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• Are R&D mini-projects a good activity for interns?

  - by dukeofgaming

  I'm going to be in charge of hiring some interns for our software department soon (automotive infotainment systems) and I'm designing an internship program. The main productive activity "menu" I'm planning for them consists of: Verification testing Writing Unit Tests (automated, with an xUnit-compliant framework [several languages in our projects]) Documenting Code Updating wiki Updating diagrams & design docs Helping with low priority tickets (supervised/mentored) Hunting down & cleaning compiler/run-time warnings Refactoring/cleaning code against our coding standards But I also have this idea that having them do small R&D projects would be good to test their talent and get them to have fun. These mini-projects would be: Experimental implementations & optimizations Proof of concept implementations for new technologies Small papers (~2-5 pages) doing formal research on the previous two points Apps (from a mini-project pool) These kinds of projects would be pre-defined and very concrete, although new ideas from the interns themselves would be very welcome. Even if a project is too big or is abandoned, the idea would also be to lay the ground work so they can be retaken by another intern or intern team. While I think this is good in concept, I don't know if it could be good in practice, as obviously this would diminish their productivity on "real work" (work with immediate value to the company), but I think it could help bring aboard very bright people and get them to want to stay in the future (which, I think, is the end goal for any internship program). My question here is if these activities are too open ended or difficult for the average intern to accomplish and if R&D is an efficient use of an interns time or if it makes more sense for to assign project work to interns instead.

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• Why is my fresh install of 12.04 running slow?

  - by user75129

  Hey guys I'm a new linux user, I figured it would be the best for the laptop I just purchased because it's said to be faster than Windows 7. I'm currently dual-booting with Windows 7 Professial and Ubuntu 12.04. The laptop I am using is the LG X Note P210 Specs: Intel Core i5 470UM Dual Core clocked at 1.33GHz 12.5" HD LED LCD Screen at 1366 by 768 4GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz RAM Integrated Intel HD Graphics Card 4 Cell Battery with 3150mAh It comes loaded Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit, it runs fine on that but my Ubuntu 12.04 runs slower than it and I don't understand why, it definitely has decent specs to run even a 64-bit operating system and do some gaming. Granted I know it's not the best but for a laptop it does the job so Ubuntu should work especially since it's said to make older units with worse specs run even better. I'm not all that familiar with coding and all so what are things I can do to optimize speed without overclocking? Boot up is fine, its program response time I believe, once Im in the actual OS, it lags, slows down, apps stop working, take forever to load up apps.

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• When to use each user research method

  - by user12277104

  There are a lot of user research methods out there, but sometimes we get stuck in a rut, conducting all formative usability testing before coding, or running surveys to gather satisfaction data. I'll be the first to admit that it happens to me, but to get out of a rut, it just takes a minute to look at where I am in the design & development cycle, what kind(s) of data I need, and what methods are available to me. We need reminders, or refreshers, every once in a while. One tool I've found useful is a graphic organizer that I created many years ago. It's been through several revisions, as I've adapted it to the product cycles of the places I've worked, changed my mind about how to categorize it, and added methods that I've used or created over time. I shared a version of this table at the 2012 International UPA conference, and I was contacted by someone yesterday who wanted to use it in a university course on user-center design. I was flattered at the the thought, but embarrassed, because I was sure it needed updating -- that was a year ago, after all. But I opened it today, and really, there's not much I'd change -- sure, I could add some nuance regarding what types of formative testing, such as modality (remote, unmoderated remote, or in-person) or flavor of testing (RITE, RITE-Krug, comparative, performance), but I think it's pretty much ok as is. Click on the image below, to get the full-size PDF. And whether it's entirely "right" or "wrong" isn't the whole value of looking at these methods across the product lifecycle. The real value lies in the reminder that I have options. And what those options are change as the field changes, so while I don't expect this graphic to have an eternal shelf life, it's still ok a year after I last updated it. That said, if you find something missing or out of place, let me know :) 

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• Why does working processors harder use more electrical power?

