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• Would this be viewed poorly amongst the programming community?

  - by Eric P

  So one of my responsibilities at work is to build an internal tool that helps the workers enter in all their information. It's an enterprise application that is similar to a Windows forms database tool. So it's not much different than like developing a Word + Excel combo application, but the average person in this workgroup is a 20-40 year old woman or a random chatty male type. Plus I know all of these people are heavily involved with Facebook on a daily basis. How bad would it be if I styled my new interface to be similar to what Facebook does. People could get award points and stuff when they fill out different types of forms and basically compete against each other like it was a game. When people had completed one, it would be posted on their wall and everyone could comment/like stuff just like in Facebook. And it would be like they are doing peer reviewing for fun. The rewards would be outstanding I would imagine. These people are so into Facebook and Facebook games that productivity would rise due to them trying to compete and earn points and achievements. Would this be taking advantage of the people by 'tricking them into working harder by giving them a game' or would it be viewed as something that would improve happiness at work?

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• Teacher demands excessive/unjustified use of Design Patterns

  - by SoboLAN

  I study computer science and I have a class called "Programming Techniques". Its purpose is to teach (us) good object oriented design principles. During the semester we have homeworks, programs that we must write to demonstrate what we've learned. The lab assistant demands for each of these homeworks that specific design patterns should be used. For example, the current homework is an application used for processing customer orders. We are demanded to use either "Factory Method" or "Abstract Factory" design patterns for this. It gets even worse: at the end of the semester we must write a program (something more complex) that must use at least one creational pattern, at least one structural pattern and at least one behavioural pattern. Is it normal to demand this ? I mean, forcing us to design our programs in such a way that a specific design pattern makes sense is just beyond what I consider ok. If I'm a car mechanic and have a huge tool box, then I will use a certain tool from that box if and when the situation demands it. Not more, not less. If my design of the application doesn't demand at all the use of "Abstract Factory" (for example), then why should I implement it ? I'm not sure yet if the senior lecturer agrees with what the lab assistant is demanding, but I want to talk to him about it and I need solid arguments to do so. How should I approach this problem with him ? PS: I'm sure there must be a better way to teach us these things. Maybe making us each week read about 3 design patterns and the next week giving us a test with small but specific programming or architectural situations/problems. The goal in that test would be to identify what design patterns would make sense and how they could be implemented. This way, he can see if we understand them. EDIT: These homeworks are not just 100-line programs, they have quite a lot of requirements and are fairly complicated. This is the reason we have about 2 - 3 weeks of deadline for each of them. I agree that practicing this is the best way to learn. But shouldn't smaller programs/applications be used for this ? Something just for demonstrating purposes. Not big programs with lots of requirements/classes/etc.

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• Meaningful concise method naming guidelines

  - by Sam

  Recently I started releasing an open source project, while I was the only user of the library I did not care about the names, but know I want to assign clever names to each methods to make it easier to learn, but I also need to use concise names so they are easy to write as well. I was thinking about some guidelines about the naming, I am aware of lots of guidelines that only care about letters casing or some simple notes. Here, I am looking after guidelines for meaningful concise naming. For example, this could be part of the guidelines I am looking after: Use Add when an existing item is going to be added to a target, Use Create when a new item is being created and added to a target. Use Remove when an existing item is going to be removed from a target, Use delete when an item is going to be removed permanently. Pair AddXXX methods with RemoveXXX and Pair CreateXXX methods with DeleteXXX methods, but do not mix them. The above guidance may be intuitive for native English speakers, but for me that English is my second language I need to be told about things like this.

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• What are some good Photo and Artwork APIs?

  - by Ryan T

  We had an idea for starting a ecards service and were looking into the possibility of populating our site using photo/artwork APIs. Due to legal reasons, Flikr probably won't work, although I've started to scour the web for other options. Basically we just need two functions the user should be able to browse the site's collection and choose a picture we should be able to recall and render a specific picture on our site. From there we should have no problem building our application. The main obstacle is that we're lacking content at the moment. I haven't been able to find too many examples of this being done, so I was wondering if anyone here might know people who have done something similar to what we're trying to do, or know of any leads that might be able to help us out. Suggestions for other APIs that are out there, or forums/communities that might be able to point us in the right direction are also welcome.

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• 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?

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• Do I need a degree in Computer Science to get a junior Programming job?

