What About The Bee Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 Hi Colin I too know a bit about software. I began writing it in the 1960s and by 1975, was getting paid to do it. My last paid software consultancy was in the mid 2010s, for the locomotive manufacturing facility. I was brought in for bug fix. Their body of software was ~500,000 lines of code. Multiple concurrent processes. Here is one for you. The software would occasionally lock up. Literally freeze for more than 24 hours, then resume as if nothing happened. They assigned this to me. They told me two things: (1) a major US railroad was so angry that they were finally going to stop paying for it and (2) the firm I was consulting for, knew of the problem for TWO YEARS and had no idea what was going on. Great. 5 weeks later, I removed two characters from the 500,000 lines of code. Problem fixed. It was three issues combined. Firstly, it was architectural. They wanted a periodic interrupt. Instead of just having a periodic timer expire, they decided to set a timer for the unused portion of the period. So if the period was, say, 1 second and they used 600 milliseconds, set a timer for 400 milliseconds. It worked but was very poor architecture. Issue 2: What happens if you use 1.5 seconds of 1 second period. Well, subtracting 1.5 from 1 yields -0.5 seconds. Injecting a negative number into a timer should result in an immediate expiration and interrupt. Except, and this was the third issue, if you use unsigned arithmetic, at which point instead of a small negative number, you get a huge positive number. Like more that 24 hours worth of milliseconds. I changed the definition of the variable from 'unsigned' to 'signed, removing 'un'. That's 2½ weeks per character, buried in 500,000 lines of code. I will put 50 years of professional software development (plus another 10 years of amateur playing around) against the course you took. Additionally, as Principal Engineer for other firms, I was responsible for it all. Software, Electrical, Mechanical, Servo, Communications and Systems Integration. Also mentioning the Bid and Proposal work, installation and Customer management. In my view, the forum development is doing fine. Bee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted May 16 Author Share Posted May 16 2 hours ago, RB51 said: Completely the opposite approach @ColinB. No big bang [or naivety] as you call it, but a steady planned release of innovation so as not to overwhelm those who cannot cope with change. Things have moved on a fair bit in the last 30 years. R- Really so the tear up of all the menu options, completely changing the front end. In my book that is not a planned release. As to things moving on in the last thirty years yes you are right but that doesn't mean I haven't kept up to date, Thirty years ago we were using assembler because high level code wouldn't fit in the available ROM (yes write it once), then there was C, C+ and C sharp. Actually I take offence at that last statement, do it again and I will report you to Hornby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTSR_NSE Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 2 minutes ago, ColinB said: Really so the tear up of all the menu options, completely changing the front end. In my book that is not a planned release. Err Colin, that statement actually does sound like you not understanding modern web tools (or even the simplicity of working with style sheets). Yes a couple of decades ago, significantly changing the front end involved dramatic redesigns - now significant front end changes can be implemented (& reverted) with a few clicks! This is not intended to imply that any numpty with a hammer can be a web developer, but merely that dramatic looking front-end changes, no longer indicate/necessitate dramatic back-end changes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted May 16 Author Share Posted May 16 (edited) 21 minutes ago, LTSR_NSE said: Err Colin, that statement actually does sound like you not understanding modern web tools (or even the simplicity of working with style sheets). Yes a couple of decades ago, significantly changing the front end involved dramatic redesigns - now significant front end changes can be implemented (& reverted) with a few clicks! This is not intended to imply that any numpty with a hammer can be a web developer, but merely that dramatic looking front-end changes, no longer indicate/necessitate dramatic back-end changes. No I fully understand web tools, as I said I don't really care what you think, I use apps all the time, hence how I know a bad one when I see it. The previous iteration had checkboxes, now you have changed to a drop down menu which is probably similar to the iteration before the checkboxes although it wasn't on a drop down menu. I used to write this stuff for a living so I know a little bit about it. Now the RMweb page has embedded links in each heading so if you select Dapol it takes you to the Dapol page. It is pretty easy, definitely in C# it is. Raw Java doesn't have that so generally you use some add ons to do the same. From what I remember when I talked to my friend's wife who teaches how to design apps, generally they use a tool to make it easier. Either way you have decided that is what you are going for, so that is it but please don't try to belittle me with technology XXXX. I may be old but believe me, the fundamentals of writing software never change, been there done it. I missed the bit about style sheets, that explains a lot. Edited May 16 by 96RAF Banned word deleted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 34 minutes ago, ColinB said: Things have moved on a fair bit in the last 30 years. 35 minutes ago, ColinB said: Actually I take offence at that last statement, do it again and I will report you to Hornby. You consider that is a reportable offence Colin. Are you really sure you want to be laughed out of court. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted May 16 Author Share Posted May 16 1 minute ago, 96RAF said: You consider that is a reportable offence Colin. Are you really sure you want to be laughed out of court. For a start it is wrong, secondly it was implying I was old and senile. Now if you are happy with that label than I will not complain. Actually you didn't read my post there was no mention of court. So your guys are using style sheets, explains a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir john Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 (edited) And there's me thinking this forum was about model railways .I'm sure most users don't really want to read arguments about who knows more about computer programming. I'm 80 if I can find my way around it so can most people .the bottom line is if you don't like it dont use it Edited May 16 by sir john 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted May 16 Author Share Posted May 16 Just now, sir john said: And there's me thinking this forum was about model railways .I'm sure most users don't really want to read arguments about who knows more about computer programming. I'm 80 if I can find my way around it so can most people .the bottom line is if you don't like it font use it Have you actually looked at this forum lately, a few posts about HM7000 but the posts have been drying up for months. I must admit I use RMWeb most of the time so if this forum becomes unusable so be it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir john Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 (edited) Strange question being as I've just posted on it Edited May 16 by sir john 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTSR_NSE Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 11 minutes ago, ColinB said: Either way you have decided that is what you are going for, so that is it but please don't try to belittle me with technology XXXX. 18 minutes ago, ColinB said: So your guys are using style sheets, explains a lot. Colin, your opinion of me is unimportant - but please don’t assume that Hornby is foolish enough to employ me - I am merely a customer! I mentioned style sheets purely as an example (I possess no inside knowledge of the software Invision uses) to assist you with understanding that changes aren’t always as radical as they appear. I’m glad if this has helped you to accept the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
What About The Bee Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 (edited) 37 minutes ago, sir john said: I'm sure most users don't really want to read arguments about who knows more about computer programming. You are right John. I plead guilty. My apologies. Sincerely Bee Edited May 16 by What About The Bee Forgot a word 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CriMiNaL Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 I look it at it like this, if you think you can do a better job then go do it and tell us all about it, I dont pay for the forum, I don't have to spend my time monitoring what people have written, I choose to read what I want to on here, sure some of the changes for me are not so straight forward, but who cares, clicking a mouse button is not that hard and change can be a good thing. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB51 Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 9 hours ago, ColinB said: Actually I take offence at that last statement, do it again and I will report you to Hornby. No implication of dotage or senility. It’s a statement of fact with which you seem to agree. R- 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB51 Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 This thread has wandered severely off topic. We need to refrain from further comment about anyone’s technical skill and concentrate on forum development. Further posts unrelated to the topic will be deleted. R- 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rana Temporia Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 On 15/05/2024 at 17:30, Britannia Builder said: I've just bookmarked the url which in my case is https://community.hornbyhobbies.com/discover/8/ - not sure what the 8 means but it gets me there! Regards, John John, thanks for posting this link it’s the only way I can get on to the topics using my iPad, I don’t know if any other iPad users are having the same issues? I have tried following the other information but the options aren’t working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 23 minutes ago, Rana Temporia said: John, thanks for posting this link it’s the only way I can get on to the topics using my iPad, I don’t know if any other iPad users are having the same issues? I have tried following the other information but the options aren’t working. I use iPad most of the time and the 2 main ways in are click the Hornby Hobbies logo to see all brands options or the Hornby logo to get to the Hornby page. From there the Forum, Gallery, Shop, Community, Support tabs are same as before but you can get better navigation using the breadcrumb trail below that banner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britannia Builder Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 27 minutes ago, Rana Temporia said: John, thanks for posting this link it’s the only way I can get on to the topics using my iPad, I don’t know if any other iPad users are having the same issues? I have tried following the other information but the options aren’t working. The link https://community.hornbyhobbies.com/discover (ie without the /8 on the end which in my case selects my custom activity stream) will get you to the default activity stream. This shows all recent activity but I don't find it particularly useful because it's cluttered with Airfix etc and lots of notifications which I find irrelevant. However, from there you can create a custom activity stream which in my case shows just topics (ie threads with recent posts) for just the sub-forums that I'm interested in (eg general discussion, HM7000, DCC, Railmaster). Having bookmarked the url for this custom stream, I can see instantly the recent posts without any further navigation. This custom stream feature has been there all along but I only discovered it when my previous url was broken by the recent update! I can't find any way of editing the custom stream criteria, but it's easy enough to set up another one if needed. Regards, John 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellocoloco Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 The whole forums is running a lot better now. Thanks guys.👍 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now