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  • Placement of defensive structures in a game

    - by Martin
    I am working on an AI bot for the game Defcon. The game has cities, with varying populations, and defensive structures with limited range. I'm trying to work out a good algorithm for placing defence towers. Cities with higher populations are more important to defend Losing a defence tower is a blow, so towers should be placed reasonably close together Towers and cities can only be placed on land So, with these three rules, we see that the best kind of placement is towers being placed in a ring around the largest population areas (although I don't want an algorithm just to blindly place a ring around the highest area of population, sometime there might be 2 sets of cities far apart, in which case the algorithm should make 2 circles, each one half my total towers). I'm wondering what kind of algorithms might be used for determining placement of towers?

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  • The Implications of Modern Day Software Development Abstractions

    - by Andreas Grech
    I am currently doing a dissertation about the implications or dangers that today's software development practices or teachings may have on the long term effects of programming. Just to make it clear: I am not attacking the use abstractions in programming. Every programmer knows that abstractions are the bases for modularity. What I want to investigate with this dissertation are the positive and negative effects abstractions can have in software development. As regards the positive, I am sure that I can find many sources that can confirm this. But what about the negative effects of abstractions? Do you have any stories to share that talk about when certain abstractions failed on you? The main concern is that many programmers today are programming against abstractions without having the faintest idea of what the abstraction is doing under-the-covers. This may very well lead to bugs and bad design. So, in you're opinion, how important is it that programmers actually know what is going below the abstractions? Taking a simple example from Joel's Back to Basics, C's strcat: void strcat( char* dest, char* src ) { while (*dest) dest++; while (*dest++ = *src++); } The above function hosts the issue that if you are doing string concatenation, the function is always starting from the beginning of the dest pointer to find the null terminator character, whereas if you write the function as follows, you will return a pointer to where the concatenated string is, which in turn allows you to pass this new pointer to the concatenation function as the *dest parameter: char* mystrcat( char* dest, char* src ) { while (*dest) dest++; while (*dest++ = *src++); return --dest; } Now this is obviously a very simple as regards abstractions, but it is the same concept I shall be investigating. Finally, what do you think about the issue that schools are preferring to teach Java instead of C and Lisp ? Can you please give your opinions and your says as regards this subject? Thank you for your time and I appreciate every comment.

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  • Does this data structure have a name? Sort of a "linked matrix"?

    - by Bob
    Let's say I wanted similar functionality to a doubly linked list but needed a matrix instead so that each node was structured like this: public class Node { Node Up, Down, Left, Right; object Value; } Is there a name for such a structure? I've looked through this Wikipedia listing of data structures but didn't see anything similar. Unless I just missed it.

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  • How to show loading spinner in jQuery?

    - by Edward Tanguay
    In Prototype I can show a "loading..." image with this code: var myAjax = new Ajax.Request( url, {method: 'get', parameters: pars, onLoading: showLoad, onComplete: showResponse} ); function showLoad () { ... } In jQuery, I can load a server page into an element with this: $('#message').load('index.php?pg=ajaxFlashcard'); but how do I attach a loading spinner to this command as I did in Prototype?

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  • Are there any good sites for blogging about programming?

    - by Jacques Bosch
    I have a few programming articles I would like to write, but I do not have a site of my own - yet ;). Is there a site that is specifically geared toward technical / programming topics, with great functionality and style? Or will I have to go with things like wordpress or blogspot? I would like a site that can track number of views and that has an intuitive commenting system. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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  • An Ideal Keyboard Layout for Programming

    - by Jon Purdy
    I often hear complaints that programming languages that make heavy use of symbols for brevity, most notably C and C++ (I'm not going to touch APL), are difficult to type because they require frequent use of the shift key. A year or two ago, I got tired of it myself, downloaded Microsoft's Keyboard Layout Creator, made a few changes to my layout, and have not once looked back. The speed difference is astounding; with these few simple changes I am able to type C++ code around 30% faster, depending of course on how hairy it is; best of all, my typing speed in ordinary running text is not compromised. My questions are these: what alternate keyboard layouts have existed for programming, which have gained popularity, are any of them still in modern use, do you personally use any altered layout, and how can my layout be further optimised? I made the following changes to a standard QWERTY layout. (I don't use Dvorak, but there is a programmer Dvorak layout worth mentioning.) Swap numbers with symbols in the top row, because long or repeated literal numbers are typically replaced with named constants; Swap backquote with tilde, because backquotes are rare in many languages but destructors are common in C++; Swap minus with underscore, because underscores are common in identifiers; Swap curly braces with square brackets, because blocks are more common than subscripts; and Swap double quote with single quote, because strings are more common than character literals. I suspect this last is probably going to be the most controversial, as it interferes the most with running text by requiring use of shift to type common contractions. This layout has significantly increased my typing speed in C++, C, Java, and Perl, and somewhat increased it in LISP and Python.

