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Re: programmer's keyboard

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On 1/3/2013 2:35 AM, Willem wrote:
> BGB wrote:
> ) the advantage of the GUI based option though is that usually a person
> ) can click on things faster than they can type things.
>
> On average, perhaps.  But looking at programmers or other power users, the
> average is the other way around.  They can usually type things faster than
> they can click on things.  Which is why every menu has a keyboard shortcut.
>

keyboard shortcuts are faster, but keyboard shortcuts aren't really typing.

I actually prefer shortcuts over "big dumb forms and button-driven 
GUIs", but Windows Explorer is a bit more clever of a GUI than this, and 
is reasonably streamlined for what it does.


> ) this is mostly an issue of having longish paths to 'cd' through, making
> ) getting to the desired directory take a little longer (meaning a higher
> ) initial cost).
>
> Longish paths can be tab-completed, if you have the right shell.
> I'm way faster into a directory if I can just type it in with
> tab-completion.
>

yep, there is also '*', but this requires typing enough of the directory 
that it can be correctly identified via its prefix.


interestingly, my in-program console has tab-completion, where it tends 
to display a ghosted-out version of what it will expand to when the user 
hits tab.


> ) this means that navigating to a directory, or moving between
> ) directories, can be done faster and easier in Windows Explorer than in a
> ) shell.
>
> Me experience is otherwise.
>

I will disagree.


> ) granted, a better option would be if Explorer had an "Open CMD Shell
> ) Here" option. (or, even, the ability to, like in Linux, open a new shell
> ) in the same directory as the prior shell...).
>
> There are tools to add that option.  You can make one yourself with just a
> bit of windows api knowledge.
>
> ) but, even then, there would be a secondary annoyance:
> ) MS configures their compiler via environment variables used in the batch
> ) file used to open the shell (rather than, say, putting the compiler on
> ) the default path and using an INI file or similar for config). granted,
> ) OTOH, it does make MSVC a little easier to auto-configure tools against
> ) than GCC (which would externally appear to use magic to know its
> ) settings...).
> )
> ) the issue here is that an "open shell here" would then not be nearly so
> ) useful if the intent is to rebuild the project...
>
> Then you add an 'open shell here' which uses that batch file.
>

seems so.


> ) as-is, I currently have 3 branches of my VM's interpreter:
> ) the original / current live version;
> ) a version which I tried to rewrite to use untagged values, but ran into
> ) problems I can't yet address (there are still holes in the type-system,
> ) which is a killer for untagged values);
> ) another version, which I am in the process of migrating from the
> ) original tagged pointers, to a new tagged-reference system (where the
> ) references are always 64-bits), mostly as the prior effort ran into a
> ) wall (64-bit tagged references allow unboxed int/float/double on 32-bit
> ) targets, although sadly, not an unboxed 64-bit long).
> )
> )
> ) but, how am I managing these branches:
> ) well, via copies of the directory tree.
> )
> ) if this new branch gets written and working, it may then be substituted
> ) in, in place of the original.
>
> You can do all that with a VCS as well.  And then you can merge both
> directory trees together and get all the changes in one place.
>
> )> Development branches are useful even in single-developer projects.  They let
> )> you have multiple development branches which can be easily merged and
> )> forked.  The best part of it is that versioned history can be kept between
> )> merges.
> )>
> )
> ) yes, but this can also be done (more or less) via copies, and is "part
> ) of the process".
>
> Yes, but a version control system makes this easier for you.
> You *can* do anything the hard way, that's not a reason to keep doing it
> like that.
>
> )> Not necessarily.  If you track changes to your project tree, and if by any
> )> chance one of those changes happens to introduce a bug, a version control
> )> system lets you pinpoint which change introduced the bug, and you can
> )> quickly inspect what changes were made by diff'ing between any couple of
> )> versions.  With a version control system, you can do all this without having
> )> to checkout anything.
> )>
> )
> ) granted.
> )
> ) rebuilding / retesting after nearly every change (at least to the "live"
> ) version) can also help reduce bugs though (granted, yes, this may take
> ) many minutes each time this is done).
>
> With a VCS, you can set up a continuous integration system, which do this
> in the background and send you an email if a build or automatic test fails.
> (Or send you a message in an IM system, or cause a popup on your screen.)
>

yep, fair enough.

I have some automatic tests, and some amount of interactive tests 
(since, for example, testing things like 3D rendering or game-mechanics 
is kind of hard to automate).

so, one may end up with a delay:
rebuild 3D engine;
start up and run around for maybe a minute or a few minutes, verifying 
that everything looks about right.

sometimes, this sort of testing may miss some kinds of bugs though, like 
if one always tests with various cheat-codes enabled, they may fail to 
notice when non-cheating mechanics break (like, for example, the enemies 
firing off rockets which fail to do any damage, or on character death, 
re-spawning fails to work correctly, ...).


in a few cases, bugs are found in areas which hadn't really been used or 
tested previously, like finding edge-cases in script language syntax or 
behavior, ...


but, alas...

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programmer's keyboard bob <bob@coolfone.comze.com> - 2012-12-26 11:45 -0800
  Re: programmer's keyboard Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-12-26 15:01 -0600
    Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-26 21:36 +0000
      Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-26 21:12 -0600
      Re: programmer's keyboard Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-12-27 23:45 -0600
        Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-28 13:46 +0000
          Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-29 11:42 +1300
          Re: programmer's keyboard "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-12-29 15:15 +0000
            Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-29 14:41 -0600
              Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-29 21:10 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-29 15:26 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-29 22:41 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 02:12 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-30 11:20 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com - 2012-12-30 10:19 -0800
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 14:51 -0600
              Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 10:43 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 01:55 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 21:06 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 02:35 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-30 18:12 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 13:30 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-31 09:36 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 17:27 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-31 13:00 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-31 03:13 -0600
                version control (was: Re: programmer's keyboard) rugxulo@gmail.com - 2012-12-31 10:36 -0800
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-01 09:05 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-31 16:58 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-01 13:24 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2013-01-02 12:23 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-02 14:34 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2013-01-02 15:35 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-03 13:19 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Willem <willem@turtle.stack.nl> - 2013-01-03 08:35 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-03 13:46 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard rugxulo@gmail.com - 2013-01-03 00:52 -0800
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2013-01-03 15:00 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2013-01-02 11:58 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-02 15:03 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard rugxulo@gmail.com - 2013-01-03 00:54 -0800
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-03 13:06 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-30 18:04 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 14:24 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2013-01-02 11:34 +0000
          Writing Experimental Code "Aaron W. Hsu" <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2013-01-02 15:08 -0600
  Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-28 11:45 +0000
    Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-28 12:29 -0600

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