General Development Archive

C# Striking a Chord with Programmers

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-04 General Development 45 Comments

"Microsoft's new C# programming language is gaining in popularity, with usage nearly doubling in the last six months, a new study shows. C# is Microsoft's new Java-like language and a crucial piece in the software company's .Net Web services strategy, in which software is made available over the Net to be accessed by multiple devices, such as PCs, cell phones and handhelds. Twelve percent of all North American software developers have begun using C#, up from 7 percent six months ago, according to a new survey by market research firm Evans Data. The firm also predicts that the number of programmers using C# will double to 24 percent in the next year." Read the rest of the report at News.com.

Writing Your Own Toy OS, Part I

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-04 General Development 14 Comments

This article at LinuxGazette is a hands-on tutorial for building a small boot sector. The first section provides the theory behind what happens at the time the computer is switched on. It also explains our plan. The second section tells all the things you should have on hand before proceeding further, and the third section deals with the programs. The little startup program won't actually boot Linux, but it will display something on the screen.

Intel Releases V6.0 Compiler Suite

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-25 General Development 28 Comments

News from Slashdot: ""Intels C++ and Fortran compilers are now available for Windows and Linux. The compiler for Linux provides higher compatibility with the GNU C-compiler including compability to the upcoming GCC-3.1 C++-ABI (binary compability) and support for several GNUisms in the syntax (PDF). To quote Intel: 'The 6.0 release of the Intel C++ compiler has improved support for the GNU C language extensions and is now able to build the Linux kernel with minor work arounds for both the IA-32 and Itanium architectures.' Little reminder: Running such a kernel is, of course, not supported by the kernel developers. Evaluation copies are available for download, but requires previous registration."

Ext2 Documentation Released

Submitted by Dave Poirier 2002-04-25 General Development 2 Comments

If you ever had to implement an ext2 file system driver, you surely noticed the lack of good documentation on the subject. This project aims to solve this issue by providing thorough documentation on the low level details of implementing a Second Extended file system driver.

Emulate This! with Bochs – Part 3

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-24 General Development 10 Comments

"Bochs is an emulator for the x86 hardware platform. In other words, it can emulate a PC of varying hardware configurations. When you boot into Bochs, it will appear as though you are booting another PC from inside your own PC, and in a way, you are. Bochs emulates the entire PC platform, I/O devices, memory and its own BIOS. What's even more interesting is that you don't have to be running PC hardware to run Bochs. It will emulate x86 hardware on any platform on which you compile it. By changing the configuration, it is possible to specify the type of processor (386? 486? 586?), the amount of memory and so on. Bochs is a box inside your box. In fact, Bochs is as many boxes as you want it to be. It even has its own power button." Read the third part of the emulation articles at LinuxJournal.

GCC 3.1 Pre-Release Almost Ready

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-22 General Development 29 Comments

Mark Mitchell, the GCC release manager posted at GCC's mailing list that a GCC 3.1 pre-release test version will be ready any time now, today or tomorrow. GCC 3.1 is the first "stable" version that developers were awaiting to base their projects on, as in some cases it delivers up to 30% faster executables than GCC 2.9x.x for the same codebase. GCC 3.x is a bit slower in compilation times than GCC 2.9x.x, but it creates faster executables, so it worth the extra time it takes in order to utilize the extra optimizations (a tip: compiling GCC 3.1 itself with the Intel compiler (which creates about 35% faster code than gcc 3.x), it would optimize GCC and it will make it require less compilation time). GCC 3.1 also has an extra flag for specific Pentium4 optimizations while it is more C++ compliant (lays out stricter rules for the C++ devs). Macintosh users should also await this release, as the new GCC seems to offer about 5% faster code than the previous GCC for the G3/G4 architecture. Apple has already switched internally to GCC 3.1.

C# Example of MSN Messenger on Windows and FreeBSD

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-20 General Development 7 Comments

From DaemonNews: "François Jacques and Jean-Claude Batista have an article on macadamian.com on writing a tiny version of the MSN messenger client on Windows and FreeBSD . The example is available in source code form for free." Our Take: It feels a bit strange to have software compile for the .NET Framework under FreeBSD. It is definately a welcoming addition to FreeBSD, but it still feels a bit strange. We'll get used to it, I guess.

Using Threads With C#

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-20 General Development 3 Comments

This article over at MSDN explains the different models of threading — single, apartment, and free — and the use of each model. It also introduces a code sample in C# that uses threading to help you write applications that will take advantage of threading. The article also discusses important issues involved in multithreading code.

Jython Tips for Python Programmers

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-12 General Development 7 Comments

In his first article about Jython, Noel Rappin discussed the features of the Python scripting language and its Jython implementation that would be of greatest interest to Java programmers. Jython is a complete implementation of the Python programming language written in 100% pure Java, and allows easy access to Java libraries. This article contains 10 tips for using Java objects in Jython.

Advanced Filesystem Implementor’s Guide, Part 10

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-04 General Development 5 Comments

With the 2.4 release of Linux come many new filesystem possibilities, including Reiserfs, XFS, GFS, and others. These filesystems sound cool, but what exactly can they do, what are they good at, and exactly how do you go about safely using them in a production Linux environment? Daniel Robbins, CEO and president over at Gentoo Linux (and creator of the sophisticated Portage packaging system) answers these questions by showing you how to set up these new advanced filesystems under Linux 2.4. In this final installment (Part 10/10), Daniel shows you how to get XFS up and running on your system and explores some of XFS's more advanced features. Recommended reading is also the previous article, Part 9, exploring XFS's features over the other Linux filesystems. In a similar recent article, Bert Scalzo for Linux Jounral, benchmarks ReiserFS, JFS and ext2/3.

