Dr Cliff Click of Azul Systems, specialists in manycore JVM systems, recently published a blog post about the performance of Java compared primarily to C and C++ but also discussing C# and .NET. Three of Cliff's comments are of particular interest:Under the heading "Places where C/C++ beats Java for obvious reasons":"Value Types, such as a 'Complex' type require a full object in Java." - Dr Cliff ClickWhat Cliff forgot to mention is that .NET also provides value types and a far more compelling example than complex numbers is the humble hash table.Consider the task of filling a hash table with ...

After recently remarking about how I finally "got" functional programming I was asked by one of my millions of twitter followers... ¬_¬ to write up an explanation of a small F# program spoken in terms that fellow O-O programmers would understand. Before I become too entrenched into the functional programming way of thinking, that is, and can't explain it anymore. As a former tutor this is one of the major problems with being able to teach something once you understand it. You've forgotten how not to make sense of the concept and what finally helped you get over the me...