I've been getting a few questions lately about programming language choices. Some of them come from the new team. Others come from blogs by Bruce Eckel and others. It's another religious issue for some. This one is better than that one because of stricter typing, better speed, easier to learn, and on and on. My typical response is I use the language best suited to the job. C++ is good because there are many versions for every operating system in existence. Java can almost say the same thing, as can Perl and Python. C# is limited to Windows. I do them all for various things. Perl is the original Common Gateway Interface language. On my ISP, it and Python are the only choices. Java and C# are fun to play in, but they are often referred as platforms instead of languages. What this means to me is that I will spend a lot of time trying to find the class I want to open a file. There are ten to fifteen to choose from. So I fall back on C++ quite a bit.
This brings the inevitable response from one or more people, "But you have to manage memory yourself!" I've hashed that argument in another blog, so I won't do it again here. Some interesting additions were from a co-worker, who stated that automatic memory management was a bad crutch to lean on. The team lead told me he had a lot of trouble following some of my code in various projects, especially the pointer stuff. This attitude bothers me. Because some do not understand the technology, it should not be used. He's not the only one. I've been lectured a few times about writing code few others understood. No one wants to learn, therefore everyone does the same stuff over and over. That's why programs I did ten years ago are still used as a model for new applications. Everyone understands how it works. Never mind that it may have flaws, or there might be a better way.
An email was sent out by the new boss, saying that we need to remove all unauthorized software or, "jobs will be lost". The threatening tone of the message made me angry, although I think it was supposed to instill fear. My dad tells me the story every once in a while about how a directive came down from a new VP that each branch manager was to fire on employee at random. That would put fear into the others, making them work harder. My dad told him that would cause his best people to leave, and he would not do it. The other branch went along, and closed within a year. We are not to do anything unauthorized, either. If we see new tools that might help us work more efficiently, then we file a request to be reviewed by five committees. I figure that will take six months or more. This seems to fly in the face of what the CEO message to find better and faster ways of doing things, and not get caught in the trap of "that's the way we've always done it". The CEO is not happy that new products take years to develop, but it seems that if there is a faster way, we can't use it.
Daylight savings time has started, and with it one of the more difficult times of the year. The sun is setting later and later, and the kids want to stay out to play longer. But they still need to get up for school, which leaves them exhausted by Thursday. They don't finish until June. It's going to be a long couple of months.
April got a new position of chemistry lab supervisor. It's a daytime shift. with a nice pay raise. We had planned for her to move to a daytime position after all the kids were in school, but this is available now, so she jumped on it. Thomas will be going to preschool in the fall, so it doesn't mess things up too much. She hasn't yet started working days because she is covering for other people who have changed jobs. By May we should be on the daytime schedule. This week was all graveyard shifts, so she is very tired. I will be going to four ten hour days to limit the amount of daycare we have to pay for.
The last part of March and the first part of April were very warm, in the 70's. This apparently caused some of the snow pack to evaporate, so they are worried about the water situation again. The USGS says if the cycle continues, Lake Powell will be completely gone by 2007.
Easter is here, and the kids are happy with all of the candy and toys. We also planted some seeds in indoor pots. There are carrots, cucumbers, watermelons, basil, peppers, and lots more. We did this a couple of years ago, and it went really well, although the pumpkins were a little small for carving. I'm looking forward to some fresh homegrown vegetables. My dad had a large garden every year (including corn), and I miss that. The garden area is ready to plant, but it needs to be warmer. I'd still like to get some pre-grown tomatoes.
Happy Easter!
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