Infelizmente, não levou muito tempo para que eu achasse um exemplo real do meu medo.

Na Zero Hora de hoje, bem na capa, há a seguinte manchete:

“Um goleiro enredado”

É, obviamente, uma alusão à prisão do goleiro Bruno do Flamengo, acusado de ter sequestrado a amante, força-la a abortar e, como a criança chegou a nascer, acabou por planejar a morte da mesma. Ou, pelo menos, é a linha que está sendo seguida pelas investigações da polícia e cujos fatos estão surgindo para confirmar a hipótese.

E, com um caso bárbado destes, a Zero Hora, que deveria ser um jornal sério (em contra-partida com o já não sério Diário Gaúcho), coloca um trocadilho destes. Se jornal tivesse som, a manchete seria seguida por algum imitador do Sílvio Santos rindo.

Um homem abusa da posição de sucesso na mídia para participar de orgias, engravida uma garota de programa, força-a a abortar e depois planeja sua morte e a executa com a ajuda de traficantes. E vira trocadilho de um dos maiores veículos de notícias do estado.

Realmente, “jornalismo” é uma atividade rara no país, sendo gradualmente substituido pela comédia.

Over the weekend I got some reactions over the str.join() vs list.join(). Well, just for fun, this morning I played “what if” in my head.

So, let’s say every iterable got a join() method. So you could

>>> a = ['s', 'l', 'o', 'w']
>>> a.join('')
slow

Exactly as JavaScript does. Mkay. A could even be a tuple and would still work. Or, stupidly enough, a string and still work. But, then, what would be the first thing that would cross you mind when you saw this code for the first time:

>>> a = ['s', 'l', 'o', 'w']
>>> b = ['r', 'u', 'l', 'z']
>>> c = a.join(b)

You have a list in one side and a list in the other with a “join” method. List-join-list. Well, I’d expect another list with ['s', 'l', 'o', 'w', 'r', 'u', 'l', 'z'] which is what extend() does.

But let’s return to the original str.join(): What it does is, join the iterable in the parameters using “self”. Mkay, so what would be:

c = ['r', ['s', 'l', 'o', 'w'], 'u', ['s', 'l', 'o', 'w'], 'l', ['s', 'l', 'o', 'w'], 'z']

Which doesn’t make any sense.

Let’s go further. join() could, possible, call str() for the parameter and still react like JavaScript join(). Why? Well, as you may already know, Python have dynamic typing which means any variable can be used. Just to remember:

var l = ['s', 'l', 'o', 'w']
var j = l.join('')

would result in “slow” in JavaScript. Mkay, so

>>> l = ['s', 'l', 'o', 'w']
>>> r = ['r', 'u', 'l', 'z']
>>> j = l.join(r)

Would result in… guess what, "s['r', 'u', 'l', 'z']l['r', 'u', 'l', 'z']o['r', 'u', 'l', 'z']w" which, not surprisingly, still doesn’t make sense. Ok, if r was a simple string, it would react exactly like JavaScript. But it would be a mess with any other types. And what’s the point of dynamic typing if you force types?

So, str.join() not only makes code simpler and avoid some mess of monkey-patching, it also removes a greater problem: ambiguity.

And yes, I understand that JavaScript list.join(str) makes sense, but it still have the problem with “What about the other types? Are you a racist?”

Edit: Just for curiosity, I wrote a list.join(list) code in JavaScript to see the results. Here they are for you mind-bloggling pleasure:

js> var l = ['s', 'l', 'o', 'w'];
js> var r = ['r', 'u', 'l', 'z'];
js> var j = l.join(r);
js> j
sr,u,l,zlr,u,l,zor,u,l,zw

When I was in Australia, one guy kept asking why Python had the “horrible” (in his opinion) str.join() instead of obvious (in his opinion) list.join()?

After working with JavaScript for a while, I can understand his opinion: In JS, you have a list.join() of sorts and it makes a hell lot of sense.

But, then again, this morning it finally hit me: str.join() uses an iterable object as parameter, so any iterable object will work. For example:

>>> p = 'python'
>>> '-'.join(p)
'p-y-t-h-o-n'
>>>

Ok, this is understandable, but why not have a list.join() too? Well, this would mean that every iterable object would have to have a join() method (str.join(), tuple.join(), dict.join(), list.join() and all the new iterable objects that appeared in Python 3.0.) Since the C API for Python doesn’t allow object hierarchies (and all base types are implemented in C), the same method would have to be implemented over and over again. Not only that, but you would have several different ways to join() stuff instead of one, (now) obvious way.

