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The reason I'm not worried about the IDE is because i need to learn the language before using it, and i'll have no idea what IDE they're using anyway, so i might as well learn on something that meets my requirements, thus making the learning process easier, then when I'm forced to use someone elses IDE, the experience will be unpleasant, but i will have the language down pat

Ehtyar.

Hi all.
I am currently nearing the end of my education, and though i am versed in various programming languages, my choices tend to be rather old fashioned. What I'd like to know is what everyone considers to be the best language to learn for the sake of employability. C and/or C++ does not get you employed very successfully anymore unless you are an expert, which i would not consider myself to be. I am not interested in Java, though i could tolerate dotnet if necessary. Particularly, i would welcome the opportunity to learn C#, were i to find an IDE that was not by Microsoft and not written in Java. Any suggestion is welcome, for the sake of others as well as myself.

Thanks, Ehtyar.

Hi all.
I am a coder from the "land downunder". I have been around for a few months (i think) now, and i have frequented the IRC channel since i joined. Those of you who also idle in #donationcoder will know me fairly well by now.

To be honest i forget what brought me to donationcoder, but once i arrived, i was hooked  . The software is fantastic, and the forum is the most active and most enjoyable that i currently requent. As mwang mentioned, the collective knowledge of this community is also a major selling point, for lack of a better word.

I have been an avid Windows PC user for some time now. I am definitely a software connoisseur and am deep within the power user category. I currently administer (that is fix all the things that my family fuck up) 4 computers in my household (including mine) each of which run windows, with the exception of my router which is a cut down version of fbsd. I am an IRC addict, though less now days than i used to be, and rarely chat on IM.

I go to college (TAFE for the Aussies) and am currently doing a Systems Administration course, after having dropped out of Software Design due to my distaste of VB and the impractical teaching methods. It bores me to the extreme, so i mostly find myself either here, or coding during classes.

Programming is by far my favorite hobby (I suck at pretty much everything but computers/electronics). My current primary languages are assembly (MASM\FASM) and C/CPP (VC/PellesC), though i also have experience with various other scripting/programming languages. I have a general dislike of IDEs, as they never have exactly what i want, thus i prefer to have my own development environment. I use Nopepad++ to author my programs, and have written a half dozen plugins for it that give me just the functionality i need.

Now that this intro is longer than most others in this thread, I'll piss off

See you around everyone, Ehtyar.

Yeah, bunch of crlfs floating around in cyber space. I hope my docs don't catch them, that would look awful

Ehtyar.

Goddamn you sham man, i was there like 3 weeks ago
Word man, we must have an Aussie one

Ehtyar.

Joto said something to me last night on the IRC channel that, to me, represents the practical importance of aesthetically pleasing code (of course i also believe that beautiful is just good all by itself ).
He had a friend who had a php script, and it had an error that needed fixing. His friend could not find this error, and asked for his help. When Joto received the code, his friend had his code all bunched up on single lines to the edge of the page (much as you might format a document in word). Joto found, that after properly formatting and indenting the code, that his friend had left a command outside of a loop, when it would have been within. It would have been an extremely simple mistake to pick up had the code been formatted properly from the beginning.
I am of the opinion that clean code is just as important as any other aspect of good programming.

Ehtyar.

Notepad++.

Ehtyar.

I'm not entirely sure what i can say here, except I've only known you for a short time Ken, and while i never knew about this, i never got any negative impression from you on the channel. You have my best wishes, and good luck.

Ehtyar.

PICNIC - Problem In Chair Not In Computer.

Ehtyar.

XMPlay (alt) for playback, Winamp for ripping.

Ehtyar.

Indeed i see your point. PStart is a program that you would not use anywhere other than the root of the drive, thus the option is not provided. You could, of course, having selected the portable installation method, move the executable and its config to an alternate folder, though it would not function entirely as advertised.

Ehtyar.

Thanks Ehtyar. It confirms some things...

You're more than welcome, glad at least one positive thing has come out of this so far

Separate installer? Please, no thanks. You'd have two basically identical downloads, except for one little configuration option. It could be an installer option...