  - by t84

  Do I need to go to Uni to get a job as a Junior C# coder? I'm 26 and have been working in Games (Production) for 6 years and I am thinking of a change, I've had exposure to VB6, VBA, HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript over the past few years and did a web design NCFE at College, but other than that, nothing else! I'm teaching myself C# at the moment with books and I was wondering 'how much' I need to learn and also how I can improve my chances of getting a programming job! Am I a late started to learn coding? (I know many people who started at a very young age!) Thanks for the help :)

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• How can you get constructive criticism for your code?

  - by burnt1ce

  My team rarely does code review, mainly because we don't have enough time and people lack the energy and will to do so. But I would really like to know what people think about my code when they read it. This way, I have a better understanding how other people think and tailor my code accordingly so it's easier to read. So my question is, how can I get constructive criticism for my code? My intent is to understand how people think so I can write more readable code.

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• Are More Comments Better in High-Turnover Environments?

  - by joshin4colours

  I was talking with a colleague today. We work on code for two different projects. In my case, I'm the only person working on my code; in her case, multiple people work on the same codebase, including co-op students who come and go fairly regularly (between every 8-12 months). She said that she is liberal with her comments, putting them all over the place. Her reasoning is that it helps her remember where things are and what things do since much of the code wasn't written by her and could be changed by someone other than her. Meanwhile, I try to minimize the comments in my code, putting them in only in places with a unobvious workaround or bug. However, I have a better understanding of my code overall, and have more direct control over it. My opinion in that comments should be minimal and the code should tell most of the story, but her reasoning makes sense too. Are there any flaws in her reasoning? It may clutter the code but it ultimately could be quite helpful if there are many people working on it in the short- to medium-run.

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• Design for XML mapping scenarios between two different systems [on hold]

  - by deepak_prn

  Mapping XML fields between two systems is a mundane routine in integration scenarios. I am trying to make the design documents look better and provide clear understanding to the developers especially when we do not use XSLT or any other IDE such as jDeveloper or eclipse plugins. I want it to be a high level design but at the same time talk in developer's language. So that there is no requirements that slip under the crack. For example, one of the scenarios goes: the store cashier sells an item, the transaction data is sent to Data management system. Now, I am writing a functional design for the scenario which deals with mapping XML fields between our system and the data management system. Question : I was wondering if some one had to deal with mapping XML fields between two systems? (without XSLT being involved) and if you used a table to represent the fields mapping (example is below) or any other visualization tool which does not break the bank ? I am trying to find out if there is a better way to represent XML mapping in your design documents. The widely accepted and used method seems to be using a simple table such as in the picture to illustrate the mapping. I am wondering if there are alternate ways/ tools to represent such as in Altova:

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• Versioning millions of files with distributed SCM

  - by C. Lawrence Wenham

  I'm looking into the feasibility of using off-the-shelf distributed SCMs such as Git or Mercurial to manage millions of XML files. Each file would be a commercial transaction, such as a purchase order, that would be updated perhaps 10 times during the lifecycle of the transaction until it is "done" and changes no more. And by "manage", I mean that the SCM would be used to not just version the files, but also to replicate them to other machines for redundancy and transfer of IP. Lets suppose, for the sake of example, that a goal is to provide good performance if it was handling the volume of orders that Amazon.com claimed to have at its peak in December 2010: about 150,000 orders per minute. We're expecting the system to be distributed over many servers in order to get reasonable performance. We're also planning to use solid-state drives exclusively. There is a reason why we don't want to use an RDBMS for primary storage, but it's a bit beyond the scope of this question. Does anyone have first-hand experience with the performance of distributed SCMs under such a load, and what strategies were used? Open-source preferred, since the final product is to be FOSS, too.

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• How do I improve my code reading skills

  - by Andrew

  Well the question is in the title - how do I improve my code reading skills. The software/hardware environment I currently do development in is quite slow with respect to compilation times and time it takes the whole system to test. The system is quite old/complex and thus splitting it into a several smaller, more manageable sub-projects is not feasible in a neare future. I have realized is what really hinders the development progress is my code reading skills. How do I improve my code reading skills, so I can spot most of the errors and issues in the code even before I hit the "do compile" key, even before I start the debugger?