  - by GazTheDestroyer

  Back in the mists of time when I started coding, at least as far as I'm aware, processors all used a fixed amount of power. There was no such thing as a processor being "idle". These days there are all sorts of technologies for reducing power usage when the processor is not very busy, mostly by dynamically reducing the clock rate. My question is why does running at a lower clock rate use less power? My mental picture of a processor is of a reference voltage (say 5V) representing a binary 1, and 0V representing 0. Therefore I tend to think of of a constant 5V being applied across the entire chip, with the various logic gates disconnecting this voltage when "off", meaning a constant amount of power is being used. The rate at which these gates are turned on and off seems to have no relation to the power used. I have no doubt this is a hopelessly naive picture, but I am no electrical engineer. Can someone explain what's really going on with frequency scaling, and how it saves power. Are there any other ways that a processor uses more or less power depending on state? eg Does it use more power if more gates are open? How are mobile / low power processors different from their desktop cousins? Are they just simpler (less transistors?), or is there some other fundamental design difference?

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• Oracle Fusion Applications Design Patterns Now Available For Developers

  - by ultan o'broin

  The Oracle Fusion Applications user experience design patterns are published! These new, reusable usability solutions and best-practices, which will join the Oracle dashboard patterns and guidelines that are already available online, are used by Oracle to artfully bring to life a new standard in the user experience, or UX, of enterprise applications. Now, the Oracle applications development community can benefit from the science behind the Oracle Fusion Applications user experience, too. The design patterns are based on Oracle ADF components and easily implemented in Oracle JDeveloper. These Oracle Fusion Applications UX Design Patterns, or blueprints, enable Oracle applications developers and system implementers everywhere to leverage professional usability insight when: tailoring an Oracle Fusion application, creating coexistence solutions that existing users will be delighted with, thus enabling graceful user transitions to Oracle Fusion Applications down the road, or designing exciting, new, highly usable applications in the cloud or on-premise. Based on the Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) components, the Oracle Fusion Applications patterns and guidelines are proven with real users and in the Applications UX usability labs, so you can get right to work coding productivity-enhancing designs that provide an advantage for your entire business. What’s the best way to get started? We’ve made that easy, too. The Design Filter Tool (DeFT) selects the best pattern for your user type and task. Simply adapt your selection for your own task flow and content, and you’re on your way to a really great applications user experience. More Oracle applications design patterns and training are coming your way in the future. To provide feedback on the sets that are currently available, let me know in the comments!.

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• How to prevent window list "confusion" when detaching eclipse views?

  - by amotzg

  I'm detaching eclipse views to float on my other screen in order to get more coding space on the first screen. When doing that, the detached windows appear in ubuntu's window list applet with the eclipse icon but with no title. Then, when pushing the main eclipse button on the window list, one of the detached views will get to front but not the main eclipse window. When using Alt+tab I can also see the extra eclipse icons but choosing the correct one for the main window works and make it the active window while also showing all detached childs. Other applications behave as expected, e.g. gimp floating panels don't show on the windows list and this is also the case with SlickEdit, Firefox child windows all show on window list but gets the focus correctly, etc. I can see the the workspace switcher show my two screens but in 'Monitor preferences' I see my two screens as one big screen. I'm working with ubuntu 10.04.4 under a VMware Workstation 7.1.3 build-324285. 'uname -a' output: Linux ubuntu 2.6.32-40-generic #87-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 6 00:56:56 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux The desktop screen shot with the problem, ununtu's version, and Monitor preferences. How can I solve it and make only the main window show in window list or at least get activated when pushing it's button on the window list?

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• What is the proper response to lousy error message?

  - by William Pursell

  I've just come across (for the 47 millionth time) some code that looks like this: except IOError, e: print "Problems reading file: %s." % filename sys.exit( 1 ) My first reaction is very visceral: the person who coded this is a complete idiot. How hard is it to print error messages to stderr and to include the system error message in the string? I haven't used python in years, and it took me all of 4 minutes to track down the documentation to figure out how to get the error message from the exception object e and the syntax for printing to stderr. My "complete idiot" reaction was slightly lessened since at least a non-zero value is passed to sys.exit, but I still find this code offensive. My prime thought is that the developer who wrote this is a complete novice for whom I have zero respect. Am I over-reacting? Surely there are excuses for all sorts of bad coding practices, but is there anything that can possibly excuse this sort of $#|t? I guess there are two question here: one is a duplicate of What are developer's problems with helpful error messages?, and the other is "am I over-reacting, or is it valid to conclude that the author of the above code is a novice?"

