Only one problem with that statement, those are not ASCII characters! That is why the code page setting mattered. The American Standard Code for Information Interexchange is a seven bit code, not an eight bit code. It consists solely of character codes 0 (zero) through 127 inclusive. Only IBM PCs and compatibles displayed the characters you referred to at all, all other computers either displayed different symbols (Apple Macintosh, Commodore C64/128/Amiga, Atari 400/800/1200/ST) or used the eight bit for a completely different purpose, such as the Apple 2 series using it to indicate whether text was displayed as white letters on a black background, or black letters on a white background. Futhermore, even the IBM PC did not always display those symbols for those character codes, other code pages used them to support the Spanish, French, or Greek alphabets for example.

Those were all him? Okay, now I feel like an idiot as I'm a SF fan and can quote several of both Asimov's and -- ironically -- Heinlien's books. Obviously, I need to reread my Heinlien.

Would have Googled but was on a public computer with a 15 minute internet limit and over 10 minutes in at the time.

Oakman wrote:

he 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots. R. A. H.

Who is "R. A. H."? Curious because I'm stealing this tagline and need to know if someone asks me.

I dislike smaller keyboards if they made it smaller by removing keys and forcing use of two key combinations instead; otherwise I agree less stretching = more comfort. I love programmable keyboards as they can almost always be set up to send awkward multi-key combinations or a series of keys with a single key press. My "mouse" is a Kensington Expert Mouse [^] which is really a trackball with four buttons (three programmable - bottom left can't be changed), a scroll ring around the ball and a wrist rest. The best thing from my point of view is that as long as you have use of all five fingers it is possible to keep one finger on each button, one on the ball, and your wrist properly on the rest all at the same time.

I have no use of my right hand and need a new keyboard. Laptop style keyboards and "ergonomic" keyboards are not options. The reasons being that laptop style keyboards frequently use too few keys with the need to press two keys at once and one handed touch typing (which I am trained in) uses "FGHJ" as its home keys. Additionally, I want a normal keyboard not one of the custom one handed ones as the custom ones rearrange everything and make the users even worse off when they have no choice other than to use a normal keyboard. I will at times be using this keyboard for 12-14 hours straight and I am a programmer (multiple languages) so I need one that will not quickly wear out under that much use. Programmable keys would be nice as well. USB and/or BlueTooth connection required. Price is irrelevant if the keyboard is good enough I will find the money.

Rob Graham wrote:

That most people would rather not have to implement all that functionality themselves? that a large, robust framework really speeds application development be not forcing developers to re-invent the wheel every time?

In my original question, I meant to say that Microsoft could have just as easily implemented all of the built-in functionality in native code and provided the same capabilities without needing CIL at all.

Pete O'Hanlon wrote:

Yes you can create these items in your own framework, but the key things are that somebody else has already done this for you and this cuts things out of the development that you don't have to do for yourself. Couple this with the fact that you get the benefit of thousands of others testing the framework for you, then this serves to inspire a lot of confidence in the corporate suits.

I meant Microsoft could have just as easily provided all of it as native code, as could anyone else in theory. Why do people tolerate a VM rather than just demanding Microsoft provide it as native code? It is just for the Garbage Collection or what?

Yes, thank you. I was thinking about half of this but didn't know how to phrase it. What I was thinking was .Net looked like a souped-up VM with a really extensive bundled framework yet some people attack Java because of its VM and praise .Net which is really just Microsoft's answer to the same problem. I was unaware IL was compiled to ML before execution. I had heard "JIT compiler" before but the compiler part didn't quite click. The reason I was asking is I find myself in need of a program that can run on Win and OS X and share data files between them (my comp is a boot camped 2007 iMac running OS X 10.6 and Vista HP) and was trying to decide whether to use C# or C++ for the Win version. Mac is Obj-C cause XCode is free and came on the OS DVD. I got VS 2008 Standard on the discounted "fire sale" pricing just before 2010's release after originally trying to code the app in REALBasic and spending more of my time working around their bugs and semi-implemented features (for example the Speech command works in Mac and Win but not Linux; REALSQLDatabase has bugs in the OS X implementation but the same code works correctly in Win and Linux.)

I'm not really new to programming per se, I learned to program on an Apple ][+ in 1983 and have been programming ever since on various languages / platforms. What I am is self taught so my grasp of programming theory is iffy at best and I know it, that is why I asked. I am a Comp. Sci. major but the local community college is not offering the courses I need to finish my degree due to low demand for any one class and the economy.

I have some limited experience with C# and VS 2008 and I don't understand why the .Net framework is so popular. It is a meta environment running on top of the operating system just like Java and the non-Windows implementations do not have all of the capabilities of the Windows version so it's not truly cross platform. I don't see why -- other than Microsoft's semi-forcing the issue -- someone would choose to use this. Shouldn't Win32/64 code run just as well, if not better, since there is no runtime between the code and the system? I can't help thinking of Java or even UCSD P-System Pascal when I look at this. I realize .Net has a large amount of built-in functionality but the same thing could be implemented in native code as well. What am I not seeing here?

As this link from WebMD explains there are multiple types of color blindness so the most viable options are use a color neutral symbol to indicate the information or allow the user to select the colors themselves if that is a realistic option. Color Blindness Overview

typo of "still" was left intentionally. It resulted from a popup causing me to reach for the "shift" key.

I was taught one handed touch typing in 1993. Despite being out of practice I stall use three or four fingers most of the time. The last time I tested myself (around 2000) I could still do about 25 wpm with 92% accuracy. In '93 right after the class I was rated at 34wpm and 97% accuracy The biggest problem is the newer "ergonomic" keyboards are worse than useless for one handed use. We are taught to use "FGHJ" as our home keys. Additionally, the ideal situation is have a trackball just below the space bar and the buttons offset just above the home keys we use although the buttons being either side of the trackball is also doable if not quite as efficient.