Synaptic Misfirings: Blog

"Real World Functional Programming" by Tomas Petricek. Tom's new 'must read' book.

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:17:17 GMT

With the departure of the last truly geek developer from our London office to pastures greener I've been mourning the lack of decent thought provoking programming language related conversation. It's extremely grim. Given this sorry state of affairs I was very happy to discover Tomas Petricek's new book "Real World Functional Programming", to be published by the ever excellent Manning Press. Whilst the book isn't actually out until next year, early drafts are available now under Manning's MEAP program. If you want a taste of what's on offer there's a free green paper (based in part on the text so far) available at:

http://www.manning.com/free/green_petricek.html

Even in it's early, incomplete, and yet to be proof read format the book already shows so much promise that I for one can't wait for the next update. So, if you're stuck in a working environment trying to desperately filter out ambient "How many developers does it take to change a light bulb?" type conversations then this is for you. Manning has pretty much become my go-to publisher for deep programming books, they being the publishers of the utterly brilliant "Windows PowerShell In Action" and should-be-compulsory "C# In Depth".

P0wned by 'Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2'

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:19:05 GMT

I love this game. I hate this game. I love this game. I hate this game. I love this game.

11/10

TR2N. The Flynn owns Neo.

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:49:50 GMT

The movie that pretty much sealed the deal on my deciding to stop just using early computers for (very basic) art and start learning programming was Tron. As good as the first Matrix movie was somehow for me it never stole Trons place in my heart. Perhaps it was the conjunction of old-school arcade culture with a pre-Gibson vision of cyber space but Tron is my transcendental geek movie. So you can imagine how excited I am about this...

And Jeff Bridges is back as the Flynn, and lets be clear about this: the Flynn owns Neo. Period.

60 day trial of Softimage|XSI 7 with the latest issue of 3D World magazine

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:48:16 GMT

Straight from the horses mouth:

http://softimagenews.blogspot.com/2008/08/xsi-7-60-day-demo-on-3d-world.html

Need to find my a decent newsagent on the way home :-) This should tide me over nicely until I upgrade my 'Foundation 6 to a 'Essentials 7 licence!

XSI 7 training on i3D Tutorials

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:40:53 GMT

Just a quick heads-up posting to direct any Softimage|XSI folks over to i3D Tutorials which right now is headlining some nice XSI 7 introductory videos. Get the love here:

http://www.i3dtutorials.com/view/Home

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved ^2

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:30:54 GMT

Argh... with a distinct sense of deja vu I find myself playing the utterly sublime 'Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved ^2'. The original Geometry Wars was the first thing I played on my launch Xbox 360 and so its probably fitting (in a deeply ironic sense) that 'Retro Evolved ^2' should be the first and all consumming thing I find myself playing on my new '360 (thankfully a quieter and cooler 'Falcon' model). It's a truism to be sure but the sign of a great game is the way it apparently causes you lose whole periods of time - 'Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved ^2' is one of those games!

1UP review: http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3169070&p=4

IGN review: http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/895/895096p1.html

'Retro Evolved ^2' is just the first game in Microsoft's Summer of Arcade, more goodness is coming!

A relatively unknown but great addition to Windows Component technologies

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:08:13 GMT

I've recently been spending some time wrapping my head around registration-free COM and the whole business of manifests and 'native assemblies'. The technology is I think it's hugely overlooked. The posibility exists here for packages based on legacy COM component technology to significantly reduce their registry foot print and thus offset the inevitable 'bit rot' that Windows seems to suffer over time.

I guess with Microsoft moving development whole sale into managed execution environments (such as .NET) that technologies such as reg-free COM tends to go unnoticed. Understandable, even MS has resource limits and more importantly should focus on getting more pressing issues into the foreminds of developers (i.e. parallelism and declarative style programming), still reg-free COM is definately something you should check out if you still find yourself slumming it in C++ / COM land.

'My Winnipeg' - a surprising, funny and unexpected film

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:21:51 GMT

It's always a added bonus to go and see a movie with no expectations or previous knowledge and come away having been completely entertained. Such it was with 'My Winnipeg' this Friday. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting involved with and within five minutes I was completely captivated. Somehow the writing and dream like logic that runs through this imaginary documentary reminds me of some of H. P. Lovecraft's dream-scape stories and poems - in particular the lighter ones which only flirt briefly with Lovecraft's more common darker themes. 'My Winnipeg' is a quietly funny, frequently in slightly melancholy way, and extremely imaginative piece. It's the perfect antidote to the summer block busters that are currently running and I totally recommend it - somehow movie has this ability to leave ghost like after images in your imagination.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/mywinnipeg/trailer/

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tiff/features/tiffmaddin.html

