Design cleanup

Having partially read the first chapter of the excellent The Art of Unix Programming, by Eric S. Raymond, I've been thinking more about the design of mod-boot in terms of simplicity. One portion that called attention to itself was the blockList concept that I explored in an earlier post. It's an interesting concept I think, but it adds a lot of code that 99% of the time will only end up taking up more memory. It would be simpler and in most cases faster just to use either a standard array or a GArray or something.

Also, I've been thinking about the concept that if a program doesn't have anything helpful to say, it should just shut up. I'll have to work on this aspect, but it'll have to give what the user and other programs need; nothing more, nothing less (Good: Fedora. Bad: Debian. Worse: Slackware).

There's other matters I shall have to look in to as well to simplify the project.

blockList

I hit a wall recently with mod-boot. Basically, when I parse a script file, I need to be able to store all the data given. However, I don't know before-hand how many dependencies the script will have, or how many features it provides. I could use a standard array, but that would be inefficient since I would have to allocate like 25 memory slots of which I might only use 3, and if something needs more then 25 slots, well, that's tricky now ain't it? I could use a GArray, which is a handy little feature of GLib, but unless I'm wrong, whenever you exceed your allocated memory, it has to allocate more and copy everything over, which gets inefficient, and if it works like the C++ STL vector template, then I'm still wasting a lot of memory. I could use a linked list, but that's slow to loop through.

Hence the need for blockList. Basically, it's a doubly linked list implementation where each node has an array. When you first create the blockList struct, you give it a number of bytes per array element (as with GArray), and a default number of elements per blockListElement (basically a node; I should rename it). It then keeps track of the number of blocks currently allocated, and the address of the first and last nodes, so that it can get to any given element as quickly as possible. The programmer can of course manually allocate a block with X elements, but that should also be handled transparently when an element is appended. It's currently not yet finished, but it's getting there. And it's fully 100% memory leak free, too!

Of video card drivers

Those who don't use FOSS operating systems likely aren't aware of the many troubles we have with our uncooperative video cards. It is common knowledge in the shared intelligence of the FOSS community that in terms of Linux support that Intel and VIA have more or less perfect out-of-the-box FOSS drivers, that nVidia has reasonably good Linux drivers (but only closed source, so many vendors can't use them), and ATI has the spottiest Linux support.

This situation, I'm glad to say, is about to come to an end. The nVidia driver is being reverse-compiled to create a better FOSS driver called nouveau (however, it seems to be coming along slowly, and my last test with it found that it's rather slow and buggy), and following AMD's buyout of ATI, ATI has started paying much more attention to Linux drivers. This came to a climax recently, when AMD officially announced that they're going to start releasing specs for their drivers and hiring people to work on a full FOSS ATI driver. This is expected to be finished by March 2008, in time for Linux 2.6.25.

In summary, w00t!

Game show idea

I had an interesting idea for a gameshow today. Basically, there's two or so contestants, each with a whiteboard, a marker, and nothing else. Then, the host then gives them a programming problem, and they have X minutes to design the needed data structures. Whoever has the simplest, most efficient, data structures wins the round.

Hey, I'd want to watch it...

mod-boot

Recently I had an interesting idea to improve boot speed on FOSS operating systems. I'll give some basics here, and then sometime maybe I'll add some more details on my website.

It started some time ago when I was reading all the Fedora stuff that was being planned and/or thought about, and something struck me as very interesting: Early GDM. Basically, the idea was that, instead of starting all the services needed for a runlevel during boot, you only run what's absolutely needed for GDM, and then once GDM and X.org is up finish with the other stuff.

I thought that was a brilliant idea, since it could lead to really short boot times. So I thought about it, and my idea is to have init start a C program with different command line options depending on the runlevel init wants, and then the C program would be in charge of running various daemons and configuration scripts asynchronously with a dependency system so that the user can configure with a configuration file what the goal daemon is. What I'm thinking of then is a directory for each runlevel, and all the scripts in each runlevel are analyzed for dependencies and a viable parallel execution order is run using forks and pipes. I'm not sure how backward compatibility will work (since every vendor has their own system... *groan*...), but I think something could be gimmicked with links since I'm not replacing init itself.

I've already designed a simple algorithm to determine the execution order, but I'm still attempting to optimize it so that it will work in parallel for performance reasons (especially now that all the major vendors have 4-core processors).

