Simplicity

My previous rant was in response the frustration that built up while I was reading various standards documents and also using some ACE code [1]. In the interests of simplicity, however I should have just quoted Stephen Dewhurst from his book C++ Common Knowledge:

It's surprising how much of advanced object-oriented programming is basic common sense surrounded by impenetrable syntax.

Dale

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[1] Pop quiz: An ACE_Map_Manager does not "manage" maps, it is a map. A map is a useful container for data. There are a couple of ways to describe the function it provides:

As a map: Given a key, map that into a corresponding value.
As a dictionary: Given a word, provide a definition.
As an associative array: Given an index of arbitrary type, return the associated value.

These points of view are equivalent (although the dictionary view implies that keys and values are text which is too restrictive). They describe useful ways to think about ACE_Map as a tool for solving a real programming problems. In each case there are two interesting values: The key (or word, or index), and the associated value (or definition).

In ACE, these are called int_id and ext_id (not necessarily in that order).

Question: Which one is the key and which one is the value?

Hint: int stands for internal (not the C++ data type int); and ext stands for external.

So int_id must be the data that is stored inside the map and ext_id is name the external world uses to get to that data.

No, now that I think of it int_id is the name used internally to identify the data and ext_id is the data that is of interest to the external world.

Hmmmm..

Answer: I have no idea. I have to look it up (in the code because the documentation doesn't help!) every time I use an ACE_Map or else find some existing code that uses it and copy/paste it into the code I am writing.

Extra Credit Question: ACE has been around well over ten years now and is used in thousands of applications. How many programmer-years have been wasted trying to remember which "id" is which?

'Tis a gift to be simple

This used to be a long rambling blog entry in which I complained about the tendency of technical folks, to oversimplify complex problems, then add the complexity back in by using obscure terminology accessible only to the in-crowd.

The next entry, which in the topsy-turvy world of blogs is up ^^^ there, and which you've probably already read, quoted Stephen Dewherst who said it much more clearly and concisely.

So I rewrote this entry.

Hey if I can't change history in my own blog, where can I change it?

Getting better all the time

As always this works better if you read the blog in reverse order -- going back to "An out-of-box experience." I've been recording the impressions of a brand new iMac user.

Several people recommended Quicksilver for my new Mac. I finally got it installed and running yesterday, and you know what? I don't miss the start menu any more! Quicksilver is truly the missing link in MacOS.

And, since the Logitech keyboard has a real, live delete key, I'm running out of things to complain about.

Let the record show that Spaces combined with Windows Remote Desktop Client (RDC) running in full screen mode makes working remotely on a windows machine a pleasure. Take some time to configure RDC, though, it's defaults are silly, and because I grabbed the beta version it's documentation is all stubs. Unfortunately most of the Fn keys are interpreted locally rather than being sent to the windows machine. Maybe I'll have to get the non-beta version just to read the doc. There--I found something to complain about anyway -- even if it was Microsoft software.

MacOS is exactly like Windows except everything is different.

A couple of days of silence is good news.

The iMac up and running. I'm finding my way around. Just about everything I have tried so far is a lot harder on Mac then it would be on Windows, but of course that's because I'm try to do Windows stuff.

Dear Mac folks, keep that in mind when you say Windows is harder to use than Mac. If you try to do Mac stuff on Windows, well D'oh!

I haven't run into any more BSOF level issues, just a continuous, low-level state of frustration. Typical issues include:

Right click doesn't work to bring up menus. Of course, once I figured out that you had to actually turn the right click on in system preferences, it works. But for heavens sake, why have such a stupid default. Two buttons on the mouse that do exactly the same thing is silly -- unless of course you are a true believer that one button should be enough for anyone (and 640K RAM is good enough for anything you'd ever want to do on a personal computer, right?) [Note: a two hand/two finger click is *NOT* and acceptable substitute for a right click]

Speaking of two hands and two fingers, where's the @#$%^&* delete key! Please don't tell me I don't need it. I know I don't need it -- I want it 'cause it makes life MUCH easier.

