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• Are outdated comments an urban myth?

  - by Karl Bielefeldt

  I constantly see people making the claim that "comments tend to become outdated." The thing is, I think I have seen maybe two or three outdated comments my entire career. Outdated information in separate documents happens all the time, but in my experience outdated comments in the code itself are exceedingly rare. Have I just been lucky in who I work with? Are certain industries more prone to this problem than others? Do you have specific examples of recent outdated comments you've seen? Or are outdated comments more of a theoretical problem than an actual one?

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• What Are Some Advantages/Disadvantages of Using C over Assembly?

  - by Daniel

  I'm currently studying engineering in Telecommunications and Electronics and we have migrated from assembler to C in microprocessor programming. I have doubts that this is a good idea. What are some advantages and disadvantages of C compared to assembly? The advantages/disadvantages I see are: Advantages: I can tell that C syntax is a lot easier to learn than Assembler syntax. C is easier to use for making more complex programs. Learning C is somehow more productive than learning assembler cause there is more developing stuff around C than Assembler. Disadvantages: Assembler is a lower level programming language than C,so this makes it a good for programming directly to hardware. Is a lot more flexible alluding you to work with memory,interrupts,micro-registers,etc.

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• Java regex patterns - compile time constants or instance members?

  - by KepaniHaole

  Currently, I have a couple of singleton objects where I'm doing matching on regular expressions, and my Patterns are defined like so: class Foobar { private final Pattern firstPattern = Pattern.compile("some regex"); private final Pattern secondPattern = Pattern.compile("some other regex"); // more Patterns, etc. private Foobar() {} public static Foobar create() { /* singleton stuff */ } } But I was told by someone the other day that this is bad style, and Patterns should always be defined at the class level, and look something like this instead: class Foobar { private static final Pattern FIRST_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("some regex"); private static final Pattern SECOND_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("some other regex"); // more Patterns, etc. private Foobar() {} public static Foobar create() { /* singleton stuff */ } } The lifetime of this particular object isn't that long, and my main reason for using the first approach is because it doesn't make sense to me to hold on to the Patterns once the object gets GC'd. Any suggestions / thoughts?

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• Is there any reason to use C++ instead of C, Perl, Python, etc.?

  - by Ehsan

  As a Linux (server side) developer, I don't know where and why should I use C++. When I'm going to performance, the first and last choice is C. When "performance" isn't the main issue, programming languages like Perl and Python would be good choices. Almost all of open source applications I know in this area has been written in C, Perl and Python, Bash script, AWK and even PHP, but no one goes to use C++. I'm not discussing about some other areas like GUI or web application, I'm just talking about Linux and about CLI and daemons. Is there any satisfiable reason to use C++?

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• How should I make searching a relational database more efficient?

  - by Travis J

  This is in the scope of a web application. I have a database which has a few nested relations. There is a feature which depicts the history of a large chain of relations. It is essentially a data analysis feature. The issue is that in order to search, a large object graph must be loaded - the loading time for this object graph is not quick enough to be viable. The problem is that without loading the whole graph it makes searching from a single string nearly impossible. In order to search, explicit fields must be specified and the search data supplied. Is there a design pattern for exposing the data in a way which facilitates a single string search instead of having to explicitly define parameters?

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• android third party libraries

  - by Terrance

  Its hard to believe that there aren't a ton of awesome third party (possibly open source) libraries out on the web for android using java but, I cant say I have found a great many so far but, droid seems like the only notable one I've come across. Any other majorly useful android libraries out there? Sorry in advanced if there is a dupe out there somewhere (seems like there should be) but if there is by all means post it and let me know.

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• Why do iterators in Python raise an exception?

  - by NullUserException

  Here's the syntax for iterators in Java (somewhat similar syntax in C#): Iterator it = sequence.iterator(); while (it.hasNext()) { System.out.println(it.next()); } Which makes sense. Here's the equivalent syntax in Python: it = iter(sequence) while True: try: value = it.next() except StopIteration: break print(value) I thought Exceptions were supposed to be used only in, well, exceptional circumstances. Why does Python use exceptions to stop iteration?

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• 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

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• Is there an open source license for this?