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• Making a C# w/ WPF multiple frame text / pseudo-calendar GUI application [closed]

  - by Gregor Samsa

  I am editing a recently asked question and making it specific, taking the advice of some people here. I would like to program of the following simple form: The user can produce X number of resizable frames (analogous to HTML frames). Each frame serves as a simple text editor, which you can type into and save the whole configuration including resized windows and text. The user should be able alternately "freeze" and present the information, and "unfreeze" and edit frames. I want to use C## with WPF, in Microsoft's Visual C#. I do not yet know this language. I am sure I can pick up the syntax, but I would like to ask about some general advice for how to structure such a program. I have never made a GUI program, let alone one that interfaces with a notepad or some basic text editor. Can someone either direct me to a good resource that will teach me how to do the above? Or outline the basic ingredients that such a program will require, keeping in mind that though I know some C and Python, I have no experience with GUIs or advanced programming generally? In particular I don't know how to incorporate this "text editor" aspect of the program, as well as the resizable frames I would greatly appreciate any help.

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• Using Qt to open external game appplication

  - by RandomGuy

  I have a windows qt application and I'm trying to open an external game, but I'm not having success. Application is in C:\games\Oni\Edition\ and is called Oni.exe, the code I'm using right now is the follow: void MainWindow::on_toolButton_clicked() { qint64 test=1; if(!QProcess::startDetached("Oni.exe",QStringList(),"C:\\games\\Oni\\Edition\\",&test)){ QMessageBox msgBox; msgBox.setText("Oni couln't be started!"); msgBox.exec(); } } I don't know if I'm forgetting something? The game runs fine if I double click it. Thanks.

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• unseen/unknown function definition in linux source

  - by Broncha

  Can any one please explain this piece of code I found in the linux kernel source. I see a lots of code like this in linux and minix kernel but dont seem to find what it does (even if C compilers support that kind of function definition) /* IRQs are disabled and uidhash_lock is held upon function entry. * IRQ state (as stored in flags) is restored and uidhash_lock released * upon function exit. */ static void free_user(struct user_struct *up, unsigned long flags) __releases(&uidhash_lock) { uid_hash_remove(up); spin_unlock_irqrestore(&uidhash_lock, flags); key_put(up->uid_keyring); key_put(up->session_keyring); kmem_cache_free(uid_cachep, up); } I cannot find out if this reference __releases(&uidhash_lock) before the parenthesis starts is allowed OR supported. (It sure is supported as it is in the linux kernel)

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• Removing hard-coded values and defensive design vs YAGNI

  - by Ben Scott

  First a bit of background. I'm coding a lookup from Age - Rate. There are 7 age brackets so the lookup table is 3 columns (From|To|Rate) with 7 rows. The values rarely change - they are legislated rates (first and third columns) that have stayed the same for 3 years. I figured that the easiest way to store this table without hard-coding it is in the database in a global configuration table, as a single text value containing a CSV (so "65,69,0.05,70,74,0.06" is how the 65-69 and 70-74 tiers would be stored). Relatively easy to parse then use. Then I realised that to implement this I would have to create a new table, a repository to wrap around it, data layer tests for the repo, unit tests around the code that unflattens the CSV into the table, and tests around the lookup itself. The only benefit of all this work is avoiding hard-coding the lookup table. When talking to the users (who currently use the lookup table directly - by looking at a hard copy) the opinion is pretty much that "the rates never change." Obviously that isn't actually correct - the rates were only created three years ago and in the past things that "never change" have had a habit of changing - so for me to defensively program this I definitely shouldn't store the lookup table in the application. Except when I think YAGNI. The feature I am implementing doesn't specify that the rates will change. If the rates do change, they will still change so rarely that maintenance isn't even a consideration, and the feature isn't actually critical enough that anything would be affected if there was a delay between the rate change and the updated application. I've pretty much decided that nothing of value will be lost if I hard-code the lookup, and I'm not too concerned about my approach to this particular feature. My question is, as a professional have I properly justified that decision? Hard-coding values is bad design, but going to the trouble of removing the values from the application seems to violate the YAGNI principle. EDIT To clarify the question, I'm not concerned about the actual implementation. I'm concerned that I can either do a quick, bad thing, and justify it by saying YAGNI, or I can take a more defensive, high-effort approach, that even in the best case ultimately has low benefits. As a professional programmer does my decision to implement a design that I know is flawed simply come down to a cost/benefit analysis?

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• Render Ruby object to interactive html

  - by AvImd

  I am developing a tool that discovers network services enabled on host and writes short summary on them like this: init,1 +-- login,1560 -- +-- bash,1629 +-- nc,12137 -lup 50505 { :net = [ [0] "*:50505 IPv4 UDP " ], :fds = [ [0] "/root (cwd)", [1] "/", [2] "/bin/nc.traditional", [3] "/xochikit/ld_poison.so (stat: No such file or directory)", [4] "/dev/tty2", [5] "*:50505" ] } It proved to be very nice formatted and useful for quick discovery thanks to colors provided by the awesome_print gem. However, its output is just a text. One issue is that if I want to share it, I lose colors. I'd also like to fold and unfold parts of objects, quickly jump to specific processes and what not? Adding comments, for example. Thus I want something web-based. What is the best approach to implement features like these? I haven't worked with web interfaces before and I don't have much experience with Ruby.