I can't get back to my home page in Safari. I went through ALL the menus, looking for a "go to home" option. You can't do it through menus. You can't do it through a toobar button[*]. I can't find a keyboard shortcut to do it. For a while I simply used "open a new Safari window" but that's an unpleasant mini-hack. [*]Finally someone told me I needed to customize my toolbar to put the "go to home page" button on it. For heaven's sake, why have such a stupid default. Going "home" is such a common thing to want to do, why should I have to turn it on -- and why didn't Safari's help tell me how to do it!

I miss the Start menu. For all the flack it's taken over the years, the Start menu works really well. It caches recently used applications so it adapts to your normal usage patterns, yet for unusual situations the "All Programs" option lets you enter a nicely hierarchical organized list of the applications on this system.

Sure I could double click on the hard drive, then double click on applications to get to the equivalent of "All Programs", but Start menu is a lot more convenient -- it tends to "do-the-right-thing[TM]" automatically, and when it doesn't it listens politely when you explain things to it.

PS: I've started rolling my own start menu by putting a shortcut to the Application folder on the dock. For some reason it wouldn't let me put it where I wanted it -- with the other frequently used applications. Instead it insisted that it had to be over on the right side of the dock. I'm sure there's a lame excuse (er. I mean a perfectly valid and logical reason) for this restriction, but the motivation escapes me.

And there's more. You get the idea. Once I have adapted to the differences, I'm sure that MacOS will blend into the background and I can concentrate on doing the stuff that interests me rather than playing with the (admittedly pretty) operating system controls, just like I do on Windows where CTRL-ALT-= pops open the calculator; CTRL-ALT-T gets me notepad; CTRL-ALT-D opens a new DOS window, etc. [And don't tell me about the dashboard -- I know about it -- it's just like Windows except completely different (grin)]

Speaking of missing keys, and strange keyboards. The Logitech wireless keyboard & mouse came last night. O Frabjous Day, Calloo, Callay, I can type again! [Anyone wanna buy a Apple Wireless keyboard -- barely used.]

And to end on a positive note. I was able to read recordings I made with my digital recorder in and edit them with an open source audio editor then play them back on my "home theater" speakers with no grief. That's what I'm talking about when I mean the OS should disappear into the background and let me focus on the work I want to do.

How I spent the last 12 hours

Read the previous two blog entries first.

Let's see --

• Retrying the install didn't fix the problem.
  
• Booting in single user mode and hiding my preferences didn't fix the problem (got that idea from the this article in the apple knowledge base)
  
• Booting in single user mode and running dscl as described in this article didn't work at all -- the "launchctl" command failed -- never mind actually running dscl.
  
• Various other attempts happened.  I was starting to get seriously worried, or at least to think I'd have to bundle the thing back into the box and tote it over to the nearest Apple store for help.

<humor> One of the joys of Windows is how *many* times you get to install it on the same machine.   Yet another feature Apple has copied from Microsoft</humor>

Finally I found this thread on the Leopard install discussion page that suggested using the "Archive and Install"  w/o saving user settings during the upgrade.  That worked (although I got to play twenty questions again)   

It's up!

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And to respond to some of the comments to previous posts.

When I went into this my good friends who use Macs all told me -- you'll be up and running within minutes of opening the box.  It's not like Windows.  This is Macintosh!

I'm not really criticising them (or Apple).  I'm just reporting what really happened and how it make me as a new Mac owner feel about the experience.  That means I don't have to be "fair"  If it pisses me off, it pisses me off even if there is a perfectly good excuse (er, I mean reason) for the problem.

In response to the comment "most mac users are waiting for the ".1" release." How Microsoftian of them!   But seriously, if an experienced computer user who is trying hard to play it straight [except for the phone number thing] using a brand new, all-Apple, out-of-the-box machine encounters this troubles, how is good ol' Aunt Tilly gonna feel?  If I had a lot invested in existing work on the machine, I might wait for .1, too.  I'm still waiting on Vista --- although since I need to buy a copy of Windows to run on this machine under VMWare, I'll probably end up running Vista on THIS machine.  Strange, but true.

