Texas isn't too shabby either. Plus, fewer natural disasters means less downtime.
125 karma · joined July 28, 2011
I'm a mentor for a robotics program that competes in FIRST competition. You should check it out and see if her schools have anything like this or if you can maybe start something yourself so other kids can learn about robotics with you and your kids.
> This is not a quick read, so it’s a good opportunity to try a read-later method such as Safari’s Reading List, which Apple invented completely on their own.
Oh so sweet.
On the flip side, the Facebook mobile experience is pretty terrible as well, but Facebook already has quite a large (and growing) user base already, so I wonder if mobile user experience is as important to growth as is existing, for lack of a better word, penetration.
EDIT: Just noticed this line from the post: "The Compete numbers are US only and desktop only."
I completely understand your sentiment on debugging and maintainability. I've done my fair share of quick-and-dirty apps that did one little thing wrong and a million highlighted executions and five years later, I've finally got a handle on what's wrong (mind you, I'm nowhere near a LabVIEW expert).
I love our documentation tool as well. We call it Context Help, and as you highlight over different parts of your code diagram, it's handy to see a quick, readable summary with links to full documentation for every single node and system available in LabVIEW.
If only all IDEs had the same functionality and it's the reason why I'm super psyched to see Light Table come out. Ready to be blown away.
It's definitely a tool and one should always use the best tool for the job. Sometimes the best tool is not necessarily the one with the most suited features, but the one that you're most adept at using. Either way, thanks for the input, really. It helps a lot to understand what people walk away with when they use a product you've been a part of, and I love that HN users are honest and gracious in their feedback. Cheers.
In any case, thank you for the feedback, it's always great to hear back from fellow programmers that have had experiences with LabVIEW.
It's a graphical programming language with an emphasis on system design (for scientists and engineers) that uses a dataflow paradigm (amongst other things) and has a unique UI creation system.
(Disclaimer: I work for National Instruments and my comments here in no way reflect the views of National Instruments and yadda yadda.)
However, I think jgrahamc and you are speaking to different things. There is documentation, much like our parents did when we went to the beach as a toddler and we took that picture with mom and the sandcastle, and then there is personal curation that lives in narcissism and strikes me as dishonest (or too honest, perhaps).
There is sharing triumphs and failures, and then there is bounding triumph and failure with one's personal accounts as to make the world about the documenter instead of about the documenter as part of, well, the world.
I'm not sure I have this idea completely worked out as this seems subjective and who can really judge another's motives with absolute certainty. All I know is there is a fine line and we would be careful to hold ourselves to a standard that encourages sharing life without making life about ourselves.
After all, you can't be open source (which we LOVE) when you're all closed-sourcey yourself.
Anyway, just a little food for thought that came into my head with your observations.
I think that this piece is akin to pieces you might read in the New Yorker or the Atlantic, in that you see a writer's analysis of a topic or event through their experience, both past and present.
It's doubtful that Gruber is rubbing this in all of our faces. More likely, he's noting it's novelty as a change (or a confirmation, really) of Apple's motivations.
Gruber is a competent writer. His pieces exhibit voice and clarity, though you might disagree with him (I often do), but a contrary opinion is no less competent for its, well, contrariness.
That's the spirit of HN. If you disagree with someone but they challenge you and add value to the discussion, you upvote and challenge back, sharpening both of your stances.
Not to mention that it's downright insane. Ever try skid stopping in the rain?
But damn you, it's now stuck in my head, with half a day left at work. I blame you if my function signatures all start to rhyme.