  - by Philip

  I have written code at home, on my own time and using my own knowledge and equipment, while under no contract or NDA. I want to make this code open source so that I can use it in software I write for an employer, without denying myself the right to use it at home or elsewhere later. I'm not sure if saying it is in the "public domain" would fit this purpose, or if I need to find an open source license. I want anyone to be able to use the code in closed source proprietary software with zero requirements for including a license with the source or binary. And I want to minimize the risk of anyone being sued for using it. (I'm aware that one can never be 100% safe from being sued.) Is there an open source license that fits this purpose? To what extent is what I want to do even possible? I wouldn't mind putting the license in comments in the code files themselves, but that obviously doesn't go with the binary.

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• Separating a "wad of stuff" utility project into individual components with "optional" dependencies

  - by romkyns

  Over the years of using C#/.NET for a bunch of in-house projects, we've had one library grow organically into one huge wad of stuff. It's called "Util", and I'm sure many of you have seen one of these beasts in your careers. Many parts of this library are very much standalone, and could be split up into separate projects (which we'd like to open-source). But there is one major problem that needs to be solved before these can be released as separate libraries. Basically, there are lots and lots of cases of what I might call "optional dependencies" between these libraries. To explain this better, consider some of the modules that are good candidates to become stand-alone libraries. CommandLineParser is for parsing command lines. XmlClassify is for serializing classes to XML. PostBuildCheck performs checks on the compiled assembly and reports a compilation error if they fail. ConsoleColoredString is a library for colored string literals. Lingo is for translating user interfaces. Each of those libraries can be used completely stand-alone, but if they are used together then there are useful extra features to be had. For example, both CommandLineParser and XmlClassify expose post-build checking functionality, which requires PostBuildCheck. Similarly, the CommandLineParser allows option documentation to be provided using the colored string literals, requiring ConsoleColoredString, and it supports translatable documentation via Lingo. So the key distinction is that these are optional features. One can use a command line parser with plain, uncolored strings, without translating the documentation or performing any post-build checks. Or one could make the documentation translatable but still uncolored. Or both colored and translatable. Etc. Looking through this "Util" library, I see that almost all potentially separable libraries have such optional features that tie them to other libraries. If I were to actually require those libraries as dependencies then this wad of stuff isn't really untangled at all: you'd still basically require all the libraries if you want to use just one. Are there any established approaches to managing such optional dependencies in .NET?

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• WCF/webservice architecture question

  - by M.R.

  I have a requirement to create a webservice to expose certain items from a CMS as a web service, and I need some suggestions - the structure of the items is as such: item - field 1 - field 2 - field 3 - field 4 So, one would think that the class for this will be: public class MyItem { public string ItemName { get; set; } public List<MyField> Fields { get; set; } } public class MyField { public string FieldName { get; set; } public string FieldValue { get; set; } //they are always string (except - see below) } This works for when its always one level deep, but sometimes, one of the fields is actually a point to ANOTHER item (MyItem) or multiple MyItem (List<MyItem>), so I thought I would change the structure of MyField as follows, to make FieldValue as object; public class MyField { public string FieldName { get; set; } public object FieldValue { get; set; } //changed to object } So, now, I can put whatever I want in there. This is great in theory, but how will clients consume this? I suspect that when users make a reference to this web service, they won't know which object is being returned in that field? This seems like a not-so-good design. Is there a better approach to this?

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• Career Advice: finding challenging work in software and web development

  - by dianovich

  Having left my physics degree early, I started out in the realm of web design / front end web development and was able to get work quite quickly. I moved on to spend a chunk of my time on servers and gained experience with frameworks like Wordpress and Drupal, then the likes of Codeigniter and CakePHP and became comfortable in Debian-based and RHEL/CentOS environments. I ventured in to iOS development and published a couple of native apps to the app store too! I have started to spend a good deal of my time writing Python and have invested a little time in Django. The problem is, I still spend a fair chunk of my time doing more front end web development (writing markup and CSS for site themes, design-lead JavaScript, small applications for which application architecture and software engineering are relatively unimportant or too time consuming to invest in) in my job. What I want to do is really exercise the systematic/logical portion of my brain and tackle challenging problems on a daily basis. I want to have to care about big-oh running times, modularity in software, DRY, performance tuning and development methodologies. I want to work for a firm whose clients say: "Yes, these things are important to us and we'll pay you to get them right." But it is difficult: I have no formal training and am potentially becoming a jack of all trades. Not that being a jack of many trades is necessarily a bad thing, but the scope of work I find myself involved in is far too broad. And, there are only so many hours in a day outside of work! My question is: where do I go from here? I am starting to work on a few open source projects and have started to publish content to my blog. But this isn't likely to make it past the recruitment consultants and HR departments of many-a-firm. And I do not, for example, work in a team that practices agile methodologies, so how do I get work in such a team to gain experience? While I have been responsible for implementing version control and some solid working practices into our current environment, there is only so far I can go in this context. What would convince you that i'm worth taking a risk? What would convince you that i'll have caught up the other guys in your employ in next to no time?

