Posts tagged projects
Getting C++ Threads Right
Jan 21st
Hans Boehm has given a very interesting lecture on “Getting C++ Threads Right” at Google last month. The lecture is available in video format from here
ABSTRACT
The advent of multicore processors has generated profound debate on the merits of writing parallel programs with threads and locks. Nonetheless, for many application domains, this remains the standard paradigm for writing parallel programs, and at the moment, there is no apparent universal replacement. And it is the focus of this talk.
Somewhat surprisingly, there are a number of often subtle, but generally fixable, industry-wide problems with current approaches to threads programming. We’ll focus on probably the most widely used environments, consisting of C or C++ with a standard threads library. Problems span the spectrum from system libraries through language implementations through supporting hardware. They get in the way both in that they often make it difficult to write 100% reliable multi-threaded software, and in that they confuse even the basics of the programming model, thus making it hard to teach. A surprising number of “experts” do not understand the basic rules. Arguably, these problems really need to be addressed to even allow a meaningful comparison to other parallel programming approaches.
Since solutions to these problems generally require a coordinated industry effort, we helped to persuade the C++ standards committee to address them by pursuing a coherent approach to threads in the next C++ standard. The talk will outline some of the proposed solutions, and give an update on this effort.
Speaker: Hans Boehm
Hans Boehm is a member of the advanced architecture group at HP Labs. He has worked on many aspects of programming language design and implementation, including garbage collection and concurrency, and he was HP’s representative to the effort to redesign Java’s memory model. He is a past Chair of ACM SIGPLAN, and is an ACM Distinguished Scientist.
The slides for the lecture are available from: http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/misc_slides/c++threads.pdf.
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HTML 5: I still love the Web
Nov 22nd
Who knows me better, knows that I love the Web. So, I was seeking for info about the next generation of web.
What I mean with “next generation”? I mean “what we can expect to see in the future”.
And the best place, is to go were people (with good skills) go and start to discuss and brainstorm about this stuff.
I found a very interesting pre-RFC: HTML 5 Working Draft.
All the amazing and cool stuff are coming are there and is pointless for me to report them (just one: Client-Side Persistency!!! COOOOL!). But it’s interesting to see WHO is working on this. I mean, who is ALREADY thinking about what we will have in the “next World Wide Web”.
…
Editor:
Ian Hickson, Google, ian@hixie.ch© Copyright 2004-2007 Apple Computer, Inc., Mozilla Foundation, and Opera Software ASA.
You are granted a license to use, reproduce and create derivative works of this document.
Ian Hickson. He is famous in “our” world but I never spent a minute taking a look to his CV. And his “poor” (for a person that does what he does) web site.
Tripping around his web page, he is doing his favourite work… in the best place possible to do this (Google).
Besides, another interesting thing to notice is the name of the companies working with him (or, better, that seems to own this VERY IMPORTANT document): Apple, Mozilla and Opera. Why Google is missing if the they pay the Employee?
Stroustrup: an overview about C++0x
Oct 22nd
A good programming language is far more than a simple collection of features. My ideal is to provide a set of facilities that smoothly work together to support design and programming styles of a generality beyond my imagination. Here, I briefly outline rules of thumb (guidelines, principles) that are being applied in the design of C++0x. Then, I present the state of the standards process (we are aiming for C++09) and give examples of a few of the proposals such as concepts, generalized initialization, being considered in the ISO C++ standards committee. Since there are far more proposals than could be presented in an hour, I’ll take questions.
Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup is the original designer and implementer of the C++ Programming Language.
It’s a video (available also for download in a plenty of different formats) recorded in the University of Waterloo (Canada) at the Computer Science Club.
A very interesting lecture from the father of C++. I don’t think you need other details, do you?
Btw, I have already wrote about the new C++0x: the post is in Italian, sorry.
HiEuro 0.2
Sep 9th
Here we are. 0.2.
0.2 of nothing but a “divertissment” which help me to learn better and better the Cocoa Framework, and discover all the magic stuff it does.
The release notes is:
- 0.2 (2007-09-09)
- Support for Italian, Spanish, French and German (Thanks to Manu).
- New “Preferences” panel to set the “Default Currency” to convert from/to and the “Default Currency Ammount” to set at the application startup (Thanks to the Alhandra’s suggestion).
- Remove a Bug in the “German Mark” definition (I wrote “Deutsche Mark” in the English version
)
One important aspect I learnt is how to bind Preferences to the User Defaults (the Cocoa default preferences system). Pratically, the one that generates, for every app, a file .plist in your ~/Library/Preferences directory. Unix-Style joined with Apple-Style.
Who is interested, I updated the HiEuro page with Binary and Source of the version 0.2. so, don’t be shy! 
HiEuro 0.1
Sep 3rd
First release, first problem.
After a lot of research about the standard ISO 4217 (the one that define the “3 letter name” for every currency in the world) and all the symbols of European currencies, I miss one: the Slovenian Tolar.
If someone is able to find it out and, ideally, to give me the relative Unicode it will be very appreciated.
Also, I’m looking for someone able to translate the name of the different currencies (13) in, at least, French, German and Spanish. Other languages are welcome too. Manu, this call is to you .
Let’s start experimenting new flavours
Sep 3rd
I started. What? My “project” of learn how to write (serious) apps for Mac OS X. Using Cocoa. Details on the “official” page: Experiments with Cocoa.
Cocoa Butter…
What’s the first “experiment”? HiEuro!
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