Tell me what you think.

I'm so whimsical...

I'm so whimsical sometimes. I just decided to throw my old desktop a new curveball. Yup, I'm going to reformat it and install Windoze 3.11.

This isn't completely batty; I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on the idea of a Windoze 3.11 clone for Linux, and I wanted to refresh my memory of good ol' 'doze. Now I realize I could have just installed bochs or something, but I realized that my ethernet cable was plugged into my laptop rather then my desktop, and rather then reach three feet behind me to grab it, I decided to just toss away everything on my hard drive.

Logical, aren't I?

Universal Combat Gold

Recently I finally got around to getting back into Gametap, and I got addicted to two games: Comanche 4 and Universal Combat Gold. The latter is more blog-worthy, so I'll talk about it.

Universal Combat Gold is a somewhat recent addition to the Battlecruiser Millennium series, which really is a fascinating concept. Basically, you can work in space, planet atmosphere, and ground, for trading, combat, etc, and even move between them. The problem is that it's poorly executed. The graphics are primitive at best, the controls and UI were designed by monkeys working in combination with the geniuses behind Falcon 4.0, and it's unbelievably buggy (do not, I repeat, do not minimize the game. You end up having to kill it with the task manager). And if you're a marine, you die a lot. Irritatingly much, in fact.
So I have a simple question: Why, oh why am I addicted to it?

Graphics: 3/5 - Quite primitive, but there are enough different environments to allow me to forgive that.
Gameplay: 2/5 - Unbelievably stupid. Fascinating in theory, though.
Stability: 2/5 - Playable, but just barely.
Tilt: 4/5 - Don't ask. I have no clue either.
Bottom line: 2.75 - Buggy, bad graphics, complex gameplay, but strangely fun.
Extra comments: According to the Gametap description, you're supposed to spend hundreds of hours mastering this game. Honestly, I don't have that kind of time. Also, for that reason, this is primarily a review of the ground and atmosphere modes. Space seems less buggy, but also less playable.

Let the classes begin!

It's that time of year again. Yup, you guessed it: classes begin.

My math stuff has arrived for Precalc II, and as I type this I'm supposed to be working on it.
Drivers ed also started a few days ago, where I spend 3 hours per night watching movies that tell me things I already know and listening to things I already read. Oh well, at least soon I'll get my permit.

Soon Spanish III will begin (and of course I've forgotten everything I learned in Spanish I and II...) along with debate. Oh, right, and my C/C++ programing class at the University, which will be succeeded right afterwards by a scheme course. *Groan*

On the bright side, VetClix has been making some real progress. I started using Subversion, so my work can make it to bleeding-edge people without my having to make releases.

Pegasus Prime

I just noticed that I forgot to update on my math course: I passed, and did pretty well.

Finally, the game I've been wanting for ages is in the mail. Those of you who don't know me should know that I am and always will be a Journeyman Project fanatic. Pegasus Prime was the "Director's Cut" of the first game in the series. Unfortunately, it was also mac-only. So, I bought it to look at the box. I'm so logical sometimes. Actually I'm planning to emulate it, but first I'll have to buy a copy of Mac OS 9 on Ebay.

Is it worth the money and effort to get a decade-old game working on a totally different platform then that for which it was made? I have little doubt that the answer is "yes" in this case.

Reviews:

• Four Fat Chicks - 5/5
• MacGamer - 80%
• Just Adventure - A (Contains mild language and a popup)

Example of a migration from Motif to GTK+

I found this interesting article on linux.com. Perfect example of what I wanted in an earlier post.

Xubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

Long time no post, I know. I've been reading C. S. Lewis, at my mom's request. I have to say, he is a really good author. So far I've read The Screwtape Letters and have started Mere Christianity, and I can really recommend the latter, and the former is pretty good.

I wrote this for a google group:

Having been convinced by Matt to give Ubuntu another try (In case you were curious, the first and last time I tried pure Ubuntu was with "Breezy Badger". It failed to install). However, being a Xfce advocate, I decided upon Xubuntu (The last time I tried Xubuntu was with "Dapper Drake". It installed OK, with frequent lockups). I had been scared off of Ubuntu by a bad experience with Kubuntu "Edgy Eft" that I now understand was a common issue.

