Search Results

Search found 3986 results on 160 pages for 'financial planning'.

Page 11/160 | < Previous Page | 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18  | Next Page >

• Getting overwhelmed after starting a new project

  - by Kian Mayne

  I started a project (a Windows based timetable program that helps you stay organised with your subjects and assignments). The problem is that I'm not sure how I should manage this project and what order to build things. I.e. Should I build all the different interface elements then write the code or should I make an interface, code it, make another interface then code that? So my question is; how do I split up this longish project into small, ordered pieces to complete; and how should I order this?

  Read the article

• What is the start point in game development? Where to start?

  - by Dragon

  I understand, I'm not unique with such a question, there are a lot of questions like this one. But I hope you'll take a minute and maybe can give me a piece of advice. I have an idea to develop games, but I don't know where is the start point in game development. The learning curve isn't as straight as in learning of a programming language, but I want to give it a try. I have some experience with OOP and programming in general. I know (not too deep) C#, Java programming languages. I searched info on where to start, read a lot of blogs, forums and so on. Once I decided "stop wandering around, just start develop a game" and I started. At the moment I have a console version of very simple game (RPS - rock-paper-scissors) developed with C#. It has different modes: "player vs cpu" and "player vs player". Some time later I looked at the code and decided that it should be refactored or even redeveloped from the scratch. And I thought that time "GUI is what I need. I can add logic later." And now I'm here. I've already decided to make RPS with GUI, then make multiplayer and so on. I'm not thinking about 3D now, 2D is enough. It doesn't matter what language to use: C# or Java, I found frameworks for both - XNA (C#) and Slick (Java). Both are good for 2D game development. But I know nothing about sprites, how to bind objects on the screen and so on. You can say "you don't need it for such simple game like RPS", but RPS is the beginning, I have some ideas like "Tower Defense" game... you know, everybody has ideas, wishes.... and this knowledge is useful and in some way obligatory. So what is the start point to achieve my plans, ideas, wishes? Where to start? Is it possible to make game development learning curve a little bit straight? Or there're ways that amateur and game development beginners use for years? Thank you for you answers and advise in advance. P.S Sorry for that this post turned out an essay, but I tried to express my wish to start acting. Hope I managed to do it.

  Read the article

• How should I replan A*?

  - by Gregory Weir

  I've got a pathfinding boss enemy that seeks the player using the A* algorithm. It's a pretty complex environment, and I'm doing it in Flash, so the search can get a bit slow when it's searching over long distances. If the player was stationary, I could just search once, but at the moment I'm searching every frame. This takes long enough that my framerate is suffering. What's the usual solution to this? Is there a way to "replan" A* without redoing the entire search? Should I just search a little less often (every half-second or second) and accept that there will be a little inaccuracy in the path?

  Read the article

• I'm tasked with leading the documentation effort for an existing, entirely undocumented, software product - what resources are there to help me?

  - by Ben Rose

  I'm a software developer at a technology company. I have been tasked with leading the documentation effort for the product I work on. The goal is to produce documentation internal to developer, and the project spills over into the business side, where it covers requirements documentation. This project is challenging. Specifically, I'm dealing with a product which: - has been around for a long time, at least 6 years. - has no form of documentation other than some small, outdated pieces here and there. - has comments in the code, but they are technical and do not convey any over-arching behavior (even on technical side). - as a consequence of having little to no documentation, is often unnecessarily complex under the covers In addition, we have not been given a lot of time to work on this project. I do not have any formal documentation or writing background, training, or experience. I have displayed some ability in writing/communication around the office, which may be why I was assigned to this project. Please share your advice or recommendation for resources to help me prepare and deal with this project. I'm looking for references to books/website/forums/whatever, to help me come up with the design of a plan with milestones, learn about best practices, task delegation, templates, buy-in, etc. I'm hoping specifically for resources targeting or giving special mention of introducing good documentation to existing, undocumented, projects. I would be very grateful for your responses. Ben

  Read the article

• What should be the minimal design/scope documentation before development begins?