This guy p0wns C++

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:53:12 GMT

Anyone unfortunate enough to have read a few of my blog entries will know I don't have an especially warm feeling for C++ these days (outside of maybe the OS / runtime / game development domains). That said I do recognise that it probably does keep me honest as a developer to occasionally code in a language where I really can bang on the metal - I'm always telling developers who ask for debugging help (even in managed languages - and particularly in interop scenarios) that they need to 'own the call stack'. Currently I'm working on a reasonably involved new C++ project and am very happy to have someone who I think is probably the best C++ developer at my work (unfortunately not local) watching my back. Said dude is seriously hard core when it comes to the details of C++. Anyway enough waffle, this preamble is really just a way of introducing him and sharing a link to his new blog (which I suspect is going to be good readin' given the depth of his C++ insight) so without further ado:

http://allthingscodedbeautiful.blogspot.com/

Sad week as we lose another (all too rare) great developer

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:39:19 GMT

Bit of a downer this week at my work as it's officially announced that we're losing another (all too rare) great developer. Not only is this guy a damn fine chap but he's also one of those, apparently increasingly rare, developers who really has a passion for his craft. The dude in question has I think a great career ahead of him, I have to remind myself regularly that he used C# in his final year project at University (now that makes me feel old). Personally speaking I think he's extremely fortunate to have started his programming career just as COM ceased to be Microsoft's primary component technology, no one in their right minds misses C++ and COM. Being selfish for a moment, his departure effectively reduces to zero the number of local devs I can really geek out with about compilers, language and OS design and good programming practice. So here's to you mate (you know who you are), don't ever lose that passion for technology!

C# 4 out cools the new iPhone...

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:00:28 GMT

Well as far as I'm concerned it does!

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/C-40-Meet-the-Design-Team/

Bring it on! :-)

Softimage|XSI 7 announced

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:07:47 GMT

I am very happily shocked by just how dramatic and bold the changes in Softimage|XSI 7 are, the new ICE engine is absolutely mind blowing. Do check out the demo videos of the various particle effects that ICE can generate... wow. While Softimage have discontinued the Foundation version of XSI they have to their credit offered an insanely attractive upgrade for folks like me to jump from Foundation to Essentials. As someone who dabbles in software engineering I'm hugely impressed by the extent to which Softimage have continued to enhance and re-engineer XSI, it's clearly a extremely healthy code base even at v7. Can't wait to get my paws on it come September when they actually ship it!

Getting over the blank-page fear

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:35:08 GMT

For the longest time, almost 10 years truth be told, I've not gone anywhere near analog / traditional art preferring instead to get familiar with 3D digital art. This Saturday however found Tom in a art store buying blank paper, sketching pencils and a kneaded putty rubber. Now I'm learning to get over the lack of perfect undo-redo and commit to putting stuff down on paper. Not sure why I currently find traditional art materials so intimidating - this wasn't the case back in the days when I was practically drawing on the walls when I didn't have paper to hand. I think perhaps its because I now equate some small ability to write software with general mastery of all things computery. I have a feeling its going to be an interesting journey getting back to those 'zero inhibitions with pencil and paper' days.

Autodesk 'SketchBook Pro 2009'

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:19:45 GMT

For a little while now I've been looking for a simple digital sketching package to compliment my Wacom tablet. PhotoShop is too heavy for what I want but more to the point I was really looking for something more pen centric. To date I've been using ArtRage 2 which for the price is pretty damn good but then I came across Autodesk's 'SketchBook Pro 2009' (SBP). SBP was originally created by Alias who where then of course acquired by ~~The Empire~~, I mean Autodesk. OK, childish jibes at monolithic software giants is rich coming from a geek who thinks that Microsoft does create the best operating systems and software development tools tools on the planet so I'll let it go... :-) Rants about monolithic companies is not the point of this blog posting, no the point is to call out that SBP is a stunning and agile package if you want to work with sketches and rapid concept design. I absolutely love this package, yes it does cost four times as much as ArtRage 2, but it's so much faster to use (ArtRage is a CPU hog every time you lay down a stroke) and you want a really fluid package that works as fast as you do. The tools and palette design in SBP are elegant and behave exactly as you'd expect them to. I'm very happy to see that Autodesk are doing something with SBP rather than just focusing on Maya, it looks like the '2009 edition is really a re-branding release of the Alias original and I hope with the next release they add things like rulers and grids. That said these are minor detractions from what is one of those rare bits of creative software that is as artist friendly and elegant as it is powerful (Softimage XSI being another example). I totally recommend SBP if you already have a Wacom (or similar pressure sensitive tablet). In fact I'd advise not evaluating SBP unless you do have a tablet of some kind since it really makes you appreciate how trying to paint / draw with a mouse is very much like trying to achieve the same with a house brick. So a tip of the old hat to Autodesk and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with SketchBook Pro 2010.

If you're interested here's a direct link to the SketchBook Pro 2009 features PDF.

Sad day as Stan Winston passes away aged 62

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:45:10 GMT

It's a sad day as Stan Winston creator of some of the best physical effects in the industry passes away:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2008/06/stan-winston-de.html

I've grown so used to seeing Stan Winston Studio as a contributing FX house in closing credits to many a beloved movie - let's hope the studio keeps Stan's name and standards going.

Aaron Sim's fantastic creature designs for 'The Hulk'

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:53:24 GMT

Having bemoaned some of the digital content in the latest Indy movie I was very happy to have my socks blown completely off by the new 'The Hulk' movie. This is comic to screen adaptation done right, never once violating the rules of its own universe (unlike say: a certain nuke-able fridge...). All the performances are fantastic indeed the casting as a whole is spot on but special credit I think has to go to the animators behind the digital performances. The brawls between Hulk and Abomination are visually stunning and really impart a sense of mass and energy. The actual design of the Hulk is down to one of my favourite digital artists, Aaron Sim's. XSI Base has a great interview with Aaron in addition to some fantastic early concept work for the movie:

http://www.xsibase.com/articles.php?detail=147

Aaron's creature designs really have a life of their own and I highly recommend checking out Aaron's portfolio over at The Aaron Sims Company site. In the mean time, forget any disappointment you may have had with the previous attempt to bring The Hulk to the big screen and go see this latest imagining. Save for the upcoming Batman movie I'd all but given up on the super hero genre when it comes to film (a reaction to the dreadful and hopefully final Spiderman and X-Men movies), The Hulk however has convinced me that you can create great screen entertainment with these properties.