Another way to fix this would monkey-patch every object to have a join() method, but that’s not the Python way. Monkey-patch is never the Python way.

And the same rule applies to len(): it takes any iterable due the same reason.

Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

Basically, what they are saying is “you will use our SDK and that’s it!” I’m not going to expand the point that about 90% of the people complaining about this change did not and wouldn’t ever write an App for the Apple store.

The good thing about this all is that Adobe thought it was a direct attack to their Flash platform (which I kinda don’t agree because I have my own conspiracy theories, but I can see their point) and decided to bash Apple. Apple (Steve Jobs, actually) decided to write a long response to Adobe. Yes, there are a lot of wrong points on it and I’ll let you read Thom Holwerda article about this.

If there is a lot of bashing around, why I think this whole mess is any good?

Well, first of all, Jobs is right about Flash: I’m tired of closing Firefox ’cause a Flash applet is burning my CPU just to show a small game of two guys trying to beat each other in eating bananas or because, apparently, the runtime is still running, eating memory and making Firefox slow. Flash is not accelerated in anyway in OS X or Linux, even if the technology is around for years. And Jobs claims about Flash will (or, at least, I hope it will) force Adobe to produce a decent runtime for Flash very soon. The more Jobs bash them, the better.

Second, we finally have a good discussion about the open platform of the future: the web. I can’t recall so many discussions about HTML 4.0 or XHTML 1.0 before this. And now we have a lot of people discussion the merits and weakness of HTML 5. “Can it do that?” “Can it replace this?” and such will only improve the draft even further. The “can’t”s is actually the best point of this all: If the W3C keeps an eye on it, who knows what new features HTML 5.1 will have?

As a side note to the HTML 5 discussion, it seems that some companies are already aiming products that will use HTML 5 features (Google seems to be pushing better features for HTML5-capable browsers, although the look and feel is still the same) and I expect that in a few months, some sites will display the dreaded “this page requires [browser X] or superior” what we saw in the 90s. But it will be for a good thing: old, bug ridden browsers will not display things properly and people will be force to drop that in favor of newer, better browsers. And not only that, but the hidden “you need that browser because we put something that only that browser supports” will be replaced by “you need that browser because we put something that only the new, open standard supports it”.

Third, still part of the HTML 5 discussion, we have the h264 codec discussion (which is the codec used to transmit videos on the web in HTML 5.) Jobs position of the “open web” pointing h264 is just bringing more and more discussion about the patent encumbered codec. The more Jobs hits the point about this, the more people will point that h264 is not an open codec and that, sooner or later, some company may screw the whole internet because they got angry with someone and decided to revoke all licenses.

The whole Adobe vs Apple discussion is awesome for the open web, because both companies are pointing exactly what’s wrong with the current situation.

Anyway, the list:

• 009 Sound System – Dreamscape Long Edit (Annex Trax, Vol I)
• Alanis Morissette – Thank You (Alanis Morissete: The Collection)
• Annie Lennox – Walking on Broken Glass (Diva)
• Arena – Tears in the Rain (The Visitor)
• Avanatsia – Lost in Space (Lost in Space Part 2 – Avantasia)
• Avantasia – Farewell (The Metal Opera)
• Avantasia – I Don’t Believe in Your Love (The Scarecrow)
• Avantasia – Lost in Space (Lost in Space Part 1 – Avantasia)
• Avantasia – Lost in Space (The Scarecrow)
• Avantasia – Sign of the Cross (The Metal Opera)
• Avantasia – The Looking Glass (The Metal Opera, Part II)
• Avantasia – The Scarecrow (The Scarecrow)
• Avantasia – The Story Ain’t Over (Lost in Space Part 1 – Avantasia)
• Ayreon – Act III “Visual Echos” (The Final Experiment)
• Ayreon – Computer Eyes (Actual Fantasy)
• Ayreon – Connect the Dots (01011001)
• Ayreon – Day Five: Voices (The Human Equation (disc 1))
• Ayreon – Day One: Vigil (The Human Equation (disc 1))
• Ayreon – Day Seven: Hope (The Human Equation (disc 1))
• Ayreon – Temple of the Cat (Universaion Migration, Part I)
• Ayreon – Tower of Hope (Into the Electric Castle (disc 2))
• Ayreon vs Avantasia – Elected (Elected EP)
• Carol Woods & Timoty T. Mitchel – Let It Be (Across the Universe)
• CCP: Jon Hallur – Akat Montains
• CCP: Jon Hallur – Retribution
• Cohed & Cambria – Welcome Home (Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV)
• Conjure One – Dying Light feat. Joanna Stevens (Extraordinary Ways)
• Conjure One – Sleep feat. Maire Claude D’Ubaldo (Conjure One)
• Crowded House – Fall at Your Feet (Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House)
• Cyndi Lauper – All Through the Night With Shaggy (The Body Acoustic)
• Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time (She’s So Unusual)
• Daft Punk – Burning / Too Long (Alive 2007 (Live))
• Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Discovery)
• Daft Punk – Human / Together / One More Time (Alive 2007 (Live))
• Daft Punk – Prime Time of Your Life / Brainwasher (Alive 2007 (Live))
• Daft Punk – Television Rules the Nation / Crescendolls (Alive 2007 (Live))
• Daft Punk – Too Long / Steam Machine (Alive 2007 (Live))
• Daft Punk – Touch It / Technologic (Alive 2007 (Live))
• Def Leppard – Animal (Hysteria)
• Def Leppard – Go (Songs from the Sparkle Lounge)
• Def Leppard – Heaven Is (Adrenalize)
• Def Leppard – Promises (Promises)
• Def Leppard – Stand Up [Kick Love Into Motion] (Adrenalize)
• Def Leppard – Thorn To Shreds (X)
• Def Leppard – Tomorrow (Song from the Sparkle Lounge)
• Def Leppard – YOu’re So Beautiful (X)
• Edguy – King of Fools (King of Fools)
• Edguy – Matrix (Rocket Ride)
• Edguy – Navigator (Hellfire Club)
• Explosions in the Sky – Your Hand in Mine
• Garry Schyman – Praan (Praan)
• General Public – Tenderness (On the Charts: I.R.S. Records)
• George Harrison – I got My Mind Set On Your (12 Arnold Grove)
• Information Society – Ozar Midrashim (Don’t Be Afraid)
• Information Society – Peave & Love, Inc (Peace and Love, Inc)
• Information Society – Seek300 2.1 (Don’t Be Afraid)
• Information Society – Synthesizer (Synthesizer)
• Information Society – The Seeds of Pain (Synthesizer)
• Information Society – To Be Free (Peace and Love, Inc)
• Jim’s Big Ego – Cut Off Your Head (The’re Everywhere!)
• Jim’s Big Ego – No Better Than You (The’re Everywhere!)
• Jim’s Big Ego – The Ballad of Barry Allen (They’re Everywhere!)
• LazyTown – You’re A Pirate
• Men At Work – Down Under (The Best of Men at Work: Contraband)
• Michael Schenker Group – Diggin’ Hard (Sltlife Reveries)
• Midnight Oil – Beds are Burning (Diesel and Dust)
• Monty Python – Comfy Chair (The Final Rip Off)
• Monty Python – Constitutional Peasant (The Final Rip Off)
• Monty Python – Election Special (The Final Rip Off)
• Monty Python – I Bet You They Won’t Play This Song on the Radio (The Final Rip Off)
• Monty Python – Interlude 2 (The Final Rip Off)
• Monty Python – Interlude (The Final Rip Off)
• Monty Python – I’ve Got Two Legs (Monty Python Sings)
• Monty Python – Parrot [Oh, Not Again] (The Final Rip Off)
• Monty Python – The Knights of the Round Table (Monty Python Sings)
• Parn – Gradius Perfect Selection (OC Remix)
• Phil Collins – In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins: Hits)
• Pink Floyd – Coming Back to Life (The Division Bell)
• Pink Floyd – Goodbye Cruel World (The Wall, disc, 1)
• Pink Floyd – High Hopes (Pulse, disc 1)
• Pink Floyd – Learning To Fly (Pulse, disc 1)
• Pink Floyd – On The Run (Pulse, disc 2)
• Pink Floyd – On The Turning Away (A Momentary Laps of Reason)
• Rush – Afterimage (Grace Under Pressure)
• Rush – Bravado (Roll the Bones)
• Rush – Hope (Snakes & Arrows)
• Rush – Limelight (Moving Pictures)
• Rush – Resist (Test for Echo)
• Rush – Roll the Bones (Roll the Bones)
• Rush – Sweet Miracle (Vapor Trails)
• Rush – Time Stand Still (Hold Your Fire)
• Spock’s Beard – The Good Don’t Last [Radio Edit] (The Kindness of Strangers)
• Tenacious D – Beelzeboss [The Final Showdown] (The Pick Of Destiny)
• Tenacious D – Classico (The Pick Of Destiny)
• Tenacious D – Destiny (The Pick Of Destiny)
• Tenacious D – Kickapoo (The Pick Of Destiny)
• Tenacious D – POD (The Pick Of Destiny)
• The Galvatrons – When We Were Kids (When We Were Kids – EP)
• TISM – Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me (The White Album)
• Yes – Amazing Grace (YesYears)
• Yes – Arriving UFO (Tomato [Remastered - 2004])
• Yes – I Would Have Waited Forever (Union)
• Yes – Love Will Find a Way (YesYears)
• Yes – Saving My Heart (Union)