  - by Oliver Hyde

  I am a junior developer working on my own in the programming aspect of projects. I am given a png file with 5-6 of the pages designed, most times in specific detail. From this I'm asked to develop the back end system needed to maintain the website, usually a cataloging system with products, tags and categories and match the front end to the design. I find myself in a pickle because when I make decisions based on assumptions about the flow of the website, due to a lack of outlining details, I get corrected and am required to rewrite the code to suit what was actually desired. This process happens multiple times throughout a project, often times on the same detail, until it's finally finished, with broken windows all through it. I understand that projects have scope creep, and can appreciate that I need to plan for this, but I feel that in this situation, I'm not receiving enough outlining details to effectively plan for the project, resulting in broken code and a stressed mind. What should be the minimal design/scope documentation I receive before I begin development?

  Read the article

• Challenge: Learn One New Thing Today

  - by BuckWoody

  Most of us know that there's a lot to learn. I'm teaching a class this morning, and even on the subject where I'm the "expert" (that word always makes me nervous!) I still have a lot to learn. To learn, sometimes I take a class, read a book, or carve out a large chunk of time so that I can fully grasp the subject. But since I've been working, I really don't have a lot of opportunities to do that. Like you, I'm really busy. So what I've been able to learn is to take just a few moments each day and learn something new about SQL Server. I thought I would share that process here. First, I started with an outline of the product. You can use Books Online, a college class syllabus, a training class outline, or a comprehensive book table of contents. Then I checked off the things I felt I knew a little about. Sure, I'll come back around to those, but I want to be as efficient as I can. I then trolled various checklists to see what I needed to know about the subjects I didn't have checked off. From there (I'm doing all this in a notepad, and then later in OneNote when that came out) I developed a block of text for that subject. Every time I ran across a book, article, web site or recording on that topic I wrote that reference down. Later I went back and quickly looked over those resources and tried to figure out how I could parcel it out - 10 minutes for this one, a free seminar (like the one I'm teaching today - ironic) takes 4 hours, a web site takes an hour to grok, that sort of thing.  Then all I did was figure out how much time each day I'll give to training. Sure, it literally may be ten minutes, but it adds up. One final thing - as I used something I learned, I came back and made notes in that topic. You learn to play the piano not just from a book, but by playing the piano, after all. If you don't use what you learn, you'll lose it. So if you're interested in getting better at SQL Server, and you're willing to do a little work, try out this method. Leave a note here for others to encourage them.  Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

  Read the article

• Are there good resources for leading documentation for an existing software product having none?

  - by Ben Rose

  Hello. I'm a software developer at a technology company. I have been tasked with leading the documentation effort for the product I work on, both internal to developers as well as spilling over into facilitating the business side of requirements documentation. This internal product has been around for at least 6 years. One challenge is that this software application has no form of documentation other than some small, outdated pieces here and there. There are comments in the code, but they are technical and do not convey any over-arching behavior (even on technical side). As a consequence of having little to no documentation, this product is often unnecessarily complex under the covers adding to the challenge. We are very limited on time that will be given to us to work on documentation. Another thing about me is that I've displayed some ability in writing/communication around the office, but I'm not coming from any sort of documentation or formal writing background (beyond my academic career). Please share your advise or recommend resources, book/website/forum/whatever, for helping me come up with a plan with milestones, best practices, task delegation, templates, buy-in, etc. I'm hoping for a resource targeting or giving special mention of introducing good documentation on existing projects where there previously was none. I would be very grateful for your responses. Ben