'C# In Depth', the best C# 2 and C# 3 book out there.

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:17:05 GMT

'C# In Depth' is one of those very rare programming language books what really communicates not only the what but the why when discussing its particular language (in much the same way as the equally excellent 'Powershell In Action' - also from Manning). I've been reading 'C# In Depth' since it was first made available in rough form via Manning's excellent MEAP program - yesterday I got my paper copy and spent a happy evening re-reading various sections. Assuming you already know a little C# then this is without a shadow of a doubt the best next book you should read. I don't know of any other C# book that takes offers the unique and deep insight that 'C# In Depth' gives. It's a tribute to Jon Skeet's writing that he manages to cut to the chase and deliver his insights in such a effortless and economical form. Physically this is actually quite a short book (in terms of page count) compared to other door-stop C# tomes. However don't be mislead by page count == value for money, 'C# In Depth' distills C# 2 and C# 3 down and delivers them to the reader in such a way that you'll really appreciate how this wonderful and pragmatic language has really undergone a remarkably rapid evolution and now elegantly supports programming idioms that where positively painful in earlier versions. If you think C# 2 is just about type safe containers then you are missing out big time. The bottom line is if you love programming for programming's sake then buy and read this book as soon as possible. Heck, if you're a development lead then I would seriously suggest getting your boss to buy a copy of this book for every developer on your team and mandate that it is read - it truly is that good.

You should also check out Jon's excellent programming blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon.skeet/default.aspx

'Inspired 3D Short Film Production'

Sat, 31 May 2008 17:39:45 GMT

I'm currently reading and very much enjoying Jeremy Cantor and Pepe Valencia's 'Inspired 3D Short Film Production'. I was fortunate as a kid to not only be growing up at a time when 3D short films first started appearing but to have a family whose members worked in the TV, film and software industries. My love for CG as a medium was a big motivating factor in my decision to really try and learn programming way back then (we're talking ZX81 and later an ATARI ST era computing here) and many of my early code doodles where well intentioned attempts to recreate (in a small way) CG tools I'd seen the 'pros' use in making-of documentaries. Of course now I realise that (a) my programming skills back then couldn't possibly support my vision and (b) said tools and techniques are by today's standards incredibly simplistic.

Now that programming is what I do to pay the rent and that the feature bar for any 3D app is so very high I find that I'd much rather exercise those dormant artistic neurons (the ones I ignored when I decided to forgo the art degree and do a computer science degree instead) by using other peoples 3D packages than try and create my own. Currently I've settled on Softimage|XSI, which is a beautiful (in every sense of the word) piece of software, as my one-stop-shop 3D package. A quick detour: if you're looking to get into 3D then XSI is by far the best value for money package out there. For circa £300 (for the Foundation edition, which is the version I own) you get one of the best sub-d modelling packages with unsurpassed character and nonlinear animation tools not to mention fully integrated Mental Ray based rendering. Back to my childhood dreams of 3D film creation... over the past few years I've had many enjoyable conversations with my uncle about film and have I've grown more and more interested in the process of film production (on both the technical and artistic side) and to this end have been hunting around for a book which addressed these, which brings me to 'Inspired 3D Short Film Production'. First I have to say something about the the production values of this book, every page is in full colour and has unsurpassed layout which makes cross referencing between the text and supporting images and diagrams totally painless! Too many computer graphics books limit their use of full colour to a few central pages - it shouldn't need pointing out what when you're trying to explain the nuances of a visual medium using half tone gray scale images doesn't cut it. Most important of course is the writing and I'm happy to say the writing here is first class. The book really breaks down the process of conceptualising, pre-production (story, character and art development), production and post-production so that you really understand the workflow's between each stage. I'm slowly developing (admittedly its very early days yet) a real feel for how much things cost in budget terms on a shot by shot basis. It's easy to draw parallels with software here, fixing problems early costs much less. Whilst reading the book with my own pet project in mind I find myself already thinking "OK I need to rethink this. How can I deliver this story beat in a more economical way". It is a fabulous book and whilst a large part of it is by definition 3D centric I do think it would be of interest to anyone wanting to learn more about story boarding, character / art development and cinematography in general. With all these references to workflow's and production costs I wouldn't want anyone to think the book was a dry read, a huge part of its value is found in the tools and techniques it suggests to kick start or inform the artistic creative side of things. The book isn't cheap but at 470 pages it contains a huge amount of explanation and industry knowledge and deserves to be read and thought about carefully. Something else I should mention, the book is almost entirely software package agnostic and all the better for it - this really is a book about the process of technical and artistic film production rather than a guide to which buttons to click. As such it's a perfect accompanying text for any software specific books or training videos you might be working through.

'Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' - moments of excellence

Sat, 31 May 2008 12:00:38 GMT

Seeing the new Indiana Jones movie last night was ultimately a frustrating experience. The Crystal Skull is I think just better than The Last Crusade but it could have been so much more. I wasn't expecting it to eclipse Raiders but they've had so long to come up with a decent script it was rather disappointing. Kudos to Ford and La Beouf who do manage to deliver their roles but Karen Allen's performance didn't really manage to capture the Marion of the first movie. Cate Blanchett's accent seemed to go on various geographical trips from scene to scene and I'm not sure why Ray Winstone was in the movie at all (I'm guessing it was an attempt parallel John Rhys-Davies's Sallah character from the first movie).

