Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2016 January 16

= January 16 =

Software
When a courier guy delivers the package, he asks me to sign on his phone. And automatically this gets updated on their website : as package delivered. What is the software they use? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stalson92 (talk • contribs) 02:28, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Since you haven't told us which courier company you're thinking of, I don't see how we could definitively answer this question. There are thousands of courier companies in the world. Perhaps the best course of action for you would be to just call the courier company and ask them. You may need to speak to a supervisor or manager but someone there should know the name of the software.   Dismas |(talk) 14:39, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * FedEx — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.60.68.122 (talk • contribs) Stalson92 (talk) 15:40, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Usually, those companies are large enough to develop their own software. It may have an internal name - but I doubt that'll help you much. SteveBaker (talk) 18:04, 16 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Even with the OPs clarification on company, they still didn't mention a location (geolocation gives India). I wonder whether FedEx always use the same software anyway or just need it to be able to communicate with their servers via their standard API. While I've only ever received one package from FedEx here in NZ, their system seemed to be similar to what many courier companies here use now (and have been for a few years). I didn't sign on a phone but some specialised terminal. In some countries and places (including I believe some places here in NZ), FedEx do not have their own drivers but instead rely on deals with other courier companies. It's possible they still require the use of specialised FedEx devices, but it would seem more likely they're fine with these drivers using their own devices which either communicte with FedEx via their API or communicate with the drivers courier company which then connects to FedEx. I guess the phone thing is useful for temporary drivers and similar and perhaps also where the only want to provide one device (particularly in the developing world where they need to keep costs down and can't assume everyone will have a phone for contact). But even then, I wonder if there are circumstances where they don't use the same software. And we can't even be sure that the software is universally used, e.g. if it's in English perhaps the Chinese or whatever division found it easier to develop their own software (if they have any) rather than translate it. Particularly if other features don't work well in China (or wherever) for whatever reason. I suspect the phones the OP referred to were Android; while porting Android apps to Windows is often not that hard (as I understand it), again it may be that someone would find it easier to start from scratch. Windows isn't really that popular anywhere, but if the company is providing the phones it's always possible they could choose Windows ones for whatever reason. Nil Einne (talk) 12:07, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Pseudocode mod of a negative integer
In pseudocode, is the mod of a negative number >= 0 (as in mathematics)? In some languages, -7 mod 5 returns -2 instead of +3. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 02:35, 16 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Pseudocode isn't well enough standardized for this question to have a standard answer. As with any other mathematical notation, the author should clarify the meaning where it's ambiguous. Standard mathematical notation has no mod operator. One normally writes x ≡ y (mod p), not, e.g., (x mod p) = (y mod p). -- BenRG (talk) 02:44, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * The book has an appendix about its pseudocode, but it doesn't say. I'm going to assume that the result is non-negative, because a negative value doesn't seem to do any good.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 02:57, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Real programmers rarely (if ever) use pseudocode - and then only where there is a gun being held to their heads. It's one of those things like flow charts and UML diagrams that academics fondly imagine should be a good idea and spend endless time getting excited about.  In practice, experienced people can read real code (in their preferred language) much more easily than pseudocode - so we just write things in real code to start with and save an unnecessary step.  In practical situations, it's almost always the case that the pseudocode contains bugs that aren't noticed until the real implementation is working (because there is no way to compile and test the pseudocode) -  and then nobody goes back to fix the pseudocode and it's immediately rendered worse than useless.


 * That said...


 * In the unlikely event that you're trying to describe an algorithm in pseudocode without specifying an implementation language - then you'd need to be super-careful about things like that. IMHO, if you need to be portable and you are planning to take the MOD of a negative number - then you should explicitly test for a negative input, and in that case calculate mod(-x) and handle the result accordingly.  This makes the process entirely explicit and whoever is given the thankless task of converting pseudocode into real code can choose to optimise this (or not) depending on what their underlying language supports.  Either way, a bloody great comment describing what is intended and why - and warning of the anticipated portability issues - is absolutely required here! SteveBaker (talk) 18:01, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Pseudocode is common in computer science papers. It is usually block-structured like popular programming languages, though you do sometimes see flowcharts. It is useful in the same way as other mathematical notation. It is generally easier to understand an algorithm from a pseudocode description than from a plain-English description or an executable implementation. -- BenRG (talk) 20:33, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * I was trying to translate some pseudocode in a book to a working program. (I found what I think is a typo, but fixing that and making the result of modulo >= 0 and it works.)  Speaking of flowcharts, I used them routinely in real programming when I used non-structured languages (e.g. spaghetti Fortran, Basic, and a little Cobol).  But when I went to structured languages in 1981, flowcharts no longer applied.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 21:29, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * I am a real programmer and, contrary to Steve's experience, I have often found pseudocode a useful tool when drafting the basic algorithm for a procedure. I find it very convenient to write something like