  Read the article

• Success Quote: A Hybrid Approach for Success

  - by Lauren Clark

  We recently received this quote from a project that successfully used OUM: “On our project, we applied a combination of the Oracle Unified Method (OUM) and the client's methodology. The project was organized by OUM's phases and a subset of OUM's processes, tasks, and templates. Using a hybrid of the two methods resulted in an implementation approach that was optimized for the client-specific requirements for this project." This hybrid approach is an excellent example of using OUM in the flexible and scalable manner in which it was intended. The project team was able to scale OUM to be fit-for-purpose for their given situation. It's great to see how merging what was needed out of OUM with the client’s methodology resulted in an implementation approach that more closely aligned to the business needs. Successfully scaling OUM is dependent on the needs of the particular project and/or engagement. The key is to use no more than is necessary to satisfy the requirements of the implementation and appropriately address risks. For more information, check out the "Tailoring OUM for Your Project" page, which can be accessed by first clicking on the "OUM should be scaled to fit your implementation" link on the OUM homepage and then drilling into the link on the subsequent page. Have you used OUM in conjunction with a partner or customer methodology? Please share your experiences with us.

  Read the article

• Are there any actual case studies on rewrites of software success/failure rates?

  - by James Drinkard

  I've seen multiple posts about rewrites of applications being bad, peoples experiences about it here on Programmers, and an article I've ready by Joel Splosky on the subject, but no hard evidence of case studies. Other than the two examples Joel gave and some other posts here, what do you do with a bad codebase and how do you decide what to do with it based on real studies? For the case in point, there are two clients I know of that both have old legacy code. They keep limping along with it because as one of them found out, a rewrite was a disaster, it was expensive and didn't really work to improve the code much. That customer has some very complicated business logic as the rewriters quickly found out. In both cases, these are mission critical applications that brings in a lot of revenue for the company. The one that attempted the rewrite felt that they would hit a brick wall at some point if the legacy software didn't get upgraded at some point in the future. To me, that kind of risk warrants research and analysis to ensure a successful path. My question is have there been actual case studies that have investigated this? I wouldn't want to attempt a major rewrite without knowing some best practices, pitfalls, and successes based on actual studies. Aftermath: okay, I was wrong, I did find one article: Rewrite or Reuse. They did a study on a Cobol app that was converted to Java.

  Read the article

• Is it a bug or a task when something doesn't work, yet, in development process

  - by Patkos Csaba

  We usually have this dilemma in our team. Sometimes, in order to implement a task or a story we find out that the system must be in a specific state. For example, a specific system configuration has to be made beforehand. The task / story can be completed and it is working as specified on it with the proper configuration in place. Note that the configuration is not directly related with the task. Next, we have to create a new ... ??? ... something for the process of generating that configuration file. This is where the problems appear. Some say that it is a bug others say it is a task or an extra feature. So, where is the limit between bugs and tasks in the development phase? Should we even consider something a bug if all the tasks are working as stated in their definitions? Can a thing be considered a bug because one compares it to the current (unstable) state of the system? Short example: A feature requires configuring a communication service for a specific operation. In the process of the implementation the team discovers that the service requires the hostnames of the pears to be resolvable to an IP address. The team adds the hostnames to the DNS server (or hosts files) and continues implementing the required feature. After the initial feature is working, a question is risen. Should the sysadmin configure the DNS or hosts file or should our application do it automatically? An automatic solution is possible. So a decision is made to implement it. ... here start the discussions ... is this a bug or an extra feature / task? PS: I know that I mixed feature / task / story in the question. It is intentional. I am interested in separating bugs from the rest. Doesn't matter what the rest means in a particular case.

  Read the article

• Game development: Pre-production stage

  - by piers

  I´m starting up a new project. It´s going to be a web browser game, developed using HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3. I have some general questions regarding the process of game developing. Should you know everything about your game by the time you start writing the first lines of code? I mean should you know all the details, all the things the player can and can not do? Basically: should you be done writing down new ideas before you begin coding? I understand the pre-production process is about documenting, doing research etc. What does that mean? Does it mean I should open up Word and write down everything about the game? For example what should happen when you click on different things etc. Thanks for your help!