(12:16:02) Guilherme Bedin: ele nao os atributos direto
(12:16:08) MSN: ele nao o que?
(12:16:16) Guilherme Bedin: atributos direto

Segue uma discussão ao vivo, onde o Bedin me explica exatamente o que quiz dizer, mas incluindo “é MSN, eu posso até te chamar de miguxo.” Quando os ponteiros são acertados, ele volta:

(12:28:34) Guilherme Bedin: sai para fofuxo
(12:28:44) MSN: po miguxo, nao brabo
(12:29:17) MSN: haha, engoli o verbo tambem sem querer.
(12:29:40) Guilherme Bedin: viu para bom miguxo meio verbo basta

Guild Wars have a different movement model, which makes it easier to play without a mouse (and, thus, without a proper place to sit.) Also, some places (the outdoors, outside “outposts”) have their own instance, so you don’t need to worry about someone coming and messing with your game and, better yet, since you can enter those areas alone, you don’t need to worry about latency that much, since you’re running most of the area all by yourself (thus, solving the latency problem.)

There was another thing drawing me back to Guild Wars, though: The gorgeous scenery. I’m not kidding: There is one place in the first game (they had 3 expansions already, I own 2 of those plus the original game), which I could sit and just keep looking at the screen for hours. I may have taken a screenshot a long time ago and used as wallpaper, so gorgeous it looked.

This weekend, after fighting for ages trying to run on every way I could think of (VirtualBox, wine, free version of Crossover), I finally managed to make it run thanks to the paid version of Codeweaves Crossover (still on trial, but I may buy it.) And I spent a good part of my weekend playing the starting areas again, just to remember how to play (not to mention that I may have messed up my skills/talent points on my previous characters so better start clean.) And, after that long, one question that I asked myself while playing WoW never pop up:

Am I that character or a person playing that character?

I know it sounds weird, but I asked that myself several times: When I’m playing… Am I the character? Or Not?

Truth is, I never really found a good answer for that. Yes, I get immersed in the game and its story but I can’t quite make it if I’m that character running around killing things and getting gold for that.

Thing is, even if Guild Wars looks better and have a more natural look on everything (i.e., the characters have a more human look, the animals based on real ones really look like the real ones), it doesn’t give that impression of immersability that WoW have, even if the later have a much more cartoonish look.

In a thought, Guild Wars should provide a bigger immersability than WoW: It looks more natural, the events look more like real life, the locations are more real life but, in the very end, it doesn’t feel like the game “traps” you into itself. WoW, in all it’s cartoonish way with dwarfs, elfs and blue goats from outer space still is capable to dragging you out of this plane to somewhere else.

Experiment continues…

So Apple announced yesterday their new product, the iPad. Some people call it table, some people call it a big iPhone/iPod touch, some call it “balloon boy”…

But, in the end, it’s a game changer. Not directly, but it put the seed to change a lot of stuff.

PDAs
If you had any hope PDAs would come back, well, forget it. Although most of the smart phones have PDA features, their small screen isn’t so good for most of the stuff the “real” PDAs do. The iPad big screen (compared to most smart phones), with it’s non-really-tiny keyboard (even being virtual) kills most of it.

Kindle
The Kindle seems to be the first target of the iPad and Jobs even said the iPad wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the pioneer work from Amazon and now they would “stand on their shoulders.” Well, at the first look, it doesn’t look so much of a challenge:

• Kindle costs about $230, the low entry level iPad costs $499 (almost twice);
• The Kindle screen offers higher resolution (824×1200 vs 768×1024) and have a better ppi (150 vs 132.) And let’s be honest, when you’re reading a text, it doesn’t matter if the screen is gray scale or color, it’s black text over white background.

So, why the iPad affects the Kindle market? First of all, the iPad is not just a eBook reader: It also have a browser and email client and, althought Kindle also have a browser, it’s fairly limited. So, when you count that you have a small device that can do more than just read books, it may be worth paying twice for it.

