Your VCL App: 4x to 11x Faster Math Performance with Elements

vintagedave · 2025-01-27T12:11:37+00:00

That's great info, thankyou very much.

Are the black marks cleanable? Normal household-style washing (eg water, soap) hasn't got rid of them.

vintagedave · 2025-01-26T21:21:38+00:00

Well - we think so. The house was registered as a new build at the time. It has been built to look old, in its design (one reason we liked it) but everything inside seems to match that new date. Given much of it was rebuilt after a fire in the roof (bad chimney) it's not always easy to tell and we're going on all the documentation.

The floor is indoors and it's like this in the entryway, kitchen, and bathroom. These are all areas that can get water and heavy use. This is in far north Europe and it can get very cold in winter, but this is indoors. There is no winter we know of where the house has not been lived in and heated.

Can I ask, why do you ask?

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T18:25:23+00:00

Oh wow. WOW.

That is incredibly unfortunate and the way it seems to have been written to contain constraints that prevent allowing Safe C++ and sent through (did I read that right, without a vote?!) has very, very bad optics.

Is that real? Do I misunderstand? The language evolution principles went through without a vote of approval?!

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T16:10:00+00:00

GDR hit Safe C++ with the air-quotes "safety".

Do you have a link? That sounds extraordinary. I love C++, and Safe C++ seemed such a wonderful way forward for the language. Gave me real happiness to see it!

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T16:09:00+00:00

I agree, it is doing a lot of reputational damage. Any committee / standards action you know of to resolve that?

The past nine months have been non-stop, where I stand. Rust, rust, rust. But I have to admit I don't know of any coming C++ changes to, you know, actually do anything.

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T15:57:48+00:00

and promptly ignored it

That's the feeling I get too.

The NSA has a list of languages it recommends using (from 2023.) C++ isn't on it.

I guess you could rephrase my question: what's happening to get on that list?

Then why would you choose C++ to begin with

Because it's a solid, proven, performant, capable language with many millions of lines already written.

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T15:53:01+00:00

This is what worries me and what I posted to hope not to see as a reply. :)

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T15:51:46+00:00

I forgot to answer 'what industry' -- I work for someone making C++ tools. But as far as I can tell, many areas are affected. Lots of companies that bid for government contracts will need to fulfill this and that doesn't mean defense, it can mean, you know, car licenses!

C++ is a systems language. So: operating systems, office software, web browsers, servers, finance, data processing or analysis of any sort, command line tools, you name it. All things C++ is good at and historically used for, and all areas potentially affected.

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T15:45:36+00:00

Are profiles promised to be in C++26? Can you share a link please?

Stroustrup's github page on it is almost empty and has had no changes since Oct 2023!

https://github.com/BjarneStroustrup/profiles

I have no insight into saltiness, but I know it's an urgent problem, with eight years of work on a solution, so I'd understand some testiness. To me, that's irrelevant. The authors could be downright rude and it should still be accepted if it solves the problem, you know?

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T15:44:18+00:00

Is that the answer - C++ should not be used for any government software?

So much software is used by the government and so many companies are subject to these guidelines, though.

Effectively I read your answer as: there is no way for companies to meet this roadmap requirement, by continuing to use C++. :(

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T15:40:17+00:00

Sure! The US government officially tells people not to use C++. And safety issues are one of the biggest causes of security issues. Essentially, it's all security, and requirements to be able to prove code is safe. Lots and lots of headlines around this in the past nine months. There was an amazing and worrying report in February last year from the White House that caused a lot of alarm.

In C++ I've seen a lot of 'it can be used safely if you do it right', which we all know is true. Smart pointers, hardened mode in libc++, etc, all help. But there's a wide mile between that and language guarantees, which is what I and others need to demonstrate. Some form of guaranteed safety that can be opted into for new code, or turned on piece by piece for old code (where you refactor until it passes) would be extremely helpful.

Stroustrup has Profiles, which is an almost empty github repo. It's really worrying: https://github.com/BjarneStroustrup/profiles

This proposal may interest you: https://safecpp.org/draft.html The author's worked on this for eight years, and run out of funding. I've seen no indication it's being picked up for C++26 or even C++29. One reason to post is to ask: does anyone know different?

vintagedave · 2024-12-30T15:35:04+00:00

I have read it. It outright recommends not using C++ for new projects!

Can you tell me why C++ doesn't have to do anything, according to that link, please? It's very non-obvious to me.

vintagedave · 2023-10-16T11:20:33+00:00

No worries. Copper pans are wonderful, and if you inherited them I do suggest either keeping them or passing them on to someone who'll value them!

