Search Results

Search found 29201 results on 1169 pages for 'game development'.

facebook twitter digg google delicious technorati stumbleupon myspace wordpress linkedin gmail igoogle windows live tumblr viadeo yahoo buzz yahoo mail yahoo bookmarks favorites email print

Page 102/1169 | < Previous Page | 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109  | Next Page >

  • Desktop Fun: Video Game Icon Packs

    - by Asian Angel
    Whether you are a fan of the original 8-bit video games or much newer versions we have a nice collection of video games icon packs pulled together to help you create a cool video game themed desktop. Note: To customize the icon setup on your Windows 7 & Vista systems see our article here. Using Windows XP? We have you covered here. Sneak Preview For our example here we went with a definite classic using the Supermario Lumina Style set shown below. Note: Original wallpaper (altered to fit our monitor) can be found here. A closer look at the desktop icons that we added to our desktop… Arcade Daze *.ico format only Download Arcade Daze Galaxian *.ico format only Download Supermario Lumina Style *.ico and .png format Download Super Mario Dock Icon Pack *.png format only Download Archon *.ico format only Download Diablo II *.ico format only Download Medievalish Gaming Icon Pack *.png format only Download Water Gaming Icon Pack *.png format only Download Zelda OoT Iconset *.ico, .png, & .tif format Download Warcraft – Volume 1 *.ico format only Download Quake Icon Pack *.ico and .png format Download Video game icons 256 pix *.ico format only Download Storm Riders – Swords *.ico format only Download Emulators Pack 1 *.ico and .png format Download Emulators Pack 2 *.ico and .png format Download Be sure to visit our new Desktop Fun section for more customization goodness! Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Desktop Fun: Sci-Fi Icons Packs Series 2Restore Missing Desktop Icons in Windows 7 or VistaSave and Restore Desktop Icon Layout in Windows VistaAdd Home Directory Icon to the Desktop in Windows 7 or VistaQuick Help: Downloadable Show Desktop Icon for XP TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Create Ringtones For Your Android Phone With RingDroid Enhance Your Laptop’s Battery Life With These Tips Easily Search Food Recipes With Recipe Chimp Tech Fanboys Field Guide Check these Awesome Chrome Add-ons iFixit Offers Gadget Repair Manuals Online

    Read the article

  • The Citroen GT – An Awesome Video Game Car Brought to Life [Video]

    - by Asian Angel
    If you are familiar with the Gran Turismo 5 video game releases, then you will definitely recognize the Citroen GT. French automaker Citroen and Japanese racing simulation developer Polyphony Digital decided to take things one step further and collaborated to bring this awesome car to life. Then they turned it loose on the streets of London! Citroen GT on the Streets of London (HD) [via BoingBoing] You can learn more about the Citroen GT, car show appearances, and more at Wikipedia: GT by Citroen Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware The Citroen GT – An Awesome Video Game Car Brought to Life [Video] Final Man vs. Machine Round of Jeopardy Unfolds; Watson Dominates Give Chromium-Based Browser Desktop Notifications a Native System Look in Ubuntu Chrome Time Track Is a Simple Task Time Tracker Google Sky Map Turns Your Android Phone into a Digital Telescope Walking Through a Seaside Village Wallpaper

    Read the article

  • Algorithm for a lucky game [on hold]