My machine is a Pentium II 400mhz with 128mb RAM and a GeForce 2 MX. The LiveCD started up OK, but when Xfce started, it started without the panel. I have heard of that issue, and I suspect its cause is from a lack of RAM, seeing as how it worked OK on my system with 512mb RAM. Anyhow, the installer had several issues, including a glitch with partitioning. That was easily corrected, however, following my reading the release notes. The random installer lockups I had experienced with Dapper also seemed gone, although I seem to recall some lockup or something, I don't remember it well enough to report on it.

When my system booted up, the Xfce panel was launched as expected. The restricted driver manager easily installed the driver for my video card, and the updater, although not automatic out-of-the-box, went smoothly and offered more details then the Fedora "Zod" updater (I realize that Fedora "Moonshine is out now). The package managers were also fantastic; the Add/Remove program is new since Dapper, and is awesome (although it tried to install some GNOME dependencies and I didn't know until it had already started downloading them), and Synaptic was as good as always.

Desktop-wise, Xfce has a clean-yet-modern feel that I have yet to see anyplace else. However, there's still some features missing in xfdesktop that won't be added until Xfce 4.4.2, and the Applications menu quit button doesn't work, forcing me to use the panel applet. The compositor for xfwm4, much revamped (and mostly new) in Feisty (4.4.0), beats the pixels off of GNOME's Metacity, offering such must-haves as window shadows and transparency, but my system is too slow to use it much. So far, I haven't had any crashes or lockups, although my limited hardware sometimes leads to sluggish performance.

I haven't been using Feisty off a hard drive very long--under a day--but so far my experience has been quite favorable, and I look forward to trying it on better hardware. If I experience any major issues like that which caused me to leave Ubuntu in the first place, I will post an update.

Ghostbusters

I know I haven't blogged lately; I've been busy.

The magic man in the mail who sends movies offered Ghostbusters last night. Awesome movie. I give it 5/5. What's better then watching a giant marshmallow man tearing apart New York City?

I want a proton pack...

GTK+, QT, Motif

I've been a Linux fan for quite a few years back, ever since I read Moving to Linux (first edition; later editions cut stuff out, and he switched to Ubuntu and GNOME. Talk about criminal), but one thing that drives me nuts is that some developers insist on writing their programs in a toolkit that looks/is Motif. There's waay better UIs that look much less 1980, so why is it still being used at all?! Believe it not developers, looks are in fact important in a program.

Please, use a good toolkit like QT or GTK+. Everyone will thank you for it.

.NET=Horrible

I got over the flu after only a day, leaving me in a situation where I am able to stew over how awful .NET is. I wouldn't wish .NET on anybody, and the the Geneva convention surely forbids the cruelty that .NET puts on programmers.

.NET was created by Micro$loth to make programming easier and more consistent. In theory this is fine, but man. My experience with .NET programming with VB .NET was hardly smooth, and Micro$loth wants all new Windoze software to be written with .NET.

All I wanted to do was make a simple program that downloads and displays a .rtf file. So I write the program, and it works flawlessly on my machine. So I start up a very small beta program, and send it to a few people with the installer VB .NET gave me. And of course, Micro$loth won't let you make your own installer.
The first person got it up and running without problem.
All subsueqent testers had crippling problems. In one notable case the person tried installing it, and found his version of .NET was too old (1.1 vs. 2.0). So the installer tried installing .NET 2.0, and of course it failed for whatever reason. After manually installing .NET 2.0, it installed, but the program repetitively crashed.

This is not only my problem. When my dad made my mom's veterinary program in .NET 1.1, he was unable to install the program on the reception computer because of flaws in the installer (He did get it installed by spending a whole morning fiddling with it).

In conclusion, Micro$loth is, frankly, a jerk for forcing developers to use a flawed framework.

oog...

Oog...
Me got a flu. I can't really think, so reviewing Ubuntu like I had planned is out.
Rest assured, Ubuntu is trash and will drag Linux down into a pit of horrible stability unless it loses it's momentum.

Oog, logging out.

Book, Inherit the Earth, Math Exam

It was suggested that I re-do my chapters, so I rewrote it, chapters 1 and 2. I've started 3. In other words, major re-write since last post.

I got my math exam. I passed. W00t.

I wrote a spider for Inherit the Earth fans that downloads all the strips and keeps them updated.
You can find the thread with it here.

I'll review some software soon, I promise.