5hoom

Fair enough, good answer :)

Yeah it kind of feels dirty having all these mutable variables around after doing any functional programming at all.

I've found using const a lot also goes hand-in-hand with raii. If a member of a class is const it must be initialized in the constructor, and it just seems to make me code a bit more "hygienically".

I'm always looking for a legitimate excuse to use a goto in my C++ code because I'm perverse. It's very rare to find one but this looks like it might be okay.

That's one thing I've noticed with my C++ code lately is that I'm writing const absolutely everywhere. Having mutability where you need it is awesome but it is interesting to see languages like Rust where immutability is the default.

It's an interesting time for native development with all these languages making some serious attempts to dethrone C++ when in comes to combining high/low level in one language.

I'm still using C++ myself until the dust settles a bit, but I've found that my C++(11) code is trending towards being less stateful and more functionl-ish.

It's cool to see things changing in this space after feeling like it would be old style C or C++ forever.

What problems have you found trying to write memory safe code?

It seems to me that you barely have to think about memory ownership anymore ever since unique_ptr and shared_ptr came along.

It's all very interesting if true. I've always wondered why some people just seem to get nauseous so quickly when interacting in 3d environments.

In my anecdotal experience I've found adjusting things like depth-of-field of the viewport and increasing framerate to have a significant impact on simulator sickenss type effects.

It would be interesting to find what kind of minimum threshold of realistic lighting might be needed to help overcome the problem.

Exploring the reasons as to why some people suffer more severely from simulator sickness than others is very interesting and relevant.

It would be great to see more research into this problem but I really don't see the need to push the sexism angle.

I've suffered pretty severe depression and anxiety for most of my adult life. While the idea that we should all just grow a thicker skin and 'just deal with it' is both understandable and practical given the nature of the internet - it just wont happen for me. I know myself well enough to have recognized that even a tiny drop of vitriol could have me questioning my every decision and shatter my self confidence for days or even weeks. So I simply write code and keep it to myself, and I'm sure there are plenty of others like me.

The idea of open sourcing our work is truly admirable however there are some of us out there who just can't stand the hate and Alpha-nerd jockeying, so we opt out. I don't think the world is missing out on much by my own lack of contribution but who knows how many truly brilliant yet fragile minds are self selecting out of the open source community because they just cannot cope?

Very well said.

Articles like this reduce games to some grey, by the numbers marketing exercise. The reason so many games on the app store sink like a rock is because they just plain aren't enjoyable experiences and treat their players very cynically. It's totally disappointing that micro transactions, sneaky psychological tricks and nagging the player at every stage is so actively encouraged in the mobile space.

Gameplay and designing experiences for the player is seen as some sort of afterthought.

Games can be such a wonderful immersive medium, but it's hard to get lost in another world while there's a bright bouncing icon asking for your credit card or facebook details every three seconds. Mobile games really could be so much better than this.

I for one would love to see more focus on building great things and less on monetization. Long live the indies and hats off to people like yourself who are out there pushing things forward.

I can't recall if it required a cheat or not (secret stuff didn't show up on the map by default), but you could absolutely see every entity in the level from the map screen.

This included enemies, projectiles, powerups, bullet sparks and assorted decorations. Many of them were shown as little arrows indicating which direction they were facing.

The games that do float to the top tend to be reasonably solid (or at the very least they do what they say on the tin) but even then a lot of them just aren't that great.

It just seems like a lot of mobile game developers have resigned themselves to shallow one trick games, riddled with poor value paid DLC and without even attempting to capture any of the charm or depth of their console (or PC) contemporaries.

It would be great for there to be that sense of buzz and excitement about the latest 'cool' games like there is on other platforms. I'd really like to be amazed every now and then.

Thanks for the kind wishes, and yeah it's something I feel pretty strongly about.

There are obvious problems going this way (how do you get people past the hurdle of paying for a game they haven't played?) but it just feels... better.

It also seems like a better way to build trust between the developer and the player. The way I see it is if you've taken the risk and bought my game, I love you! We're best friends now! So here's the best damn game I can give you for trusting me enough to pay for it.

And then hopefully they'll come back for the sequel.