    - by Ronnie
    Assume we have the following Keno(lottery type) game: From 80 numbers(from 1 to 80), 20 are being drawn. The players choose 1 or 2 or 3..... or 12 numbers to play(12 categories). If they choose for example 4 then they win if they predict correctly a certain amount of numbers(2,3 or 4) from the 4 they have played and lose if the predict only 1 or 0 numbers. They win X times their money accordingly to some predefined factor depending on how many numbers they predict from each category. The same with the other categories. And e.g 11 out of 11 gives 250000 times your money and 12 out of 12 gives 1000000 your money. So the company would want to avoid winnings so high. Every draw by the company is being made every 5 minutes and in each draw around 120000 (let's say) different predictions(Keno tickets) are being played. Let's assume 12000 are being played in category 10 and 12000 in category 11 and also 12000 in category 12. I'm wondering if there is an algorithm to allow the company that provides the game in the 5 minutes between the drawings, to find a 20 number set, in order to avoid any "12 out of 12" and "11 out of 11" and "11 out of 12" and "10 out of 11" and "10 out of 10" winning ticket. That means is there any algorithm, where in a time of less than 1 minute approximately(in todays hardware), to be able to find a 20 number set so that none of the 12000 12 and 11 and 10 number sets that the players played(in categories 10,11 and 12) contains any winning of "12 out of 12" and "11 out of 11" and "11 out of 12" and "10 out of 11" and "10 out of 10"? Or even better the generalization of the problem: What is the best algorithm(from a perspective of minimal time), to be able to find a Y number set from numbers 1 to Z(e.g Y=20, Z=80) so that none of the X sets of K-numbers that are being played(in category K) contains more than K-m numbers from the Y-set? (Note that for Y=K and m=1 there is a practical algorithm.)

    Read the article

  • Android Card Game Database for Deck Building

    - by Singularity222
    I am making a card game for Android where a player can choose from a selection of cards to build a deck that would contain around 60 cards. Currently, I have the entire database of cards created that the user can browse. The next step is allowing the user to select cards and create a deck with whatever cards they would like. I have a form where the user can search for specific cards based off a few different attributes. The search results are displayed in a List Activity. My thought about deck creation is to add the primary key of each card the user selects to a SQLite Database table with the amount they would like in the deck. This way as the user performs searches for cards they can see the state of the deck. Once the user decides to save the deck. I'll export the card list to XML and wipe the contents of the table. If the user wanted to make changes to the deck, they would load it, it would be parsed back into the table so they could make the changes. A similar situation would occur when the eventually load the deck to play a game. I'm just curious what the rest of you may think of this method. Currently, this is a personal project and I am the only one working on it. If I can figure out the best implementation before I even begin coding I'm hoping to save myself some time and trouble.

    Read the article

  • How would I handle input with a Game Component?

    - by Aufziehvogel
    I am currently having problems from finding my way into the component-oriented XNA design. I read an overview over the general design pattern and googled a lot of XNA examples. However, they seem to be right on the opposite site. In the general design pattern, an object (my current player) is passed to InputComponent::update(Player). This means the class will know what to do and how this will affect the game (e.g. move person vs. scroll text in a menu). Yet, in XNA GameComponent::update(GameTime) is called automatically without a reference to the current player. The only XNA examples I found built some sort of higher-level Keyboard engine into the game component like this: class InputComponent: GameComponent { public void keyReleased(Keys); public void keyPressed(Keys); public bool keyDown(Keys); public void override update(GameTime gameTime) { // compare previous state with current state and // determine if released, pressed, down or nothing } } Some others went a bit further making it possible to use a Service Locator by a design like this: interface IInputComponent { public void downwardsMovement(Keys); public void upwardsMovement(Keys); public bool pausedGame(Keys); // determine which keys pressed and what that means // can be done for different inputs in different implementations public void override update(GameTime); } Yet, then I am wondering if it is possible to design an input class to resolve all possible situations. Like in a menu a mouse click can mean "click that button", but in game play it can mean "shoot that weapon". So if I am using such a modular design with game components for input, how much logic is to be put into the InputComponent / KeyboardComponent / GamepadComponent and where is the rest handled? What I had in mind, when I heard about Game Components and Service Locator in XNA was something like this: use Game Components to run the InputHandler automatically in the loop use Service Locator to be able to switch input at runtime (i.e. let player choose if he wants to use a gamepad or a keyboard; or which shall be player 1 and which player 2). However, now I cannot see how this can be done. First code example does not seem flexible enough, as on a game pad you could require some combination of buttons for something that is possible on keyboard with only one button or with the mouse) The second code example seems really hard to implement, because the InputComponent has to know in which context we are currently. Moreover, you could imagine your application to be multi-layered and let the key-stroke go through all layers to the bottom-layer which requires a different behaviour than the InputComponent would have guessed from the top-layer. The general design pattern with passing the Player to update() does not have a representation in XNA and I also cannot see how and where to decide which class should be passed to update(). At most time of course the player, but sometimes there could be menu items you have to or can click I see that the question in general is already dealt with here, but probably from a more elobate point-of-view. At least, I am not smart enough in game development to understand it. I am searching for a rather code-based example directly for XNA. And the answer there leaves (a noob like) me still alone in how the object that should receive the detected event is chosen. Like if I have a key-up event, should it go to the text box or to the player?

