Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2021 April 1

= April 1 =

Task manager
In Windows task manager, what's the difference between 'end process' and 'end process tree'? 2603:6081:1C00:1187:8184:4384:F6C4:F4C4 (talk) 02:57, 1 April 2021 (UTC)


 * AFAIK End Process will kill the selected application, and End Process Tree will kill the application plus all related service and applications it is using. I don't think M$ o/ses maintain a process tree. Rather End Process Tree has to build and kill a process tree by listing all processes and linking child to parent. If the parent has already been killed off or died, I suspect orphaned processes will remain until a reboot. --TrogWoolley (talk) 11:29, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks. So, is it possible that End Process Tree might terminate something that is also used by some other application? -- [OP] :107.15.157.44 (talk) 15:10, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I hope not. AFAIK, it will spawn a new process for each application. For example FormatFactory and VLC both use FFmpeg (I think). If you have both running simultaneously and only one installation of FFmpeg, both will spawn a FFmpeg instance. Kill off VLC with End Process Tree, one FFmpeg will die and FormatFactory will continue to work. --TrogWoolley (talk) 13:52, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Ok, thanks again! [OP] :2603:6081:1C00:1187:9D96:A6F1:DDA3:E7ED (talk) 21:05, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Imagine I was forced to code a game into a language usually interpreted (remember I said nothing about how the game will be), what would be the best language to do it?
Imagine I was forced to code a game into a language usually interpreted (remember I said nothing about how the game will be), to make sure it runs at any combination of architecture/os that at some point of time will have an interpreter for it, what would be the best language to do it?

PS: I said nothing about what game I would do, dont say "if you are not going to do a triple AAA game, you can pick......", "because you are not going to do a mmorpg, just pick language X, or Y". Dont assume the coder wont make some specific type of game and so it doenst matter the language you will say wouldnt be suited for that kind of game.177.40.138.59 (talk) 16:07, 1 April 2021 (UTC)


 * If I understand correctly, you're asking what is the most widely supported interpreted language. I would say that would be JavaScript, which is supported in almost all web browsers. CodeTalker (talk) 18:54, 1 April 2021 (UTC)


 * When I was at uni in the 1970s, we wrote games in BASIC, which was interpreted on the uni mainframe. If you wanted speed, you would write it in Fortran which was compiled. If you wanted superdooper speed, you went for Assembly language. You had to be extra clever to do the latter (I wasn't). --TrogWoolley (talk) 13:57, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Different languages have their uses for different environments. If you are creating a game for a web browser, then JavaScript is a clear choice, along with JavaScript derivatives like CoffeeScript. Java is a possible second choice – but is not a good place to start and is compiled. For a non-graphic game then many languages are widely supported: I use Perl, PHP and still some BASIC! Python is currently popular. If you are aiming at graphics then C++ is probably the best option, but it is compiled. Try feeding "programing games" into your search engine of choice and see what you are offered. Perhaps you could also give us more details of what you need to know — GhostInTheMachine talk to me 17:04, 2 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Well, C# is used for many games, and it's both interpreted and compiled. C# is compiled to a virtual language which is interpreted by a VM. Does that count? Bumptump (talk) 02:35, 3 April 2021 (UTC)


 * If you ask an answer that is absolutely independent of the type of product you will create, the team that develops it, and the hardware that will run it, the only possible answers are "it depends" or "any of them".
 * The same question in a different context would be absurd: Imagine I was forced to give a concert. To make sure people like it, what instrument should I pick? P.S. I said nothing about the venue, the musical tastes of the audience, the number of musicians or their current instrument knowledge. Tigraan Click here to contact me 10:45, 7 April 2021 (UTC)
 * The type of product is limited to a single type game. The hardware is the one that the gamer will decide to use, as the person makes games not cpu architectures, the ones that want him to use an program/game at a specific cpu architecture X are the sellers of those architecture.2804:7F2:59B:D224:1469:9729:89E5:6C51 (talk) 23:55, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

Website issues and browser compatibility
I have been having some difficulty with the Turner Classic Movies website, https://www.tcm.com/ ...

When I attempt to view the site using the Google Chrome browser, I get a message that says:
 * To view this content, please use one of the following compatible browsers:
 * Safari v11+
 * Chrome v8+
 * Firefox Quantum
 * Microsoft Edge

Well, I had thought that websites that limited their accessibility to certain browsers had gone out of style in the 1990s, but that's not even the issue. I'm using Chrome Version 89.0.4389.90 -- that is, literally 81 versions beyond what the site says I need to use -- and the site doesn't accept that. For that matter, I've tried using Microsoft Edge as well, and yet I get the same message there without being able to access the site. Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be going wrong? --Metropolitan90 (talk) 19:16, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Works fine for me on that version of Chrome; I played around with settings (turning off javascript, tweaking security levels) but wasn't able to make that message happen. Suggestion: go to "what is my user agent" and see if your result is weird. --jpgordon&#x1d122;&#x1d106; &#x1D110;&#x1d107; 22:28, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks, but I don't know what would have been a weird result. That site did indeed identify my browser as Chrome/89.0.4389.90 as I had said above. (And using Edge, it identified my browser as Edge 89.) --Metropolitan90 (talk) 23:04, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * "Weird" would have been most anything besides that. I find one other complaint about exactly the same problem on TCM, with no solution; and it's a pain in the ass to search for that particular string, since it comes up on almost hit on a TCM page. If I were at this stage, I'd uninstall and reinstall Chrome. --jpgordon&#x1d122;&#x1d106; &#x1D110;&#x1d107; 01:41, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Who made the broken jpeg icon of the earlier internet?
Like this: https://rlv.zcache.ca/broken_image_jpg_jpeg_gif_png_1_inch_round_button-rc6c3055c111842249dfd347df5c96d15_k94r8_492.jpg?rlvnet=1&rvtype=content

I can't seem to locate much information about it. Was it made by the w3 consortium or something similar? Does it have an RFC for it as to how and why it would show up? Thanks kindly!Stocktrain (talk) 21:52, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Someone named Marsh Chamberlin. https://ccm.net/contents/1227-broken-image-icon-where-does-it-come-from (Search hint: this was a search for "broken image icon", in quotes.) --jpgordon&#x1d122;&#x1d106; &#x1D110;&#x1d107; 22:15, 1 April 2021 (UTC)