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• How do I debug an overheating problem?

  - by Tab

  Hello guys. I have a problem with my Laptop (Dell Inspiron 1564 Core i5 4GB Ram VGA ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4300 running Ubuntu 10.10 32bit). It shuts down abruptly without even a lag in the application I am working with before shutdown. I think it's overheating problem. Actually the laptop is hot all the time when I am running Ubuntu. When I switch back to windows, even with intense load it won't shutdown or show any problem as long as I keep proper ventilation (when the air openings are blocked it does the same). Actually on Ubuntu i don't usually do things that need much CPU power, usually surfing internet, coding web pages and sometimes playing with python and ruby. I am not enabling desktop effects so no GPU load except the normal GNOME gui. Now as I am writing the Processor load in the panel monitor applet is 0%, Memory 11% by programs, 22% by cache. And i have CPU Frequency monitor for each of the 4 cores set to 1.20 Ghz (the lowest possible value, i am not sure if this applet does really limit CPU usage). Running sensors in terminal gave me temp1: +26.8°C (crit = +100.0°C) temp2: +0.0°C (crit = +100.0°C) hddtemp /dev/sda at the terminal gave me /dev/sda: WDC WD3200BEVT-75ZCT2: 46°C All that fine but the laptop is Really hot i can feel it in the keyboard, mouse pad is painful to touch, and the fan is always spinning. I am also placing 2 small fans running on USB under the laptop right now and the laptop is lifted over the fans so it's well ventilated. When I am running windows it doesn't get that hot except when there is a really big load on the CPU and this is keeping me away from using Linux for everyday tasks. Actually I don't care much for speed as I can deal with low speed it's not going to shutdown abruptly. So please if you can help me and tell me what are the possible causes, where should I start ?

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• Application Scope v's Static - Not Quite the same

  - by Duncan Mills

  An interesting question came up today which, innocent as it sounded, needed a second or two to consider. What's the difference between storing say a Map of reference information as a Static as opposed to storing the same map as an application scoped variable in JSF?  From the perspective of the web application itself there seems to be no functional difference, in both cases, the information is confined to the current JVM and potentially visible to your app code (note that Application Scope is not magically propagated across a cluster, you would need a separate instance on each VM). To my mind the primary consideration here is a matter of leakage. A static will be (potentially) visible to everything running within the same VM (OK this depends on which class-loader was used but let's keep this simple), and this includes your model code and indeed other web applications running in the same container. An Application Scoped object, in JSF terms, is much more ring-fenced and is only visible to the Web app itself, not other web apps running on the same server and not directly to the business model layer if that is running in the same VM. So given that I'm a big fan of coding applications to say what I mean, then using Application Scope appeals because it explicitly states how I expect the data to be used and a provides a more explicit statement about visibility and indeed dependency as I'd generally explicitly inject it where it is needed.  Alternative viewpoints / thoughts are, as ever, welcomed...

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• Does unit testing lead to premature generalization (specifically in the context of C++)?

  - by Martin

  Preliminary notes I'll not go into the distinction of the different kinds of test there are, there are already a few questions on these sites regarding that. I'll take what's there and that says: unit testing in the sense of "testing the smallest isolatable unit of an application" from which this question actually derives The isolation problem What is the smallest isolatable unit of a program. Well, as I see it, it (highly?) depends on what language you are coding in. Micheal Feathers talks about the concept of a seam: [WEwLC, p31] A seam is a place where you can alter behavior in your program without editing in that place. And without going into the details, I understand a seam -- in the context of unit testing -- to be a place in a program where your "test" can interface with your "unit". Examples Unit test -- especially in C++ -- require from the code under test to add more seams that would be strictly called for for a given problem. Example: Adding a virtual interface where non-virtual implementation would have been sufficient Splitting -- generalizing(?) -- a (smallish) class further "just" to facilitate adding a test. Splitting a single-executable project into seemingly "independent" libs, "just" to facilitate compiling them independently for the tests. The question I'll try a few versions that hopefully ask about the same point: Is the way that Unit Tests require one to structure an application's code "only" beneficial for the unit tests or is it actually beneficial to the applications structure. Is the generalization code need to exhibit to be unit-testable useful for anything but the unit tests? Does adding unit tests force one to generalize unnecessarily? Is the shape unit tests force on code "always" also a good shape for the code in general as seen from the problem domain? I remember a rule of thumb that said don't generalize until you need to / until there's a second place that uses the code. With Unit Tests, there's always a second place that uses the code -- namely the unit test. So is this reason enough to generalize?