Wonderfully put. As a developer working hard on an iOS game I feel exactly the same way.

Back in the day loading a video game was a very private, safe almost sacred experience. The world melts away and it's just you in the fantasy world the game presents to you.

For this reason I'm going with the boring old model of pay once, own the game. Everything I read says free + IAP is the way to go for maximum return, but I really feel something crucial is lost when you make the player contemplate their credit card bill while supposedly experiencing escapism.

While I agree that there is less and less reason to use XP these days, age alone is a pretty terrible way to judge the merits of an OS.

How old is Linux now?

Your story rings true for me. I dabbled in programming in my teens, but like you I was a hobbyist at best. When things got tough I would just give up. Programming seemed really hard and I just couldn't figure out how people who did it knew all the stuff they did (this was the mid 90's and there was no stackOverflow if things went wrong).

I didn't really start taking it seriously until I was in my mid twenties by which time the quality and quantity of free educational material, languages and tools for programmers had exploded. Learning how to program has never been easier. It's really a great time to be in this field, beginner or otherwise.

That's a cool idea, but how would you prove you came up with an invention independently if the patented device/software is already out there?

Maybe not. But any of the seven billion humans could do a startup.

People (still) want to discuss complex issues that effect their career and everyday life. Get over it.

I don't think the onus is on Apple to suggest how Samsung could design a good alternative tablet.

Oh come on.

I realise this is an unfortunate accident and people may ask hard or even unfair questions about how prepared the crew were, but blaming the people minding their own business in their home for "building a house in the firing line of a military shooting range" is just ridiculous.

What on earth are you talking about?

Parent was making some general observations about the nature of sexism in the tech industry and its causes. How did you get from that to this 'you're not a real techie' nonsense and jocks beating up nerds in school?

I'll tell you that I am a 'real techie' (but not a true Scotsman) and I am pretty much in agreement with what gordonguthrie said.

Safari with adblock and ghostery here, got 8 correct and 18 false positives.

I followed your link and could not find any studies cited in the article that back up the claims made (not saying there aren't any, just that I couldn't find any in the article). Most of it hinges on a self reported survey conducted once in Italy.

Basically, show some solid evidence. Otherwise it would seem that you are taking a moral position on this, not a scientific one.

NSW, Australia.

That's an argument for including Actionscript in the list. That way a beginner might know the following:

"This language has a niche in which it is great"

"This language has a niche outside of which I would not use it"

"I enjoy playing with this language but would never use it for "real code""

"I am sometimes embarrassed to admit to my peers that I know this language"

"The thought that I may still be using this language in twenty years time fills me with dread"

This is a really baffling thing to quote (and even more baffling that it has been voted up).

Alcoholism is a frigging nightmare for everyone involved, irrespective of culture, and here you are regurgitating some PR nonsense written by an alcohol industry pundit.

Go spend some time at the emergency room of any major hospital and see all the PAP's (Pissed And Punched), the MVA's involving alcohol, the people getting their stomachs pumped. They deal with this every weekend. Long term, look up Korsakoff's syndrome.

You don't get this mess with, say, coffee or tea.

As mentioned by another comment look at the Assassins Creed games to see how an interactive history lesson might look.

However it sounds like you are waiting for games that are "Reality++" before you can see a use for the medium as a teaching tool. That's just just crazy. We use books, images and video for that purpose despite their significant shortcomings.

Games are a product of the intentions of the developers. Edutainment is usually pretty low on the priority list therefore you don't see much of it.

Spent a few months making a (poorly conceived) "lifestyle" app, sold one copy to a user in Egypt.

Total profit -$98, Many lessons learned ;)

Cuteness aside, the out of the box experience with a mac is really good. Everything is polished and there are no nag screens when you first boot up. The first experience with a new Apple device seems carefully engineered to make the owner feel almost emotionally attached to it.

Contrast this to a lot of Windows laptops where your first boot requires running the gauntlet of nagware & cruft. The device itself might be just as capable (or more), but you've already either confused or annoyed the new user and reduced the likelihood of that immediate emotional attachment.

I know there are real business reasons why the cruft gets included, but I would argue that there are far more compelling reasons to leave it out.