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• Calculate time in all countries for fixed time in one of them [migrated]

  - by Muiz

  I have table with all countries GMT/UTC timezones, I need to see what time is in the rest of the countries when in USA is 11am-3pm Not on particular date just know the difference in time. I did my calculation like that I -5 GMT in USA and time is 11am then in Russia for example is +4 GMT. 5+4+11=20pm in Russia when USA is 11am, this works with countries that have + GMT zone but ones that have minus it shows wrong time. I am working in Excel please help me with advice on how to do it.

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• Is this possible?

  - by PythonNewbie2

  Hello, I'm exploring some technologies and JSP with JSF 2.0 and Primefaces seems really cool. I'm new to all of these, but I'm a fast learner. I wondering if I can create the web app I want withh JSP/JSF/Primefaces or should I be looking to different technologies? If I should, which ones do you recommend? Here's a basic description of the app: Users log in with their username and password (maybe I can somehow incorporate google OPENID)? With a really nice UI, they will be presented a large list of questions specific to a certain category, for example, JSP. When they click on any of these questions, a little input opens up below it to allow the user to put in a link. If the link they enter has the same question on that webpage the URL points to, they will be awarded one point. This question then disappears and gets added to a different page that has a list of all correctly linked questions. On the right side of the screen, there will be a leaderboard with the usernames of the people with the top ten points. Is this possible with JSP/JSF/Primefaces, or should I be looking elsewhere for a different web technology? The idea is relatively simple - to be able to compile links to external websites for specific questions. I know I can build the UI easily with Primefaces. What I'm not sure is if JSP/JSF gives the ability to parse HTML at a certain URL to see if it contains words. I can do this with python easily by using urllib. Any help would be appreciated!!! What would be more helpful than a "Yes" or "No" answer would be links to where I can see sample code of external HTML parsing. Your input is truly appreciated! Thanks!

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• Best exception handling practices or recommendations?

  - by user828584

  I think the two main problems with my programs are my code structure/organization and my error handling. I'm reading Code Complete 2, but I need something to read for working with potential problems. For example, on a website, if something can only happen if the user tampers with data via javascript, do you write for that? Also, when do you not catch errors? When you write a class that expects a string and an int as input, and they aren't a string and int, do you check for that, or do you let it bubble up to the calling method that passed incorrect parameters? I know this is a broad topic that can't be answered in a single answer here, so what I'm looking for is a book or resource that's commonly accepted as teaching proper exception handling practice.

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• how to programtically build a grid of interlocking but random sized squares

  - by Mrwolfy

  I want to create a two dimensional layout of rectangular shapes, a grid made up of random sized cubes. The cubed should fit together and have equal padding or margin (space between). Kind of like a comic book layout, or more like the image attached. How could I do this procedurally? Practically, I would probably be using Python and some graphic software to render an image, but I don't know the type of algorithm (or whatnot) I would need to use to generate the randomized grid.

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• LaTeX-like display programming environment

  - by Gage

  I used to be a hobbyist programmer, but now I'm also a fairly experienced physicist and find myself programming to solve certain problems quite a lot. In physics, we use variables with superscripts, subscripts, italics, underlines, etc etc. To bridge this gap to the computer we usually use LaTeX. Now, I generally use MATLAB for handling any data and such, and find it very irritating that I can't basically use LaTeX for variable names. Something as simple as sy has to be named either sigma_y or some descriptive name like peak_height_error. I don't necessarily want full on workable LaTeX in my code, but I do want to be able to use greek letters and super/sub-scripts at the very least. Does this exist?

