The EADD Linux Technical Gibberings Thread

[knock]

I've been wanting to revive this thread for a while. I like a lot of things, but Free Software aka Open Source and GNU/Linux are particular favourites. What a joy to combine my love of those things with drugs, humour, culture and a bunch of great poople! (that's not a typo. Poople.)

 

[watsons torment]

knock codes in python as well, just gone up a lot in cool points from me...guerrilla is off to a bad start with the fortran though. do you still use punchcards?

 

[Transform]

I like linux. I don't even think I could tell you why, windows does seem a bit easier to use but... I don't even have a but. Wouldn't switch back though!

 

[Ceres]

Yep.

I didn't know about CTRL-H either.

I have a crusty nasty Windows XP install that really doesn't work very well (as windows installations enjoy the occasional reformat, and this one is way past its due date), and so am really loving my ubuntu installation (dual boot). Amazingly, most Windows programs seem to run more smoothly and stably under WINE than they did under Windows. I love it. Especially after spending a stim session configuring the crap out of it.

I hate Unity though. Unity can fuck off!!

I never bothered with WINE, I find dual boot useful on laptops but on my main desktop machine I use xp pro sp3 as the primary OS and run virtualbox installs of linux distros like arch, slack, scientificlinux etc inside it, with shared filesystems and bridged virtual network going on. So I can run useful windows stuff like eclipse, windbg, adobe cs, audio software, the odd game, while having a nice clean xfce linux desktop running at the same time on a second monitor for all my unixy needs, and another virtual machine just in console mode but minimised, running server stuff like mysql, apache, git, whatever. maximum productivity

 

[knock]

I have some punchcards kicking around, however I'm too young to use them, but I've worked with guys who know how to set up a punched card. I think the cards are no longer used and in their place we have JCL, which is ever so slightly less obscure.

And yeah, your banks and insurance companies still run on mainframes originally designed in the 50s and the punched card is still an option! But the machines are smaller now and pretty fucking quick, plus the job control mechanisms and logging in place on these beasts means if something goes wrong the underlying problem WILL be found even if it takes getting a few grey, balding men in a room who would always much rather be in the pub down the road that sells decent ales.

 

[guerrilla]

guerrilla is off to a bad start with the fortran though.

people that say this are unaware of the huge advances FORTRAN has made since the old F77 days. besides, there's still a lot of fortran code in HPC and in libraries such as BLAS and LAPACK. fortran's performance is great, too. most importantly, though, in scientific computing usage scenarios, it often feels very "natural" to code in fortran (i.e., algorithms are easy to implement).

 

[Ceres]

most importantly, though, in scientific computing usage scenarios, it often feels very "natural" to code in fortran (i.e., algorithms are easy to implement).

i think you're confusing fortran with python.

 

[Ceres]

Finally, no, BSD sucks, Mr Torment!

The main difference between BSD and Linux :

 

[knock]

I'm definitely not getting into defending fortran (although it IS better than COBOL!) but I think it's safe to say that these languages our grandparent's coded in have moved with the times a bit and are often the best tools for the job, depending on the job.

I still have a prolog book I intend to work through, and another on Common LISP. I feel it's good to have a broad range of understanding of the various programming paradigms that have come up over the years. The languages that "win" tend to win for business reasons, i.e. "we can get cheap programmers in India to code Java", rather than solid technical reasons.

 

[knock]

The main difference between BSD and Linux :

Haha! Is that Maddog Hall in the corner with the Linux hackers? He's a character.

 

[watsons torment]

people that say this are unaware of the huge advances FORTRAN has made since the old F77 days. besides, there's still a lot of fortran code in HPC and in libraries such as BLAS and LAPACK. fortran's performance is great, too. most importantly, though, in scientific computing usage scenarios, it often feels very "natural" to code in fortran (i.e., algorithms are easy to implement).

I was only playing about man :D i know it is still very useful.

what do you think of TurboPascal?

welcome to bluelight / EADD

 

[Ceres]

I'm definitely not getting into defending fortran (although it IS better than COBOL!) but I think it's safe to say that these languages our grandparent's coded in have moved with the times a bit and are often the best tools for the job, depending on the job.

I still have a prolog book I intend to work through, and another on Common LISP. I feel it's good to have a broad range of understanding of the various programming paradigms that have come up over the years. The languages that "win" tend to win for business reasons, i.e. "we can get cheap programmers in India to code Java", rather than solid technical reasons.