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• Wanted: Java Code Brainteasers

  - by Tori Wieldt

  The Jan/Feb Java Magazine will go out next week. It's full of great Java stories, interviews and technical articles. It also includes a Fix This section; the idea of this section is challenging a Java developer's coding skills. It's a multiple-choice brainteaser that includes code and possible answers. The answer is provided in the next issue. For an example, check out Fix This in the Java Magazine premier issue. We are looking for community submissions to Fix This. Do you have a good code brain teaser? Remember, you want tease your fellow devs, not stump them completely! If you have a submission, here's what you do:  1. State the problem, including a short summary of the tool/technique, in about 75 words. 2. Send us the code snippet, with a short set-up so readers know what they are looking at (such as, "Consider the following piece of code to have database access within a Servlet.") 3. Provide four multiple-choice answers to the question, "What's the fix?" 4. Give us the answer, along with a brief explanation of why. 5. Tell us who you are (name, occupation, etc.) 6. Email the above to JAVAMAG_US at ORACLE.COM with "Fix This Submission" in the title. Deadlines for Fix This for next two issues of Java Magazine are Dec. 12th and Jan. 15th. Bring It!

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• Simple multi-seat

  - by Oli

  I've asked about multiseat before. The answer (for 10.04) involved doing it the proper way (eg through gdm, multiple server layouts). The problem was that gdm needs to be patched or reverted to 2.20 for multiseat. It's an ugly hack that, worse than anything, will hold up future updates. As a result, I didn't do anything. I still have a spare video card. I still have the monitor, keyboard and mouse all sitting waiting to jump into action. And I still want to be able to turn that into a simple desktop. My needs don't seem complicated. I have a second video card, a USB hub and anything connected to that USB hub that I want to be dedicated to another X server. I don't need a login screen (I'm happy hard-coding in a auto-login and I'd be happy with the user starting the X server if that's possible). This is so simple in my head that I only need two questions: How can I explicitly start an X server from the command line on an unused video adapter (by passing it whatever configuration I need to)? Can I have this new X session load a desktop environment on load? This seems like something you should be able to write in a little upstart script within 10 minutes. That would be perfect for me as then I'd have a nice start/stop control over the secondary desktop from the main desktop (that I want to leave unscathed!) I'm thinking something as simple as this for the payload: su -u other_user -c "startx -- localhost hardware-information" And use .xinitrc to load openbox or something...

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• How to effectively design a piece of software

  - by ti83plus

  Im a compsci student and ive got some experience in various languages and paradigms c/java/python/ruby/html/css/scheme/sql/asp(classic). I realise that i want to have some software in my portfolio for future job hunting even tho i still have 2 years left of my education. Ive got a pretty good idea of what i want to make, its a webapp. Most shops around here are either .net or java and since i know java best and dont have access to ms developer tools im thinking i should go with java. Even tho i feel i know the principles of OOP pretty good ive got no clue how to go from my idea to a working solution. Where can i access information about designing the underlying architechture of my solution? Also i would like to know what other technologies i should train on, my current list includes javascript(and possibly a javascript library) some sort of java web framework tips are appreciated. I would like to add support for android/iphone apps in the future and this is something i have to take into account when designing the app. I have done a course on software engineering but i found this to be more centered around project management ideas then the actual design and implementation. So i would like tips on technologies i should focus on to get the most out of my time without the massive overhead of huge config processes but at the same time keep my project viable in a business sense, so that i use technologies that are relevant for business (java developer jobs). And i would also like tips on where i can learn more about the design process around a software project, i will be working mostly alone. But i find the approach ive used up until now (start coding and figure it out as you go) wont suffice.

