Ultra Project

[DataHunter]

On Sat, 25 Jul 1998, Matthew Tuck wrote:

> OK, this is the first message I've sent out to the members as such,
> since it's probably time for you all to meet each other.  I'll briefly
> outline a few topics that might be worthy to start talking about, and
> hopefully from there we'll work out what needs to be discussed and we'll
> probably progress onto more advanced stuff over time, and use the
> resources we've developed to help getting newcomers up to speed.
> 
> Topics?
> (a) Any quirks/(dis)likes/interesting features of programming
> languages.  Don't just accept that that's the way it is.

I despise contrived complexity. Programming languages should make simple
tasks simple, and more complicated tasks more complicated. That sounds
somewhat obvious, but I have observed that this isn't always the case. C
and string handling come to mind, as do Visual Basic and (insert just
about anything here).

> (b) Language wars (which is best) can tend to become heated, but I think
> they should be at least an issue on this list.  Which languages you know
> do you like and dislike, any why?

I have a love-hate relationship with C. It's powerful, and pretty simple
to learn, but its string handling leaves a lot to be desired. I haven't
played too much with C++, but I suspect that I'd have the same complaints
about it.

Visual Basic is hardly basic, and the requirement of all those DLLs is
ludicrous, if compared to, say, PowerBASIC or Delphi.

> (c) Any suggestions for improving programming languages that you might
> have.

No ideas on this, as yet. C, Perl, and PowerBASIC do just about anything
I've ever needed to work on.

> (d) A brief propaganda campaign on who you are.

I work at a database analysis company, doing inhouse tech support, network
administration, and some programming. I will be going to school in the
fall, majoring in Computer Engineering and Computer Science. 

My languages of choice are C and Perl. I also know some Basic and assembly
(x86), and I've recently gotten into Java.

> (e) Suggestions for advertising / getting members / getting a mailing
> list / helping the project / project direction / suggestions for topics.

I can help with the mailing list; see below. 

AFA the project, I'm not sure the world needs yet another programming
language, but that shouldn't stop us; hasn't stopped anyone else ;) .
What platform will be targeted initially ? What will the language
specialize in, or be geared toward ? Will it be interpreted ? Compiled ?
Will it, like Java and VB, be usable as a script in a web browser ?

> (f) Anything else.
> 
> I've aimed to make this project accessible to everybody, so we'll all be
> at different levels of knowledge.  So everyone must realise that, at
> least for now, all discussion goes on within the same medium, and no
> question is a stupid one.
> 
> At the moment we don't have a mailing list - getting one is high
> priority, but I'm not sure where yet (if I had money to burn it'd be
> another matter).

I think I may be able to help get a mailinglist. I can probably let you
know by Monday.

> 
> One thing I want to work on shortly is an optimisation catalogue.  For
> this, what I need is a system that can translate a bunch of text into a
> bunch of html files.  But it's not as simple as translation.
> 
> Firstly, I want each of the html files to be based on a template.  This
> is just simple a html file I generate in a html editor which has a
> <HERE> tag in the middle, indicating to place the text here.  This way I
> can change the look easily and regenerate the html files, only editing
> the text files.  The <HERE> tag is not a defined HTML tag (at least I
> don't think it is), but that's the point.
> 
> Secondly, I want hyperlinking to occur between these files.  Basically
> the name of the text file is the text I use, and if this is found I want
> to insert a hyperlink to this file.  The hyperlinks would only occur
> within the same directory.
> 
> There's no need to develop such as system if one already exists, or if
> you want to patch it up from some existing utilities or whatever.  The
> only requirements is that it is semi-automatic and works under Windows
> 95.  So, if anyone's interested in a small programming project (I
> already have one and am busy working as well) or knows an easy way to do
> this, then I'd appreciate the help.

I've done something like this in Perl (and there are Perl implementations
for Windows 95/98/NT). If you elaborate a bit more, I may be able to work
on it.

--
"The stupidity of your actions is directly proportional to the number of
people watching."
Otieno Ododa - System Analyst
datahntr@aimnet.com, oododa@altascan.com