    Read the article

  • If not gamedev, what do I do !

    - by brainydexter
    Hi, I am a game dev who was working in the game-industry and then..got laid off. Ever since then, life couldn't get less stressful! During this time, I have met so many other devs who have also been laid off irrespective of the number of years they have been in the game. Now, the problem really gets worse, since I am not a US citizen (yes, I am in US) , and am on an international visa here, I might have to soon pack my bags and go back to my native country. Going back is not bad at all, apart from the fact, that gamedev is still in a very nascent stage there. There just aren't many opportunities. So, employment is the key to maintain a valid visa status. After giving it a lot of thought, I am thinking of staying away from gamedev jobs for the time being, given its job unstablity. This brings me to my current problem. I can't think of a domain/place where I can use my game development skills. I know graphics/simulation/visualization is huge, but I can't think straight and am left clueless where to go from here. What are some of the domains/companies where I can use my skills ? I'd appreciate any insight on this (and I apologize if this is not the place to post this kind of a question).

    Read the article

  • Pros and Cons between learning to program on Windows and Linux and Macs

    - by Amumu
    I have been studying IT for 2 years and I'm going to graduate soon in this year (if everything goes well). I think it's time for me to choose a path to specialized into some fields of this large industry. Personally, I want to be a game programmer. But to be a game programmer, surely I have to invest my time to study Windows Programming, then DirectX and other programming techniques related to game. On the other hand, Linux seems promising as well. I am not sure about Game Programming on for it, but it seems become an expert for this OS, and by expert it's not about using the OS to become an administrator, but can do further than that, such as understand the OS to its essence and can produce applications for it. However, there's some obstacles in my view for this development path. Many of my friends think that Linux is based on free and open source, and if you follow it, as its name suggested: Free and Open Source, it means we also give away our software free. Otherwise, we will have to find a second job to make living. Currently, I think a viable way to make money on Linux is doing works related to client-server. Another way to developer my career is to become expert in developing business applications for companies. This is more on business, not on specialized IT fields so I am not really interested. Another alternative is programming on mobile devices, such as iPhone, Android and it seems very promising and easier to approach. Another way is to become a computer scientist and research on academic subjects such as AI, human-computer interaction, but this is far beyond my reach, so I won't invest my time on it until I feel I am experienced enough. That's all I can think of for now. I may miss a lot of things, so I need more opinions as input to get the big picture of the industry for my career path.

    Read the article

  • Good websites and/or books to learn game algorithms?

    - by Moshe
    I'm interested in learning video game algorithms. (For iPhone particularly, but generally as well. I assume certain concepts are the same.) I am best off (personally) learning from a book but websites are useful too. What has helped you learn game programming algorithms and concepts? EDIT: As per request, I'll clarify the types of algorithms... I was looking for any algorithms really, but I guess I was interested in (top-down view) platformer algorithms, but, now that you mention it, Seth, I do wonder about chess...

    Read the article

  • Is there a simple Load Balancer app for development environment on Windows?

    - by djangofan
    Does there exist a simple Load Balancer app for development on Windows? I am running a pair of JBoss 5.x instances in a cluster on a single machine. Normally , this configuration is load balanced by a nice hardware load balancer but I am wondering if there is a simple piece of software to enable load balancing in my Eclipse dev environment. Basically, for example, I want a load balancer running on port 11111 that round-robins between the 2 clustered JBoss instances on ssl ports 8443 and 8543 . (or http port if thats not possible) I know that Glassfish has a built-in load balancer but I can't use Glassfish. One idea I have is to try to setup a separate instance of Tomcat with the "balancer" web app. Im trying that now... not sure if it will work... and its a complicated setup and I wish there was something really easy.

