Comments for Airs - Ian Lance Taylor http://www.airs.com/blog Ian Lance Taylor Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:46:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 Comment on Tcl by pooryorick http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CommentsForAirs-IanLanceTaylor/~3/6hJ1VKM4f14/comment-page-1 pooryorick Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:46:05 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/?p=495#comment-18686 The fact that this article is about Tcl before it had namespaces implies that it is just as obsolete as those old versions of Tcl. Much has changed in the intervening decade. Quoting is often implicit in Tcl, meaning that it gets out of the way. Where it is explicit, I think that it can be objectively proven to be more regular and simple than *any* other language. There is no such thing as Tcl code that requires seven consecutive backslashes, but there are plenty of people who are, for some mystifying reason, laboring under such misconceptions. Tcl quoting can be very frustrating if one insists on applying the rules of some other language to it, but those who have caught the Zen of Tcl syntax rarely look back. The fact that this article is about Tcl before it had namespaces implies that it is just as obsolete as those old versions of Tcl. Much has changed in the intervening decade. Quoting is often implicit in Tcl, meaning that it gets out of the way. Where it is explicit, I think that it can be objectively proven to be more regular and simple than *any* other language. There is no such thing as Tcl code that requires seven consecutive backslashes, but there are plenty of people who are, for some mystifying reason, laboring under such misconceptions. Tcl quoting can be very frustrating if one insists on applying the rules of some other language to it, but those who have caught the Zen of Tcl syntax rarely look back.

]]> http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/495/comment-page-1#comment-18686 Comment on Signed Overflow by egnor http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CommentsForAirs-IanLanceTaylor/~3/JwymQMKK620/comment-page-1 egnor Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:52:10 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/120#comment-18685 At this point, several years later, would you say that -fno-strict-overflow is preferred to -fwrapv? The consensus on the Interwebs seems to prefer -fno-strict-overflow, because (1) it's reported to generate better code (most of this probably because of your one anecdote above), (2) it avoids bugs in older gcc -fwrapv implementations. (I know, you would probably prefer people write code that doesn't depend on overflow semantics at all, but that can be challenging in low level applications and legacy codebases.) At this point, several years later, would you say that -fno-strict-overflow is preferred to -fwrapv? The consensus on the Interwebs seems to prefer -fno-strict-overflow, because (1) it’s reported to generate better code (most of this probably because of your one anecdote above), (2) it avoids bugs in older gcc -fwrapv implementations.

(I know, you would probably prefer people write code that doesn’t depend on overflow semantics at all, but that can be challenging in low level applications and legacy codebases.)

]]> http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/120/comment-page-1#comment-18685 Comment on Tcl by Ian Lance Taylor http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CommentsForAirs-IanLanceTaylor/~3/gzVBN2LutJA/comment-page-1 Ian Lance Taylor Sat, 05 Jan 2013 04:27:59 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/?p=495#comment-18684 I stand by my criticisms, but I don't want to get in a back and forth about the language. I do want to note that I worked with Tcl for about 18 months. I think that I stuck with it long enough and I think I looked at it pretty deeply. If you look at comp.lang.tcl around 1997/98 you'll see various minor patches that I sent in for Tcl and Tk, though I don't know how many were adopted. I stand by my criticisms, but I don’t want to get in a back and forth about the language. I do want to note that I worked with Tcl for about 18 months. I think that I stuck with it long enough and I think I looked at it pretty deeply. If you look at comp.lang.tcl around 1997/98 you’ll see various minor patches that I sent in for Tcl and Tk, though I don’t know how many were adopted.

]]> http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/495/comment-page-1#comment-18684 Comment on Tcl by pooryorick http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CommentsForAirs-IanLanceTaylor/~3/v643LITWY8M/comment-page-1 pooryorick Sat, 20 Oct 2012 07:26:00 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/?p=495#comment-18681 This post mis-characterizes most of the aspects of Tcl that it attempts to describe. In particular, the comment about seven consecutive backslashes is a strong hint that Ian didn't grasp the elegance of Tcl quoting. This happens when people come to Tcl steeped in other language traditions, and attempt to apply those traditions to to Tcl, which is a different sort of creature. With all due respect to Ian, each of the criticisms in this article indicate that he just didn't stick with Tcl long enough, or perhaps look into it deeply enough to resolve his misunderstandings of the language. More info at http://www.ynform.org/w/Pub/ResponseToTclIanLanceTaylor20110331 This post mis-characterizes most of the aspects of Tcl that it attempts to describe. In particular, the comment about seven consecutive backslashes is a strong hint that Ian didn’t grasp the elegance of Tcl quoting. This happens when people come to Tcl steeped in other language traditions, and attempt to apply those traditions to to Tcl, which is a different sort of creature. With all due respect to Ian, each of the criticisms in this article indicate that he just didn’t stick with Tcl long enough, or perhaps look into it deeply enough to resolve his misunderstandings of the language. More info at http://www.ynform.org/w/Pub/ResponseToTclIanLanceTaylor20110331

]]> http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/495/comment-page-1#comment-18681 Comment on Linker relro by Static Linking for C++ Shared Objects « sunglint http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CommentsForAirs-IanLanceTaylor/~3/2YDvWwr0KCk/comment-page-1 Static Linking for C++ Shared Objects « sunglint Tue, 11 Sep 2012 04:43:54 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/189#comment-18680 [...] -r foo.o Ian Taylor has a nice description of relocations. Like this:LikeBe the first to like [...] [...] -r foo.o Ian Taylor has a nice description of relocations. Like this:LikeBe the first to like [...]

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