All in all if you're an Indy fan then this isn't the kick in the teeth that the hateful new Star Wars movies are but it still feels like lazy film making on the part of Mr Spielburg and Lucas. These two film makers in my opinion still have huge potential and can deliver (I know it's fashionable to knock both of them) but typically when someone else is doing the writing. I'm left feeling that (1) I would watch the Crystal Skull again and (2) I was kind of saddened by the degree of closure at the end, I think Ford may well be hanging up The Hat at this point - still he at least goes out on a solid performance.

'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune'. The best film you never played...

Sun, 25 May 2008 20:08:17 GMT

It is often observed that with each generation, video game designers try again and again to make 'interactive movies' and fail horribly. The core of the problem is the tension between maintaining a strong and directed narative and allowing sufficient player interaction. One of the very few games that does get it right is Naughty Dog's 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune'. If you have a PlayStation 3 (or are thinking of getting one) this should still be right at the top of your must-play list. Right now GTA IV is getting a lot of attention for its story and cut scenes but that fact is they don't hold a candle to the nuanced performances and tight plotting in Naughty Dog's title. Whilst Uncharted's story is formulaic it still manages to deliver set piece after set piece with almost perfect pacing. As the action builds one finds oneself smiling as the games 'the right guy in the wrong place' protagonist mutters to himself: "OK... we can do this".

Uncharted when played on a HDTV will leave you in no doubt that it is a next generation / HD experience, but it does so with such grace and subtly that one really finds oneself marveling at the locations rather than the technology. This is in no small part thanks to the incredible lighting the game has - I've honestly not seen its equal in any other title to date. To get a real feel for how beautiful it is take a look at the short video below (everything is done in real time):

http://www.naughtydog.com/comingsoon/index.html

In some ways it's a shame that Uncharted came out so early in the PlayStation 3's lifespan because I don't think it got the recognition or the audience it so richly deserves. So kudos to Naughty Dog and I can't wait for the sequel.

Seminal moments in gaming... GTA not included

Sun, 11 May 2008 06:42:37 GMT

There's no doubt that GTA IV in its execution and scope deserves the 10's that EDGE et al have been giving it. I'm hugely impressed by the city simulation, and somewhat less impressed by the highly derivative story. So far GTA IV has not delivered one of those shiver down the spine moments that accompanied my personal seminal moments in gaming. GTA IV is for me a small increment over the state of the art. It is without a doubt a extremely well crafted experience and yet there are things that pull it back all the time. The frequently puerile humour I guess is included to appease the < 18 year old members of its fan base. I can understand why R* do this, they do it for economic reasons, apparently most GTA players don't play for the story (I guess we'll have to see if that follows for IV) and yet GTA IV has a OK story (not BioShock level writing but better than most) one that apparently wants to be taken seriously. Which is a shame because with every narrative step forward it then precedes to take two back with endless titty or dick jokes.

Hopefully one day R* or more likely Bethesda etc will really acknowledge that a substantial and increasing percentage of their audience are growing up and really want more from their virtual worlds. The 18 cert on GTA is there because the content is adult, but sadly most of what constitutes 'adult' for GTA is 'porn shop' humour rather than adult in the sense of really really exploring ideas or having anything more than cheap-shot social commentary jokes. So I'll be burning through GTA IV's story to clear the decks for "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" in June, at least that title by all accounts has some real depth to it.

Wonderful, and free, topological modelling package...

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:40:27 GMT

I have a passion for left of field 3D packages and tools and was very happy to be introduced to TopMod in the latest issue of '3D World' magazine. This is well worth checking out, you really can make some beautiful and intricate images very easily. Much like Blender, TopMod is a classic example of how Open Source occasionally turns up real gems. I just wish the content creation software genre was better represented in the Open Source movement. Still do check out TopMod...

Turning loops into values using Aggregate in C# 3.0

Sun, 04 May 2008 07:22:09 GMT

I'm probably horribly late to the party with this but I figured I'd share it anyway. It's one of those things that with hindsight falls into the "Doh. Obviously!" category: System.Linq.Enumerable.Aggregate use is not just limited to numeric style operations.

There are various ways of mapping a method over an array in either C# 2.0 or C# 3.0, for example:

   string[] data = { "Softimage|XSI", "Blender", "Luxology modo" };
   StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
   foreach (string s in data)
      builder.Append("(").Append(s).Append(")");

Console.WriteLine(builder.ToString());

or using the static ForEach method on Array:

   string[] data = { "Softimage|XSI", "Blender", "Luxology modo" };
   StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
   Array.ForEach(data, s => builder.Append("(").Append(s).Append(")"));
   Console.WriteLine(builder.ToString());

However, nicer still if you can use C# 3.0 is System.Linq.Enumerable.Aggregate:

string[] data = { "Softimage|XSI", "Blender", "Luxology modo" };
Console.WriteLine(data.Aggregate(new StringBuilder(), (b, s) => b.Append("(").Append(s).Append(")")).ToString());

Not only does Aggregate being a extension method benefit from the whole "extension method pattern matching" mechanism which allows you to swap in different implementations (or specializations <smile>) depending on what names spaces you have open, but (and this is the really cool bit) it allows you to treat the whole loop operation as a value. It may not be immediately obvious if you haven't done much Linq before but the return type of Aggregate as used above is StringBuilder! This is how we can pipeline it right into a call to Console.WriteLine. Note also that Array.ForEach is limited to SysArrays whereas Linq.Enumerable.Aggregate by definition works with the more primitive IEnumerable<T> - in other words it will work just a nicely with Lists or anything else that reduces to a IEnumerable<T>. Of course the other nice advantage to using Aggregate is the lazy (pull) evaluation when walking the collection.

