It's probably not shocking to hear that as a teen I played Dungeons & Dragons. Rob, the super-cool guy who worked at "Games People Play" (he wore leggings, a buck knife on his belt, and occasionally carried a bo staff. We worshipped him), told me there were some good DMs at …

John Montgomery is wondering how people learned to program, especially non-professional programmers. Well, some years I make more money writing than programming, so here's my story:

My desire to learn programming was sparked by my Dad bringing home Ted Nelson's "Computer Lib/Dream Machines" -- an oversized paperback that contained cartoons …

1. Megapixels aren't important: What determines the resolution of a photograph or audio recording is the "enhancement" algorithm run on it. Any image, when run through the proper enhancement, will reveal sufficient detail to recognize a face, read a license plate, etc.
2. Computer screens output text at 4800 baud and make …

I'm not a forgetful person, but in the four days before Tina's first surgery, I forgot at various times: my jacket, my credit card (x2), and my Pocket PC Phone Edition PDA. Must have had something else on my mind. I got the jacket and credit cards back, but my …

This post by Wesner Moise reminded me of my own post a few weeks back. Basically, the observation is that the "functional programming" paradigm, in which variables are immutable once bound, really seems to have something going for it.

In functional programming, the context necessary to achieve a function is …

::: {.Section1} [Ouch. A company called Laterooms.com gave up on Mono, saying that it’s GC was essentially non-existent (maybe because it didn’t pack memory?). Via [Cook Computing]]{style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri; color:#1F497D"} :::

Okay, since I've spent the whole damn day talking about other people's languages, let me tell you something that I would give a lot of thought to if I were designing a language. Consider C# 3.0 extension syntax:

static void Foo(this String s){ ... }
static void Foo(this Int32 …

Who said I wasn't fond of Delphi? Look: Delphi is a great tool. I wish absolutely nothing but the best for DevCo and the Delphi development community.

[However... ]

I have yet to hear an argument that makes me think that the Delphi language is going to experience a rennaissance in …

There's been a rash of criticism about Microsoft's Mort/Elvis/Einstein personas. A few months ago, I swiped at M/E/E and triggered some correspondence. Part of that was the surprising lack-of-results for a search for a document that defines the Mort/Elvis/Einstein personas! One certainly justifiable criticism …

I just got off the phone with David Intersimone. My recent SD Times column on "DevCo," (the codename for the spin-off of Borland's languages and database teams) ruffled some feathers, particularly when I described the Delphi language as "well past its peak, and with its Pascal roots ? on the wrong …