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  • Why should GoTos be bad?

    - by lisn
    I'm using gotos and a lot of them. C++, PHP or COBOL - I use them on nearly all occasions where everybody else would use functions or even classes. Yet my code is Clear Maintainable Bug-free Fast So why does everybody I meet tell me about how bad gotos are? Are there any facts that show that they are "bad"?

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  • How to notice unusual news activity

    - by ??iu
    Suppose you were able keep track of the news mentions of different entities, like say "Steve Jobs" and "Steve Ballmer". What are ways that could you tell whether the amount of mentions per entity per a given time period was unusual relative to their normal degree of frequency of appearance? I imagine that for a more popular person like Steve Jobs an increase of like 50% might be unusual (an increase of 1000 to 1500), while for a relatively unknown CEO an increase of 1000% for a given day could be possible (an increase of 2 to 200). If you didn't have a way of scaling that your unusualness index could be dominated by unheard-ofs getting their 15 minutes of fame.

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  • What features of interpreted languages can a compiled one not have?

    - by sub
    Interpreted languages are usually more high-level and therefore have features as dynamic typing (including creating new variables dynamically without declaration), the infamous eval and many many other features that make a programmer's life easier - but why can't compiled languages have these as well? I don't mean languages like Java that run on a VM, but those that compile to binary like C(++). I'm not going to make a list now but if you are going to ask which features I mean, please look into what PHP, Python, Ruby etc. have to offer. Which common features of interpreted languages can't/don't/do exist in compiled languages? Why?

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  • Instantiating a python class in C#

    - by Jekke
    I've written a class in python that I want to wrap into a .net assembly via IronPython and instantiate in a C# application. I've migrated the class to IronPython, created a library assembly and referenced it. Now, how do I actually get an instance of that class? The class looks (partially) like this: class PokerCard: "A card for playing poker, immutable and unique." def __init__(self, cardName): The test stub I wrote in C# is: using System; namespace pokerapp { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { var card = new PokerCard(); // I also tried new PokerCard("Ah") Console.WriteLine(card.ToString()); Console.ReadLine(); } } } What do I have to do in order to instantiate this class in C#?

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  • Semantically linking to code snippets

    - by Tim
    What's the most simple and semantic way of presenting code snippets in HTML? Possible XHTML syntax <a href="code_sample.php" type="text/x-php"> Example of widget creation </a> Example of linked file (code_sample.php): // Create a new widget $widget = new widget(); Pros: Semantically uses title to describe the source code being referenced Up to the client to render snippet Having very many custom server-side implementations tells me it should be standardized Browsers can have plug-ins for copy+paste, download, etc Seems to me this is where it belongs (not in Javascript) Degradation: non-compliant browsers receive a link to the associated content Cons: Not semantic enough? Seems wrong to replace hyperlinks with source code for presentation <object> might be better, but wouldn't degrade as nicely. Background I'm trying to create a "personal" XHTML standard for storing notes (wow, this is probably among the nerdiest things I've said). Since notes are just "scratch" it needs to be very lightweight. SO's markdown is very lightweight but not semantic enough for my needs. Plus, now I'm just curious. What's the most ideal syntax for linking to client-rendered code-snippets?

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  • Modelling multiple simultaneous states

    - by James P.
    How can you go about modelling an object that can have multiple simultaneous states? For example, you could have a person that's waiting for a bus. That's one state. But they could also be reading a newspaper while waiting for the bus. Furthermore, they could be thinking about something while reading the newspaper. They could also be sniffing their nose because they have a cold. That's a four states in all taking place at the same time. Obviously using booleans would be tedious and unflexible. Also, a conventional state pattern would mean that states are exclusive and can't be simultaneous in nature. The only thing I can think of is a State pattern combined with a Composite. Would this do or is there a way of taking things further?

