typedef char *MY_KEY;
 
void foo (const MY_KEY key)
{
// ...
}
 
int main (...)
{
 
const char *str = "some str";
foo (str);  // error: smth like unable to convert LPCSTR (const char*) to char*
 
}

Weird isn’t it? From first glance everything looks alright and I really didn’t understood why it was not working. After some googling I find out what is going on. Problem is that qualifier (const or others) applies at the very top level, in my situation once I typedef type with pointer qualifier can not be injected between type and a pointer. Here what is happening:

typedef char *MY_KEY;
void foo (const MY_KEY key) -> equals to -> void foo (const (char *) key)

Now to avoid this situation typedef should be done without pointer, like this:

typedef char MY_KEY;
 
void foo (const MY_KEY *key)
{
// ...
}
 
int main (...)
{
 
const char *str = "some str";
foo (str);  // and it works as it should
 
}

I hope it will remain free and won’t become some commercial giant, because then it won’t be a great loss, because it would lose the idea, the essence. Wikimedia Foundation needs donations now. I am encouraging any habitual wiki user to donate at least few bucks. I guess, if all users would donate at least 1$ the current target goal 14$ million would be reached quite easily. So, do it now:

• http://www.dailypainters.com/ – New paintings each day! Various artists/students submit they daily paintings here. Though most of them are small format, simple studies, you can still find some interesting color themes, compositions.
• http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/ – Complete Catalog of Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. Wow, a lot of them!  Still it’s not the same as looking at them in the museum (still remember the impression they made when I visited Van Gogh museum during last visit to Amsterdam almost a year ago), but the image resolution is quite good. Though, the color balance could be better, colors look dull.
• http://www.lasoff.nl/Engallery.htm – Gallery of contemporary artist Michael Lasof f. I like his style, he uses acrylics medium.
• http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cezanne/ – One more classic – Paul Cézanne. Reproductions are in good quality and resolution.
• http://www.janefiler.com/Hometwo.html – Acrylic paintings of Jane Filer. Some bright and cheerful acrylics here.
• http://www.leningradschool.com/bill_e.html – Leningrad School Online Gallery. A lot of  paintings by contemporary Russian artists. There is a lot to explore here.
• http://www.christopherwood.co.uk/gallery1.html – Gallery of contemporary artist Christopher Woods. Abstract paintings, rich colors.

So that’s it. Plenty of inspiration for me.. And I am going to add some more later.

• There is no bad smell, actually no smell at all or at most it is very mild one, like watercolors for example.
• Acrylics dries fast. And you can dry them even faster, for example using your wife’s old hair dryer.
• If you like to stop them from drying too quickly just keep them wet by using simple water atomizer.
• You can work with acrylics as with watercolors or oils. It just takes what is best from both medias.
• Acrylics surface is mat then dried, but if you want your work to be gloss just use any gloss varnish.

And sometimes I can’t understand why people are even bothering with oils, acrylics are so much better. Well, but probably people just like what they are used to and why would anyone need to change his “tool” when he have already mastered it. But if you ever doubt what you should start with I would say – acrylics, definitely.