Choosing an operating system 2011 - revisiting the question

[spot]

I've been surprised at how seldomly I actually need to print anything anymore.

I sent a letter this week. Revamping the printer was a response to a daughter wanting to hand in several dozen pages of essays. She ended up with several hundred pages of printed precedents on the grounds that she was taught to learn by highlighter.

[Wandrin]

I sent a letter this week. Revamping the printer was a response to a daughter wanting to hand in several dozen pages of essays. She ended up with several hundred pages of printed precedents on the grounds that she was taught to learn by highlighter.

At the rate with which schools/colleges are adopting the iPad, I expect that "highlighter" will soon be an app. It makes sense. A friend's daughter had a little over $500US in textbook expenses for a single semester and half of those were used. Since the resale value of textbooks usually approaches zero within 2 years, the savings would add up, not to mention the benefits of being able to do boolean searches within a book. Some of the note taking apps for tablets and laptops are beautiful, combining diagrams, hierarchal notes, audio, video, and web captures, all indexed. Hmmm. Maybe it's time for me to continue my never ending education...

[spot]

I'll put to you a technical niggle that has been bothering me all week. I have a file design which I must turn into a website. It knows of operator roles, calendars, it has accounts and transactions and (though I dislike balances) balances. The file design's pretty well understood and agreed. The timetable's flexible.

I don't want to just plough in with my weapon of choice (Javascript/php/MySQL) and bludgeon it into existence because it'll end up with disadvantages. Those involve re-inventing swathes of code in idiosyncratic fashion and stopping anyone else from modifying it with impunity. It's time I upped my game and used a development framework instead of living in the past. Anyway, I spent the day reading up Symfony2.

In some ways, yes. Pervasive levels at which authentication can be assumed, templated rendering, it's all seductive from that sense. The downside is that I can't believe anyone ever gets sufficiently familiar with the syntax to be able to code it rather than copy/paste and modify. There's no language to it, there's just arbitrary API calls. I want code that provides a recital of the function being fulfilled so that it can be read like a novel.

I don't want to say no to using it. I already said no to fluffing this site into existence with ten times the effort in Drupal. Programming shouldn't involve the demeaning use of a mouse, it's essentially a literary pursuit. It is decidedly not a mammoth setting of screen options.

So, the question. Am I going to end up looking at Symfony2-style code as equally readable, once I've learned it by doing it? Is my reluctance simply one of insufficient exposure? I'm not sure it is. I'm equally not sure that disliking the final expression is a good enough reason to stay clear of it though. I'm going to have to code some minor test screens and hope my perception alters I suppose.

Anyway - is it something on which you have an opinion?

[Wandrin]

I do very little programming for the web, although some of what I have been hearing about HTML 5 app stores for Firefox apps sounds interesting. I played a little with Ruby on Rails and thought it had some promise, but I'm the wrong one to ask.

[spot]

Reading - the way one does - I found the Microsoft/Linux debate summed up in an perfect essay on using the Internet.

AOL si teh best ISP too use but DONT USE AOL BECUASE ITS FOR FAGOTS!!! JERRY uses AOL and his parants wont even let him watch HBO! So dont watch HBO or else it turns off yuor Lunix and then goodbye Linus Torvolvos! I use Platinum AOL which si liek AOL but si a exclusive club liek the NWA or BALACK PANTHERS. besides Mircosoft si bettar its intarnet ready and if yuo use lunix and want to cruise on the instrumation Suparhighway then yuo have too do all kinds of stuped sLunix crap liek:

1. INSTALL RED HATe LOOOOOOOOOONIX
2. RUN COMMAND E PROMPY CONMFIG SET -R -Q -SKF /DEV AAD -3827
3. CONNECT TO A PINGY BOX
4. SETUP A FIREWHALE
5. RUN FREEWARE CLIANT SUBJECT OF DISK IN "VOM LIBRARY CUSTOM" -x -d -er -f -ggr /hd -eu /ldk /wiw -99ie
6. delete evarything and install micorsoft Windows ME because good luck tryeing too do anything in Lunix because Lunix was built for peopal who weigh ovar 500 pounds and collact Star Warps toys and draw Lunix penguins all day

[Bruv]

And Bill Gates is a MONONOPOLISH

This kid could be a dyslexic genius you know

[Bryn Mawr]

He might also be right :-(

I've just spent the past four hours trying to install RedHat ES 5.7 so that I can install a trial version of some software I'm evaluating.

Two hours in I had RedHat running on my laptop - I have just, just, managed to download the package and I have yet to install it.

Why do they make everything so painful?

OK, whinge over - back to the grindstone :-(