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  • Automated Java to Scala source code conversion?

    - by Alex R
    (Yes I know I can call Java code from Scala; but that is pointless; I want to DELETE the Java code, not keep it around and have to look at it and maintain it forever!) Are there any utilities out there to convert Java source to Scala source? I believe theoretically it should be possible to accomplish with minimal lossage. I have found this but it seems inactive, probably buggy/incomplete... http://sourceforge.net/projects/java2scala/ Any alternatives?

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  • How do we achieve "substring-match" under O(n) time?

    - by Pacerier
    I have an assignment that requires reading a huge file of random inputs, for example: Adana Izmir Adnan Menderes Apt Addis Ababa Aden ADIYAMAN ALDAN Amman Marka Intl Airport Adak Island Adelaide Airport ANURADHAPURA Kodiak Apt DALLAS/ADDISON Ardabil ANDREWS AFB etc.. If I specify a search term, the program is supposed to find the lines whereby a substring occurs. For example, if the search term is "uradha", the program is supposed to show ANURADHAPURA. If the search term is "airport", the program is supposed to show Amman Marka Intl Airport, Adelaide Airport A quote from the assignment specs: "You are to program this application taking efficiency into account as though large amounts of data and processing is involved.." I could easily achieve this functionality using a loop but the performance would be O(n). I was thinking of using a trie but it seems to only work if the substring starts from index 0. I was wondering what solutions are there which gives a performance better than O(n)?

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  • Articles about replication schemes/algorithms?

    - by jkff
    I'm designing an hierarchical distributed system (every node has zero or more "master" nodes to which it propagates its current data). The data gets continuously updated and I'd like to guarantee that at least N nodes have almost-current data at any given time. I do not need complete consistency, only eventual consistency (t.i. for any time instant, the current snapshot of data should eventually appear on at least N nodes. It is tricky to define the term "current" here, but still). Nodes may fail and go back up at any moment, and there is no single "central" node. O overflowers! Point me to some good papers describing replication schemes. I've so far found one: Consistency Management in Optimistic Replication Algorithms

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  • How do you tell if two wildcards overlap?

    - by Tom Ritter
    Given two strings with * wildcards, I would like to know if a string could be created that would match both. For example, these two are a simple case of overlap: Hello*World Hel* But so are all of these: *.csv reports*.csv reportsdump.csv Is there an algorithm published for doing this? Or perhaps a utility function in Windows or a library I might be able to call or copy?

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  • Is there anyone out there that codes like I do?

    - by Jacob Relkin
    Hi, Some people have told me that my coding style is a lot different than theirs. I think I am somewhat neurotic when it comes to spacing and indenting though. Here's a snippet to show you what I mean: - ( void ) applicationDidFinishLaunching: ( UIApplication *) application { SomeObject *object = [ [ SomeObject alloc ] init ]; int x = 100 / 5; object.someInstanceVariable = ( ( 4 * x ) + rand() ); [ object someMethod ]; } Notice how I space out all of my brackets/parentheses, start curly braces on the same line, "my code has room to breathe", so to speak. So my questions are a) is this normal and b) What's your coding style?

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  • How could it happen that version control software emerged so lately?

    - by sharptooth
    According to Wikipedia (the table at the page bottom), the earliest known version control systems were CVS and TeamWare both known from year 1990. How can it be? Software development has been here from at most 1960's and I honestly can't imagine working with codebase without version control. How could it happen that version control software emerged so lately compared to software development?

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  • What turns away users/prospective users?

    - by Zach Johnson
    In your experience, what kinds of things have turned away users and prospective users from using your programs? Also, what kinds of things turn you away from using someone else's programs? For example, one thing that really bugs me is when someone provides free software, but requires you to enter your name and email address before you download it. Why do they need my name and email address? I just want to use the program! I understand that the developer(s) may want to get a feel for how many users they have, etc, but the extra work I have to do really makes me think twice about downloading their software, even if it does really great things.

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