₦airaland Forum

I am an open-source addict therefore I use linux as my OS and i use purely open source tools (http://whdb.com/2008/the-top-50-proprietary-programs-that-drive-you-crazy-and-their-open-source-alternatives/). I am also a web developer and I have just finished developing a site that took me the better part of four months. I use linux so my web browser is definitely Mozilla FireFox. I av just concluded the design and I decided to boast a bit about it. I sent the links to my co-workers and friends and, that was when it started.

My darling website did not display well on other browsers, although it did perform perfectly well on firefox, it didnt perform as well on IE, safari, Opera etc. and I realise that I have just joined thousands of web developers whose worst nightmare is browser-incompatibility.

When are we going to have a standard, please help us appeal to W3C.

f you are an open source person, or you are tired of paying for softwares, here is a very comprehensive list of open source alternatives to all ur closed source softwares

miro vs windows media player
pidgin vd aol
open office vs microsoft office
etc etc etc

http://whdb.com/2008/the-top-50-proprietary-programs-that-drive-you-crazy-and-their-open-source-alternatives/

Sun just introduced the Netbeans 6.1 IDE. So many people believe the Eclipse IDE is better that Sun's Netbeans. I disagree. But that is not the gist, Sun's Netbeans IDE is virtually the best now in the IDE world, with plugins flying around and you being able to do almost any programming language on the IDE WITH CODE COMPLETION. Some of the popular languages supported by the Netbeans IDE are

* C/C++
* Ruby
* Rails
* PHP


You also have support for other web and language frameworks like CSS, Javascript/AJAX, XML, UML, HTML, XHTML, SOAP, BPEL,RESTful etc. I bet you dont need any other IDE for any of these. CSS here is better than in Dreamweaver. You av a sample panel where you see your changes as they are made. The only CSS IDE that ranks close to Netbeans IDE is Rapid CSS.

Javascript is something else here, Netbeans floors every other IDE including Notepad++ and Dreamweaver. In Ranking, Netbeans comes first, Notepad++ follows, Aptana IDE or RadRails come next and dreamweaver is lagging far far behind.

When it comes to AJAX support, Netbeans has support for jMAki,prototype, YahooWidgets, Google Codes (gMap etc), and other popular javascript libraries are also supported thru plugings like Dojo and Phobos

When it comes to XML and UML, The only IDE that comes close is Eclipse and even at that Netbeans is like 80 on a scale of 100 and Eclipse like 10.

Database support also soars high, we have support for

* MySQL
* Postgre
* Apache Derby
* Oracle


And thru JDBC-ODBC brigde, there is support for other popular DB's like Microsofts MSSQL Server, Oracle, IBM's DB2, Cache etc
There is no other IDE where database support is as seemless as Netbeans.

You can also create Images using the SVG Editor.

All these are apart from the pool of support and plugins available for almost anything you want to do. You can also use Netbeans to develop your own custom plugins for Netbeans!

Code completion has also taken a new bold step, now you just dont have code completions alone, you have it with a little documentation below it. This is where Netbeans beat other PHP IDE's to it.

For ruby and rails developers, its even a sweeter times. There are functionalities here that makes RadRails look like child's play.

The only IDE that beats all when it comes to web development using pure html is Dreamweaver(with its drag n Drop capabilities), although I dont know many developers who do pure html these days. Netbeans also provide same functionality, but only if you are a JSF programmer. Netbeans even go one step ahead, it gives you templates that are much more easier to modify than Dreamweavers templates.

All these features, the IDE must cost a million dollars right? NOPE Netbeans is FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. That is the best thing about this IDE, FOC, you can download it for free, you can even request request for a free CD or DVD shipped for free to you even if you live in calcuta-gongozoole-brundishmancrujanle-island.

Well thats as much as my hands can type. Get the Netbeans IDE yourself and see these cool tools for yourself and the many more I cant mention. WHERE? www.netbeans.org/downloads


I am out for now

[b]On a chilly March Afternoon b4 going home for dinner, Pastor Walter Klempel fired up the church furnace in preparation for choir practice. When it was time to return to church with his family, they were delayed because his daughter changed clothes. At the same time, student Ladona Vadergift was struggling with a geometry problem and stayed home to work on it. Sisters Royena and Sadie Este's car wouldnt start. Herbert Kipf lingered over a letter he had put off writing. Joyce Black was feeling "Plain Lazy" and stayed home till the last minute. Pianist Marilyn Paul fell asleep after dinner and her mom, the choir director, had trouble waking her. Pals, Lucie, Jones and Dorothy Wood were late because of a radio broadcast. Every single choir member was late; something that has never happened before nor since. Was it just a fluke? No! At 7.30 that night the West Side Church was flattened by an explosion from a gas leak ignited by the furnace, directly below the EMPTY CHOIR LOFT. Well you can call it fluke, fate, coincidence, chance or what it really is, Divine Protection. God's looking out for you when you dont even know it. Or wot else could this be?[/b]