while any moles are visible { find nearest mole to hammer move hammer over mole whack it    }
 * and then translate that into real code. A real-life example would be more complicated than that one, but still no more than around 10-15 lines of pseudocode. --76.69.45.64 (talk) 07:43, 17 January 2016 (UTC)


 * I agree. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 23:06, 17 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Agreed as well. Though in my case, I use it more like a note that I need to come back to write code there, because I'm already in the middle of writing something else. --Wirbelwind( ヴィルヴェルヴィント ) 19:01, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

GIMP 2 and animated GIFs
I need help understanding some options for saving animated GIFs. In File + Export, with GIF selected as the output type, there are the following options dealing with animation:

Delay between frames where unspecified: ____.

□ Use delay entered above for all frames.

So, does this mean checking the box overrides the "where unspecified" part above ? If not, what does it do ? And is there a way to see which frames have their own delays specified and change them individually ? StuRat (talk) 03:27, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * GIMP converts the layers of the picture to an animated GIF picture. The delay is framerate of the flip book. Use delay entered above for all frames. is a constant flip rate of the layers. GIF is compressed file format. If there's no change for longer, the best compression is not to flip the fame picture, it is more easy to choose an extra delay time till flipping the next frame. -- Hans Haase (有问题吗) 12:03, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * I have only used GIMP occasionally, but here's what I remember. When opening or saving GIF files, each GIMP layer is considered a GIF frame. The frame duration is specified in the layer name in parentheses: GIMP Tutorials - Simple Animations shows examples like (1000ms) and (1500ms). Based on that, I intepret the options above to mean:


 * If the layer name doesn't specify a duration in parentheses, use this default duration: ____ milliseconds.
 * □ Ignore durations specified in the layer names and always use the default duration above.


 * You can probably do a test to confirm that's how they behave. --Bavi H (talk) 19:31, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the info ! StuRat (talk) 22:04, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Futuristic font(s)
I'm searching for a 'list' of futuristic fonts for MS Office/Word. Something that actually 'looks' futuristic not just 'entiles' futuristic. What do you guys recommend? -- Mr. Zoot Cig Bunner (talk) 20:00, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Just try a Google image search for 'futuristic fonts.'--3dcaddy (talk) 20:48, 16 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Greetings, At website www.dafont.com search for cyber fonts will give a good selection. Regards, JoeHebda   (talk)  17:14, 17 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Anyway,
 * 3dcaddy: Checked before posting!... Thank you.
 * JoeHebda : I've bookmarked it. Since its a huge list, I'll look at it hopefully in the near future... Thank you.
 * Any recommendation guys? For example, something that will never 'go old' or 'die out'. Something that will last even after the death of our solar system...? E.g., the font "Times New Roman" is a goldie - although "Ariel" font is taking a peak for some time/years, Times New Roman font is still posh/graceful/historic/modern...if you know what I mean. I tried using Times New Roman font, but it lacks the 'forward looking' or 'futuristic/future looking' bit, if you know what I mean. -- Mr. Zoot Cig Bunner (talk) 19:04, 18 January 2016 (UTC)
 * 3dcaddy, JoeHebda : Sorry about that guys, I did not mean to come across as rude...I used strikethrough now. Regards. -- Mr. Zoot Cig Bunner (talk) 19:28, 19 January 2016 (UTC)


 * If you want something that will never go old or die out and will last even after the death of our solar system, your best bet is to not write anything and just imagine/dream that you have a font that will last that long (even though we have no reason to think our current alphabet and language will last that long). Nil Einne (talk) 21:17, 18 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Nil Einne: Even better, then it'll look like ancient, historic, and futuristic - Alienatic - something like the Egyptian rubbish i.e. aliens came down to earth and bla, bla, bla...
 * I've already used my imagination. I have logo and a name - My drawing covers it nicely but I don't want my hand writing and drawing around the universe. My Father is not permitting it still, so I'm day dreaming and staying prepared...having fun in other words. -- Mr. Zoot Cig Bunner (talk) 19:28, 19 January 2016 (UTC)