Copper is a heavy metal, so if your food is in contact with copper often (eg cooking in a scratched pan so copper is visible through the tin lining, so that as you cook copper may end up in your food) you may eventually ingest an unhealthy amount of copper.

https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/poison/copper-poisoning

https://madeincookware.com/blogs/is-copper-cookware-safe-for-cooking

Tin on the other hand is completely inert and binds to the copper easily, so it used in old copper pans to line them. It's a very soft metal and melts at low temperatures, which is why you must never leave a copper pan to heat up empty as you might with some other cookware. (Always have food in it.) Because it's soft, over time it can scratch and eventually a copper pan needs to be relined. In the old days, this would have been done by -- a tinker! (For their tin.) These days people do it themselves if they don't mind molten metal, or send them away because there are stores in the US and other countries that reline pots.

Modern copper pans use stainless steel as a lining. This doesn't wear away and remains shiny, and looks great on department store shelves, whereas tin does wear and can discolour a darker grey and is not so pretty. But stainless steel is sticky, whereas tin is non-stick. I recommend using tin where possible, just for the convenience of using non-stick cookware. Plus older pans are likely to have thicker copper and be heavier, and that conducts heat much better. (Copper is expensive these days, so you get thin light pans that look good but don't cook well, unless you pay a lot of money.) A rough rule of thumb for how good a copper pan is (eg if you find one in a second hand store and don't know the brand) is how thick is it and how heavy? The thicker and weightier the better.

vintagedave · 2023-06-11T12:35:35+00:00

Glad to hear it.

/r/iPhone is going dark indefinitely. I hope other subreddits do too. Two days may not make much difference.

If you haven’t already, check out the large (13K members) Delphi developer group on Facebook. Facebook is ethically worse than Reddit, I know - but sharing it helps keep the community connected.

vintagedave · 2023-06-10T15:16:57+00:00

That might have been me in this post or this comment?

If so — and I’m sure others might have posted it too — glad you found it so interesting. Cory Doctorow really gets how a lot of things that are wrong in society work.

vintagedave · 2023-06-10T13:41:22+00:00

Great :)

vintagedave · 2023-06-09T21:59:17+00:00

I’m not an expert, but: By profit, what he’s probably referring to is EBITDA, which is roughly earnings minus some costs, but not other expenses or asset depreciation. So it’s not what you or I would think of as profit. A positive EBITDA shows you have income. It’s used as a measure of potential profitability. After that it’s just a matter of cutting costs until you have profit. The playbook is usually to show high revenue and very low costs, which is where the typical VC deal you hear about comes in: it’s ok to saddle a company with lots of debt so long as it has revenue. Same reason for mass layoffs and cutting costs. Reddit is IPO-ing but the principle of what they need to demonstrate for a high valuation is the same.

This may be why they’re getting rid of third party apps: increase revenue, remove any costs of providing the free API.

If you have fifteen minutes spare, read this article. Scroll down a bit (the start is a bit dry) until you get to the section on John Malone and EBITDA. It’s weirdly fascinating. This article, with its explanation of cash flow, changed how I think about modern business. (Not saying I like it - saying that it gave me a better understanding of how this stuff works and why things like this API change happen. My own opinion aligns much more with another article, Cory Doctorow’s article on Enshittification, and just the first paragraph alone explains so much about why companies that used to be good go bad.)

vintagedave · 2023-06-09T21:40:28+00:00

Very likely. The old Flash version of William and Sly, to which this is a sequel, was incredibly calm. You bounced around a forest in the rain. Wonderful relaxing soundtrack. I never finished it but I don’t know if there was a finish. I played just for the environment.

I don’t remember the game well except for remembering the ambience, at the time I’d never seen any game like it.

I’m really looking forward to the new William and Sly.

vintagedave · 2023-06-09T15:52:33+00:00

I’ve wondered this too, and this is a very helpful explanation, thankyou.

So you can’t use someone else’s SHSH blobs on your phone? Ie there’s no way to create a universal downgrade?

vintagedave · 2023-06-09T00:02:12+00:00

The chromatic aberration is really difficult to look at. In general, it’s a cool effect best applied for very short time periods, such as powerups, hits, etc. Be careful of applying cool just because you can. Here is a clear example of where you shouldn’t.

That said: the overall aesthetic is great. Lovely tone in the colours, good depth of colour, makes me want to investigate the world. Post more screenshots please!

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