    Read the article

  • How to implement "circular side-scrolling" in my game?

    - by Mr.Gando
    I'm developing a game, a big part of this game, is about scrolling a "circular" background ( the right end of the Background Image can connect with the left start of the Background image ). Should be something like this: ( Entity moving and arrow to show where the background should start to repeat ) This happens in order to allow to have an Entity walking, and the background repeating itself over and over again. I'm not working with tile-maps, the background is a simple Texture (400x300 px). Could anyone point me to a link , or tell me the best way I could accomplish this ? Thanks a lot.

    Read the article

  • Are there any design-patterns specifically useful for game-development?

    - by Baelnorn
    This question's been bugging me for a long time. I've always wondered how game developers were solving certain problems or situations that are quite common in certain genres. For example, how would one implement the quests of a typical role-playing game (e.g. BG or TES)? Or how would you implement weapons with multiple stacking effects in a first-person shooter (e.g. the Shrink-gun or Freezer from DN3D)? How would you implement multiple choice options with a possibly intricate decision tree leading to several different outcomes (e.g. the mission trees in WC)? Are there any examples or other resources for that? Blogs? Books? Sourcecode?

    Read the article

  • Worths to spend $100 to create a browser based game ?

    - by coolboycsaba
    I'm creating a browser based games and I've calculated that it will cost me something like $100 for the domain name and the host. The game uses almost no resources (bandwidth, space, memory). The problem is that I don't know how to find the players, and how many players I need to get a profit. I`m planning to use BuySellAds and Google Adsense. I think the game is pretty good, but I think I will have just a little amount of unique visitors, because each player is counted as unique only once. So what do you think, it will worth ?

    Read the article

  • Is there a graphics/game engine that supports PC & Mac?

    - by Chris Masterton
    Is their a graphics that runs on both Mac & PC? I've seen Unity and thats a possibility, I'm wondering if there are any other choices. Ideally I want to port the same C++ game code to both PC & Mac platforms, but let the underlying game/graphics engine take advantage of the appropriate hardware. edit: I'm looking on the level of Torque, Gamebryo & Unreal. A commercial solution is perfectly acceptable. Thanks, Chris