Aside: I've deliberately avoided talking about using the classic "for(int i = 0; i < data.Length; i++)" iteration method because I didn't want the main point to be lost behind the implementation dependent fact that the jitter can translate a classic-for into very efficient native code, safely omitting the bounds checking. This is about abstraction above the micro optimization level...

The reluctant Grand Theft Auto IV player...

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:01:43 GMT

I have always maintained that Video Games have the potential to be more than just entertainment, the good ones transcend the medium (much like those sublime 16 bit AV demos back on the Atari ST and Amiga...). Video Games as a valid art form? Absolutely. They are true left brain / right brain creations. So I've always made a point of getting those games that score over 80% almost regardless of genre (OK with the exception of sports titles) because I want to experience for myself just how the developer has managed to push the medium. Now I find myself in a tricky situation with GTA IV. I don't dig the whole anti-society thing. I don't dig the car jacking and murder for money thing. I've never bought a GTA title... until now, because damn it, GTA IV is getting stunning reviews from folks who's opinion I trust. Let's be clear about this, I'm not anti violence in video games, I'm a huge first person shooter fan - but even within that genre I prefer a good degree of 'reality separation' preferring the Halo's and Unreal's to the Call of Duty's. Increasingly I get uncomfortable about being given the ability to 'shoot up' the real world - it's the same in movies for me, I just don't go to 'gun p0rn' movies like Rambo etc (although it's probably unfair to compare GTA IV to the utter crap that by all accounts the latest Rambo movie was). By all accounts GTA IV does have an actual plot and does have very good characterization. It'll be interesting to see if the game does differentiate between players who want to create the minimum of havoc vs. those who just want to drive over every pedestrian in sight (because really, if the later is your idea of a Good Time you'll probably be just as well served by Carmageddon... now there's a game for Rambo fans...)

Stroustrup's excellent "Evolving a language in and for the real world: C++ 1991-2006" paper.

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:04:21 GMT

Over the past week I made a real effort to really read 'cover to cover' (so to speak) Bjarne Stroustrup's "Evolving a language in and for the real world: C++ 1991-2006" paper. I'd skimmed it before but never really read it in the way it deserves until now. I'm so glad I did - because it's contributed greatly to my decision to spend a > 0% of home coding time on C++ rather than just exclusively coding C# 3.0 stuff at home. It's very hard to criticise anything in such a paper given the kudos of the author - that said, I do wish he would refrain from being quite so derogatory towards Microsoft and C# / .NET in particular. Then again, it's his paper so I guess he's allowed the odd back stab now and then - and to be honest the occasions when he does flash the blade left me smiling rather than angry.

Stroustrup says something in this paper which is an echo of something I've always held close to my heart and encourage other developers to aspire to, namely developers should Own the call stack. That's not to mean that you have to comprehend the full details of the problem domain at each level of the call stack but you should be able to deal with the syntax and semantics the solution-implementation is presented in. For .NET developers this means you need to know in addition to your favourite managed language some C++ and some native assembler. He goes on to point out just where C++ fits in the tool chain of languages such as Java and C#, namely "My compiler compiled your runtime" - you ignore that at your peril.

Putting aside owning the call stack for a moment, the real thing that caught me in this paper was the multi paradigm stuff. I've written before here about my increasing concern that not everything is a object and it's often a mistake to try and express things in OO terms, well Stroustrup points out again and again that OO is just one of the programming paradigms that C++ supports, he goes further to say that OO is not the reason for C++'s being, nor is it the most important programming paradigm the language supports. I'm predicting that this year I'll be having my code reviewed by someone who protests that my implementation is "Not OO enough!" - to which my answer will be: "Oh really? Let's talk about that..."

If like me you've spent some time in "Managed Code Happy Land" I'd totally recommend reading the paper, carefully, fully and giving yourself time to think about what Stroustrup has to say. I'm not u-turning here, since my day job is programming on Window's I'll likely still recommend C# for most things, but, and it's a big but I think I might be using C++/CLI a lot more than I used to. I used to joke to a mate of mine that I'd never go to a job that required me to spend >= 50% of my time doing C++, this paper (amongst other things I've recently read) means I'd probably want to revisit that statement to something >= 75% of my time.

Bjarne Stroustrup in MSDN Magazine and the use of Hungarian notation

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:32:22 GMT

There's a great, but all together too short, interview with Bjarne Stroustrup in the April 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine. Lots of good stuff in there - including a book recommendation I plan to follow up - but one of the things that stood out was Bjarne's comments on the use of Hungarian notation:

"And no, don't use Hungarian. Hungarian is an awful idea. The source code should reflect the meaning of the program, not simulate a type system. If you really, really feel the need for Hungarian, you are probably using a language that is unsuitable for your application."

