Ask Chromus

ayana · Post by **ayana** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 3:38 pm

I keep telling you, we should keep notes.

Twilkitri · Post by **Twilkitri** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 7:29 am

Is it worth learning MFC or should I just stick with Java?

Do you agree that bitwise flags are the greatest invention since sliced bread?

Post by **Pez-Man** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 10:50 am

If C++ is so superior to Java, then why is Java becoming more popular, and C++ more outdated?

Dither · Post by **Dither** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 3:32 pm

What is a quasar?

If a high ranking military officer gives a lower ranking officer the order to not die, and they then die for some reason.. Do they have grounds to court marshall the dead officer and take away the officer's pension from being awarded to their wife/children/who ever gets their money?

Chewi · Post by **Chewi** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 10:41 pm

How does duck hunt work?

chromus · Post by **chromus** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 5:33 am

From what I've heard, Microsoft will be changing the API (that's short for Application Programming Interface) for Windows with the next release, so sticking with Java seems to be a safe bet. Java doesn't seem like it will be changing the interface for a while.

I like bitwise flags, as they are fast and space-efficient ways of storing boolean lists. However, they require a great degree of skill to use effectively, and they take quite some effort to program correctly.

Of the two languages, neither is strictly superior to the other. Java offers a cross-platform application style, while C++ offers faster and smaller programs. Java is becoming more and more popular because Java is improving in terms of speed and size, while C++ is still the same language it was 10 years ago. While C++ will still be popular for applications that require speed, Java will become the staple language for general application development.

"Quasar - an enormously bright object at the edge of our Universe that emits massive amounts of energy. In an optical telescope, they appear point-like, similar to stars, from which they derive their name. Their high luminosity is created from matter falling into a supermassive black hole in the centers of distant galaxies. " (Source: Galaxy Evolution Explorer)

This situation would never happen as military personell are trained to only give orders that can reasonably be accomplished. By telling a subordinate to "not die", the officer is issuing an order that can't reasonably be accomplished, for example, on a battlefield, and so the subordiante has the right to disobey. This would not be grounds for courtmarshalling the subordiante.

Duck hunt works on a surprisingly simple principle. The light gun gets a few points of light from where it's aiming and calculates a color to send to the NES. The color of the ducks only appears on the ducks and nowhere else, so the NES knows if you aimed at the duck or not.

Phred · Post by **Phred** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 12:06 pm

its even simpler than that, chromus, the screen flashes when you shoot, but the ducks flash another colour (pretty sure is ducks=black screen=white) as such, it knows if it hit or not
Any idea on how the super scope worked?

chromus · Post by **chromus** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 12:16 am

After doing more research, I found out that all games that work with light guns work in one of two ways:

Blanking the screen and painting the target white. If the gun sees darkness, followed by white when the trigger is pulled, the console knows the target was hit. This happens so fast that we don't even notice the blank.

Painting the screen white and blanking the target. If the gun sees white, it measures the number of microseconds before it sees darkness, and if the time is low enough, the console knows the target was hit. This is a much slower system, as it takes time for the screen to paint the screen white, which is why it was used in the NES, which didn't have much processing power.

Source: How Stuff Works

Twilkitri · Post by **Twilkitri** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 8:12 am

But Java is so slow and crap compared to C++...
And then there's the JARs.
God I hate JARs.

I decided that I'm going to learn the SDK instead of MFC, in any case.

A question... Hmm...

Well, I can't think of any at the moment...

chromus · Post by **chromus** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:07 pm

Well, I don't know about Java being crap compared to C or C++, but I will admit that it's slow. That's the price you pay, though, for being able to run the Java program on any operating system with a runtime environment.

JAR files are just Java ARchive files, which can make running a program a lot easier, since they can be executed as a program on Windows.

Twilkitri · Post by **Twilkitri** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 8:46 am

Yes, I know what a JAR is...

Oh, they _can_ make running a program easier... but the problem is that the majority of the time, they don't. They're only associated with java if you install a JRE, and for those people who have the JDK, or have gotten a JRE through some other method, still have to spend ages trying to get anything working.

If I want to run anything (that I have the source for) Java, I load it up in JBuilder and run it from there. It's slow(er), but at least it works.

Why is Java bad?

Point A: No ability to plot pixels, of all things. You have to plat a line which doesn't go anywhere, or a circle of infintesmal radius, or something similar. And that takes time...

And that's all I can think of at the moment... I would've mentioned bit operators, but I recently found out the Java _does_ have them.

Here's a question:
How can Pez-Man say that Java is becoming more popular? I haven't suddenly seen any proliferation of JARs or CLASSs for download. As a matter of fact, apart from my own stuff I've only ever found one program in Java on the 'net. If anything was becoming more popular, I'd say that VB (shudder) or C# was...

ayana · Post by **ayana** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:37 pm

It said on Tech TV that it was becoming more popular. Ish. Well they did a big thing on it, but overall that's what it meant.

chromus · Post by **chromus** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:26 pm

I only explained what a JAR file was for those who didn't know.

It only took me one minute to find out how to associate JAR files with the JRE and run them as executables. If anyone needs to know how to do this, leave a question here and I'll write a guide to it.

I always reccommend people download the JRE from Java instead of anywhere else. They always have the most up-to-date runtime environment which includes any speed upgrades.

I'm sure that Java has the ability to plot pixels somehow, though I can see why it wouldn't be included. Neither Visual Basic or C have this ability, in my opinion. The only way I know it can be done is to manually update the color in one specific location, then redraw the whole thing. It's not normally something that programmers need.

Visual Basic has been popular for a while, and will stay popular for a while due to the ease of making programs with it. While you're right that natively compiled programs are virtually everywhere, what I think Pez means is that Java is being taught more and more in high schools and colleges, and that more and more useful Java programs are being written. In fact, on ClanBOB.net a few days ago, I found a useful D&D Treasure Generator written in Java, using the JAR executable format, no less.

ayana · Post by **ayana** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 10:56 pm

How many eggs make up a pound?

Phred · Post by **Phred** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 11:53 am

its "A H" not "An H", right?