In the very heart of the situation, though, is the fact that Apple is selling books. Let’s be honest, the Kindle is nothing more than a vechile to Amazon sell books without worrying about the logistics of sending a bunch of paper sheets with ink on them to a person somewhere in the globe. Apple iBook store will go head to head with Amazon on that and, after the 1984 fisasco, it’s image is somewhat scratched. And let’s not forget that Apple managed to convince a bunch of corporate luddites that music can be sold without DRM (even after selling them with DRM for a long time — I know, I was there when they switched.)

Netbooks
Small form, can connect on most WiFi networks… Sounds a bit like a netbook, doesn’t it. Well, not a first glance. A netbook like the Dell Mini 10, which comes with 160GB (10x more than the entry level iPad), 11.6″ screen (against a 9.7″ screen) may sound like an undisputed winner, specially when it costs $399 against iPad’s $499. But when you think about what people do with Netbooks, it mostly email, web and text editing. But when you add the latest Windows version, it’s price jumps to $520. And it can still go higher if you replace Microsoft Works (bundled) with the latest Microsoft Office.

Apple redesigned their iWorks suite to fit the small screen of the iPad. And they are offering each of the 3 applications (Pages [word processor], Numbers [spreadsheet] and Keynote [presentation]) for $9.90 each. So you can get a small office suite for about $30. Which is around the same price for the Dell Mini (although you’ll have to deal with a virtual keyboard instead of real one.)

And really, I don’t think the harddisk size actually matters that much. Most people that use a netbook for email, web and small editing really don’t go that deep into the 160Gb (which is mostly used by the operating system itself.)

Not saying that the iPad is a clear winner, but it has a nice place in the netbook market.

Telephony
Wait, what? Telephony? What the hell!

Well, it’s one of the small gems hidden in the iPad. Together with the launch of the new device, Apple is releasing a new SDK, version 3.2. This version removes the restriction of VOIP applications.

Now think about it: You have a VOIP application that can run on your Wifi (and 3G) tablet and on your 3G phone (since the same OS runs on both iPad and iPhone/iPod touch.) This is big. With the price of a data transfer, you can talk to anyone in the world, anywhere you are. Old telephone companies must shiver with the prospect of landlines going to be canceled ’cause people won’t need them anymore.

(Edit) MID
MID (Mobile Internet Devices) is an area where Nokia pushed a lot. The N900 is the latest of that line of devices, which started with the N770 and, as far as I know, it’s the most famous (and successful) line of MID devices so far. Again, the iPad goes head to head against them and, due the screen size, I must say it’s almost a loss for Nokia.

On the other hand, if you remember that on every new series Nokia simply stop any support for the previous operating system (the N770 with Maemo 3 lost support when the N800 was launched and now the N800 with Maemo 4 is out of support with the N900 and Maemo 5), basically means Nokia shot itself pretty good in the foot. If only they cared about their older systems (the first iPhone STILL can get the new OS) they might had a chance. But too late.

So it’s all good?
No, not at all. The iPad, although (as I believe) is a game changer by concept, it’s new that big in the real world.

First of all, it’s the lack of multitasking, which is, let’s be honest, a stupid move by Apple. It have the power to do so, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s like buying a Ferrari and going all around on second gear. The only hope is that, at some point, Apple releases an OS that it’s capable of multitasking properly (if not, it will have to be jailbroken.)

Second, it’s the centralized model around the iTunes Store. As an old user of it, I thought it was really amazing that I could get music easier than pirating it. But it’s not all roses about it: I was living in Australia and the Australian Store, although selling the soundtrack of “Across the Universe”, didn’t have the full version of some albums: Most of them are only complete (2 discs and all) only in the US store. And, worst of all, there is absolutely NO WAY of buying ANYTHING in Brazil. This is completely stupid. And you can believe some more stupidity may come, like not being able to buy some books in the original language due your region (or worst, no books at all.)

Third, no Flash. Oh wait, that’s actually a good thing. ;)

(Edit) Fourth, the lack of ports. For everything you need to connect on the iPad, you’ll need a converter. A huge mistake here. Imagine if that came with a simple video output. BLAM! Install Keynote and you have a nice presentation tool to carry around!

Summary
I really believe the iPad is the start of a new generation of computing devices. I want my PADD and walk around the Enterprise with things to show to the captain. But the centralized model Apple insists on pushing may do more harm than good (well, maybe not at their home.)