  Read the article

• Working for international NGO's as a programmer

  - by Keyslinger

  I have begun a career as a web application and database developer while slowly discovering the passion I have for work in the international development sector. Since this is not the most obvious line of work for someone with my credentials, it seems to me that special care must be taken in order to court international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and position myself in the field. Aside from adding grant-writing to my skill set and getting volunteer experience, what indispensable advice do you have for a fledgling programmer who wants to save the world?

  Read the article

• How can I discourage the use of Access?

  - by Greg Buehler

  Lets pretend that a very large company (revenue numbers with more than 8 figures) is looking to do a refresh on a software system, particularly the dashboard used by employees. This system was originally put together in the early 1990's to handle inventory tracking and storage across a variety of facilities (10+). Since this large company is now in the process of implementing some of these inventory processes with SAP they are in need of a major refresh. The existing system: Microsoft Access project performs dashboard duties Unique shipping/receiving configurations at different facilities require unique forms and queries within the Access project Uses 3rd party libraries referenced by Access to directly interface with at control system (read: motors, conveyors, and counters) Individual SQL Server 2000 instances (some traces of pre-update SQL Server 6.0 documents) at each facility The Issue: This system started as a home brewed inventory tracking scheme with a single internal sponsor who is still in charge of the technical direction. The original sponsor prescribing the desired deliverables that are being called for in the current RFP. The RFP describes a system based around a single Access project. Any suggestion that Access is ill suited for a project of this scope are shot down under the reasoning that "it works for the scope now". Are there any case studies, notices, or statements that can be used to disuade this potential customer from repeating their mistake? Does Microsoft make any statements directly about when it is highly recommended to ditch Access?

  Read the article

• Where to Start?

  - by freemann098

  my name is Chase. I've been programming for over 3 years now and I've made very little progress towards game development. I blame myself for it due to reasons. I have experience in many languages such as C++, C#, and Java. I have a little bit of knowledge in JavaScript/HTML and Python. My question is where to start on actually understanding jumping into game development. Whenever I watch game development tutorials it mostly makes sense until points of things like OpenGL or advanced topics that make no sense at all. An example is something like glOrhho Matrix or whatever. Videos either don't explain things like this or they're not explained very well. Do I not know enough basics? I find myself always copying code from a video but understanding very little of it. It's like i'm memorizing things I don't understand which makes it hard to program at all. If I were to want to get to the point where I could write my own game engine or just a game by myself in general in C++ using at the most documentation how would I start at mastering to that level. Should I learn C first, or get really good at basics in general with C++. I know there is a similar posted question on this site but it's not the same due to the fact the person asking the question has a well knowledge level in programming. I'm stuck in a loop of learning the same things but if I go farther I don't understand. I'm stuck in the same spot and need to make progress.

  Read the article

• How are crossplatform/multiple-OS C++ projects planned in terms of code and tools?

  - by Nav

  I want to create a project in C++ that can work in Windows, Linux and Embedded Linux. How are projects created when they have to work across many OS'es? Is it first created on one OS and then the code slowly modified to be ported to another OS? Eg: to me, the Linux version of Firefox appears to be created as a Windows project and a separate Linux project with a different code base, since Firefox behaves a bit different in Windows and Linux. Although the source code download is surprisingly a single link. If QT is used for UI, Boost threads for threading, Build Bot for CI and NetBeans/Eclipse/QT Creator for an IDE, would a person be able to minimise the amount of code re-write required to get the project onto another OS? Is this the right way to do it, or are such projects meant to be created as two entirely separate projects for two separate OS'es?

  Read the article

• Best way to go for simple online multi-player games?