Thanks you all that have replied. It's easier said than done, not when you see this person EVERYDAY. But I learnt a lesson sha, LOVE ca be sweet and bitter at the same time. The person I am talking about is my brother's gf and I for one won't want a girl to cause a fiasco between me and my brother. Not to mention the fact that my brother loves the girl so much. Anyway as the Yoruba's will put it "Alatise ni matise ara e" meaning it's my call anyway.

Thanks all. I appreciate

Commit suicide? no way

Meet someone new? I have tried it. There's dis other girl wu is head over heals. All she wants me to do is say the words whe wants to hear, I can't because I know I dont love her and as rightly said i dont want to break some1's heart.

This thing must av a cure! Please I need help because its actually affecting my work.

you loved someone, but now you want to stop loving that person. how do you go about it. running away is not an option. you tried but still you can't. sometimes you hate yourself for loving that person so much. what do you do. what is d cure for love?

@huxley
I don't have to know reliably that there is a god because I am a god! God in my own opinion is different from god, and my believe in a God makes me a god.doesn't make sense right? yap, its too simple, your mind it too learned, it can't accept it.

There are so many things that logical thinking can't explain. Ask me for examples and i wont give you one that is far fetched. I am 27 years old, I weigh 150 pounds, I am 6'2 tall. My friend here has same configurations of body build. We both ate 50 pounds of wheat in the morning. By 12noon I am feeling hungry while my friend is not.

Now as a programmer, logically that shouldn't happen because our bodies so similarly built should consume materials at the same rate. But a biologist will now take me further to explain some other factors that makes that so. So in my programmer mind, I say its fuzzy-logic. Logically its not ok, biologically its ok.

Logically God doesn't exist, spiritually he does. Again my analogy is too simple that some minds can't just accept it.

That is it. simple things don't appeal to complex minds, as much as some people can't understand why some "fools" will believe in a God.

And so if I am a fool for believing in God, I agree. In fact I am the foolishest of them all

There is no God and that is very true.

I wont try to prove otherwise.

I wont also beg anyone to accept the fact.

but why doesn't anyone reply to this Which is better, to live like there's a God, die and found out that you've been a fool. Or to live like there's no God, die and found out that there's really a God.

A beg forget that thing. There's God. It's simple that is why minds that are very learned can't accept that fact.

If you say I have a simple mind or that I am a fool, I agree, with a 2-1 B.Tech Certificate from a reknown state university in Nigeria, four contributions to open source software, several softwares to my credit(more still coming), recognition by Sun Microsystems and Netbeans, Working at a respectable Software company, a poetry award etc, If I have a simple mind, I guess I am OK.

Exactly what I am saying, personal revelation. For me personally I know that tithing works for me. For someone else its another kind of revelation. Even Paul said "that I may know him, " if Almighty Paul could say that, then we all should pray same too. For me, giving is a way of life, and I joy at every chance to do so. It's a revelation too that I have recieved, I gave my way to where I am today, where I am going tomorrow will also be a result of the seeds I have sown, be it in a church or in other people's lives.

my 2 cents

@anonimi. No i dont get dashes or whatever you call it. I get the 50K difference in form of ideas and jobs I knew were just the handiwork of God. I have been working for 3 months earning 20k and living on 20k, although during this time i still pay my tithe. Then during the first month of the sacrifice, I began to get calls, jobs and ideas that pay me more than my job could. Call it luck or fluke, I dont mind, its me, and I know God when I sees him.

@all who does not belive in tithe : Do you believe in the Old testament or Not, because Christ himself quoted the old testament, Peter quoted it too in acts.
Why am i saying this, Abraham was not a priest and he paid tithe, so who says tithe is for priests alone? I am also very confused about your arguements that God was speaking to the Isrealites, what happened to the scripture that says our commonwealth has changed as a result of our being born again? also I am not a very good Bible student but I think all these things I have posted here are scriptures. I dont want to argue with you so please dont expect that I will reply to your subsequest posts. no i wont do that because again I think it was said somewhere in the Bible that we should not engage in vain talks.

@all who believes in tithe : If anyone know the truth and doeth it not to him it is sin

The things of God(or the spirit) can not be understood by normal men, they are foolishness to him, because they are spiritually discerned. So if some people say that tithing is optional, its their level of knowledge in God. There are personal revelations and General revelations. When the personal revelation dawns on you, you will pay your tithe even if it means begging to do so.