(Edit) In case you’re asking yourself “so, he means I should get one or not?” the answer is “no”. I’d like to get one myself ’cause I’m a gadget guy (I walk around with a phone and an iPod touch, sometimes I carry my N800 with me, I have a Palm T|X in a box, a GPS thingy somewhere and just thrown away one of the first iPaq models ’cause it was not working anymore) but I’m pretty sure I’d save the money to buy something else. At the same time, as it’s the first iteration of such line of devices, I guess it’s better to let the people with huge piles of money to buy it right now and wait for the next generations. Unless, of course, you have huge piles of money or is a gadget guy (with some money to spare.)

Go is a new language created by Google that recently went open source and generated a lot of buzz in the interpipes.

As someone who have been working as programmer for almost 20 years and worked with almost a dozen languages and, on top of that, have a blog, I think I’m entitled to give my biased opinion about it.

One of the first things that got me off was the video pointing that the language is faster. Or the compiler is. Honestly, pointing that you become more productive because your compiler is fast is utterly wrong. If you’re aiming for a new language and you want people to be productive with it, make it so it’s easier to write code right in the first time. If you need to keep compiling your code over and over again till it does the right thing, you should probably check if there isn’t any impairment in the language itself that prevents right code to be written in the first place.

Which brings us to my second peeve about Go: The syntax, as presented in the tutorial. Syntax, in my opinion, is the biggest feature any programming language have to offer. If the syntax is straightfoward and easy to understand, it makes easier to have multiple developers working on the same code; if the language allows multiple “dialects” (or ways to write the same code), each developer may be inclined to use a different approach to write the code (which basically does the same thing) and you end up with a mess of a code where most developers would feel like rewriting than fixing a bug or adding a feature.

The first thing that caught my eye was the “import” statement that at some point uses a name before it and a block in the second example. Why two different ways (well, three if you count that one is probably optional — in the middle of the statement, nonetheless!) to import other packages with the same command?

Variable declaration also feels weird. “a variable p of type string” is longer to read than “a string p” (comparing var p string := ""; with C way string *p = "";). And that goes on. If you keep reading the statements in their long form (expanding them to natural English), all commands start to feel awkward and adding unnecessary cruft on the code, things that could be easily dismissed and force people to do less typing.

The “object” interface seems derived from JavaScript, which is a bad idea, since JavaScript have absolutely no way to create objects in the proper sense. And, because object attributes and members can be spread around instead of staying grouped together, like in C++ and Python, you can simply add methods out of imports. Ok, it works a bit like duck-taping methods in existing objects, but still can make a mess if you add two objects in one file and people decide to add methods just in the end of the file: You end up with a bunch of methods about different objects all spread your code, when you could “force” them to stay together.

So far, those were my first impressions of the language and, as you can see, it was not a good first impression. Focusing on compile speed instead of code easiness/correctness seems out of place for current IT necessities and the language seems to pick some of the worst aspects of most languages around.

Requesting the source code is one of your rights if you are using a GPL-licensed software. That way, you can be sure that the application is not sending your information to someone else or looking for things it shouldn’t. But the GPL says that distributed software should have its code available; in a web 2.0 world, nobody is distributing any software: it simply is there. Therefore, even if you run a GPL application, do lots of modifications, because you’re not distributing it, you don’t need to make your changes available to the world.

The thing that was bothering me, though, is related to some web apps/websites I used at some point. They had this pretty cool thing and I was wondering “Is that something I know, like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla or whatever?” but, in the end, I couldn’t find anything that would say what they were using in the backend. And, just now, I was wondering how the GPL would apply to such websites.

Besides the GPL, there is another very useful license: The modified BSD license or simply “BSD”. The only rule the BSD license requires (compared to the “5 freedoms” GPL enforces) is that you can’t remove the copyright from the original authors. You may add your name, but the original copyright must appear somewhere. I wondered, then, if the GPL would have such requirement. I’m not a lawyer, but I think this does:

5. Conveying Modified Source Versions.
[...]
b) The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is released under this License and any conditions added under section 7. This requirement modifies the requirement in section 4 to “keep intact all notices”.

That, to me, sounds exactly like the BSD. So, if you’re using a GPL software in your webserver, you must point, somewhere, that the engine behind your powerful site is copyright the original authors.

Now you must ask yourself this: How many websites out there are using WordPress with a modified theme that completely removed the “Powered by WordPress”? Or sites that chose (not sure why) the GPL version of the jQuery and didn’t mention that anywhere?