Oh yeah, one of the "brags" of the Mac crowd is they don't stuff your machine with cripple-ware.  Um--guys--there's a hobbled copy of Office on this machine!  Admittedly its not as cluttered as a new Dell would be but...

Anyway, I have a new wireless-Mac keyboard on order from Logitech.  It comes with a wireless mouse, too, which is good cause the mighty mouse, although functional, doesn't feel especially good when I use it.

In retrospect I should have taken the stock system from the Apple store, ordered a 2gig memory module and installed it myself (to get to 3G rather than the 2x1G I have now) and shopped for a wireless keyboard/mouse.   

Now, let's have some fun!

Dale

Look, it's a Tiger; no, it's a Leopard; no, it's a paperweight, NO.....

Blog entry #2 about my brand new iMac. See the previous entry for background:

Aha, I found where they told me they hadn't installed Leopard on my new iMac. All I had to do is find the Leopard CD -- break the shrink-wrap license announcement thereby revealing the news obscured by the seal that even though Leopard had shipped, they hadn't installed in my new machine so I get to do the upgrade myself.

Gee Apple, you know how to show a geek a good time. Now Aunt Tilly who bought the iMac cause she heard it was a good system for a novice, is not going to be quite so thrilled. (-0 for Apple 'cause I already dinged 'em for this)

Reminds me of an old joke about a college professor who walked into the classroom and wrote on the board, "CS 150 will be meeting here rather than in Foster Hall room 35."

Anyway, I followed instructions.

The first thing I found out was that the Leopard update couldn't find my wireless mouse and keyboard. I had to boot back into Tiger, start the boot process, then quick turn off the mouse and keyboard so I could turn them back on when prompted to.

---oookay----

[Here passeth two hours.]

Finally the upgrade completes and automatically reboots my system. Wow, look there's the Leopard star-field background. I'm almost getting excited. Oops. Can't find the mouse. Turn off the mouse; turn off the keyboard; turn off the computer; turn on the computer; turn on the mouse when prompted; turn on the keyboard when prompted. Aha. It's up and asking me for my password.

So I entered the password. The screen goes pale blue. It's not nearly as attractive as the BSOD, but it will do. Then the Leopard background reappears and look there's a password prompt. Er...

I repeated the cycle many times just to be sure that I was really trapped in a loop. I was even able to verify that I was entering the password correctly because when I intentionally got it wrong, the dialog box did this cute little shake (I could almost hear it saying tsk, tsk..) and didn't cycle through the BSOF (that's "Frustration" rather than "Death") -10 for Apple.

Of course I tried variations on the theme, but it always ended back at the BSOF cycle. A visit to apple's web site(via my windows machine) yielded a couple of ideas [Look the "insert link" worked in Firefox on Windows -- take *that* safari]

When last seen, I held the 'C' down while restarting. This booted from the CD which started the upgrade process all over. I waited until it estimated 2 hours and 15 minutes, then headed for work where I'm entering this blog entry from a Windows machine using Firefox.

If that doesn't work the next step is to boot into single user mode and try to fix things from the command prompt.

Is Aunt Tilly having fun, yet?

An out-of-box experience

My iMac arrived today. The box says it's a 24 inch, widescreen computer. When did we start selling computers by the inch?

In fact, I'm typing this blog entry in using it. When I told my macophile friends at work that I'd finally succumed to the lure-of-Apple, one of them asked me to report my experieces as a long time user of many other systems.

It seems like a worthy blog topic.

To capture the essence of my very first exposure to Mac: Mixed bordering on unpleasant.

[Sorry macomaniacs, but it's true.]

Issues (so far).

The first shock was the keyboard. This is one's my own fault.