Now if you think I am lying its your cup of tea. this is my personal testimony.

I earn 20k a month and I owe someone 38k due to some business deal gone bad. Anyway after some discussions we came to agreement that I pay the money over 5 months which means 7.6k per month. 20k is not enough for me considering the standard of living in the city where I live, minus 7.6K from it and you are left with what you can actually call peanuts. But still I pay my tithe of 2k. What I have left is 10K or so and going by the economy of man, that money should last me for a week! But its been three months now and I can't remember a month when I don't have over 2k with me on a daily basis. In actually fact my budget is a little over 2k per day. Now call it fluke or whatver you want, i know its God. Thats my personal revelation, I CAN NEVER STOP PAYING MY TITHE. So for those who say tithe is not important or not relevant, fine go ahead, I pray that God will also give u a personal revelation. Remember that when Saul(converted Paul) was killing the disciples, he actually thought HE WAS WORKING FOR GOD. A personal revelation changed all that.

My 2 cents

I hate all this arguements about which is better and which is not,

Why? my motto is simple, get the job done, get paid, everyone is happy

I am a fan of MySQL but if a client says Oracle why not as long as he is paying for it,

I have used at least most programming languages(although I stick with java), but the truth is if pascal will do the job well in lesser time why not?

A beg leave all these stories and go start earning some money,

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Java And Nigerian Developers, dont miss out

Thanks javaprince, how I wish I have the time to do that, with projects flying around here and here and deadlines to meet.I wish I had learnt it back in sku.

tx anyway.

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JAND (Proudly Java Proudly Nigerian)

C++ or Java, Its just a question of what is it you want to do.I am yet to see a very functional OS written from ground up with Java, there is one OS on SourceForge some Jokers claim can compete with the likes of Unix and Linux, tried it and puff its blam.

So as I av said its a matter of what is it you want to do. If you want to write drivers, OSes and d likes i will definitely advise even the KIDS to stay with C++, but if you what you want is a compelling user interface across multiple screens of your live, write once run anywhere, intuitive technology backed by a Fortune 500 company and a community as large as you can have, with all the necessary hypes and buzz, then what you need is Java

Now I ask myself, will I rather write an OS or a Driver or a very good software that is actually usable? Its a matter of choice. I believe if C++ has the kind of backing Java has, it will also make sense for writing client side programs, even with IDE's it's still a little pain designing GUI's with C++.

What can't I give for Netbeans.

I beg leave story for market women java indeed rules.

I cant help but laugh. Well at least we know what to do with the Trojan Horse now

Sincerely I tried to learn regex, but I think I prefer to copy and paste it rather than write it myself

The most powerful programming language I have ever come across is c/c++.

Does that tell you something? yes I see no disparity between both.

You have doubts? MySQL c-based, Oracle c-based, Firefox c-based, Java c-based, Linux c-based, i can go on and on.

But dont mis-understand me, when I say c-based I mean c/c++ because you can't actually compile any of these from source(where source are available) without having both the gcc and g++ compilers(i mean c and c++ compilers).

The question I keep asking myself is this, where was Java when all these things are being developed using C.

I am not slighting Java because its actually my language of choice

Line Noise indeed

Please beware, Project Mono has been described as a Trojan Horse and I agree. M$ wants a foothold in Linux because they believe the growth of Linux is begining to threaten them.

Project Mono is a M$ sponsored Novell project that allows developers to use .NET products on Linux. If i had a doubt about this Trojan Horse thing, A look at OpenSuSE 11 RC1 cleared all doubts. I see the hand of M$ in everything. From Installer to Startup to programs to everything. If you wish to see Linux die a sudden death, embrace project mono, else NEVER ACCEPT A GIFT FROM THE GREEKS

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia, it tells the story of the Trojan Horse in a poemlike interesting way.

By destiny compell'd, and in despair,
The Greeks grew weary of the tedious war,
And by Minerva's aid a fabric rear'd,
Which like a steed of monstrous height appear'd:
The sides were plank'd with pine; they feign'd it made
For their return, and this the vow they paid.
Thus they pretend, but in the hollow side
Selected numbers of their soldiers hide:
With inward arms the dire machine they load,
And iron bowels stuff the dark abode.

Laocoon, follow'd by a num'rous crowd,
Ran from the fort, and cried, from far, aloud:
‘O wretched countrymen! What fury reigns?
What more than madness has possess'd your brains?
Think you the Grecians from your coasts are gone?
And are Ulysses' arts no better known?
This hollow fabric either must inclose,
Within its blind recess, our secret foes;
Or 't is an engine rais'd above the town,
T' o'erlook the walls, and then to batter down.
Somewhat is sure design'd, by fraud or force:
Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse.’

