From the vaults of Twitter

10 July 2008 .NET Apple Microsoft C#Envy Code

I don’t normally republish my Tweets but are my highlights.

damienguard:
Methods returning "this" is a hack for fluency. Let’s get ".." added to the C# compiler to operate on previous object. a.This()..That()

lazycoder:
@damienguard I can’t decide if that’s genius or insanity. Should we add the "~" operator to refer back to the top of the inherit. chain? ;)

LostInTangent:
@damienguard I’ve started using Envy Code R for most of my applications (not just VS) and I have to say I’m loving it.

damienguard:
@LostInTangent: Envy Code R PR8 soon – Greek chars, improved hinting and some glyph revisions subscript/fractions & *96 redone.

damienguard:
Statically typed languages are not flexible enough to develop dynamically linked libraries.

damienguard:
Renaming your WiFi router StupidRouter does not alas shame it into being more reliable.

damienguard:
@command_tab: Am I the only one who finds paying for pretty UI’s to leverage free software that took much more effort to develop offensive?

damienguard:
Just took delivery on my Alps-switched keyboard… feels good so far… but let’s see if co-workers complain about the noise.

Plip:
@damienguard I CAN’T HEAR MYSELF THINK FOR THAT INFERNAL CLICKING !

damienguard:
@lancefisher The alps keyboard was from DSI USA… but don’t order one, terrible 2-key limits prevent fast typing.

damienguard:
Apple should add hobbyist to its OS X line-up. Make kernel easier to switch, remove the h/w lock-down and no support.

damienguard:
Standard windows font smoothing’s real problem is lack of scales. Convert a ClearType rendering to greyscale in Photoshop…

[)amien

4 responses

The '..' operator is completely bonkers but at the same time strangely attractive. Not having to worry about inherited interfaces implicitly upcasting without being wrapped for each subclass, casting or using a nasty generics hack is certainly interesting, as is being able to chain methods where you don't care about the return value, or perhaps even process it inside parentheses (although that might lead to levels of nested obsfucation that even Perl would balk at).
Steve – 10 July 2008
I've been using a Northgate, then two Avant Primes after Northgate went under (they bought the rights). The original IBM is the best, if you can find one. And then, Cherry flouts their Alps switched keyboards. The Avant keys have more horizontal play than the IBM, so I considered the Cherry. Then I took the keys off to clean them and found Alps switches. Don't know if there are meaningfully different versions of those switches. The Avant comes from Creative Vision Tech and is programmable on windoze. About $150 last I looked.

The noise is not so much the switches, but the metal chassis bottom plate. Kind of like a piano sounding board. I kinda like it.
robert – 11 July 2008
I have an IBM Model M but I much prefer the Das Keyboard 2 with it's Cherry MX switches (which are very different from Alps switches).

The noise doesn't bother me but it certainly bothers others - how they expect developers to work in open-plan cubes anyway...
Damien Guard – 11 July 2008
Apparently the model Ms are still being manufactured, complete with their original buckling spring keys (though now in plastic housings instead of metal ones), by a US company that bought the designs, equipment, etc. from Lexmark (who of course got it from IBM.) They go under the product name of Customizer now, and a search for Unicomp will turn up the company and a place to buy them. At $70 a pop I'll probably be buying at least two (one for home and one for my client site) pretty soon.
Jeremy Gray – 26 July 2008
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