When I was shopping I looked at the iMac at the Apple store where, of course they had wired keyboards. I am rather opinionated about my keyboards -- I use my own Das Keyboard (I would make this a hot-link to http://www.daskeyboard.com/ but blogger doesn't recognize control-shift-a when I type it on the Apple keyboard -- strke n+1
) (Thanks to Peter and Avani for gifting me the Das Keyboard.)

Where was I. O yeah. I tried the new mac keyboard in the store -- it wasn't great, but it was acceptable. However, I didn't want to be tethered -- I wanted a wireless keyboard and mouse,

When I told the guy at the Apple store that I wanted the wireless keyboard and mouse, he said that made it a custom system so they couldn't sell it at the store. I'd have to order it thru the web site (which I did.) -1 Apple for an annoy-your-customers-when-they're-ready-to-buy policy

Silly me, I assumed the wireless keyboard would be just the Mac keyboard with the cord chopped off. Wrong. Not only did they chop the cord off, they also chopped of half the keyboard -- in particular the number pad and navigation keys disappeard leaing only a whimpy set of arrow keys tucked down in the corner. To be fair, if I use this keyboard for a while I may like having the arrows nestled under my right pinkie, but I'll still miss the num pad, home, pgUp, and friends.

-1 Apple for producing a brain-dead keyboard. -1 to me for not shopping better.

A word here about the enclosed documentation. I think Apple got this one right. There was enough information written in clear English with illustrations. Other languages were available, too. No making up your own iconographic language to achieve equal-opportunity miscommunication. +1 for Apple

So I turned it on. It figured out that there was no mouse attached and showed me a picture of the wireless mouse with a clear animation showing the mouse's power switch being turned on. I obeyed, and it synched-up nicely with the bluetooth mighty mouse. +1 for Apple

Likewise it automatically detected the keybaord. Another +1.

It found my wireless network and painlessly established the connection. A definate +3. In fact I'm on line now (obviously!) without answering any questions about the wireless network except which of the networks it found I wanted to use.

It asked for my Apple ID & password for the account I had to set up to place the order at the Apple store. It used that to retrieve my name, address, etc (a nice touch), and went so far as to propose a user ID for me on this machine based on my name -- letting me override it, of course, if I wished to. Ok that gets yet another +1.

Then it started playing 20 questions. In particular it want to know my phone number -- which I hadn't supplied to the Apple store and didn't want to supply now! I'm not that kind of guy -- I don't give out my phone number to just anyone! (I HATE HATE HAtE phone spam -- and no, I don't trust Apple.) It insisted! It would not let me use the computer unless I told it my phone number. You had to enter a phone number that conformed to US phone number conventions to proceed (ok--they already knew I lived in the US. I assume the validation was locale specific.)

Gee, I sure hope they don't try to call me at 911-555-5555 You meet interesting people that way.

-5 for Apple, +3 for me.

And then it wanted to take my picture. It didn't explain why, but it wouldn't proceed until I let it. Now I'm feeling testy. -5 Apple; -2 for me (I'm not looking my best in the middle of the night when I did this!)

Next it produce a list of software for which upgrades were available. After asking nicely for my permission it download the upgrades, installed them and asked me to let it reboot. +2 for this seamless process.

Finally, we made it thru that and I ran into the biggest shock. I waited for Leopard to come out before I bought the iMac, but after surviving the install process I discovered I was now running on Tiger. Grrrrrrr -10 for Apple

There's a Leopard CD in the box (no Tiget CD), but I thought by going directly to Apple to buy the machine I would bypass the need to upgrade immediately. -3 for Apple. Other than including the CD, there's nothing that lets me know that I should upgrade. If I was a typical novice computer user I might well run Tiger for a long time before discovering that THEY PUT ThE WRONG OS ON THE MACHINE. -3 for Apple.

So that's the story so far. I'm still on Tiger, but Safari is working (oops -- I just tried to spell check this document using the blogger built-in spell checker and ended up with a massive javascript error message. -1 for Apple The cool thing is the javascript error message contains a list of my misspelled words. +1 for me ;-)

(and where's the @#$%^&*( delete key!)

Dale