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• Introducing Code Map for Visual Studio 2012 September CTP

  - by krislankford

  As part of the Visual Studio 2012 CTP for September, Visual Studio got a little sexier at helping you discover and visualize your code. The introduction of the Code Map feature helps compliment the variety of other tools that are included with Visual Studio to help you analyze and visualize your projects and solutions. Code Map leverages the dgml format within Visual Studio that is currently used b the Architecture and Modeling tools. This is a nice addition that gets us from point A to point B a little faster. The great thing about Code Map is that you can gain access to the functionality from directly within your code from the context menu. This Code Map functionality is also context specific based on your cursor. You can evaluate and add items such as methods and variables directly to the Code Map window. As you add items the Code Map surface is updated to show your new item plus any relationships and dependencies that have been introduced in your code. Something that is also very nice is that the Code Map surface is interactive and allows you to use the F12 button (Go To Definition) which can help you navigate your code especially is you are adding items that span multiple files or projects. To get started all you have to do is go out and download the September CTP for Visual Studio 2012 located here. Happy Coding!   Code Map Window

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• What are some good courses to take my programming to the next level?

  - by absentx

  I am in search of either some in person, or online training that could take my coding to the next level. I am looking to attack two specific areas: Javascript: While I have been getting by with javascript for three or four years, I still feel like it takes a back seat to my other programming. I use Jquery a lot but would prefer to be proficient in pure JS also. PHP: I feel pretty proficient at PHP but I know there is only room to improve. Here I am interested in something that can teach me the more advanced aspects of the language, improve my code writing and perhaps cover object oriented php in depth also. I have looked into Netcom's training courses before but I can't tell if there advanced webmaster professional would be a good fit or not. Seems kind of like a force fed course but I am interested in it because I am looking for something in the one to two week range that is targeted at what I am looking for. I have zero experience with any type of online courses in terms of programming. It appears lots are available, but I am not sure on the quality.

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• What is an appropriate language for expressing initial stages of algorithm refinement?

  - by hydroparadise

  First, this is not a homework assignment, but you can treat it as such ;). I found the following question in the published paper The Camel Has Two Humps. I was not a CS major going to college (I majored in MIS/Management), but I have a job where I find myself coding quite often. For a non-trivial programming problem, which one of the following is an appropriate language for expressing the initial stages of algorithm refinement? (a) A high-level programming language. (b) English. (c) Byte code. (d) The native machine code for the processor on which the program will run. (e) Structured English (pseudocode). What I do know is that you usually want to start your design implementation by writing down pseuducode and then moving/writing in the desired technology (because we all do that, right?) But I never thought about it in terms of refinement. I mean, if you were the original designer, then you might have access to the original pseudocode. But realisticly, when I have to maintain/refactor/refine somebody elses code, I just keep trucking with the language it currently resides in. Anybody have a definitive answer to this? As a side note, I did a quick scan of the paper as I havn't read every single detail. It presents various score statistics, can't find where the answers are with the paper.

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• When can you call yourself good at language X?

  - by SoulBeaver

  This goes back to a conversation I've had with my girlfriend. I tried to tell her that I simply don't feel adequate enough in my programming language (C++) to call myself good. She then asked me, "Well, when do you consider yourself good enough?" That's an interesting question. I didn't know what to tell her. So I'm asking you. For any programming language, framework or the like, when do you reach a point were you sit back, look at what you've done and say, "Hey, I'm actually pretty good at this."? How do you define "good" so that you can tell others, honestly, "Yeah, I'm good at X". Additionally, do you reach these conclusions by comparing what others can do? Additional Info I have read the canonical paper on how it takes ten-thousand hours before you are an expert on the field. (Props to anybody that knows what this paper is called again) I have also read various articles from Coding Horror about interviewing people. Some people, it was said, "Cannot function outside of a framework." So they may be "good" for that framework, but not otherwise in the language. Is this true?

