There is a lot of buzz these days about “Rich Internet Applications”. People are finally realizing that HTML is incapable of supporting a sophisticated user interface. AJAX is a reeking pile of hacks and cluges that offers only a glimpse of what could be possible with a halfway-intelligent browser platform. Many people are betting this platform will be Flash. Specifically Flash 9, Flex 2, and ActionScript 3. Maybe — but there is one dirty little secret no one is talking about: Flash is resolution-dependent. Continue reading “Brother, can you spare a pixel?”
Switched to Mac — and back
I had a lousy cold all last week, so I spent it toying with a Mac. It seems that all the cool hacker dudes are on Macs these days and I wanted to see what it’s all about. I ended up installing Vista on the MacBook Pro, but Apple’s beta drivers are still too buggy, so I returned it. I have ordered a new Thinkpad with Vista. Continue reading “Switched to Mac — and back”
No Ifs, Ands, or Buts
Long time no see. I have posted my latest OOPSLA submission.
At long last I feel like I am making progress again. I have been stuck on this problem for the last 9 months. The worst part is that people kept asking me “What are you working on?”, and I would say, “Well, I am trying to figure out how to do conditionals, and I am really stuck”. This produced funny looks. I mean, what kind of moron can’t figure out how to do conditionals? What could be hard about that? Well, I think I have finally figured out how to do conditionals.
The next paper will probably be about how to do loops. But first I need to do some honest coding…
OOPSLA 2006
Greetings from Portland, Oregon. Here are my impressions of OOPSLA 2006. Continue reading “OOPSLA 2006”
Alice in Subtext-land
The Subtext UI sucks. One of the biggest problems is linking: the welter of compasses and vectors is bewildering. We need something that is much easier to read. I have been thinking about an approach that borrows from Alice. Continue reading “Alice in Subtext-land”