Ho tomX, I never tot it will be this easy, I am having fun really

[quote author=@tomX link=topic=136249.msg2328081#msg2328081 date=1212482943]When you qoute someone be sure to use the qoute in the right context:[/quote]Now u are not quoting me in the right context are u?

javarules:
And by the way who said I have difficulties with M$, nah. I only help M$ users solve their problems, and what I have posted here are the numerous cases I have witnessed from my clients. If I solve this problem and I don't even use M$ products then "any dummy can use M$", I am so sorry and I repeat so sorry if that hurts, but its d truth.

Now this is what I mean, if I can help guys solve their M$ problems and I dont use M$, that must mean I use something higher in ranking than M$ right? and "any dummy can use M$" is actually a figure of speech (i forgot what they call it) What I mean is M$ is not as easy as u make it seem.

Look at the post again and read in between the lines hah I am really having fun

The essence of this post is to scold all. but check through the post, there's not a single OS mentioned. Every OS has got their idiosyncracies and I dont want to get into that yet. I want to scold the software apps first and den get down to the OSes.

I had problems with Vista(or say my clients do) and when I recieved two written and two oral requests to say something about Vista, I did. If you want me to scold Linux or FreeBSD(I have used both) I can. If you want me to talk about Apple MAC or Sun's Solaris I might not be able to, becos I have not used it and my clients have not too. So you can see why I reserve my comments initially, because if I want to scold all, then I should scold all and not leave some.

All in All, we are all just having fun aint we?

Sincerely I cant help but smile as I am writing this. Except my understanding of English Language is shallow, which I wont doubt, ANYTHING is a term that says all, regardless of age,sex,occupation,tribe,model,height,look, regardless of anything at all, anything means all. Why am I saying this,

[quote author=@tomX link=topic=136249.msg2328081#msg2328081 date=1212482943]When you qoute someone be sure to use the qoute in the right context:
Original qoute: According to Simpson's law (Hommer Simpson that is): Anything that is difficult to do is not worth doing!
The rule in question is a guide to general consumer attitude to product not to the developers.[/quote]maybe there are no programmers when Simpson made that quote, I understand. Maybe there are but Simpson was just plain shortsighted, that also I understand. But what I dont understand is how developers are excluded from anything

And by the way who said I have difficulties with M$, nah. I only help M$ users solve their problems, and what I have posted here are the numerous cases I have witnessed from my clients. If I solve this problem and I dont even use M$ products then "any dummy can use M$", I am so sorry and I repeat so sorry if that hurts, but its d truth.

Finally, as I have always said, this is not a war with anybody, I am comfortable, my clients are happy, jobs get done, wu cares if its M$ or Linux? and if u check my post, I never wanted to mention Vista, i did so by popular demand.

@logica

You have posted on this forum 99times, I was just wondering wot ur 100th post will be. Let it be the post of the century

@logica
Yes I agree with you, money is not everything. But still money is something and sincerely u need money to runs things, in as much as we shudnt be modelled after M$, guy we need money ooooo

I have posted this somewhere before but I will like to see/hear the views of the guys on nairaland

Really quick, can you tell me what this is?

-pl s!.!y$IVCXL426(-:$XLMCDIVX$dfor$$_.=5x$&*8%29628;$$$_=$_!egfor-4e3, y/iul-}/-$+ /%s''$';*_=eval

I’ll give you a hint- It’s not a cat walking across my keyboard. If that was your first guess, though, we’re at least on the same page. This was the winning entry in a game of Perl Golf: The problem was to write a Roman Numeral Calculator in the fewest characters possible. Submissions can be found here http://www.fonality.com/golf/post_mortem.cgi?id=1 . Now, this is an amazing piece of code. The person who wrote it is clearly very skilled. The fact that Perl makes code like that possible is pretty impressive. The problem here is that people write code like this outside of PERL golf, and think to themselves, “it’s only one line, so it must have fewer bugs than a 50 line solution”. Really? Because if I had to debug one, I’d have definitely gone with the 50 line solution.

Writing unmaintanable code does not reduce the bug count for a project. A friend of mine coined a term for code like that- “Write-Only Code”- a takeoff on the permissions you can set with chmod. Think about it: Readable, writeable, and executable. Shouldn’t code be all three?

