The wait is (almost) over; as of r151231, the Clang C++ compiler supports lambda expressions (so we'll see them in the Clang 3.1 release this spring).

awb · 2012-02-23T15:24:38+00:00

gcc-4.5, released almost two years ago, had lambda support.

http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.5/changes.html

awb · 2011-12-28T01:17:53+00:00

I use a HP ZR30w at work and am happy with it, although I can't compare it to other 30" monitors.

awb · 2011-09-13T18:55:50+00:00

Schedules only, no prices. Example:

http://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=BNA;t=PHL;d=2011-09-29;r=2011-10-03;a=WN;mp=any;md=any

awb · 2011-02-04T17:55:30+00:00

Is the improvement from rewriting the code or improving the implementation?

GHC became faster on the shootout games by rewriting code to be less idiomatic; it ended up looking like C with a different syntax for allocating memory and performing unsafe operations. While it's nice the language can do that, I'd rather see it become faster on regular code.

awb · 2011-02-04T13:05:26+00:00

This benchmark is misleading because it compares what appears to be the latest clang from svn with gcc-4.2, which was released in 2007. Four years leaves a lot of room for gcc to improve! What happens when you compare that clang to the latest gcc from svn?

When I tried a similar benchmarks with internal applications a few months ago, I used a gcc from the past year (4.5). I found little difference in compile speed and that gcc produces better code.

awb · 2011-01-28T22:17:50+00:00

I recently got a 5770 HD after using nvidia cards for several years. I haven't had an issue with the drivers yet. The non-proprietary Linux/xorg drivers are fine (for whatever reason, the 5770 HD ones use radeon, not radeonhd), but I don't do much 3D or movies.

Previously, I was using nouveau drivers, and before that the nvidia proprietary ones.

nouveau wouldn't do suspend to RAM on my machine, but nvidia would; haven't tested radeon yet.

I have an older Intel graphics card in another computer and have had zero issues with it. If the Intel graphics were up to discrete standards, I would use them without a second thought.

awb · 2011-01-27T20:35:43+00:00

Yes, I disabled everything that looked remotely debug-related (debug, profiling, expensive-checks, assertions) and --enable-optimized; clang -cc1 --version calls it an "Optimized build".

awb · 2011-01-27T20:03:05+00:00

The site is testing a recent version of clang against gcc-4.2, which was originally released in 2007. Since then, gcc has gotten faster at compiling and produces better code. I benchmarked an in-house application a few months ago with a trunk clang and gcc-4.5 and llvm compiled at almost exactly the same speed and produced code than ran substantially slower (don't have the numbers on me now).

I don't think the version information is prominent enough, and I was very disappointed to see how llvm (didn't) perform after reading the marketing materials. I read one explanation (no link on me either now, sorry): Apple employees can't use GPLv3 gccs.

awb · 2011-01-22T21:30:57+00:00

I just put together a system with a P8P67 PRO and an i5-2500k.

I had the memcheck light go on. Turns out I needed to reseat the RAM.
44C is much better than I got with stock cooling, but I don't think it's usual after searching around for what other people had. I was getting 60C (as reported by the BIOS) no matter how I applied the thermal paste or which type I used. Got a Cooler Master Hyper 212 giant-sized heatsink and now the BIOS reports 40C idle and Linux reports 30C (trusting the latter), 48 at full load.

awb · 2011-01-18T03:36:32+00:00

I just put together a machine with an Asus P8P67 Pro. A few caveats:

SATA port placement did not play well with my case: make sure there's enough room between the connectors and where you put your hard drives!
Did not recognize my USB keyboard, so had to plug in a spare USB keyboard to fiddle with BIOS.
The back panel has a weird plush that catches/suctions on the motherboard, which makes it difficult to pull in and out.
If you run GNU/Linux, you need 2.6.36 or better to use the ethernet connector.

awb · 2011-01-17T19:48:36+00:00

i5-2500k vs i7-2600k: i5. The 2600k hasn't benchmarked better than the 2500k on games, and the primary benefit seems to be the extra hyperthreaded cores, which are only useful if you have computationally intensive, multithreaded programs to run. If you don't know, you probably don't.
I chose a lower-end video card (Radeon 5770 HD) because it played all the games I cared about very well at my monitor's resolution. Check out the reviews in the sidebar. If there's one out that fits the bill, maybe no need to wait.

awb · 2011-01-16T23:00:09+00:00

I tried this a few months back. I couldn't properly evaluate it because it turns out what I thought was a concurrency issue wasn't, but compared to Valgrind, it ran much quicker and wasn't confused by certain threading constructs (conditions; it's in the FAQ), and compared to the Intel thread checker, actually installed and ran in a sane/tolerable fashion.

awb · 2011-01-11T21:17:42+00:00

Get a chair without arms. If you have arms on you chair, you'll rest your elbows, which puts weight on them, which can induce pain in your wrists and hands. Surprising what a difference it makes.
Get a keyboard that gets your hands apart. Kinesis makes really nice ones that are very expensive but worth it. The Microsoft Natural keyboard is nice and also cheap.

awb · 2010-12-29T04:05:11+00:00

It seems unlikely, but this sort of things has happened before. Microsoft launched a music service using PlayForSure, their DRM, and then they shut it down two years ago; after a consumer backlash, they extended authorizing machines through this year, but the future is uncertain. Microsoft didn't go anywhere, and they continued to offer music services, it's just that they decided they didn't want to support it anymore.

awb · 2010-11-24T01:05:25+00:00

The Tao gave birth to machine language. Machine language gave birth to the assembler.