    Read the article

  • Ladder word-like game GUI problems

    - by sasquatch90
    Ok so I've written my own version of game which should look like this : http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6859/lab9a.jpg but mine looks like that : http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/7671/98921674.jpg How can I fix this ? Is there a way to do the layout completely differently ? Here's the code : Main.java : import java.util.Scanner; import javax.swing.*; import java.awt.*; public class Main { public static void main(String[] args){ final JFrame f = new JFrame("Ladder Game"); Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in); System.out.println("Creating game data..."); System.out.println("Height: "); while (!sc.hasNextInt()) { System.out.println("int, please!"); sc.next(); } final int height = sc.nextInt(); Grid[]game = new Grid[height]; for(int L = 0; L < height; L++){ Grid row = null; int i = L+1; String s; do { System.out.println("Length "+i+", please!"); s = sc.next(); } while (s.length() != i); Element[] line = new Element[s.length()]; Element single = null; String[] temp = null; String[] temp2 = new String[s.length()]; temp = s.split(""); for( int j = temp2.length; j>0; j--){ temp2[j-1] = temp[j]; } for (int k = 0 ; k < temp2.length ; k++) { if( k == 0 ){ single = new Element(temp2[k], 2); } else{ single = new Element(temp2[k], 1); } line[k] = single; } row = new Grid(line); game[L] = row; } //############################################ //THE GAME STARTS HERE //############################################ JPanel panel = new JPanel(); panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS)); panel.setBackground(Color.ORANGE); panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10)); for(int i = 0; i < game.length; i++){ panel.add(game[i].create()); } f.setContentPane(panel); f.pack(); f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); f.setVisible(true); boolean end = false; boolean word = false; String tekst; while( !end ){ while( !word ){ tekst = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Input word: "); for(int i = 0; i< game.length; i++){ if(game[i].equalLength(tekst)){ if(game[i].equalValue(tekst)){ word = true; for(int j = 0; j< game.length; j++){ game[i].repaint(); } } } } } word = false; for(int i = 0; i < game.length; i++){ if(game[i].solved()){ end = true; } else { end = false; } } } } } Grid.java import javax.swing.*; import java.awt.*; public class Grid extends JPanel{ private Element[]e; private Grid[]g; public Grid(){} public Grid( Element[]elements ){ e = new Element[elements.length]; for(int i=0; i< e.length; i++){ e[i] = elements[i]; } } public Grid(Grid[]grid){ g = new Grid[grid.length]; for(int i=0; i<g.length; i++){ g[i] = grid[i]; } Dimension d = new Dimension(600, 600); setMinimumSize(d); setPreferredSize(new Dimension(d)); setMaximumSize(d); } public JPanel create(){ JPanel panel = new JPanel(); panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS)); panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(2, 2, 2, 2)); for(int j = 0; j < e.length; j++){ panel.add(e[j].paint()); } return panel; } @Override public void repaint(){ } public boolean equalLength(String s){ int len = s.length(); boolean equal = false; for(int j = 0; j < e.length; j++){ if(e.length == len){ equal = true; } } return equal; } public boolean equalValue(String s){ int len = s.length(); boolean equal = false; String[] temp = null; String[] temp2 = new String[len]; temp = s.split(""); for( int j = len; j>0; j--){ temp2[j-1] = temp[j]; } for(int j = 0; j < e.length; j++){ if( e[j].letter().equals(temp2[j]) ){ equal = true; } else { equal = false; } } if(equal){ for(int i = 0; i < e.length; i++){ e[i].changeState(3); } } return equal; } public boolean solved(){ boolean solved = false; for(int j = 0; j < e.length; j++){ if(e[j].getState() == 3){ solved = true; } else { solved = false; } } return solved; } @Override public String toString(){ return ""; } } Element.java import javax.swing.*; import java.awt.*; public class Element { final int INVISIBLE = 0; final int EMPTY = 1; final int FIRST_LETTER = 2; final int OTHER_LETTER = 3; private int state; private String letter; public Element(){ } //empty block public Element(int state){ this("", 0); } //filled block public Element(String s, int state){ this.state = state; this.letter = s; } public JButton paint(){ JButton button = null; if( state == EMPTY ){ button = new JButton(""); button.setBackground(Color.WHITE); } else if ( state == FIRST_LETTER ){ button = new JButton(letter); button.setBackground(Color.red); } else { button = new JButton(letter); button.setBackground(Color.yellow); } button.setSize(20,20); return button; } public void changeState(int s){ state = s; } public String letter(){ return letter; } public int getState(){ return state; } @Override public String toString(){ return "["+letter+"]"; } }

    Read the article

  • iOS Development: Does the GameKit SDK allow you to retrieve achievements by players other than the local player?

    - by BeachRunnerJoe
    Hello. I'm building a game that uses Game Center to connect players and manage leaderboards and achievements. I see that you can retrieve leaderboard details for any player, but can you do the same with achievements? When the user finishes a match with an opponent, I'd like to give the user the option to view the opponents profile, including leaderboard scores and completed achievements. I haven't found anything in the docs that shows me how to retrieve achievement details for players other than the local player, am I missing it or is this currently not supported? Thanks so much for your help!

    Read the article

  • How taxing would a game map grid be to a web browser?

    - by Vilx-
    Suppose we're making a strategy game (think Civilization) in a web browser. The game has a visible map portion - say 30x30 squares. Each square is 30x30px and has several overlaid images - the terrain, resources, units, roads, etc. The classical way of drawing this would be with a huge <table> where each cell would contain absolutely positioned images. It would probably be rendered in Javascript to reduce traffic. But it's still several thousand images and a huge table. Can the browser take it? Will the performance not drop below any acceptable limits? Alternatively I could keep a pre-rendered map image with as many overlays as possible, but that would be more work, I think.