It's just a matter of choosing the most appropriate tool for the job, nothing stopping you using a screwdriver to hammer in a nail, might take a bit longer though. It can be quite an enjoyable challenge actually, doing wildly inappropriate things with programming languages. Good way to infuriate people who have to maintain your code 10 years later aswell.

 

[knock]

If you have the freedom in your workplace to do that kind of thing then that's great, but many organisations have mandated programming languages and design patterns and if the code you might have written an efficient, scalable piece of logic but if it doesn't adhere to standards X, Y and Z it is going to have a sad and lonely death in the backwaters of the organisations source code revision control system. Consider yourself lucky if you've found somewhere that puts the people and the systems they design to solve real world problems ahead of the bureacracy that pushes against the flow of progress.

 

[knock]

Installed the Cinnamon user interface last night. It's built for Linux Mint but you can install it in Ubuntu and other distros too.

It's damn, damn good! Good to look at, customisable, fast and it works. I'm very pleased with it. I like Gnome Shell but it doesn't agree with my laptop and I'm not a massive fan of Ubuntu's Unity launcher, so I was using XFCE which is good but it's a bit basic and I like a bit of glamour on my computer screen. Cinnamon has brought me that pizazz.

But there's this other thing called MATE that I need to try out. On the pronunciation front, it's actually named after yerba maté, thank fuck (that's a half-hearted thank fuck, I mean, I don't want to call anything to do with my computer "mate". Idiots.)

 

[jancrow]

How's Cinnamon resource-wise vs whatever the easiest version of GNOME to get on 12.xxxx is (for that will surely be the version I have installed) oh knockandoodle?

 

[Shambles]

Oooh! Thanks for that, Knock. Think I may well have a crack at switching my interface cos the standard one (Unity?) is a bit meh and seems to be prone to freezing up and generally taking ages to do owt if I ask it to do owt complicated... like open a folder 8)

Always did like Mint - much nicer interface than the current standard Ubuntu one - so if it runs faster then I'll probably go for a switcharoo. Was thinking about switching to XFCE but I never really liked it much. Small and fast but also kinda basic and dull as you mentioned. Thanks for the linkes

 

[knock]

How's Cinnamon resource-wise vs whatever the easiest version of GNOME to get on 12.xxxx is (for that will surely be the version I have installed) oh knockandoodle?

I set out to do a desktop recording with system monitor running in the background to give an idea of how things perform. But the desktop recording itself eats the CPU! So that was a stupid idea

It's pretty lightweight though, I mean the reason I chose it was because I was couldn't get GNOME 3 working at anything beyond a snail's pace (possibly a bug, as I'm running Ubuntu "proposed updates", or something to do with my shitty intel graphics chip in my laptop).

I ran system monitor and did a few things, started LibreOffice, switched windows about. Here's what system monitor said:

Oooh! Thanks for that, Knock. Think I may well have a crack at switching my interface cos the standard one (Unity?) is a bit meh and seems to be prone to freezing up and generally taking ages to do owt if I ask it to do owt complicated... like open a folder 8)

Always did like Mint - much nicer interface than the current standard Ubuntu one - so if it runs faster then I'll probably go for a switcharoo. Was thinking about switching to XFCE but I never really liked it much. Small and fast but also kinda basic and dull as you mentioned. Thanks for the linkes

I was thinking of you as I wrote the post! Go for it, it's ace.

 

[Shambles]

Done and done, Knock

Will report back on whether or not it speeds things up but - frankly - I've always liked the Mint interface so as long as it's not slower than the standard one I'll be a happy bunny

Like that site the instructions were on too. Noobs Lab - sounds perfectly suited to my needs :D

 

[jancrow]

Knock, you are as diligent as you are, er, just generally marvellous. Heap big thanks from the Wisbech and Outlying Areas Ubuntu UG.

 

[Josh]

I tried Mint with Cinnamon on my laptop for a bit but I seem to be back to Ubuntu again now, the support is just so much better than any other distro and you can generally find a solution to whatever problem you have. I'm finding the Unity launcher pretty good now I'm using it all the time. Plus I can use Compiz to get all the pointless but fun things like wobbly windows, trailfocus transparency, loads of cool task switchers etc. I even compiled Emerald for 12.10 and reinstated my sleek minimalist window decorator from years ago.