  - by Mr_CryptoPrime

  I want to create a trivia game for my website. The graphic design does not have to be too fancy, probably no more advanced than a typical flash game. It needs to be secure because I want users to be able to play for real money. It also needs to run fast so users don't spend their time frustrated with game freezing. Compatibility, as with almost all online products, is key because of the large target market. I am most acquainted with Java programming, but I don't want to do it in Java if there is something much better. I am assuming I will have to utilize a variety of different languages in order for everything to come together. If someone could point out the main structure of everything so I could get a good start that would be great! 1) Language choice for simple secure online multiplayer games? 2) Perhaps use a database like MySQL, stored on a secure server for the trivia questions? 3) Free educational resources and even simpler projects to practice? Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful...Thanks!

  Read the article

• Twitter's new approach of third party application? How would you see this move as developer.... especially you plan to build a twitter client.

  - by MobileDev123

  Just today morning I have read news that twitter has issued a warning to developers not to make any new third party client, the official announcement can be read here. As a programmer, how do you see this move of twitter? Does it seems that they want to standardize the behavior of third party client or they don't want any new client in favor of the default clients they have made? What if anybody wants to create a new client? Is there any guidelines that-if followed- ensure that we can create a new mobile client? Or we should stop thinking about it? What are the option for the developers who want to build some clients for twitter? I can realize that I have asked too many questions, but I still think that there can be one common answer.

  Read the article

• How do I start a personal programming project?

  - by Pureferret

  I've just started a programming job where I'm applying my 'How to code' knowledge to what I'm being taught of 'How to Program' (They are different!). As well of this I'm taught how to capture requirements from clients, so as to start a new project. How do I do this for a nebulous personal project? I say nebulous, as I often find halfway through programming something, I want to expand what my program will do, or alter the result. Eventually I'm tangled in code, and have to restart. This can be frustrating and off putting. Conversely when given a fixed task, and fixed requirements, it's much easier to programme from a - b. So how do I plan a personal programming project?

  Read the article

• Path of Replication

  - by geeko

  I'm currently developing a replication system to keep data in-synch between an arbitrary number of servers. Some of these servers exist in one cluster on one LAN. Others exist somewhere else in the world. I'm wondering what are the pros/cons of different paths that we choose to flow replicated data on between servers? In other words, what are the different strategies to load balance the replication process ?

  Read the article

• How do I break down and plan a personal programming project?

  - by Pureferret

  I've just started a programming job where I'm applying my 'How to code' knowledge to what I'm being taught of 'How to Program' (They are different!). As part of this, I've been taught how to capture requirements from clients before starting a new project. But... How do I do this for a nebulous personal project? I say nebulous, as I often find halfway through programming something, I want to expand what my program will do, or alter the result. Eventually, I'm tangled in code and have to restart. This can be frustrating and off-putting. Conversely, when given a fixed task and fixed requirements, it's much easier to dig in and get it done. At work I might be told "Today/This week you need to add XYZ to program 1" That is easy to do. At home (for fun) I want to make, say, a program that creates arbitrary lists. It's a very generic task. How do I start with that? I don't need it to do anything, but I want it to do something. So how do I plan a personal programming project? Related: What to plan before starting development on a project?

  Read the article

• Many user stories share the same technical tasks: what to do?

  - by d3prok

  A little introduction to my case: As part of a bigger product, my team is asked to realize a small IDE for a DSL. The user of this product will be able to make function calls in the code and we are also asked to provide some useful function libraries. The team, together with the PO, put on the wall a certain number of user stories regarding the various libraries for the IDE user. When estimating the first of those stories, the team decided that the function call mechanism would have been an engaging but not completely obvious task, so the estimate for that user story raised up from a simple 3 to a more dangerous 5. Coming to the problem: The team then moved to the user stories regarding the other libraries, actually 10 stories, and added those 2 points of "function call mechanism" thing to each of those user story. This immediately raised up the total points for the product of 20 points! Everyone in the team knows that each user story could be picked up by the PO for the next iteration at any time, so we shouldn't isolate that part in one user story, but those 20 points feel so awfully unrealistic! I've proposed a solution, but I'm absolutely not satisfied: We created a "Design story" and put those annoying 2 points over it. However when we came to realize and demonstrate it to our customers, we were unable to show something really valuable for them about that story! Here the problem is whether we should ignore the principle of having isolated user stories (without any dependency between them). What would you do, or even better what have you done, in situations like this? (a small foot-note: following a suggestion I've moved this question from stackoverflow)