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• Pulling in changes from a forked repo without a request on GitHub?

  - by Alec

  I'm new to the social coding community and don't know how to proceed properly in this situation: I've created a GitHub Repository a couple weeks ago. Someone forked the project and has made some small changes that have been on my to-do. I'm thrilled someone forked my project and took the time to add to it. I'd like to pull the changes into my own code, but have a couple of concerns. 1) I don't know how to pull in the changes via git from a forked repo. My understanding is that there is an easy way to merge the changes via a pull request, but it appears as though the forker has to issue that request? 2) Is it acceptable to pull in changes without a pull request? This relates to the first one. I'd put the code aside for a couple of weeks and come back to find that what I was going to work on next was done by someone else, and don't want to just copy their code without giving them credit in some way. Shouldn't there be a to pull the changes in even if they don't explicitly ask you to? What's the etiquette here I may be over thinking this, but thanks for your input in advance. I'm pretty new to the hacker community, but I want to do what I can to contribute!

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• How to keep track of previous scenes and return to them in libgdx

  - by MxyL

  I have three scenes: SceneTitle, SceneMenu, SceneLoad. (The difference between the title scene and the menu scene is that the title scene is what you see when you first turn on the game, and the menu scene is what you can access during the game. During the game, meaning, after you've hit "play!" in the title scene.) I provide the ability to save progress and consequently load a particular game. An issue that I've run into is being able to easily keep track of the previous scene. For example, if you enter the load scene and then decide to change your mind, the game needs to go back to where you were before; this isn't something that can be hardcoded. Now, an easy solution off the top of my head is to simply maintain a scene stack, which basically keeps track of history for me. A simple transaction would be as follows I'm currently in the menu scene, so the top of the stack is SceneMenu I go to the load scene, so the game pushes SceneLoad onto the stack. When I return from the load scene, the game pops SceneLoad off the stack and initializes the scene that's currently at the top, which is SceneMenu I'm coding in Java, so I can't simply pass around Classes as if they were objects, so I've decided implemented as enum for eac scene and put that on the stack and then have my scene managing class go through a list of if conditions to return the appropriate instance of the class. How can I implement my scene stack without having to do too much work maintaining it?

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• Why does my player stop when stepping onto a new tile?

  - by user220631

  Me and my friend are creating a game from scratch. He is in charge of art design and I am in charge of coding. I have done well so far with the code, but I have a collision detection problem when the character moves right: Once the player moves right, whenever a new block is encountered, the player stops. I don't know if this is a problem with collision or the player but I can't work around it. Here is the collision code: this.IsColliding = function(obj) { if(this.X > obj.X + obj.Width) return false; else if(this.X + this.Width < obj.X) return false; else if(this.Y > obj.Y + obj.Height) return false; else if(this.Y + this.Height < obj.Y) return false; else return true; } I also wanted to see if there as a way to make the player collide with the bottom of the block and the right side of the block instead of running through it.

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• Parse text file on click and display

  - by John R

  I am thinking of a methodology for rapid retrieval of code snippets. I imagine an HTML table with a setup like this: one two ... ten one oneTwo() oneTen() two twoOne() twoTen() ... ten tenOne() tenTwo() When a user clicks a function in this HTML table, a snippet of code is shown in another div tag or perhaps a popup window (I'm open to different solutions). I want to maintain only one PHP file named utitlities.php that contains a class called 'util'. This file & class will hold all the functions referenced in the above table (it is also used on various projects and is functional code). A key idea is that I do not want to update the HTML documentation everytime I write/update a new function in utilities.php. I should be able to click a function in the table and have PHP open the utilities file, parse out the apropriate function and display it in an HTML window. Questions: 1) I will be coding this in PHP and JavaScript but am wondering if similar scripts are available (for all or part) so I don't reinvent the wheel. 2) Quick & easy Ajax suggestions appreciated too (probably will use jquery, but am rusty). 3) Methodology for parsing out the functions from the utilities.php file (I'm not to good with regex).

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• What are some good resources for creating a game engine in XNA?