I'll admit that when I first started programming professionally, some 15 years ago now, I was a strong advocate and user of Hungarian. These days I limit myself to a few scope notations ("m_" for a instance members and "s_" for static members) and I don't use any type prefix notations including combinations-of or variations-on 'p' prefixes to denote pointers. I don't distinguish between native and managed languages - my position is that Hungarian has no place in either. If you're relying on the presence of Hungarian to alert developers that they've switched from .cs to .cpp files then you've got a bigger problem on your hands. It's my impression that folks who do continue to advocate heavy use of type notations do so because they pretty much live in fear of the code they work on. They neither trust the existing code, or (and this is the damning bit) the new code they add. To be honest I've seen zero indication that Hungarian contributes to a lower defect count, indeed the only thing Hungarian succeeds in lowering is the abstraction level (which is not what we want to strive to do in our code) furthermore it acts as a barrier to refactoring. Of course we're also assuming here that developer has used Hungarian correctly and consistently, which is seldom the case. I'd much rather developers put the effort into choosing decent variables names that are closer to the problem domain than slavishly writing comp.sci type prefixes. Decent variables names reduce (but obviously not eliminate) the need for commenting and make you think about the actual problem more - where as slavishly following some anachronistic type notation convention too frequently seems to accompany a school of programming typified by fear, uncertainty and doubt. Just my 2p worth... :)

Not everything is an object.

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:55:39 GMT

First off I'm very aware that I'm about 15 years late with this insight but I still find it amazing just how many developers of the Object Orientated school are so hostile to the idea that functions still remain a equally valid and often preferable means of constructing software rather than their sacred objects. More and more I see code with classes that exist for no other reason than to act as namespaces to what amount to little more than static member functions. Fair enough languages like C# pretty much force one to express things this way, but that's a syntactic deficiency - what concerns me more is that a lot of developers seem to view functions (in the classical sense) as something lower down the programming evolutionary ladder than classes and objects. For some time I've been looking around for mainstream examples I could site to support the counter argument that objects and functions are two different and complimentary tools - and of course a prime example was right under my nose, to whit: STL. Here's a classic interview with Alex Stepanov that puts into words the first class status of functions (frequently in conjunction with and complimentary to, objects) in software construction:

http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/drdobbs-interview.html

Over the past 18 months or so I've personally 're-discovered' functions and have found it a liberating experience, I no longer feel the OO guilt of "I should be striving for member functions at all times" as a overriding rule when designing and writing software.

Tom buys new C++ book. Cats and Dogs live together.

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:00:33 GMT

Where the rubber hits the road (certainly for Windows 7 and one imagines '8) there'll still need to be occasional sorties into the C++ Dark Dungeons (to say nothing of eeking out value for existing legacy code). So, mostly as a reaction to the the Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack and because I firmly believe it behoves every managed developer to "own the entire call stack" I find myself ordering a copy of Pete Becker's "The C++ Standard Library Extensions: A Tutorial And Reference". Who'd have thunk it :)

Considering upgrading to a DELL Precision M2300

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:16:15 GMT

My trusty DELL Latitude D620 is without a shadow of a doubt the best computer I have ever owned. Ever. The only thing wrong with it is the graphics option, even with the latest drivers the integrated Intel GMA950 chipset just about has what it takes to support Aero and can sort of do some bits of OpenGL. The GMA950 will struggle through with Softimage XSI (but only barely), but try running a OpenGL heavy application like Luxology's Modo at it and it just falls over. So I'm really looking for something with the same form factor but with certified OpenGL support. Enter the DELL Precision M2300. The Precision M2300 is really a Latitude D630 tricked out with nVidia Quadro graphics. In other words... perfect.

Why is Microsoft still using C style casting?

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:49:18 GMT

Why is it that the latest MFC drop still uses C style casting in its implementation? The compiler support libraries (the bits that contain such things as gcroot<>) that ship along side MFC use 'modern' (for a given value of) casting like static_cast etc. How is it the MFC guys get away with it?

Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack released

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:51:29 GMT

The Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack is well worth installing if you're still having to slum it in C++ on Windows. The 'official' MS repackaging of (most of) TR1 is nice to have at hand and the new MFC additons do produce a huge amount of visual Bang! per buck. Definately worth checking out:

http://blogs.msdn.com/vcblog/archive/2008/04/07/visual-c-2008-feature-pack-released.aspx

I wish MS would produce a real MFC alternative for WPF, I mean a proper MVC document/view framework for 100% managed solutions. It kind of sucks that the only way of getting this kind of robust rich client application superstructure is still via C++. There's no good reason for this state of affairs.

Initial impressions of 'Dark Sector' on PlayStation 3. Extremely impressive!

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:46:13 GMT

Having traded in all my Xbox 360 games along with the wretched console itself I now find myself with a whole bunch of GAME points to burn through and last Friday picked up a copy of Digital Extreme's new 'Dark Sector' game on PlayStation 3. I recall the early preview coverage in EDGE of this game before the '360 and Playstation 3 where even released, back then 'Dark Sector' was a set in space survival horror game. Some years later and it appears to have returned to Earth, Eastern Europe to be precise, having mutated into a chimeric 'Gears of War' meets 'Resident Evil' mash up. To cut to the chase, it is immense fun to play. Yeah, it's pretty shallow in terms of plot, somewhat formulaic granted, but it does deliver on the entertainment front. I have to mention the games graphics engine too which for once isn't the Unreal 3 engine but a custom in-house engine developed by Digital Extreme's themselves, said engine produces some of the nicest visuals I've seen on the PlayStation 3 to date. I honestly think in visual terms it deserves to be ranked up there alongside Drake's Fortune and Ratchet and Crank: Tools of Destruction. Whilst playing it last night I was thinking "I remember when visuals like this where reserved for the cut scenes and here I am running and gunning interactively inside them... wow." There's also a Softimage XSI connection too by way of Pendulum Studio's work on the cinematics for the game.