  Read the article

• Release roadmap with scrum

  - by SyBer

  I need to prepare an internal product release road-map for product being built via scrum methodology, and have some difficulty correlating sprints to the road-map. The main problem is that as I don't have effort estimations for every story, because these prepared immediately before each sprint, so I don't know what will make into which sprint. I'm fine with changing the road-map as the development goes on, but need it to give at least some indication when things planned to be released. So what would be the best way to do this, other then guestimating the whole backlog? Thanks for any idea.

  Read the article

• Help with off-game tasks

  - by peoro

  I love writing video games for fun, and often do that. I noticed, anyway, that most of the times implementing the gameplay itself doesn't take too much time to me (maybe because I already did that plenty times and know what and how to do for most of the things), but when I try to implement off-game stuff I get lost. By off-game I mean what is not gameplay: menus, cutscenes between levels, world map to choose levels, saving and loading status, managing replays ... Only tried to write a few of these a few times, but always failed; that's why I never really completed and distributed a game. Are these common problems? And where should I start to do this? Where could I find some books/guides about such stuff?

  Read the article

• ArithmeticException thrown during BigDecimal.divide

  - by polygenelubricants

  I thought java.math.BigDecimal is supposed to be The Answer™ to the need of performing infinite precision arithmetic with decimal numbers. Consider the following snippet: import java.math.BigDecimal; //... final BigDecimal one = BigDecimal.ONE; final BigDecimal three = BigDecimal.valueOf(3); final BigDecimal third = one.divide(three); assert third.multiply(three).equals(one); // this should pass, right? I expect the assert to pass, but in fact the execution doesn't even get there: one.divide(three) causes ArithmeticException to be thrown! Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArithmeticException: Non-terminating decimal expansion; no exact representable decimal result. at java.math.BigDecimal.divide It turns out that this behavior is explicitly documented in the API: In the case of divide, the exact quotient could have an infinitely long decimal expansion; for example, 1 divided by 3. If the quotient has a non-terminating decimal expansion and the operation is specified to return an exact result, an ArithmeticException is thrown. Otherwise, the exact result of the division is returned, as done for other operations. Browsing around the API further, one finds that in fact there are various overloads of divide that performs inexact division, i.e.: final BigDecimal third = one.divide(three, 33, RoundingMode.DOWN); System.out.println(three.multiply(third)); // prints "0.999999999999999999999999999999999" Of course, the obvious question now is "What's the point???". I thought BigDecimal is the solution when we need exact arithmetic, e.g. for financial calculations. If we can't even divide exactly, then how useful can this be? Does it actually serve a general purpose, or is it only useful in a very niche application where you fortunately just don't need to divide at all? If this is not the right answer, what CAN we use for exact division in financial calculation? (I mean, I don't have a finance major, but they still use division, right???).

  Read the article

• Watch the Dec. 8 Webcast: Oracle CFO Discusses Planning and Forecasting

  - by Theresa Hickman

  Watch CFO,com's webcast featuring Oracle's CFO, Jeff Epstein, discuss how CFOs and CIOs lead their organizations to better planning, forecasting and performance. Date: Weds. December 8, 2010 Time: 2:00 PM E.S.T Duration: 30 mins In this webcast, Celina Rogers, director of research with CFO Research Services, summarizes the latest findings from a fall 2010 survey surrounding the issues regarding timely, accurate and relevant forecasting and planning. Included in this webcast, you will hear firsthand from Jeff Epstein, CFO of Oracle, on how a senior finance leader can partner successfully with IT to support growth during the course of the economic recovery. Click here, to register for this webcast

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18  | Next Page >