  - by Glasser

  I'm currently a student game programmer working on an indie project. We have a team of eleven people (five programmers, four artists, and two audio designers) aboard, all working hard to help design this game. We've been meeting for months now and so far we have a pretty buffed out Game Design Document as well as much audio/visual concept art. Our programmers are itching to progress on our own end. Each person in our programming team is well versed in C++, but is very familiar with C#. We have enough experience and skill that we're confident that we will be successful with our game, and we're looking to build our own game engine in XNA as it seems like it would be worth our time and effort in the end. The game itself will be a 2D beat 'em up style game to be released over xbox live and the PC. It's play style will be similar to that of Castle Crashers or Scott Pilgrim vs The World. We want to design the game engine to allow us to better implement our assets into the game as well as to simplify the creation of design elements/mechanics. Currently between our programmers, we have books such as "XNA 4.0" and "Game Coding Complete, Third Edition," but we'd still like more information on both XNA and (especially) building a game engine from scratch. What are any other good books, websites, or resources we could use to further map out and program our game engine?

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• How do you price your work?

  - by Dr.Kameleon

  Well, let me explain : This has really been an issue for me, for such a long time. And what is worse - since coding is something I simply ADORE (I would definitely do it, even if there was no payment involved whatsoever..) - is that I always end up feeling somewhat awkward... Anyway... So, here's the deal : You start working on a project, you may have something in your mind, and even if you're lucky enough and the client needs no "cost estimates" beforehand, sooner or later you'll face the ultimate dilemma of pricing your own work. So, how do YOU do it? By estimating the time you put into it? (obviously, this is not exact, 'coz perhaps a more capable coder will need much less time for the very same thing than a not-so-competent coder + even the very same coder may not "perform" equally at all times) By the Lines of code you've written? (obviously, this is not a measure either : a 10-line script that does exactly the same with a 1000-line script is, at least for me, "better") By taking into account the level of complexity of the project and, perhaps, how specialised the subject is? By taking into account other factors? (e.g. the value of the project for your customer)

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• Using Clojure instead of Python for scalability (multi core) reasons, good idea?

  - by Vandell

  After reading http://clojure.org/rationale and other performance comparisons between Clojure and many languages, I started to think that apart from ease of use, I shouldn't be coding in Python anymore, but in Clojure instead. Actually, I began to fill irresponsisble for not learning clojure seeing it's benefits. Does it make sense? Can't I make really efficient use of all cores using a more imperative language like Python, than a lisp dialect or other functional language? It seems that all the benefits of it come from using immutable data, can't I do just that in Python and have all the benefits? I once started to learn some Common Lisp, read and done almost all exercices from a book I borrowod from my university library (I found it to be pretty good, despite it's low popularity on Amazon). But, after a while, I got myself struggling to much to do some simple things. I think there's somethings that are more imperative in their nature, that makes it difficult to model those thins in a functional way, I guess. The thing is, is Python as powerful as Clojure for building applications that takes advantages of this new multi core future? Note that I don't think that using semaphores, lock mechanisms or other similar concurrency mechanism are good alternatives to Clojure 'automatic' parallelization.

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• Gaming Community CMS, with forum integration [closed]

  - by Tillman32

  Possible Duplicate: Which Content Management System (CMS) should I use? I've had a simple website that I coded myself for a while now, the site is a gaming community. It's very forum and news driven. It was a HORRIBLE idea to take on coding this thing myself. Although we've used it for about a year now, we're just getting too big, and I need to streamline our work. I need writers to post news, etc. I've been doing it through code. ( A year ago I thought it would be a cool idea ) Anyway, I've been messing with just about every CMS out there, and I'm struggling to get something that I really like. The main issue I'm facing, is a good news system, and good forum integration. I'm sort of picky when it comes to looks, its a curse. Reading on here, I see a lot of people saying Drupal is the best for the 3 things I need, community interaction, and forums. I think the main issue that I ran into with drupal, was ease of use, and themes. I am not a web designer, and I need a good theme. For an idea of what I'm looking for, go check out http://www.clgaming.net, they have forums integrated, a nice news area on home page/news section, and nice user accounts. It looks very professional, and I doubt I'll get close to that with a free theme, but their functionality is exactly what I need. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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