Digital-Tutors 'Introduction to XSI 6'

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:12:52 GMT

Over the past week I've been working my way through Digital-Tutors excellent 'Introduction to XSI 6' training and can totally recommend it to anyone who wants to rapidly get up to speed with Softimage's XSI Foundation 6. The title is project based and by the end you'll pretty much be able to reproduce the cover image - and in so doing will have been gently introduced to a good deal of XSI at a basic level. The content is first class, the movies are crystal clear and the presenter is very good at keeping you motivated. 3D modelling and animation are complex topics and I'm very aware that nothing good comes without a lot of practice and basic studies. So I've set myself the goal of trying to complete at least one simple 3D life study a week for the next month or so.

Lambda and Closures make it into C++ 0x. Developers rejoice... 4 years from now.

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:05:30 GMT

Herb Sutter brings exciting news about lambda functions and closures finally making into the C++ standard. Very cool. I'm currently using the old ++ war horse at work since we need to party with our legacy code at the MFC rather than .NET or COM level. I'll own up and confess that I am enjoying the experience, but really what I'm enjoying is the challenge of trying to succeed despite having to use C++. Granted the problem is such that C# (or any purely managed language) just isn't appropriate so that choice of C++ is in fact not a choice.

Still it's cool to see lambdas etc make it into the core C++ language without recourse to Boost. Of course one wonders just how relevant this will really be to Visual Studio based developers. I mean when is this stuff actually going to be delivered in VC++? 2010? 2012? That's a period of time long enough to include the shipping of the next major rev. of the Windows client OS after Vista and for .NET 4.0 to make it out the door. I guessing the vast majority of the audience for C++ 0x is really those folks not developing on the Windows platform...

Software XSI works under Vista using only a GMA950

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:58:07 GMT

As ever, it pays to take those Windows Updates and make damn sure you keep your drivers current. I've been unable to do any real 3D computer graphics under Vista due to a combination of lack of 3rd party ISV support for the platform and having a laptop which only has the Intel GMA950 Integrated Graphics chipset. However this week, after a tip off from my man Lee, I installed DELL's official packaging of the latest Intel drivers for the Latitude D620 and... Bingo! Softimage XSI is now running very nicely under Vista, complete with minor details like hidden line / surface removal working (just a little bit important if you're trying to do anything). OK the T&L is 100% software driven since the GMA950 is not a GPU - but for modelling / animation purposes on a dual core laptop is perfectly acceptable. Happily this comes at a time when .NET 3.5 is out the door and I don't have to sink all my free time in grokking the latest technology stack - atleast until PDC later this year. All of which means I can get back doing some 3D modeling and animation.

If you ever want to mess around with a pro. 3D graphics package without dropping > £1000 on say Maya or Max then I totally recommend XSI Foundation. For the money nothing comes close, not only does it come with Mental Ray, but the integration of M.A. is second to none. It also has really sweet sub-D modeling - my main reason for loving it (although I really need to investigate the animation side more!)

Channel 9 does it again! :-) Erik Meijer and Bertrand Meyer video interview!

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:22:42 GMT

This one falls neatly into the Stop Whatever You're Doing And Watch Now category. Eric Meijer, my favorite language uber geek over at Microsoft, interviews Bertrand Meyer.

http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=393025

Legendary stuff!

Joe's excellent 'Code reviewing concurrency-oriented software' article.

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:21:44 GMT

Joe Duffy has just put up a really good piece on code reviewing concurrent software:

http://www.bluebytesoftware.com/blog/2008/03/24/CodeReviewingConcurrencyorientedSoftware.aspx

I'm really looking forward to more articles like this. I'm hoping the 2nd edition of the .NET Framework Design Guidelines which will include coverage LINQ and functional / declarative programming, will also include guidance for the Parallel Extensions for .NET (but maybe that's have to wait for the 3rd ed.) How cool would it be if MS gave away copies of the 2nd ed. of the FDG at this years PDC? The timing seems about right ;-)

Getting back to some digital sculpting

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:32:57 GMT

In a classic case of 'everything old is new' not only am I spending the majority of my working day in unmanaged C++ land at the moment (and, shock-horror, enjoying it) I've also spent the last couple of weeks doing a little concept sketching. This week I've been pottering around with ZBrush 3.1. By happy chance it's a 4 day bank holiday here in England so I've got some real space to get back into ZBrush and play with some of the new stuff in v3. In the fullness of time I may post a few sculpts here. I think come pay day it may be time to upgrade my ancient PhotoShop licence too.

PC gaming is dead. Again.