Windows on a Database – Sliced and Diced by BeOS Veterans

Submitted by Ryan Winfield Woodings 2002-03-30 General Development 29 Comments

Microsoft Windows' next version will feature a database-like file system. However, something similar was done years ago, at BeOS' BFS. (BeOS experienced) journalist Andrew Orlowski from TheRegister interviewed Benoit Schillings and Dominic Giampaolo (of the BeOS fame) about BFS and the database-like file systems in general.

New Versions for Bochs, VMWare and Virtual PC Released

Submitted by Peter R. Tattam 2002-03-29 General Development 21 Comments

Bochs 1.4 is the latest release of Bochs, the popular x86 emulator. This version delivers features such as booting from a CDROM, VESA BIOS Extensions, improved networking, keyboard mapping for non-US keyboards, and a working serial port. You'll notice several new buttons on the GUI, copy, paste, and snapshot, which let you copy text between the system clipboard and the Bochs screen. There is also a new cross-platform interface using the SDL library. In related news, VMWare has just released a beta of its upcoming VMWare 3.1 x86 runtime (VMWare is not an emulator like Bochs and VPC are, this is why it can't be ported to any other architecture than x86 - however, by being a runtime, it is speedier than the emulators), while Connectix released its x86 emulator, Virtual PC 4.3, just 15 days ago.

Vesta Releases First LGPL Version

Eugenia Loli 2002-03-15 General Development 10 Comments

Many are the developers who prefer Perforce in favor of CVS. There is a new player in the field now though. It is called Vesta and it is a replacement for both CVS and 'make'. It handles source revision control and automated construction. It is the result of over 10 years of research and development at the Compaq/Digital Research Center. Just last August Compaq gave the 'ok' to LGPL Vesta and since then the 4-member team worked hard to finish up the port to x86 Linux (prior to that, Vesta only worked on Alpha and Tru64 systems). Now, the first Free version is available for download. For a summary of some of the features that make Vesta interesting, see this page.

Compiler Security Checks In Depth

Eugenia Loli 2002-03-08 General Development 2 Comments

"Software security is a major concern for the high-tech industry, and the most feared and misunderstood software vulnerability is the buffer overrun. Today, the mention of a buffer overrun is enough to make people stop and listen. All too often, the technical details get lost in the transcription, and the general public comes away with a rather alarming view of a rather fundamental problem. To address this problem, Visual (unmanaged) C++ .NET introduces security checks to assist developers in identifying buffer overruns." Read the rest of the article at MSDN.

Review: WinTasks 4 Professional

Eugenia Loli 2002-03-04 General Development 22 Comments

WinTasks 4 Pro is a Windows adminstation utility developed by LIUtilities in Sweden. It runs on all major flavors of Windows, however, it is mostly recommended for use on NT/2000 and XP systems. WinTasks is able to list the processes (tasks) on your running system and allows you to manipulate them according to your needs.

MacOSX Cocoa & Project Builder Tutorial

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-27 General Development 4 Comments

"One of the great advantages of Cocoa is getting a lot of functionality with little code. There are classes in the Cocoa Framework that handle much of the necessary work in creating applications that have multiple documents. NSDocumentController, NSDocument and its closely related cohort NSWindowController combine to give you a powerful starting point when building your own multiple document applications. The best way to illustrate the power that these classes offer is with an example; that's how HTMLEditor.app was born. HTMLEditor is a basic text editor that has file associations for HTML. No big deal right? Well, over the next month or so, HTMLEditor will be extended to include a number of additional features, forming the basis of a series of articles." Read the rest of the MacOSX Cocoa/Project Builder step-by-step tutorial at StepWise.

Evaluating WebSphere and Microsoft Tools for Web Services

Submitted by Jeff 2002-02-22 General Development 2 Comments

IBM WebSphere Developer Domain just came out with a high level comparison of WSAD and Visual Studio.NET. Instead of debating benchmarks, the article examines the major differences and how each company supports Web services.

Inheritance and Interfaces with Visual Basic .NET

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-18 General Development 9 Comments

"In this document, you learn about the differences between class inheritance and interface implementation. Inheritance supports the creation of hierarchical frameworks of increasingly specialized classes that share some code and also add their own customizations. Interfaces allow multiple unrelated classes to share predictable sets of methods and properties. Both interfaces and inheritance provide polymorphism, allowing generic procedures to work with many different kinds of objects. You also saw how object composition allows you to reuse and extend implementation code without inheritance, and how it can be combined with interfaces to support polymorphism. All these techniques enable you to create and revise complex software systems by helping you add new functionality, with minimal need to dig back into old working code." Read the rest of the article at MSDN.

Managing Processes and Threads

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-15 General Development 3 Comments

"In Ed's previous column, he focused on socket programming and performance within a single system. In a future column he will pick up where he left off, but his topic this month is management of threads and processes in Linux and Windows systems. He walks through the differences between processes and threads, shows how to create and destroy them, and writes a program you can use to study thread management on your systems." Read the intersting aricle at IBM DeveloperWorks.

Anders Heljsberg on What’s Next for C#

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-14 General Development 9 Comments

"According to Anders, generics (parametic polymoprhism) is one of the directions in which C# would evolve. Microsoft already has a prototype of the runtime in generics. "The trick is to proceed with caution," he advises." Read the rest of the interview with the creator of C# at TheRegister.