Comments on: Community pulse: Delphi Survey hacked (well, almost) – Part 1 http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/ ...On the Wings of the Software Wind Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:09:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: jane http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-2403 jane Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:09:56 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-2403 Don’t get the title – what is/was “hacked Don’t get the title – what is/was “hacked

]]> By: Wings of Wind http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1473 Wings of Wind Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:55:19 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1473 Yep, this is one of the drawbacks of the polls. But, hey, that's why we have the comments. And don't be afraid, the team monitors them. Thanks for the feedback! Yep, this is one of the drawbacks of the polls. But, hey, that’s why we have the comments. And don’t be afraid, the team monitors them.

Thanks for the feedback!

]]> By: Rob Uttley http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1459 Rob Uttley Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:40:21 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1459 My only gripe with the survey (I abandoned it while I thought about how I was going to solve this); I want to tell them that I have bought Rad Studio 2010, but I can't rate it as I'm not able to use it in any of my projects yet. There ought to be some way to let me differentiate between the last version I bought (ie 2010) and the version I am qualified/experienced enough with to 'rate' (in my case, 2007). I guess I could just tell the poll that I last bought 2007, then enter my thoughts on it (this is what I'll probably do), but I want Delphi to succeed and I wanted to answer the poll as honestly and supportively as I could. I've bought 2010, and I'm keen to use it, but I'm not qualified to comment on any of it at the moment. :-) Cheers Rob My only gripe with the survey (I abandoned it while I thought about how I was going to solve this); I want to tell them that I have bought Rad Studio 2010, but I can’t rate it as I’m not able to use it in any of my projects yet. There ought to be some way to let me differentiate between the last version I bought (ie 2010) and the version I am qualified/experienced enough with to ‘rate’ (in my case, 2007).

I guess I could just tell the poll that I last bought 2007, then enter my thoughts on it (this is what I’ll probably do), but I want Delphi to succeed and I wanted to answer the poll as honestly and supportively as I could. I’ve bought 2010, and I’m keen to use it, but I’m not qualified to comment on any of it at the moment. :-)

Cheers
Rob

]]> By: Wings of Wind http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1454 Wings of Wind Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:01:17 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1454 Yes, perhaps I'll have a look. Can you make a draft from a Delphi as why these are better than threads and/or actor model? Also a Delphian syntax would be nice to have. Yes, perhaps I’ll have a look. Can you make a draft from a Delphi as why these are better than threads and/or actor model? Also a Delphian syntax would be nice to have.

]]> By: Ken Knopfli http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1450 Ken Knopfli Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:28:34 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1450 PS: despite all my grumbling, I am really delighted Embi is taking time to ask users directly. Thanks a lot! PS: despite all my grumbling, I am really delighted Embi is taking time to ask users directly. Thanks a lot!

]]> By: Ken Knopfli http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1449 Ken Knopfli Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:20:33 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1449 "I also added a open questions to talk about anything. " I did in fact make use of those. Thank you. “I also added a open questions to talk about anything. ”

I did in fact make use of those. Thank you.

]]> By: Ciprian Popa http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1448 Ciprian Popa Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:48:14 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1448 Huhhh .... I just completed the survey (but I'll gave my thumb down to all those 100% calculation to be performed)... Anyway, since the "concurent/parallel" feature was quite present in the several places into the survey I just want to point out some really great concurrency presentations made by Rich Hickey (The Clojure's "Father") that can enlighten the Delphi programmers on how to realize great parallelism ... and also might provide some very good hints/ideas for the Delphi compiler geeks (ex: Allen & Barry) to spice up the Delphi language/RTL. Hopefully in the next Delphi RTLs (since the last survey and in past also Allen give us some hints on the "parallel" support) we can encounter something similarly simple and powerful like the persistent and reference structures presented by Rich. So, here comes the links: Clojure Concurrency: Brief overview of Clojure, discussion of concurrency issues, locking, and immutabiity. In-depth look at Clojure's refs, transactions and agents. Demonstration and review of code for a multithreaded ant colony simulation http://blip.tv/file/812787 Persistent Data Structures and Managed References http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Value-Identity-State-Rich-Hickey Absolutely "have to watch" ! PS: I also entered a "Non-Tech" forum entry named "Goldmine: Great Rich Hickey (Clojure's "Father") concurency talks" with the same content here: https://forums.embarcadero.com/thread.jspa?messageID=175899 Huhhh …. I just completed the survey (but I’ll gave my thumb down to all those 100% calculation to be performed)…

Anyway, since the “concurent/parallel” feature was quite present in the several places into the survey I just want to point out some really great concurrency presentations made by Rich Hickey (The Clojure’s “Father”) that can enlighten the Delphi programmers on how to realize great parallelism … and also might provide some very good hints/ideas for the Delphi compiler geeks (ex: Allen & Barry) to spice up the Delphi language/RTL.