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:39:33 GMT

Let's face it, Games for Windows, the PC version of XBox Live sucks most mightely. In the light of alternatives like Valve's Steam and Steam Works it's hard to see the value in Microsoft's gaming community orientated APIs (I'm excluding the core DirectX 3D technology here, which to be fair is a solid bit of engineering). Of course it's not just Microsoft's fault. PC gaming is screwed by not having a common hardware platform that folks can use to ensure that when they get games like Crisis home it will actually work. Also dire is the fact that piracy on the PC is huge, Unreal Tournament 3 and Crisis both sold really badly - although strangely a lot of folks where downloading patches for them. You do the math. So it comes as no surprise to see Epic effectively begin ditching the PC:

http://kotaku.com/367219/unreal-engine-4-targeting-consoles-not-pcs

I don't know what percentage of total PC OEM sales are hardware related but one imagines that nVidia and AMD-ATI are not very happy about this. It's bad for Microsoft too since it suggests further that Apple's approach to 'life-device' centric product design is what folks want. They don't want some infinitely upgradeable and tweakable box that, if they dedicate hours of their free time to maintaining and servicing, might just produce a reliable entertainment experience for everyone. Not all PC games of course require a SLI graphics subsystem and extra power supplies to drive them. Amanita Design produce beautiful Flash games that will run on just about anything. I'd strongly recommend checking them out - their graphic design is beautiful:

http://www.amanitadesign.com/

8 bit era video game music.

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:50:01 GMT

Remember those days in the 8 and 16 bit eras before red book CD audio when programmers did things with audio processors that their own hardware designs apparently ruled out? Well if you're looking for a contemporary refresh look no further than 8 Bit Peoples. Lots of great stuff, amongst them gems like Stu's 'mYMelody'. Classic stuff.

I'm done with Xbox 360...

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:46:18 GMT

Having owned 3 separate Xbox 360's since the console launched, two of which died from RROD, last weekend I sold my Xbox 360 Elite for £200 and nuked my Xbox Live account. Mine is now a single console house hold based around PlayStation 3. And what's so good about PlayStation 3? Well:

1. It doesn't break down All The Time!

2. The online free.

3. The system is open, for example mods in Unreal Tournament 3.

4. The games are finally starting to prove the point that it is more powerful than Xbox 360.

5. It doesn't make so much noise that I can hear it even when wearing closed back headphones.

6. It has a user interface that doesn't look like it was designed for primary school.

7. It's better value for money.

8. You can upgrade the hard disk.

9. You can copy your media to said hard disk, thus having your movie library right there without having to buy into Vista's dreadful media sharing.

10. The industrial design and implementation is pure class, where as aside from the controller, Xbox 360 just looks and feels like the flakey P.O.S. it has proved to be.

11. The Dual Shock 3 (imported mine this week) finally adds a controller with weight and rumble to PlayStation 3.

12. As a BluRay player it Owns and will be upgradable to Profile 2.

13. There is no limit to the size of downloaded games because unlike Microsoft's console, every PlayStation 3 is guarenteed to have a hard drive.

Give me in-game Cross Media Bar (i.e. in-game chat and buddy status) and Microsoft's Xbox Live loses the only advantage I actually care about. It would be great if SONY could eventually offer a home-brew dev toolkit like Yaroze - that said for pure entertainment the SONY system has more variety of games and is a far higher quality entertainment system. The fact of the matter is SONY delivers on their promises where as Microsoft, and I'm limiting myself to their console business here, doesn't.

Now that HD-DVD is finally dead...

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:30:37 GMT

... can we please have the Jason Bourne movies on Blu Ray? Come on Universal get with the program: HD-DVD is deader than a rushed to market, over heating, over priced and overly noisy Microsoft games console.

'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune'. Why can't more video game soundtracks be this good?

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:51:39 GMT

With the honerable exception of Mary O'Donnell's wonderful Halo soundtracks (of which the Halo 3 score is undoubtedly the best) so few games actually have a soundtrack that I would want to listen to separated from the game itself. Now however I can add Greg Edmonson's soundtrack to Naughty Dog's sublime 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune' to that very exclusive sub category. It's incredibly evocative and filmic - and more than other audio video game experience during 2007 / early 2008 has convinced me I need to get some decent speakers (or headphones) for my PlayStation 3.

Pushing C# 3.0 and the bug-fix / enhancement retro fit problem

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:05:51 GMT

I managed to spend a couple of hours yesterday refactoring my very lame WPF Blog Reader with a mind to really pushing the C# 3.0 language enhancements. At the end of the exercise I figured I'd compare the two versions (old and new) using Araxis Merge (the best diff / merge tool on the planet) and it's shocking just how different the code bases are. Gone are the explicit nested loops, statements become expressions... it is in many ways a different language. Which got me thinking, it's all very well and good that MSBuild now supports multitargetting thus enabling one to use the C# 3.0 compiler and be sure you're just taking dependencies on say .NET 2.0 but, and this is I think a big 'but', expect to have to rewrite your bug fixes / enhancements if you need to retro fit them to older code streams. Now at home this clearly isn't a problem since I can keep pressing forward and I only have one client (me) and one version (the latest) - not so in the Real World. Make no mistake, C# 3.0 once you fully embrace it is to C# 2.0 what C++ with templates is to C++ before templates.

Does this mean you shouldn't use the new C# 3.0 language extentions and idioms if you have to support multiple versions? No, of course not. There's no getting away from the hugely valuable fact that C# 3.0 code is more declarative and is far more expressives in fewer lines compared to C# 2.0. Fewer lines of code equals fewer bugs. No one can argue with that. However if you do have to support multiple versions (and can't afford to bring the older 2.0 codebases into Visual Studio 2008 - which might well be the case if you have a substancial unmanaged line count) then should pretty much figure on having to write some things twice. I can't see any other way around it, there are massive benefits in the C# 3.0 syntax forms that you should press forward to - but you won't easily be merging them back into your Visual Studio 2005 hosted code bases.