worked very smooth, without problems. Now I'm using ext3 and I hate the way it 'locks' my files (I have to reboot). And based on tha benchmarks, I'm really waiting for Mono 1.0 core release to move to Fedora Core 2 (I was thinking about Debian; however, its comunity scares me a lot).
Very bad. Germany is out of the Euro 2004 and I'm very sad about that, but I hope this makes understand Rudi Völler that his 4-5-1 is bad and inefficient. Lets have better hopes for World Cup. Now, my favorites are Holland, England and, of course, France.
Recently my friend Jorge Carrasco wanted me to look for a place to play soccer. I have invited some old friends and tomorrow we will be playing. I have a lot of time without playing, and now it's a good time to re-take it.
Germany out of the Euro
Very bad. Germany is out of the Euro 2004 and I'm very sad about that, but I hope this makes understand Rudi Völler that his 4-5-1 is bad and inefficient. Lets have better hopes for World Cup. Now, my favorites are Holland, England and, of course, France.
Futbol!!!!
Recently my friend Jorge Carrasco wanted me to look for a place to play soccer. I have invited some old friends and tomorrow we will be playing. I have a lot of time without playing, and now it's a good time to re-take it.
miércoles, junio 16, 2004
Euro 2004 & other stuff
The Euro 2004 continues and I'm just seeing that geeks don't like soccer (very bad). Today was the game Germany vs Holland, and I think it was a good game (however, in a lot of sites the press is not comfortable with that opinion). The best of the game: Michael Ballack from Germany and -of course- Van Nistelrooy -is that well written?- from Holland. No more need to be said.
Today I was almost all the day with my friend Jorge Carrasco -who is a lawyer and we met at school when we both were 14 years old- and we were talking and thinking about the behavior of the people around us. Very interesting, and I must say I needed to talk to someone who weren't a geek or a computer.
I continue with the port of the lexer and parser routines from the Rhino engine. Today I could in a pair of hours check some errors in the Lexer and I hope to finish tomorrow or maybe on thursday it and go to the parser. No challenge, but it must be done by someone.
I was reading danguer's blog and I read there that he has just finished reading The Illiad. I must confess I'm jealous because I don't have so much oportunities to read a book, and I must just wait for any chance to get a new one. The last I got was a Lovecraft book about horror stories and was good. But I bought that book 1 or 2 years ago, so try to figure out why I need a new book. It looks like danguer has stopping reading pseudo philosophical books, which is a good thing. I'm still trying to understand why geeks can't just support the idea that another geek read as much as you (hey! I'm just jealous about that I can't read so much books as I wished). Y have geek pals that still think that I'm not just as good as they at culture.
Yes, this is my selfconfidence moment of the day and ... Yes, I think I have a much higher culture level that most of the geeks I know. No more needs to be said.
At Carrasco's house
Today I was almost all the day with my friend Jorge Carrasco -who is a lawyer and we met at school when we both were 14 years old- and we were talking and thinking about the behavior of the people around us. Very interesting, and I must say I needed to talk to someone who weren't a geek or a computer.
Port of Rhino
I continue with the port of the lexer and parser routines from the Rhino engine. Today I could in a pair of hours check some errors in the Lexer and I hope to finish tomorrow or maybe on thursday it and go to the parser. No challenge, but it must be done by someone.
Books, books, books
I was reading danguer's blog and I read there that he has just finished reading The Illiad. I must confess I'm jealous because I don't have so much oportunities to read a book, and I must just wait for any chance to get a new one. The last I got was a Lovecraft book about horror stories and was good. But I bought that book 1 or 2 years ago, so try to figure out why I need a new book. It looks like danguer has stopping reading pseudo philosophical books, which is a good thing. I'm still trying to understand why geeks can't just support the idea that another geek read as much as you (hey! I'm just jealous about that I can't read so much books as I wished). Y have geek pals that still think that I'm not just as good as they at culture.
Yes, this is my selfconfidence moment of the day and ... Yes, I think I have a much higher culture level that most of the geeks I know. No more needs to be said.
lunes, junio 14, 2004
Why the geeks need to stopping being geeks?
Yesterday and part of this day I¡ve been thinking about the fact that a lof of computer people -admins, coders- are known as geeks, which turns to be a word to describe people who don't like to have real-life friends, read a lot, and so on. The difference, as I see it, between a nerd and a geek, is that the geek doesn't go to cinema, doesn't go to take a break, doesn't play sports, and also doesn't like to dress cool. Also they have to be fan of facism (with this I try to say that they are persons who only believe in their ideas and no more, and don't like to listen different opinions).
A nerd, on the other hand, is just a person who dedicates great amount of time trying to finish a task and no more. He/She is not an expert, which is really bad. But the nerd trends to be a average person.