    Read the article

  • For web development which is more important - CPU and Graphics card OR Ram and SSD Harddrive?

    - by adam
    Buying a laptop is always hard work and questions about specific models dont age well on forums. A popular dilema (especially with apple macbooks) is whether to spend more for a faster cpu and graphics card but settle for standard ram and hd OR drop down and spend the savings on more ram and a faster harddrive such as a ssd. Im wondering for web development i.e. ide, unit tests, photoshop work and some user testing screen capturing now and again what would provide better performance. ( No games, music production or spielberg standard video editing.) For examples sake the current apple lineup for their 15inch macbookpros. 2.66 cpu i7 4gb ram 5400rpm drive 4gig ram vs 2.4 cpu i5 8gb ram 124gb sdd roughly the same price.

    Read the article

  • Book Review: Brownfield Application Development in .NET

    - by DotNetBlues
    I recently finished reading the book Brownfield Application Development in .NET by Kyle Baley and Donald Belcham.  The book is available from Manning.  First off, let me say that I'm a huge fan of Manning as a publisher.  I've found their books to be top-quality, over all.  As a Kindle owner, I also appreciate getting an ebook copy along with the dead tree copy.  I find ebooks to be much more convenient to read, but hard-copies are easier to reference. The book covers, surprisingly enough, working with brownfield applications.  Which is well and good, if that term has meaning to you.  It didn't for me.  Without retreading a chunk of the first chapter, the authors break code bases into three broad categories: greenfield, brownfield, and legacy.  Greenfield is, essentially, new development that hasn't had time to rust and is (hopefully) being approached with some discipline.  Legacy applications are those that are more or less stable and functional, that do not expect to see a lot of work done to them, and are more likely to be replaced than reworked. Brownfield code is the gray (brown?) area between the two and the authors argue, quite effectively, that it is the most likely state for an application to be in.  Brownfield code has, in some way, been allowed to tarnish around the edges and can be difficult to work with.  Although I hadn't realized it, most of the code I've worked on has been brownfield.  Sometimes, there's talk of scrapping and starting over.  Sometimes, the team dismisses increased discipline as ivory tower nonsense.  And, sometimes, I've been the ignorant culprit vexing my future self. The book is broken into two major sections, plus an introduction chapter and an appendix.  The first section covers what the authors refer to as "The Ecosystem" which consists of version control, build and integration, testing, metrics, and defect management.  The second section is on actually writing code for brownfield applications and discusses object-oriented principles, architecture, external dependencies, and, of course, how to deal with these when coming into an existing code base. The ecosystem section is just shy of 140 pages long and brings some real meat to the matter.  The focus on "pain points" immediately sets the tone as problem-solution, rather than academic.  The authors also approach some of the topics from a different angle than some essays I've read on similar topics.  For example, the chapter on automated testing is on just that -- automated testing.  It's all well and good to criticize a project as conflating integration tests with unit tests, but it really doesn't make anyone's life better.  The discussion on testing is more focused on the "right" level of testing for existing projects.  Sometimes, an integration test is the best you can do without gutting a section of functional code.  Even if you can sell other developers and/or management on doing so, it doesn't actually provide benefit to your customers to rewrite code that works.  This isn't to say the authors encourage sloppy coding.  Far from it.  Just that they point out the wisdom of ignoring the sleeping bear until after you deal with the snarling wolf. The other sections take a similarly real-world, workable approach to the pain points they address.  