Hopefully in the next Delphi RTLs (since the last survey and in past also Allen give us some hints on the “parallel” support) we can encounter something similarly simple and powerful like the persistent and reference structures presented by Rich.

So, here comes the links:

Clojure Concurrency: Brief overview of Clojure, discussion of concurrency issues, locking, and immutabiity. In-depth look at Clojure’s refs, transactions and agents. Demonstration and review of code for a multithreaded ant colony simulation
http://blip.tv/file/812787

Persistent Data Structures and Managed References
http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Value-Identity-State-Rich-Hickey

Absolutely “have to watch” !

PS: I also entered a “Non-Tech” forum entry named “Goldmine: Great Rich Hickey (Clojure’s “Father”) concurency talks” with the same content here:
https://forums.embarcadero.com/thread.jspa?messageID=175899

]]> By: Oliver http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1446 Oliver Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:26:51 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1446 Right, eventually found the quote (it's in the article "Hack_(technology)" ). Still sounds wrong to me. I am German and I never heard the word "Hacker" be used to describe "someone making furniture with an axe", though that might of course simply be an extremely archaic term by now... The original article referenced in the footnote of that article also doesn't mention German, though. Right, eventually found the quote (it’s in the article “Hack_(technology)” ).

Still sounds wrong to me. I am German and I never heard the word “Hacker” be used to describe “someone making furniture with an axe”, though that might of course simply be an extremely archaic term by now…

The original article referenced in the footnote of that article also doesn’t mention German, though.

]]> By: Oliver http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1445 Oliver Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:16:07 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1445 Sorry, but that quote is nonsense (I also couldn't actually find it on Wikipedia - what article is that supposed to be from?). The German verb "hacken", has actually nothing to do with making furniture. It simply describes the sudden downward motion you make when you chop wood - or, as it might be, hit keys or on a keyboard... Sorry, but that quote is nonsense (I also couldn’t actually find it on Wikipedia – what article is that supposed to be from?). The German verb “hacken”, has actually nothing to do with making furniture. It simply describes the sudden downward motion you make when you chop wood – or, as it might be, hit keys or on a keyboard…

]]> By: Wings of Wind http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1444 Wings of Wind Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:24:31 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1444 Surveys are good to take community snapshots for data mining and are very suitable for data mining hence they helps significantly in decision making process. That said there are several important problems with polls - some of them can have quite dangerous consequences. Incidentally this survey has some such problems. And (un)fortunately not necessarily because of its design. 1. Human factors. First of all, the survey's theme is so complex and some questions involve enough human factors in order to require further explanation. For example, let's start with the beginning (The question 4 on page 1): "Rate Delphi technology. Excellent, Good,..." (etc.) What means 'Technology'? ...'Excellent' means that I'm someone who has a let's say D7 (my last purchase, isn't it?) and just maintain some applications (ie. 5 bug fixes in 5 months) or someone who fights with D2010 to provide bleeding edge solutions to compete with VS, Java ecosystem etc.? 2. Dictionary. Page 5 - Question 1. Do you know all those 'Insights' which are listed there? And, much more dangerous, perhaps someone <strong>thinks</strong> that knows what a feature does and marks it 'Don't Use' which in fact means "I would use it if it would had that 'foo' functionality' - thing which is lost - the Team will think that the feature is 'broken / poor / low value' (etc) - and in most cases the 'foo' functionality is already inside (but not discoverable due of most probably GUI design problems) or seeing holistically, the 'foo' functionality isn't really needed but the one who took the survey at that time wasn't able to figure it out. 3. Size. Too big. But I understand them. Anyway, now is too late to discuss this... (but if the pressure grows perhaps I'll make a post on the theme) Surveys are good to take community snapshots for data mining and are very suitable for data mining hence they helps significantly in decision making process. That said there are several important problems with polls – some of them can have quite dangerous consequences. Incidentally this survey has some such problems. And (un)fortunately not necessarily because of its design.
1. Human factors. First of all, the survey’s theme is so complex and some questions involve enough human factors in order to require further explanation. For example, let’s start with the beginning (The question 4 on page 1): “Rate Delphi technology. Excellent, Good,…” (etc.) What means ‘Technology’? …’Excellent’ means that I’m someone who has a let’s say D7 (my last purchase, isn’t it?) and just maintain some applications (ie. 5 bug fixes in 5 months) or someone who fights with D2010 to provide bleeding edge solutions to compete with VS, Java ecosystem etc.?

2. Dictionary. Page 5 – Question 1. Do you know all those ‘Insights’ which are listed there? And, much more dangerous, perhaps someone thinks that knows what a feature does and marks it ‘Don’t Use’ which in fact means “I would use it if it would had that ‘foo’ functionality’ – thing which is lost – the Team will think that the feature is ‘broken / poor / low value’ (etc) – and in most cases the ‘foo’ functionality is already inside (but not discoverable due of most probably GUI design problems) or seeing holistically, the ‘foo’ functionality isn’t really needed but the one who took the survey at that time wasn’t able to figure it out.

