Backus-Naur form

In computer science, Backus–Naur Form (BNF) is a metasyntax used to express context-free grammars: that is, a formal way to describe formal languages. John Backus and Peter Naur developed a context free grammar to define the syntax of a programming language by using two sets of rules: i.e., lexical rules and syntactic rules.

BNF is widely used as a notation for the grammars of computer programming languages, instruction sets and communication protocols, as well as a notation for representing parts of natural language grammars. Many textbooks for programming language theory and/or semantics document the programming language in BNF.

There are many extensions and variants of BNF, including Extended and Augmented Backus–Naur Forms (EBNF and ABNF).

Atom (standard)

The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub or APP) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.

Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a web site. To provide a web feed, a site owner may use specialized software (such as a content management system) that publishes a list (or "feed") of recent articles or content in a standardized, machine-readable format. The feed can then be downloaded by web sites that syndicate content from the feed, or by feed reader programs that allow Internet users to subscribe to feeds and view their content.

A feed contains entries, which may be headlines, full-text articles, excerpts, summaries, and/or links to content on a web site, along with various metadata.

ShiVa (game engine)

ShiVa is an authoring tool for creating interactive 3D graphics such as video games, serious game and all other 3d real time applications.
This software is similar to Unity, Blender game engine, Virtools or Torque Game Builder because of its graphical user interface to make applications.

It can produce games for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone , standalone or embedded in web navigators (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Mozilla, Netscape,...)

The game engine uses OpenGL, OpenGL ES or DirectX, and can also run in software mode.

Unity (game engine)

Unity is an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. Unity is similar to Director, Blender game engine, Virtools or Torque Game Builder in the sense that an integrated graphical environment is the primary way of authoring the game.

Although the editor only runs on Mac OS X, it can produce games for Mac, Windows, Wii^[1], or iPhone^[2] platforms. It can also produce browser games that use the Unity web player plugin, supported on Mac and Windows. The web player is also used for deployment as Mac widgets.

Unity was a runner-up in the Best OS X Graphics category in the 2006 Apple Design Awards ^[3].

The diskette that blew Trixter’s mind « Oldskooler Ramblings

As an IBM PC historian, one aspect of my hobby is archiving gaming software.  (You can take that statement to mean anything you want — whatever you think of, you’re probably right.)  At the 2008 ECCC this past Saturday, a vendor wanted to offload his entire PC stock on me for $5, which I happily accepted since there was at least one title in there (Martian Memorandum) worth that much.  When I got home, however, I found two additional Avantage (Accolade’s budget publishing title) titles that have not yet been released “into the wild”.  This means there are no copies of these games floating around on Abandonware sites.  For me, this was like finding actual gold nuggets in a collection of Pyrite.

The two games I got were Mental Blocks and ...

Portable Distributed Objects

Portable Distributed Objects, or PDO, is a programming API for creating object-oriented code that can be executed remotely on a network of computers. It was created by NeXT Computer, Inc. using their OpenStep system, whose use of Objective-C made the package very easy to write. It was characterized by its very light weight and high speed in comparison to similar systems such as CORBA.

Versions of PDO were available for Solaris, HP-UX and all versions of the OPENSTEP system. A version that worked with Microsoft OLE was also available called D'OLE,^[1] allowing distributed code written using PDO on any platform to be presented on Microsoft systems as if they were local OLE objects.

PDO was one of a number of distributed object systems created in the early 1990s, a design model where "front end" applications on GUI-based microcomputers would call code running on mainframe and minicomputers for their processing and data storage. Microsoft was evolving OLE into the Component Object Model (COM) and a similar distributed version called DCOM,^{[citation needed]} IBM had their System Object Model (SOM/DSOM), Sun Microsystems was promoting their Distributed Objects Everywhere, and there were a host of smaller players as well. With the exception of the limited functionality in COM,^{[citation needed]} most of these systems were extremely heavyweight, tended to be very large and slow, and often were very difficult to use.

These things I believe. « Not The User’s Fault

These things I believe about software development and user-interface design.

1. Why write code?

Software is for humans, not for computers.

Software is only as good as the improvement it makes to a human being’s life.

Are we making someone’s job easier? Letting them have more fun? Helping them learn? Helping them keep in touch with friends and family?

Are we making the world a better place?

2. What do people want?

Most people do not want a computer.

They don’t even want software.

For us software developers, this is a painful truth.

If people don’t want a computer, why do they use one?

• Email — for writing to other people.
• Instant messaging — for talking to other people.
• The web browser — for reading what other people have written.
• Word processing — for writing something you’re going to print out and show to oth ...

Reactor pattern

The reactor design pattern is a concurrent programming pattern for handling service requests delivered concurrently to a service handler by one or more inputs. The service handler then demultiplexes the incoming requests and dispatches them synchronously to the associated request handlers.