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• C++ difference between "char *" and "char * = new char[]"

  - by nashmaniac

  So, if I want to declare an array of characters I can go this way char a[2]; char * a ; char * a = new char[2]; Ignoring the first declaration, the other two use pointers. As far as I know the third declaration is stored in heap and is freed using the delete operator . does the second declaration also hold the array in heap ? Does it mean that if something is stored in heap and not freed can be used anywhere in a file like a variable with file linkage ? I tried both third and second declaration in one function and then using the variable in another but it didn't work, why ? Are there any other differences between the second and third declarations ?

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• How do you avoid jumping to a solution when under pressure? [closed]

  - by GlenPeterson

  When under a particularly strict programming deadline (like an hour), if I panic at all, my tendency is to jump into coding without a real plan and hope I figure it out as I go along. Given enough time, this can work, but in an interview it's been pretty unsuccessful, if not downright counter-productive. I'm not always comfortable sitting there thinking while the clock ticks away. Is there a checklist or are there techniques to recognize when you understand the problem well enough to start coding? Maybe don't touch the keyboard for the first 5-10 minutes of the problem? At what point do you give up and code a brute-force solution with the hope of reasoning out a better solution later? A related follow-up question might be, "How do you ensure that you are solving the right problem?" Or "When is it most productive to think and design more vs. code some experiments to and figure out the design later?" EDIT: One close vote already, but I'm not sure why. I wrote this in the first person, but I doubt I'm the only programmer to ever choke in an interview. Here is a list of techniques for taking a math test and another for taking an oral exam. Maybe I'm not expressing myself well, but I'm asking if there is a similar list of techniques for handling a programming problem under pressure?

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• NoSQL as file meta database

  - by fga

  I am trying to implement a virtual file system structure in front of an object storage (Openstack). For availability reasons we initially chose Cassandra, however while designing file system data model, it looked like a tree structure similar to a relational model. Here is the dilemma for availability and partition tolerance we need NoSQL, but our data model is relational. The intended file system must be able to handle filtered search based on date, name etc. as fast as possible. So what path should i take? Stick to relational with some indexing mechanism backed by 3 rd tools like Apache Solr or dig deeper into NoSQL and find a suitable model and database satisfying the model? P.S: Currently from NoSQL Cassandra or MongoDB are choices proposed by my colleagues.

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• I want to build a Virtual Machine, are there any good references?

  - by Michael Stum

  I'm looking to build a Virtual Machine as a platform independent way to run some game code (essentially scripting). The Virtual Machines that I'm aware of in games are rather old: Infocom's Z-Machine, LucasArts' SCUMM, id Software's Quake 3. As a .net Developer, I'm familiar with the CLR and looked into the CIL Instructions to get an overview of what you actually implement on a VM Level (vs. the language level). I've also dabbled a bit in 6502 Assembler during the last year. The thing is, now that I want¹ to implement one, I need to dig a bit deeper. I know that there are stack based and register based VMs, but I don't really know which one is better at what and if there are more or hybrid approaches. I need to deal with memory management, decide which low level types are part of the VM and need to understand why stuff like ldstr works the way it does. My only reference book (apart from the Z-Machine stuff) is the CLI Annotated Standard, but I wonder if there is a better, more general/fundamental lecture for VMs? Basically something like the Dragon Book, but for VMs? I'm aware of Donald Knuth's Art of Computer Programming which uses a register-based VM, but I'm not sure how applicable that series still is, especially since it's still unfinished? Clarification: The goal is to build a specialized VM. For example, Infocom's Z-Machine contains OpCodes for setting the Background Color or playing a sound. So I need to figure out how much goes into the VM as OpCodes vs. the compiler that takes a script (language TBD) and generates the bytecode from it, but for that I need to understand what I'm really doing. ¹ I know, modern technology would allow me to just interpret a high level scripting language on the fly. But where is the fun in that? :) It's also a bit hard to google because Virtual Machines is nowadays often associated with VMWare-type OS Virtualization...

