Hi Dark, I don't necessarily equate left wing political views with authoritarian regimes such as Stalinism, but I can certainly understand why some might hold that view. A lot of us who grew up during the Cold War listened to the mainstream media which equated Communism with Stalinism. When people listened to World News Tonight or CBS World News on TV the news anchor did not make any distinction between Carl Marx's views from Lennon's ideas or Stalin's. They were all commies and that was that. It wasn't until I took Political Science in college that I began to realize there were different types of communism, and that Marxism and Stalinism were very different in practice and in philosophy.
On the issue of technology I think the fundamental issue here is you look at things purely as an end user. You don't care how it is made, don't care about the technical aspects behind how it works, but are only concerned with the results. That is okay because generally the average person has no clue how their iPhone or PC works. All they care about is the results or the bottom line such as playing their favorite games, being able to write reports and term papers, browsing the web, read/writing e-mail, and so on. Everything else is a secondary concern. For someone like myself I am not just a user. Sure, I use my computer for playing mp3s, browse the web, read and write e-mails, play games, and so forth, but as a developer that requires that I know something of how the software works and to know a bit more about hardware etc.That gives me a drastically different view of the software that I am using, and about the programming languages, APIs, and other technologies used to develop said software. To give you an example you mentioned Python. As with everything else in life it has its pros and cons.It is a fairly easy language to learn, and in some cases makes cross-platform development easier. On the other hand it was primarily designed for open source development so security is an issue for commercial developers, execution speeds still are not quite as good as using a native language like C++, and not all the cross-platform APIs available for Python are as good as their native counterparts. It is for this reason I am not sure I would develop audio games in Python, because I find some of my possible choices lacking for what I'd want to do with it. The point being is that I have to worry about not just the end results of how Python works, but have to worry about if it is able to do the job I intend to use it for in the first place. That brings us to the point of how we differ. As an end user of say an iPhone it doesn't matter to you what language the apps are written in, what software is required to develop those apps, nor do you have to worry about Apple reviewing your app for the App Store. As a developer all of those things matter to me personally, and since I am not exactly thrilled with Object C, not happy about having to purchase special tools etc to develop for iOS, and not really comfortable with Apple giving me the final say so what I can and can not sell on their App Store I think the iPhone is a less desirable choice than Android. That opinion is based on my point of view as a developer rather than just as an end user of the device. As a developer I find myself much more comfortable with Java, the primary language used for writing apps for Android, and the more open approach of the Google Play Store. That's just one example of how a developer's and an end user's opinions can differ. Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
