Hexodoku Programming Contest: Win $200 Worth of The Year's Best Books

My Hexodoku Programming Contest is live: the challenge is to generate 16 x 16 Sudoku grids. If multiple entries can consistently beat 1 second, the winner will be the program with best Big O behavior as the order of the grid scales (4\^4, 5\^4, 6\^4, etc.). The …

more ...

Assurances from CMP: DDJ to change, Jolts to continue

Apparently, DDJ has had a redesign (which doesn't necessarily mean new editorial direction, but could be...) and wants to continue the Jolt Awards going forward (although it's a little confusing, as the Jolts will apparently continue as a project tasked to CMP's Events groups).

Rosalyn Lum, SD's Technical Editor, is …

more ...

C# & VB: Peer Pressure vs. Random Walk

Programming language popularity is a fascination of mine and has been since (at least) I joined "Computer Language" magazine "back in the day." Note that this is a different fascination than programming language capability, which goes all the way back to the time I read my Dad's copy of "Computer …

more ...

Smalltalkers sneer at my LINQ-thusiasm

James Robertson thinks that I'm too breathless about LINQ in my recent article about C#'s popularity on the CLR. For some reason, I can't post to his comment section, so I'll just respond here and shoot him a trackback:

What got through the asbestos was the comment that I …

more ...

The myth of better programming languages

I like Andy Hunt, and I like Ruby, but his post at perpetuates a myth that I think is harmful. He says of Ruby, "First, more than any other language I've used, it stays out of your way. You don't have to spend any effort 'satisfying the compiler'.... I can …

more ...

Novell a good fit for ex-Borland Delphi Group

Of all the scenarios being mooted on the purchase of Borland's line of compilers and IDEs, the one that I like the most is Novell.

Novell's Mono project includes an implementation of the .NET CLI that runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, and a number of UNIXes. The Delphi group …

more ...

No-Longer-Borland Folk Seem Confident

Every indication is that the people involved in Borland's compilers and IDE are confident that they will carry the products forward.

I talked to a couple people and I still haven't heard of a specific suitor, but there's also a real tone of confidence.

There's already a "Delphi Corporation", but …

more ...

Borland Casting Off IDE, Compilers

Today, Borland announced that they are seeking a buyer for their line of IDEs and compilers and will concentrate on their Application Lifecycle Management tools. They also announced that they're buying Segue, which on a normal day would be big news, but, my god, the end of Turbo?

This really …

more ...

Jolt Awards and Some Worthy Non-Finalists

As always, the last weeks of January are present-time for those of us who are judges in the Jolt Awards, which I launched 16 years ago (how old I am. How very old.)

This year, two books that I thought were exceptional didn't make the final ballot: Vincent Maraia's The …

more ...

Time to buy a second-hand Mac?

Apple announced the first Intel-based Macs today. Presumably, this will drive down the eBay-arbitrated fair market value of second-hand Macs, especially the FMV of what had previously been higher-end machines but which would now be "good enough to develop on," machines. Hmmm...

more ...