Matt’s Blog of Truth

Microsoft released Windows Seven (7) on Oct 22, 2009.

Here are the things you need to know about it.

First, it does improve Vista. But, if it did not, how retarded would that be? An idiot could tell you what was wrong with Vista. Vista was a RAM and CPU pig. It was sluggish when it came to starting applications and even slower when copying files to and from. Not, to mention Vista had a terribly bad navigation problem, when trying to location options to configure your system.

Windows 7 does reduce the ‘fat’. It requires less memory and made minor improvements to the ’snappyness’ of the Operating System.

However, these comparisons are against Vista, the PIG. Any improvements, can be regarded as an improvement, no matter how small, because Vista was really that bad. (Sure after a year or two and SP2 Vista was stable and usable). But, if you compare Windows 7 to XP, Windows 7 is still a PIG. It still consumes triple the RAM, Disk and CPU power, not to mention Graphics memory.

So, comparing Windows 7 to Vista is not fair. The reason comparisons should be with Vista, Yes, but still compared with XP. XP is still used by 70+% of Windows users and corporations.

If you are planning on ‘upgrading’ XP to Windows 7… well you can’t! You have to do a full reinstall. Which means you have to back up ALL your pictures, music and files than reinstall them on Windows 7. Vista users can upgrade, but if your a Vista user already, you are probably a die hard MS fan willing to put up with anything Microsoft decides to be ‘quality’ releases for you to install and use.

But, for those still sticking to XP for so many reasons, there is STILL little incentive to go out and install Windows 7.

Concidering the economy is in the gutter, and millions do not have jobs. What makes Windows 7 so great? Especially, when you will need to buy a new computer to run it? Your still going to be running the same Firefox, Chrome or IE browser you where before. If you play games, most games will have to run in virtual mode, which comes with Windows 7.

A word about visualization to run XP in Windows 7. When you get Windows 7, you will be able to download a copy of XP, that you can run in a window while running Windows 7. Why do you have to run XP when you have the latest Microsoft WIndows 7 Operating System? Because, XP games and or major software will not run on Windows 7! And the XP mode will be as slow as a snail. Why? Well it is easy to imagine that if your computer has to run both Windows 7 AND XP and the XP software you are trying to run, will slow even dual/quad core CPU’s with 2+ gigs of RAM to a crawl.

Which concludes with what type of graphics card you will need. I hope you plan to pay for a new graphics card in the hundreds, because that is what Microsoft wants you to spend just to run their bare minimum software! Because, I promise you will need the extra horse power.

I find it amusing, as a programmer of computer code, are these arguments I read about how language A sucks when language B is far better. Assume I mean language A to be something like Java and B to mean something like C++ or strait ansi C.

I hear all the time about why C++ sucks, when compared to C. Or how Java sucks so bad because it is slow and doesn’y really teach you about a how to program.

I concider myself to be an athiest programmer. Meaning, I don’t worship one language over another. This is not entirely true. I think PHP is far better than Perl. Maybe, I’m just not left brained enough to want to put up with all of Perl’s, let’s try to be as tricky as we can with ONE line of code, instead of making it even close to human readable.

The comment I made above, is probably the most reasonable argument to make, if you want to start a rant about why languages suck compared to others. In that, PHP and Perl are trying to operate on mostly level ground. Both are interpreted languages and both abstract coding ideas away, to make life easier for the programmer. Such as, not having to worry about data typing and memory allocation.

To compare Perl to PHP, is not nessasarily a technical argument, more so than a timing one. If I started to learn Perl before PHP, because PHP did not exist, than I would have been raised on Perl. Instead, I was blessed, to not have to deal with Perl and use a cleaner language, PHP, which operates more or less on the same level.

But, when the argument comparing C to Java comes up. Or even C to C++, I see their point of views. But, I also see how they unintentionally corner themselves into a ‘Language Religion’, so to speak. Meaning, since I ONLY like to program in ASM or as close to the hardware as possible, hence rooting for C or ASM, and completely dogging more abstracted languages like C++ or Java.

There is no question that C is exactly what you need, if you want to program device drivers or make programs that are as efficient as humanly possible, in terms of memory and CPU cycles, while still being as portable as possible. ASM *Assembly is NOT portable therefore belongs in a category of it’s own.

But, what about when you want to program in C++? Just about every hardcore C programmer will tell you that C++ is a big fat pig. It’s usages of Classes and Templates as well as trying to make pointers ‘easier to use and understand’, completely fails.

The argument than becomes a heated debate, when you compare C to C++. Everything you can do in C++ you can do in C, and visa versa! C++ just abstracts things away, to the point, that when you compile and look at C++ code, and compare it to C code, the resulting Assembly code is much less bloated with duplicate instructions, or instructions that can be optimize, had the programmer use strait C instead. This is absolutely true when one wants to reverse engineer compiled code, or try to debug it. C ASM compiled from C is going to be cleaner than ASM compiled from C++.

However, if you want to program a video game, in some cases C++ is more manageable than C, because using the templates and Classes, built into C++ keeps you from having to reinvent those parts. You can make C do everything C++ can using structs with function points and generic function parameters using VOID *. However, why? When you can use these powerful abstractions in C++ and avoiding potential bugs as a result of having to manage every minute detail?

Granted, your resulting C++ will be a bit more bloated in terms of extra ASM instructions, but with Dual CPU Cores and Gigabytes of RAM to make up for this overhead, why bother?

At the same time, you can say C now has many good libraries now, that you CAN program a game in C using graphics libraries like GTK. However, for your own data structures, for instance, if you need to manage the data items that make up a space ship in a 2d/3d shooter game, you will be left with structs in C, while C++ having the advantage of Class creation with easy to add methods, constructors and destructors.

Maybe you want to invent the Class concept all over again using C or maybe you don’t, therefore have the option to take advantage of all that CPu, GPU and RAM and just accept the extra overhead that comes with C++.

While at the same time, strait C is absolutely perfect for such things are Kernel development and device drivers, because in those cases you do NOT want any extra overhead, to make your program run as fast and portable as possible.

Do not lock yourself into a corner, by discounting one language for another. Especially when it comes to the debate of C verse C++. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

The same can be said of Java in comparison to Python.

Where I personally draw the distinction between languages are languages that try to compete at the same abstraction level. Again, an ease no brainer for me is that PHP rocks compared to Perl. Both are at the same abstraction point, yet one lacks needless complexity, for complexities sake. In other words, how much of a nerd to I really want to be? And, what language was I raised on, at the time. Again for me, PHP was available, so Perl was out the door.

However, even at that point in the argument, it is unfair to discount one for the other, if only for the desire to be free to choice your level of nerdness. Want to be needlessly nerdy AND have the option to choose between PHP and/or Perl (simply because both exist and are highly developed), you have the choice.

Now why do I care to even bring up the argument of why people bring up computer language comparison debates? Because, if you see the language for what it is good at and not good at, will open the doors for being able to pick the right language for the job and amount of time and will and perhaps money that is involved.