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• Aggregating Excel cell contents that match a label [migrated]

  - by Josh

  I'm sure this isn't a terribly difficult thing, but it's not the type of question that easily lends itself to internet searches. I've been assigned a project for work involving a complex spreadsheet. I've done the usual =SUM and other basic Excel formulas, and I've got enough coding background that I'm able to at least fudge my way through VBA, but I'm not certain how to proceed with one part of the task. Simple version: On Sheet 1 I have a list of people (one on each row, person's name in column A), on sheet 2 I have a list of groups (one on each row, group name in column A). Each name in Sheet 1 has its own row, and I have a "Data Validation" dropdown menu where you choose the group each person belongs to. That dropdown is sourced from Sheet 2, where each group has a row. So essentially the data validation source for Sheet 1's "Group" column is just "=Sheet2!$a1:a100" or whatever. The problem is this: I want each group row in Sheet 2 to have a formula which results in a list of all the users which have been assigned to that group on Sheet 1. What I mean is something the equivalent of "select * from PeopleTab where GROUP = ThisGroup". The resulting cell would just stick the names together like "Bob Smith, Joe Jones, Sally Sanderson" I've been Googling for hours but I can't think of a way to phrase my search query to get the results I want. Here's an example of desired result (Dash-delimited. Can't find a way to make it look nice, table tags don't seem to work here): (Sheet 1) Bob Smith - Group 1 (selected from dropdown) Joe Jones - Group 2 (selected from dropdown) Sally Sanderson - Group 1 (selected from dropdown) (Sheet 2) Group 1 - Bob Smith, Sally Sanderson (result of formula) Group 2 - Joe Jones (result of formula) What formula (or even what function) do I use on that second column of sheet 2 to make a flat list out of the members of that group?

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• Developing an internet-enabled application as a Kiosk on Windows 7

  - by maple_shaft

  I am finalizing development of a desktop Java application that communicates with an outside web server, and now I need to start seriously considering deployment. This application will run on a large touchscreen all-in-one workstation running Windows 7. It will be located in a public-area and thus must be LOCKED-DOWN Hanibal Lecter style. Early in the project nobody really concerned themselves with this fact just assuming that we can buy some magical software for Windows 7 that will automatically take care of all this, however I am finding now that this looks to be a LOT more complicated than my manager ever thought. I need to: - Lock down the standard hot-keys (ALT+TAB, ALT+CTRL+DEL, etc...) Prevent the user from opening ANY programs other than the kiosk application and its spawned executables Prevent the user from closing the application Start the kiosk application on startup (this can be done without kiosk software) Auto-login to Windows on reboot (Windows Updates, power failure, bratty kid pressing the power button, etc...) Administrator passcode escape sequence for routine maintenance by desktop support professionals. To my dismay I am having a really hard time finding software that contains the whole package and am finding numerous swaths of competing information on the best way to do this. I am not necessarily looking for free or open source software and am willing to pay for software that can help me achieve this. Have any of you ever wrote kiosk software before and if so what approaches have you taken to do this?

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• Why learning new things is not important on a job hunt? [closed]

  - by IAdapter

  I have just finished my job hunt. I think it was about 40 job interviews, I like to travel and get to know many companies. One thing I did not like is that they don't care about new technologies. I think only 2 persons asked me about new stuff in Java world. Most of them care if I know Java (certification and many years of experiance is not enough for them, they need to test me) For example in IBM they only cared what IBM products do I know. Have I ever used any custom extensions of WebSphere? I don't understand those questions. If I learn new frameworks every day then I can learn whatever technology they have very fast. So why it matters if I have ever used those "great" custom extensions of WebSphere? After those 40 interviews I have no reason to learn any new framework, because I see that they don't care. Why those "developers" don't ask questions about new technologies? are they so long at those comapnies that they don't care about new stuff?

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• Best way to deal with a system without a user acceptance / testing phase

  - by billy.bob

  Historically I've been able to get away with making small changes to an in-house helpdesk system riding on a LAMP stack and just making a backup prior to editing. This has no user acceptance / testing phase and I work on the live .php files directly. However now the requirement has arisen that will require a bit more coding done, and I'm obviously not particularly happy about making these changes without a framework to support me. What would the best way forward be? I could just make another backup I suppose.

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• Finding complexity of a program as a service [on hold]

  - by Seshu

  I would like to find the complexity of a specific code chunk written in Java. Is there a place/web site/service where I can find out the complexity of any arbitrary program. This program might include loops/recursion. Using theory we can compute complexity ourselves. But, just curious in finding if any service is out there to find such complexity. We have several code quality related tools does any of such tools will also find complexity of given code? Could any one point me or direct me to such a utility/site/service?

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