Another quick example:

(0/:l)(_+_)

The first time I saw this snippet, I thought someone was, via emoticons, trying to re-enact the facial expression one wore when seeing Ghosts for the first time. It’s not actually a story told by emoticon. It’s a piece of scala code that sums the elements in a list. And I just don’t see it as having been easier to write than a for loop. It’s definitely not as maintainable. This piece of code, actually, prompted a conversation with a friend about holding a “code or emoticon” contest, but we really couldn’t come up with any serious contenders to this one. Maybe some Perl Golfers could throw their hat in the ring?

So wot do you think, should code be readable, writable and executable or we should go with these "Write-Only-Code"?

Open source or closed source. I am now ready to give my sincere views on this matter

First the GNU licence properly puts things in place such that u can't take open source and sell it as kobojunkie said. In actual fact doing dt will means breaking the law. I think we all should read that licence before using any software licenced under GNU GPL

Next I have been using linux for a while and my company just embraced CentOS, I can't remember us paying a dime for that. Companies that has made considerate money from open source made the bulk of such money from support. Like a friend of mine puts it, open source is free only if you are a good developer, and by good he meant good. For example I took the source code of Mozilla Firefox and sincerely the only thing that encourages me to go on looking at the code is the fact that I need to modify firefox a little to suit some needs, in other words, I would have prefer to buy firefox (or pay for support) than sit down with the code myself.

Also, I believe Nigerian developers can also contribute their own quota to the software world by open-sourcing some of their less-codes. For example I wrote a plugin for netbeans and I open source it because I believe even I want to sell it, who will buy it, but by making it open source, my friends can contribute to it and we can together make it bigger. Open source is not usually a rip off. If you have developed a good software, some people will like to pay for support instead of sitting down with the code themselves.

I can name some companies that have made considerable money via open source. One of them is RedHat. Although RedHat linux is free, if you order for the CD, they charge for the CD and the shipping(which is in accordance with GNU GPL), If you also are a low level user, you can pay for support, and this company is quite successful and made a name for itself.

Another company is MySQL, their modus operandi is this, release a community version, let the open source community find the bugs and fixes, then this version after stabilizing it, they release it to the other community of users who pay for support. By so doing everyone is happy, the power users don't pay but they contribute, the low level users pay, but they pay for a software that have been tested and proved by quite a large array of power users.

The third company I will mention here is Sun. Although they just started their open-source campaign, their approach is very similar to that of MySQL described above.

Asterics PBX is another company, the software is free, but for you to be able to utilize it to its full capacity, u might need to attend their trainings and boot camps.

I can go on and on. But the bottom line is Open Source is not actually free, it just means the source code is available, and that also does not mean you can't make money from it, it also does not mean others can pick your code and make money from it. NO.

Finally this is my view, Open Source or Proprietary, As long as everyone is happy, the job gets done and clients keep coming back, who cares?!

Java Programming
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Java How to Program Deitel Deitel

Linux
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H.a.c.k.e.r.s Guide to Linux (Cant rem d author)

There will be a paradigm shift soon.

The reason why M$ thrives in Naija dt much is because dose that have money to setup business have it so much dt dy can afford M$ products, Naija has not been a good ground for up-coming businesses, but like I said things are changing, The cost of Oracle licence is 40k USD, why will I use dt for an upcoming business when MySQL is free or at least 5k USD if I want to buy.

But for now my guy make I advice u, go learn .NET if u no sabi am. I am a java programmer and I have to take tym out 2 learn a little C#, although I have not been able to use it for anything meaningful but I know whenever duty calls I am prepared.

And anoda thing, although php sucks, its synonymous to web development so learn it too.

And if you like google, learn python

my 2cents

@kobojunkie

I am sorry I picked on you like that.I found out that the best way to make friends is first get them on edge and then apologise.

If you know me u will know that I care less about this or that. I just post here people's opinions of these softwares.

If I can diss Java. then who shud I spare

So I believe its not what tools is better than the other.

I dont even think I can use Win XP that well. I have been a linux person all the while.

I believe what is most important is GET THE JOB DONE and make your customers happy.

I will like to meet you. trinisoftinc@yahoo.com

I tot someone said on this post that learning linux wastes his time.

I hope this person wont mind spending MONTHS learning Vista and M$ Office

The point is this.Go online, do a search and see what even techys are saying about Vista and Office

Its not me like I use M$ Office.I have been using Linux since God knows when.I have clients who bought new laptops and call me on a daily basis

Someone called and said "I have not been able to successfully shutdown my Windows Vista since I bought it"

That means something to me. It means something to all the guys out there who believes M$ could have done better that releasing a Windows that's practically unusable to those who are used to the former releases.

The difference between SUSE 10.1 and 10.3 is not un-usability its functionality