3. Size. Too big. But I understand them. Anyway, now is too late to discuss this… (but if the pressure grows perhaps I’ll make a post on the theme)

]]> By: Mike Rozlog http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1443 Mike Rozlog Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:11:26 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1443 Ken, Added technical terms definitions and also tried to add comments in logical places. So that you have an opportunity to comment on things. I also added a open questions to talk about anything. Mike Ken,

Added technical terms definitions and also tried to add comments in logical places. So that you have an opportunity to comment on things. I also added a open questions to talk about anything.

Mike

]]> By: Mike Rozlog http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1442 Mike Rozlog Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:09:51 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1442 Warren, I don't disagree and I believe in the future I will change the questions to be more ordered or importance. By the way, I also agree that the poll is long and I hope to break-it-up in the future and do it a little more often than 2 years. Mike Warren,

I don’t disagree and I believe in the future I will change the questions to be more ordered or importance. By the way, I also agree that the poll is long and I hope to break-it-up in the future and do it a little more often than 2 years.

Mike

]]> By: Warren http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1441 Warren Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:54:51 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1441 1. Survey was way too long. 2. Adding up points to make 100 total was rediculous 'noise' idea. Much better idea to sort things in the list of their importance. 1. Survey was way too long.
2. Adding up points to make 100 total was rediculous ‘noise’ idea. Much better idea to sort things in the list of their importance.

]]> By: Ken Knopfli http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1440 Ken Knopfli Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:51:55 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1440 Being asked to allocate values out of 100 to a long list of choices was bizarre. Had me reaching for my pocket calculator to make sure I got it right. The second time I just chose two or three features, gave them values and moved on. What also concerns me is the tendency to use technical/insider terms without explanation. Then you have to guess what it might be. Also, some features really WOULD be useful to, but they don't work properly (in my version of Delphi), so how do you convey this with these choices? Will Embi have a different evaluation sheet for each version a user selected in the beginning, or will they say, "no-one uses this"? I found the previous survey frustrating, too. Being asked to allocate values out of 100 to a long list of choices was bizarre. Had me reaching for my pocket calculator to make sure I got it right. The second time I just chose two or three features, gave them values and moved on.

What also concerns me is the tendency to use technical/insider terms without explanation. Then you have to guess what it might be.

Also, some features really WOULD be useful to, but they don’t work properly (in my version of Delphi), so how do you convey this with these choices? Will Embi have a different evaluation sheet for each version a user selected in the beginning, or will they say, “no-one uses this”?

I found the previous survey frustrating, too.

]]> By: Jamie http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1439 Jamie Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:49:35 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1439 I'm not sure I understand why you've reproduced sections of the survey here, surely people need to just get on with filling out the real survey? I’m not sure I understand why you’ve reproduced sections of the survey here, surely people need to just get on with filling out the real survey?

]]> By: gabr http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1438 gabr Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:19:37 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1438 I know the original meaning and I'm trying to use it that way but I still didn't get the connection, so thanks for the explanation. I know the original meaning and I’m trying to use it that way but I still didn’t get the connection, so thanks for the explanation.

]]> By: Wings of Wind http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1437 Wings of Wind Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:17:08 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1437 Now 'hacked' is used in his original sense: <em>"The word itself comes from the German word meaning "someone who makes furniture with an axe",[2] implying a lack of finesse in a "hack"; it is believed by many in the hacking community that the reason for this is because programs too large to run on the limited computer resources of the time had portions "chopped" or "hacked" out in order to be reduced to a more reasonable size."</em> (from Wikipedia) I 'chopped' the survey in order make it more affordable for anyone if he wants to ask (for ex. 'What Iterators mean?' 'What is MVC language feature?' etc.), discuss or explain the choices (eg. 'I voted "Don't use/Don't Care' but if that feature would have the <em>'x'</em> improvement I would definitely use it' etc.) Now ‘hacked’ is used in his original sense:

“The word itself comes from the German word meaning “someone who makes furniture with an axe”,[2] implying a lack of finesse in a “hack”; it is believed by many in the hacking community that the reason for this is because programs too large to run on the limited computer resources of the time had portions “chopped” or “hacked” out in order to be reduced to a more reasonable size.” (from Wikipedia)

I ‘chopped’ the survey in order make it more affordable for anyone if he wants to ask (for ex. ‘What Iterators mean?’ ‘What is MVC language feature?’ etc.), discuss or explain the choices (eg. ‘I voted “Don’t use/Don’t Care’ but if that feature would have the ‘x’ improvement I would definitely use it’ etc.)

]]> By: gabr http://windwings.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/community-pulse-delphi-survey-hacked-well-almost-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1435 gabr Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:59:57 +0000 http://wings-of-wind.com/?p=465#comment-1435 Don't get the title - what is/was "hacked"? Don’t get the title – what is/was “hacked”?

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