As the section moves from technical solutions like version control and continuous integration (CI) to the softer, process issues of metrics and defect tracking, the authors begin to gently suggest moving toward a zero defect count.  While that really sounds like an unreasonable goal for a lot of ongoing projects, it's quite apparent that the authors have first-hand experience with taming some gruesome projects.  The suggestions are grounded and workable, and the difficulty of some situations is explicitly acknowledged. I have to admit that I started getting bored by the end of the ecosystem section.  No matter how valuable I think a good project manager or business analyst is to a successful ALM, at the end of the day, I'm a gear-head.  Also, while I agreed with a lot of the ecosystem ideas, in theory, I didn't necessarily feel that a lot of the single-developer projects that I'm often involved in really needed that level of rigor.  It's only after reading the sidebars and commentary in the coding section that I had the context for the arguments made in favor of a strong ecosystem supporting the development process.  That isn't to say that I didn't support good product management -- indeed, I've probably pushed too hard, on occasion, for a strong ALM outside of just development.  This book gave me deeper insight into why some corners shouldn't be cut and how damaging certain sins of omission can be. The code section, though, kept me engaged for its entirety.  Many technical books can be used as reference material from day one.  The authors were clear, however, that this book is not one of these.  The first chapter of the section (chapter seven, over all) addresses object oriented (OO) practices.  I've read any number of definitions, discussions, and treatises on OO.  None of the chapter was new to me, but it was a good review, and I'm of the opinion that it's good to review the foundations of what you do, from time to time, so I didn't mind. The remainder of the book is really just about how to apply OOP to existing code -- and, just because all your code exists in classes does not mean that it's object oriented.  That topic has the potential to be extremely condescending, but the authors miraculously managed to never once make me feel like a dolt or that they were wagging their finger at me for my prior sins.  Instead, they continue the "pain points" and problem-solution presentation to give concrete examples of how to apply some pretty academic-sounding ideas.  That's a point worth emphasizing, as my experience with most OO discussions is that they stay in the academic realm.  This book gives some very, very good explanations of why things like the Liskov Substitution Principle exist and why a corporate programmer should even care.  Even if you know, with absolute certainty, that you'll never have to work on an existing code-base, I would recommend this book just for the clarity it provides on OOP. This book goes beyond just theory, or even real-world application.  It presents some methods for fixing problems that any developer can, and probably will, encounter in the wild.  First, the authors address refactoring application layers and internal dependencies.  Then, they take you through those layers from the UI to the data access layer and external dependencies.  Finally, they come full circle to tie it all back to the overall process.  By the time the book is done, you're left with a lot of ideas, but also a reasonable plan to begin to improve an existing project structure. Throughout the book, it's apparent that the authors have their own preferred methodology (TDD and domain-driven design), as well as some preferred tools.  The "Our .NET Toolbox" is something of a neon sign pointing to that latter point.  They do not beat the reader over the head with anything resembling a "One True Way" mentality.  Even for the most emphatic points, the tone is quite congenial and helpful.  With some of the near-theological divides that exist within the tech community, I found this to be one of the more remarkable characteristics of the book.  Although the authors favor tools that might be considered Alt.NET, there is no reason the advice and techniques given couldn't be quite successful in a pure Microsoft shop with Team Foundation Server.  For that matter, even though the book specifically addresses .NET, it could be applied to a Java and Oracle shop, as well.