I must agree here. I think the PStart installer is probably the example of an ideal portable/not portable installer; the user is given the option of installing to the root of a removable drive, or to program files. When extracted to program files all settings go to the registry, but when extracted to the root of a removable drive, a default xml config is extracted with it.

Ehtyar.

Wow Armando, some registry negatives even i didn't think of, well done And the answer to your question is a big fat no, unless you consider manually locating and exports your applications registry key(s) (providing they're not disguised of course) and importing them at a later date, after modifying any fully qualified paths etc contained therein easy.

Ehtyar.

Again speed is mentioned. The difference (unless the file is huge, in which case perhaps using the registry would be a better option) will not be noticeable to the end user, and i can't imagine any case where backing up an ini (or xml/lua) in a directory could be harder than backing up a registry hive (would be quicker too if you insist on bringing speed into it).

Ehtyar.

[edit]
You'd also have to admit using the Reg* api is much more code than the *PrivateProfile* api.
[/edit]

I must check myself. Josh and i have discussed this on IRC, and i am now aware of what it is he is pushing, it is most likely my misinterpretation of his words that got me all riled up. Josh believes that app config should be stored in the appdata/profile folder of the specific users, and i must say i cannot disagree with him. I would, however, be opposed to that being the only option available. If an application were to check the current users profile directory prior to check its own directory, i would consider that to be the ideal way of managing user configuration.

Ehtyar.

It's all well and good to say applications should make use of both the registry and files, but i fail to see the benefits of using the registry over files (the speed difference is negligible, after all the only reason registry is faster is because the hive files are in memory). The registry has no benefit for the user IMHO, and is only necessary when integration with windows needs to be achieved. Whereas ini is very helpful for those who use portable storage, which as Josh had just mentioned is becoming more and more popular. Also, you might consider the extra work on the part of the programmer, coding for both registry and ini for no apparent reason. Perhaps it would be good if you posted the debate in text format somewhere so that we may see your reasoning behind your preference of the registry.

Ehtyar.

Same. My bad also. Thanks for not tearing my head off for it

Ehtyar.

Universal Extractor, though i love it to pieces, is not an archive manager. It uses 7zip for most of the standard archive formats, and various other unpackers/decompressors for installers and non-standard formats. Universal Extractor is merely a front-end for these tools (and a bloody good one at that).

Ehtyar.

I must apologize, as i was also incorrect. I don't use macs, and i assumed that being the same as a standard keyboard that they would have both a backspace and a delete key, thus i was annoyed by your comment that the delete key was a backspace key, when on a standard US keyboard they are clearly different. I accept that MACs do not use standard keyboards, though i stand by my opinion that a lack of a forward delete key is an incredible oversight.

Ehtyar.

Take, for example the complaint that "the delete key does not work like a delete key but like a backspace key". That's because it IS a backspace key.
What a dumb*ss.

Perhaps you could explain to us why there are two "backspace" keys on a keyboard in two entirely different places that use different names?

Ehtyar.

Well I've made my post, now come be my mob everyone

Ehtyar.

Seems like an arrogant bastard... wouldn't use any of the guy's products.

Lets hope you're not using foobar2000 either, same deal with its author if you ask me. However, despite Ian's shortcomings in regards to accepting user input, until now i had been yet to find fault with xmplay, i just love it.
Lashiec, let us know the thread you post to, so people can add themselves to your mob

Ehtyar.

As i suspected, there were several threads referring to this kind of feature requests (most of which reference winamp as an example, which is not a good idea given that Ian's product is in direct competition with it, but whatever...) all of which appear to have been entirely ignored by Ian. I shall not make my own post on the forums requesting this, however feel free to give it a go yourself if you feel you can sway him. Thanks again for your input Lashiec, and if you have any success, please let me know and i will be more than happy to create an alias file for you

Ehtyar.

Ian seems to be particularly inflexible i find when asked to modify his programs. I thought of the global shortcut thing myself, which is not difficult, but as you said extremely hackish, and probably not worth it given the number of users that would be confused about how it is supposed to work. However, i guess asking Ian for some help in this case would not be a bad idea, ill have a poke around on the un4seen forums and if i find nothing, ill give it a go.

Ehtyar.

What a joke, where the HELL do they get off blaming limewire? These people need to be drawn and quatered.

Ehtyar.