I'm not trying to say that being an average person is the best, but I think that, if you can't control your feelings and you feel like an outsider, you should better be an average guy.
The problem which lots of geeks is that they are all the day complaining about the society and every thing in the planet. The cars, the money, and the way of life. That's not bad, as it could be just be tranfered into social critics. But wait, a geek, just as the ones I one, whould always be complaining _and_ feeling miserable about that. Then they began to hear bad music, to watch sad movies and so on. The live in a depression built by themselves, which is horrible.
Since a lot of work needs to be done in front of a monitor, a lot of geeks lose social life. The question, however, is: do they lose social life because of the work, or because of the fear to the society? I'm very sure that ALL of them would say that they like to code/admin better than going out with friends. But let me say something: I really think most of thems are afraid of the extern world, that one that lives outside a computer, in the streets, in the cinemas, in the malls, in the sport centers.
We could find two vertients as a possible cause of this: the first, is the bad way of being of the person and thus avoiding any form of social contact. The second, is an anormality in the society that together with discrimination will create persons like that.
have you heard about persons who doesn't like to go out? I'm sure you have listened of those people. Yes, serial killers.
Please, stop being a geek, change the way you think, and be more respectful of other ways of thinking. Go to the cinema on saturday, get yourself a lover and play some sport -even if you aren't good at-. Search for friends that are not that geek. Feel much better, and please avoid being a serial killer or even a guy who only lives for sadness and alcohol/drugs. Make yourself a favor and help to build a better world.
Stop thinking you are THE correct and the world is wrong. Stop thinking you are superman.
A nerd, on the other hand, is just a person who dedicates great amount of time trying to finish a task and no more. He/She is not an expert, which is really bad. But the nerd trends to be a average person.
I'm not trying to say that being an average person is the best, but I think that, if you can't control your feelings and you feel like an outsider, you should better be an average guy.
The problem which lots of geeks is that they are all the day complaining about the society and every thing in the planet. The cars, the money, and the way of life. That's not bad, as it could be just be tranfered into social critics. But wait, a geek, just as the ones I one, whould always be complaining _and_ feeling miserable about that. Then they began to hear bad music, to watch sad movies and so on. The live in a depression built by themselves, which is horrible.
Since a lot of work needs to be done in front of a monitor, a lot of geeks lose social life. The question, however, is: do they lose social life because of the work, or because of the fear to the society? I'm very sure that ALL of them would say that they like to code/admin better than going out with friends. But let me say something: I really think most of thems are afraid of the extern world, that one that lives outside a computer, in the streets, in the cinemas, in the malls, in the sport centers.
We could find two vertients as a possible cause of this: the first, is the bad way of being of the person and thus avoiding any form of social contact. The second, is an anormality in the society that together with discrimination will create persons like that.
have you heard about persons who doesn't like to go out? I'm sure you have listened of those people. Yes, serial killers.
Please, stop being a geek, change the way you think, and be more respectful of other ways of thinking. Go to the cinema on saturday, get yourself a lover and play some sport -even if you aren't good at-. Search for friends that are not that geek. Feel much better, and please avoid being a serial killer or even a guy who only lives for sadness and alcohol/drugs. Make yourself a favor and help to build a better world.
Stop thinking you are THE correct and the world is wrong. Stop thinking you are superman.
domingo, junio 13, 2004
Some notes on weekend
I'm a little bored right now -sunday evening-, and while my parents are watching tv -thus I can't see it-, I'm trying to see what to do, but without needing my brain. Hey, it's a sunday!
Today I saw the France vs England game, and wow. I must confess I was very sad at the end of the game, because England was winning 1-0, but then that sadness became happiness after the only one Zinedine Zidane made two goals. Great!!! (I want to avoid the comment on the game that Pumas won versus Chivas, the mexican national soccer final). For tomorrow: Italy vs Denmark. I really would be a geek is I had nothing to do but only coding ;-)
I was curiois about the note I saw on a Mono blog -I don't remember who wrote it-, that made reference to the .NET guys at Microsoft. So I wen to MSDN and looked for them ... Now, I have the address and another resource for learning:
Wow, France!
Today I saw the France vs England game, and wow. I must confess I was very sad at the end of the game, because England was winning 1-0, but then that sadness became happiness after the only one Zinedine Zidane made two goals. Great!!! (I want to avoid the comment on the game that Pumas won versus Chivas, the mexican national soccer final). For tomorrow: Italy vs Denmark. I really would be a geek is I had nothing to do but only coding ;-)
.NET Blogs
I was curiois about the note I saw on a Mono blog -I don't remember who wrote it-, that made reference to the .NET guys at Microsoft. So I wen to MSDN and looked for them ... Now, I have the address and another resource for learning:
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