Nerd/Boffin Technical corner. Page 61

Quote: Raymond Terrific @ August 25 2012, 5:54 PM BST

Actually Windows file names ARE case sensitive, if there are two files with the same name but different case. Frankly that is far more likely to cause confusion and bugs, especially for people not used to paying attention to case because they use Windows. It's one of those things where an attempt to make something simple actually makes it much more complicated.

View original

As far as I am aware, that can only happen if a programmer is careless in programming a file save operation, probably because they came from a Unix environment. i.e failing to check whether or not a file exists before saving a new one.

The file naming system that we use today with folder names and sub-folder names separated by / with a final filename, was invented on the Atlas/Titan system in Cambridge UK in the early 1960's and as far as I am aware the file names were case insensitive. ( ! ). At least one of the authors of Unix had been at Cambridge UK and copied the concept into Unix, so they should have made it case insensitive, but PDP8 computers were tiny. I think they had 4096 words of 12 bits.

Windows did a lot of things wrong in implementing aspects of Unix, but case insensitivity was not part of that. Windows was always case insensitive due to its CP/M & DOS origins.

( ! ) I can't confirm this it seems without spending money, because it all happened long before the free things of the Internet.

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1465508&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=108078302&CFTOKEN=84264704

Yeah I just tried making two files with the same name but different case in W7 and it didn't work, much be a situation that's less likely to come about.

Thanks for the info regarding the history of the Unix filepath. I still think that case insensitivity is one of those little bits of magic that can make a programmers life harder rather than easier. For example, you always have to remember to do case insensitive string comparisons. It's easier for the majority of people though. But I wouldn't have cited bugs as an argument, as I've seen more bugs caused by that sort of data mangling and inconsistency. And no one should be making two variables with the same name but different case!

Quote: Raymond Terrific @ August 25 2012, 7:13 PM BST

Yeah I just tried making two files with the same name but different case in W7 and it didn't work, much be a situation that's less likely to come about.

Thanks for the info regarding the history of the Unix filepath. I still think that case insensitivity is one of those little bits of magic that can make a programmers life harder rather than easier. For example, you always have to remember to do case insensitive string comparisons. It's easier for the majority of people though. But I wouldn't have cited bugs as an argument, as I've seen more bugs caused by that sort of data mangling and inconsistency. And no one should be making two variables with the same name but different case!

View original

>And no one should be making two variables with the same name but different case!

Most of the bugs are when the programmer has accidentally created TWO or more variables, that s/he thought was just one variable, and all but one are not initialized and may start with random values.

I seem to recall that there used to be a way of making two Windows files with the same name except for case, but they probably fixed it by now in Vista or Win 7. You started with files that had the same front bit except for case, but had different type tags, eg one was a .jpg and one was a .bmp.

Then use a batch command with a wild name to rename the file tags

e.g something like REN *.* *.COM

It was an extreme nuisance because subsequent renames or deletes would fail so you could not easily get rid of the two conflicting files.

But variables are, in most languages, declared once. Trying to use a variable with the same name but different case would result in the compiler telling you about it. So you wouldn't accidentally have two variables when you thought you had one, unless you're using Perl in non-strict mode, or VB or something else that created variables upon reference. Unless I've misunderstood you. I've seen more bugs as a result of some bit of code doing a transform or allowing some inaccuracy.

True and it was hard experience that caused the compiler writers & language designers to build in such warnings. They were not there in early versions of the compilers.

Quote: Nil Putters @ August 25 2012, 5:58 PM BST

View original

Very funny putters (or PUTTERS).

So I'm thinking of buying a mobile device. Something like a Google Nexu s pad. Basically something that'll let me do a bit of writing on the move and a little lighter/sturdier than my webbook.

But I don't want to pay £500 for a bloated mobile (eg ipad)

And 3g seems to really boost the price.

So 2 questions.
1 Is BT open phone with wifi only pad good enough to use on the move/

2 Is the blackberry playbook as shite as everyone hints it is, or is that just tech snobbery?

I got a Google Nexus for my mum. It's excellent and I would recommend it. For £159 I paid, it's a brilliant tablet and it's a perfect size for 'on the move', though I thought it would be way too small.

There is no 3G version, so I bought a Mobile hotspot thingy too for £15 a month. They work fine together with no problems.

Dan

I already posted on the other thread, but I have a Samsung Galaxy 1 that doubles as a phone. I pay around £5 to Three per month and can surf when there's no open Wi-Fi. There's a good Sat Nav app on it and GPS is very sharp. I don't use it as a phone as you have to keep putting headphones in...it doesn't have a normal phone to ear capability...just speakerphone. I can also tether it to other gadgets. I was going to get a Galaxy Tab2, but went for an Asus Nexus instead. My tab is already enough for me.

Quote: swerytd @ September 3 2012, 10:23 AM BST

I got a Google Nexus for my mum. It's excellent and I would recommend it. For £159 I paid, it's a brilliant tablet and it's a perfect size for 'on the move', though I thought it would be way too small.

There is no 3G version, so I bought a Mobile hotspot thingy too for £15 a month. They work fine together with no problems.

Dan

View original

I'm looking for something similar to Sooty but probably a bit bigger. Currently I use a netbook and dongle, which costs a tenner a month.

I think I'd be tempted to wait a couple of months before buying any tablet device. I know there's never a good time to buy hardware, but with Windows 8 looming into view there's going to be a lot of new hardware hitting the market. It might be after that a nexus is the best option but Windows Surface looks very nice and comes with a version of Office on it for free.

I'm going for an ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity (A700 model) as my next laptop as I've got pissed off with Windows taking so long to load up. It's a tablet with a keyboard. The keyboard clips in and out so you've got a tablet when you need it and a laptop when you need it.

There are a number of Transformer Pad models with varying capacities but all take SD-cards, microSD cards and USB sticks (the latter two through the keyboard ports). The A300 is more competitively-priced (I think £399-499 depending on specs) and there are some older models that might be reduced now the Infinity is out (top of the range model). I think most have 3G versions if you need them (exception being Infinity which is wireless-only).

They all come with Polaris Office for generating Word documents (though you can use Google Docs to do that).

That might be useful/worth looking into for anyone who doesn't want a 'pure' tablet.

The S-Pen is apparently vastly improved on the new Samsung Galaxy Note II (the 5.5-inch phone/tablet hybrid, which will most likely be my next phone) and Note 10.1 (full-size tablet). Both allow you to write on the screen with the pen, though I have read reports it's almost as good as a rollerball on paper. This might be useful if you want an old-style note-taking way of writing to be available to you.

Note 2 is a phone, so has 3G (and 4g/LTE capability for when that's ready). Not sure about the 10.1 tablet version with 3G though.

Dan

Wow all this helpful data.

Annoyingly my torch is untetherable.

Thing is I've got a pretty good web book. So literally this is just a one handed device when on the tube or bus. So I don't wanna spend too much.

I think you should spend the money. Don't buy a cheap make...you'll be very unhappy. Boyfriend did that and it just didn't stand up to the quality of a named make. Okay for kids I think...and people who don't need to do much on it, but you really need to just bite the bullet and get a good one. My Samsung has never let me down. I might have to reboot it very occasionally, but that was more before Gingerbread. I tether other things to it no problem. I'm hoping the Asus Nexus will do me proud too. It's a Google product...you can't lose.

My son got this for £12.00 http://www.egukdeals.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=ipad&product_id=113