So why doesn't Java do the same thing?  Even the PATH environment variable that is so important in Java and Unix, not so in Windows. Is the difference because Windows apps copy all the binaries into the bin directory?

I kind of like the CLASSPATH and PATH approach if it enables me to keep from having multiple copies of assemblies across the system. But maybe that convenience breaks down as each app is built against a different version of the same named assembly.

Interested to know the official rational for Java having a classpath but not .NET.

3 hours ago, evildictait​or wrote

*snip*

Revenues have nearly tripled from $25.3bn (£16.6bn) in 2001 to $74.3bn in 2012, and operating income has risen from $11.7bn to $25.3bn.

Ballmer has not grown the scope of the business.  Media center has gone nowhere in terms of integrating with the cable box.  My windows phone has nothing from the user perspective that makes it stand out.  A windows tablet should have been to market before the iPad. A windows mobile should be running on any phone with a cpu. And now MSFT is nowhere with robots.

1 hour ago, GoddersUK wrote

*snip*

ROFLMAOCOPTERLOLS

Unless the "other investors" are planning to do that anyway they'll need a lot more than 1% and if they're planning to do it anyway I'm not sure that 1% will make a whole lot of difference.

you don't invest $1 Billion unless you have a plan. Maybe the investor has reason to believe other non Bill / non Ballmer shareholders are ready to push Ballmer out.  It is not like the current management team has shown any ability to grow the business.

12 hours ago, felix9 wrote

IE11 has a very intereting F12 tools,

Large part of it is written in TypeScript, and it support TypeScript debugging natively.

And it looks Modern

IE10 has an "install new versions automatically" checkbox.  Would that mean IE11 would be automatically installed?  Which is what chrome does, no ?

11 hours ago, felix9 wrote

But the most interesting part of Blue is FileManager, desktop is not needed anymore

will FIleManager have namespace extensions?

Dart, as I understand it, compiles to .js which then runs in the browser. Would C# be able to do the same?

I see Dart is not statically typed ( guessing ) . Is that a requirement of a DOM language? Maybe have it statically typed where all the HTML5 attributes are pre defined. And if you introduce new attributes to the HTML tags you have to declare them somehow to the classes the language uses to represent the DOM objects?

Just read Dart does not support Tuples. https://groups.google.com/a/dartlang.org/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/misc/yih2CeeSBnI

and no extension methods, at least as of Oct, 2011: http://code.google.com/p/dart/issues/detail?id=13

47 minutes ago, Harlequin wrote

AMA?

ask me anything. It makes for an interesting web site. Only reddit should enforce a rule that when you do an AMA you should have to answer all questions. ( at least answer in the order asked. ) Often when corporations or politicians appear on the site they skip over questions, making it more of a publicity event.

38 minutes ago, Sven Groot wrote

*snip*

In fact, WPF's template and styling system is considerably more powerful and easier to create tools for than CSS.

a simple thing.  using jQuery you can popup a calendar for every date input field in a form. How to do that in WPF? Or I want to add a link to a table that will export the contents of the table to excel. I esp want to be able to do these things without having to be the programmer or have access to the source code of the app.  How does the end user customize their apps to give them what they need without the source code?  With javascript I can inject code into the browser on the client side to do these things. Not easily or reliably in all cases. Just an example to me where software technology is stagnating at these large companies that control the OSes we use.

1 hour ago, xied75 wrote

My feeling is that 'consumerism' is driving those changes, no matter which company we are talking about. This leaves all those 'professionals' in the dark, no matter which OS.

yeah, I cannot explain why computer companies do not do a better job with their OS software. I have seen IBM simply starve its AS400 of investment and improvements. What I have seen of C++ and windows shell programming this last year is a bunch of areas where improvements can be made but are not.  Even WPF seems to have stagnated. ( where are the efforts at styling WPF in a CSS sort of way. )  Apple, IBM and Microsoft have tons of money, yet none appear to be going all out in making their platforms as programmer friendly as possible.

1 minute ago, Blue Ink wrote

My advice: get a laptop.

exactly. If it is doable to put a battery in a laptop, why not have an option to put a small battery in a desktop. I would pay for that.  ( figuerres, there are not problems shipping laptops with connected batteries. )

btw, I lost power last week and today. IE both times lost stuff. Where I lost my IE most popular sites, had to reenter passwords.

32 minutes ago, kettch wrote

@evildictaitor: Also, a UPS provides power conditioning that a surge suppressor can't. So, you'll be protected from a wide range of power abnormalities.

and I guess a UPS has a minimum size that would make a power supply with a built in UPS too big?  I don't have a particular problem with power, with is why I dont have a UPS.

I find it interesting that the economics of mass production seems to make the production of products out of the ordinary much more expensive by comparison. Which limits there availabilty

Are there power supplies which enable a PC to withstand such a brief power hit? I normally build my PC from parts and I don't skimp on the power supply. Yet, I have never noticed any being sold with a built in UPS or advertised with the ability to maintain power for a few seconds.

I have a small IBM AS400 server running sometimes. And more often than not when I lose power like this the AS400 stays up while the PC falls flat.

Better documented than MSDN? Really!?

I have been working on and off with windows shell programming and it is a slog for me making heads or tails of the entire mess. Linking a contextmenu to a namespace extension requires using GetUIObjectOf and IQueryAssociations and passing the right contents to AssocCreateForClasses. And I still cannot figure out how copy/paste works in a NSE. Which got me looking down the trail of IContextMenuCB and the XP era CDefFolderMenu_Create2 and I have found absolutely nothing on that interface.

In the wndows api space on MSDN it is very rare that you see sample code that illustrates the APIs.

The windows desktop forums are not places where you can get good broad answers to a question.

Copy paste between apps is already pretty powerful via the OLE clipboard. What would you like it to do that you can't get it to do currently?

what about all of your WPF bindings being copy and pasteable between apps?  have a standard XML format for what is copied to the clipboard.

PHP is entirely managed and is "isolated", and yet PHP websites get hacked all the time, leading to the customer data being stolen.

well, then do a better job at it. I am not convinced you cannot have a virus free system.  for example, a system should always be talking to the OS producer, making sure that all of the binaries match what the producer installed on the system.

1 hour ago, evildictait​or wrote

*snip*

Look up Singularity or Cosmos. But be aware that managed code != no security vulnerabilities (look at the huge raft of security issues Java or Android apps has had for instance)

 

I should not say managed code since it does not imply what I am thinking. More just a higher order framework that includes garbage collection and goes a long way in enabling the programmer to get the end result to the user. Like in C# and .NET the programmer is multiple times more productive than with COM and C++.  The OS should have such a framework as its core.

1 hour ago, JoshRoss wrote

*snip*

Like Windows 7? Nothing competes with Windows better than Windows.

well, I am thinking about an OS based on managed code. Really strong siloing of apps so no such thing as a virus.  Much better problem determination features, where I can freeze the system and examine in depth what a process is doing.  My superior OS would be well documented with a lot of sample code for every interface.  I am sure W8 is better, but W7 is very slow to start. You have to do better at that.  The windows shell, at least from a programmer's perspective could be a lot better. Copy/paste between apps is so useful, you have to be able to do a lot more with that. IE could be much better - save everything I browse to, enable me to skip advertisements in videos. Favorites are nice, but do you really need superior hierarchical organizational skills to know how to store a favorite so you can find it at a later time?