    Read the article

  • Benefits of Behavior Driven Development

    - by Aligned
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Aligned/archive/2013/07/26/benefits-of-behavior-driven-development.aspxContinuing my previous article on BDD, I wanted to point out some benefits of BDD and since BDD is an extension of Test Driven Development (TDD), you get those as well. I’ll add another article on some possible downsides of this approach. There are many articles about the benefits of TDD and they apply to BDD. I’ve pointed out some here and copied some of the main points for each article, but there are many more including the book The Art of Unit Testing by Roy Osherove. http://geekswithblogs.net/leesblog/archive/2008/04/30/the-benefits-of-test-driven-development.aspx (Lee Brandt) Stability Accountability Design Ability Separated Concerns Progress Indicator http://tddftw.com/benefits-of-tdd/ Help maintainers understand the intention behind the code Bring validation and proper data handling concerns to the forefront. Writing the tests first is fun. Better APIs come from writing testable code. TDD will make you a better developer. http://www.slideshare.net/dhelper/benefit-from-unit-testing-in-the-real-world (from Typemock). Take a look at the slides, especially the extra time required for TDD (slide 10) and the next one of the bugs avoided using TDD (slide 11). Less bugs (slide 11) about testing and development (13) Increase confidence in code (14) Fearlessly change your code (14) Document Requirements (14) also see http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2013/06/01/roc-rocks.aspx Discover usability issues early (14) All these points and articles are great and there are many more. The following are my additions to the benefits of BDD from using it in real projects for my company. July 2013 on MSDN - Behavior-Driven Design with SpecFlow Scott Allen did a very informative TDD and MVC module, but to me he is doing BDDCompile and Execute Requirements in Microsoft .NET ~ Video from TechEd 2012 Communication I was working through a complicated task that the decision tree kept growing. After writing out the Given, When, Then of the scenario, I was able tell QA what I had worked through for their initial test cases. They were able to add from there. It is also useful to use this language with other developers, managers, or clients to help make informed decisions on if it meets the requirements or if it can simplified to save time (money). Thinking through solutions, before starting to code This was the biggest benefit to me. I like to jump into coding to figure out the problem. Many times I don't understand my path well enough and have to do some parts over. A past supervisor told me several times during reviews that I need to get better at seeing "the forest for the trees". When I sit down and write out the behavior that I need to implement, I force myself to think things out further and catch scenarios before they get to QA. A co-worker that is new to BDD and we’ve been using it in our new project for the last 6 months, said “It really clarifies things”. It took him awhile to understand it all, but now he’s seeing the value of this approach (yes there are some downsides, but that is a different issue). Developers’ Confidence This is huge for me. With tests in place, my confidence grows that I won’t break code that I’m not directly changing. In the past, I’ve worked on projects with out tests and we would frequently find regression bugs (or worse the users would find them). That isn’t fun. We don’t catch all problems with the tests, but when QA catches one, I can write a test to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s also good for Releasing code, telling your manager that it’s good to go. As time goes on and the code gets older, how confident are you that checking in code won’t break something somewhere else? Merging code - pre release confidence If you’re merging code a lot, it’s nice to have the tests to help ensure you didn’t merge incorrectly. Interrupted work I had a task that I started and planned out, then was interrupted for a month because of different priorities. When I started it up again, and un-shelved my changes, I had the BDD specs and it helped me remember what I had figured out and what was left to do. It would have much more difficult without the specs and tests. Testing and verifying complicated scenarios Sometimes in the UI there are scenarios that get tricky, because there are a lot of steps involved (click here to open the dialog, enter the information, make sure it’s valid, when I click cancel it should do {x}, when I click ok it should close and do {y}, then do this, etc….). With BDD I can avoid some of the mouse clicking define the scenarios and have them re-run quickly, without using a mouse. UI testing is still needed, but this helps a bunch. The same can be true for tricky server logic. Documentation of Assumptions and Specifications The BDD spec tests (Jasmine or SpecFlow or other tool) also work as documentation and show what the original developer was trying to accomplish. It’s not a different Word document, so developers will keep this up to date, instead of letting it become obsolete. What happens if you leave the project (consulting, new job, etc) with no specs or at the least good comments in the code? Sometimes I think of a new scenario, so I add a failing spec and continue in the same stream of thought (don’t forget it because it was on a piece of paper or in a notepad). Then later I can come back and handle it and have it documented. Jasmine tests and JavaScript –> help deal with the non-typed system I like JavaScript, but I also dislike working with JavaScript. I miss C# telling me if a property doesn’t actually exist at build time. I like the idea of TypeScript and hope to use it more in the future. I also use KnockoutJs, which has observables that need to be called with ending (), since the observable is a function. It’s hard to remember when to use () or not and the Jasmine specs/tests help ensure the correct usage.   This should give you an idea of the benefits that I see in using the BDD approach. I’m sure there are more. It talks a lot of practice, investment and experimentation to figure out how to approach this and to get comfortable with it. I agree with Scott Allen in the video I linked above “Remember that TDD can take some practice. So if you're not doing test-driven design right now? You can start and practice and get better. And you'll reach a point where you'll never want to get back.”

    Read the article

facebook twitter digg google delicious technorati stumbleupon myspace wordpress linkedin gmail igoogle windows live tumblr viadeo yahoo buzz yahoo mail yahoo bookmarks favorites email print

< Previous Page | 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109  | Next Page >