learning C#

I think I’ve finally finished converting my little calculator program from C++ to C#. The last stumbling block was figuring out how to substitute standard input with the contents of a string that had been passed on the command-line. The answer was to declare a TextReader object, then assign it to Console.In when I wanted to read from the console, or a StringReader object when I wanted to read from a string. Easy! (Once you’ve figured out that there’s such a thing as a StringReader object, and that it’s interchangeable with Console.In.)

The Modern Word

I just discovered an interesting book site, The Modern Word, while looking for information about Jorge Luis Borges. Some great Borges quotes there:

“There is no intellectual exercise which is not ultimately useless.”

“The history of the universe…is the handwriting produced by a minor god in order to communicate with a Demon.”

“To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.”

Just great, great, stuff.

pet project

I made a little progress on my pet C# project tonight. It’s a little command-line calculator that I’m converting from C++. It now adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides! Next, I need to reimplement the function handling (square root, cos, tan, etc). That’s going to be interesting, since I was using function pointers for that, and now I’m going to have to figure out delegates, since C# has no function pointers.

Dad

I’ve been trying to do what I can to help my Dad, who has very poor vision, get started with the new computer he got at Christmas. For a while, I’ve had the idea that I should find him a couple of good large-print computer books. I went looking today, but it turns out that apparently no one has ever printed a computer book in large print. At least, that’s the way it seems, doing a search on “large print computer” or “large print Windows” on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The only thing I’ve found is a large print computer dictionary, which might be helpful, but not much.