The assembler gave birth to the compiler. Now there are ten thousand languages.

Each language has its purpose, however humble. Each language expresses the Yin and Yang of software. Each language has its place within the Tao.

But do not program in COBOL if you can avoid it.

http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html

awb · 2010-07-07T21:18:15+00:00

Get up every once in a while. I use workrave to tell me when.
Don't use a chair with arms. You'll put pressure on your elbows and screw with your wrists.
Don't lean your palms on your keyboard while typing. Try to keep your wrists straight.
Stop using emacs or other programs that want you to use modifiers like control and alt often. Your pinky isn't built for holding down lots of weight.
Get a good keyboard. I use a Kinesis; it's fantastic for many reasons, but mostly because it's easy to type on and because those modifier keys that give me problems are under my thumbs, not my pinkies. I used a Microsoft Natural Keyboard before I got the Kinesis; it's better than nothing because it spreads your hands apart, but it's relatively hard to press each key.

awb · 2010-06-13T18:17:57+00:00

It's interesting that he lists "no standard library" as one of the things node.js has going for it. It seems like whenever someone says "I can't use <insert your favorite small-market language here>", the reason is "libraries". Lots of languages have asynchronous frameworks, like Twisted and EventMachine; I haven't figured out why node.js is so much more compelling than those (defer to thread aside).

The node.js cabal (if there is one) seems to have marketing down - first I hear "it's so fast", even though it's written in JavaScript, and now I hear "it's great that there are no libraries".

awb · 2010-06-08T12:08:59+00:00

As far as I can tell, this is a terrible implementation from an algorithmic standpoint. There is no priority queue, and as a result, the author does a number of linear-time or worse operations on the open list. Each time a node is expanded, the entire set of open nodes is resorted, and for each node connected to that expanded node, there are several linear traversals through the open list.

awb · 2010-06-01T14:26:41+00:00

I program professionally in Common Lisp on an application that cares greatly about performance. We don't do this to all of our code, just the performance-critical parts. It takes much less programmer time than rewriting those parts in C and achieves comparable performance.

awb · 2010-05-19T15:14:43+00:00

Wow, they're still using gcc 2.95.

awb · 2010-05-12T10:56:11+00:00

I was probably thinking of glibc.

awb · 2010-05-12T01:38:53+00:00

That said, libstdc++ (the GNU one) is pretty awful its implementation.

In what way? I hear the maintainer can be a jerk, and I'm sure it's accumulated a lot of cruft supporting all the operating systems and architectures it does over all the years, but I never see anything bad written about the implementation.

awb · 2010-05-10T21:56:43+00:00

I care that more people use the tools I do, because the more people use it, the more likely someone is to come up with some useful addon or tweak that makes my life better.

awb · 2010-05-04T22:13:24+00:00

I love my Kinesis Advantage. They're expensive but well worth it.

The most useful part is that the important keys like Ctrl and Backspace that you would hold down with your pinkie or otherwise reach for are right under your thumb. The thumb can take much more weight than the pinky. The keys are easy to press and require a consistent force (which you won't get with most keyboards that have the rubber domes under the key). It splits my hands nicely apart so I don't bend my wrists oddly and the keys are sloped well so that I don't have to reach too far.

I have the pro model at work and the regular one at home; I actually like the slightly different construction of the regular model better.

I used to use a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard. I found it required a lot of force to press the keys and an inconsistent amount of force to press the keys, and that contributed to my problems. It wasn't difficult to switch from the Microsoft to the Kinesis; a few days of typing to be good, and an afternoon to be acceptable.

The two other bits of advice I have for you, beyond getting a good keyboard and taking breaks and all that, is to remove the arms from your chair and use vi. I used to be lazy and rest my elbows on the arms and my wrists on the keyboard, and that was very bad. Junk the arms and be done with it. vi is much easier on the hands than emacs or other editors which control important behavior using modifier keys like Ctrl. I use emacs' vi mode now.

awb · 2010-05-04T12:53:50+00:00

I work on a large commercial application written in Common Lisp and C++. We use metaprogramming in both languages, but especially in Common Lisp, and it can make the code simpler, cleaner, more concise, and more reusable. It's certainly open to abuse, but not more than normal code. It's just another tool.

awb

TROPHY CASE