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• Design patterns to avoiding breaking the SRP while performing heavy data logging

  - by Kazark

  A class that performs both computations and data logging seems to have at least two responsibilities. Given a system for which the specifications require heavy data logging, what kind of design patterns or architectural patterns can be used to avoid bloating all the classes with logging calls every time they compute something? The decorator pattern be used (e.g. Interpolator decorated to LoggingInterpolator), but it seems that would result in a situation hardly more desirable in which almost every major class would need to be decorated with logging.

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• Moving from building internal applications as WPF to ASP NET MVC?

  - by stuartmclark

  I have worked on quite a few internal applications for my work and I have always defaulted to using WPF, but I am considering re-writing existing ones into a web app. This is so that anyone in my company can use it without having to download anything from the network. I am just wondering if this is the way forward with any development of new internal applications? So, should I stop using WPF and start using ASP.NET MVC for internal applications that a lot of people need to use?

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• Parallelism implies concurrency but not the other way round right?

  - by Cedric Martin

  I often read that parallelism and concurrency are different things. Very often the answerers/commenters go as far as writing that they're two entirely different things. Yet in my view they're related but I'd like some clarification on that. For example if I'm on a multi-core CPU and manage to divide the computation into x smaller computation (say using fork/join) each running in its own thread, I'll have a program that is both doing parallel computation (because supposedly at any point in time several threads are going to run on several cores) and being concurrent right? While if I'm simply using, say, Java and dealing with UI events and repaints on the Event Dispatch Thread plus running the only thread I created myself, I'll have a program that is concurrent (EDT + GC thread + my main thread etc.) but not parallel. I'd like to know if I'm getting this right and if parallelism (on a "single but multi-cores" system) always implies concurrency or not? Also, are multi-threaded programs running on multi-cores CPU but where the different threads are doing totally different computation considered to be using "parallelism"?

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• Can the Clojure set and maps syntax be added to other Lisp dialects?

  - by Cedric Martin

  In addition to create list using parentheses, Clojure allows to create vectors using [ ], maps using { } and sets using #{ }. Lisp is always said to be a very extensible language in which you can easily create DSLs etc. But is Lisp so extensible that you can take any Lisp dialect and relatively easily add support for Clojure's vectors, maps and sets (which are all functions in Clojure)? I'm not necessarily asking about cons or similar actually working on these functions: what I'd like to know is if the other could be modified so that the source code would look like Clojure's source code (that is: using matching [ ], { } and #{ } in addition to ( )). Note that if it cannot be done this is not a criticism of Lisp: what I'd like to know is, technically, what should be done or what cannot be done if one were to add such a thing.

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• Recommendations for adjustable sit-stand workstations?

  - by Chris Phillips

  Recently, I've been feeling the discomfort of sitting at my desk all day long. I'm fairly active, stretch, and take regular breaks, but some days it's still pretty uncomfortable to sit all day long, whether in a nice chair or on an exercise ball. I would really like able to stand at my computer for part of the day. My current setup is a large desk with two 26" lcds and a 17" laptop. I don't mind if the laptop isn't adjustable, as I don't use it as regularly as the monitors. I would like to be able to fairly easily switch from a sitting position to a standing position and back again as necessary. I've been looking into adjustable height desks and stands and found that they tend to be either really expensive, or don't quite meet my needs. (For example, the Ergotron WorkFit-S Dual LCD workstation looks like the ideal feature set at a reasonable price, but won't fit with my monitors.) Any suggestions or thoughts? Update: fixed a typo. Thanks @RDL!

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• Are there opportunities working as full-time paid programmer for Non-profit organizations

  - by Rick

  Some recent events in my life have made me want to contribute more to causes I believe in rather than just working for a profit-driven company. I have been thinking that if I could find a non-profit organization that I like and believe in then I might feel more fulfilled working for them. I have a decent amount of web development experience and currently work as a Java / Spring web developer. I realize the compensation wouldn't have the same "ceiling" potential as for-profit but am wondering if its possible to get at least something close to a market rate for work as I am planning to start a family sometime soon and still need a legitimate income. If anyone has any knowledge or experience about this sort of thing would be happy to hear from you. EDIT: Without getting in to too much personal detail, I have a relative who recently passed away who suffered from a mental illness so while it doesn't have to be an organization specifically dedicated to this, I am hoping to work for something along these lines at least where there is more of a social cause rather than just working on an open-source project whose only cause is the advancement of technology.

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• What makes a good developer / system documentation?

  - by deamon

  Much time is wasted to get new developers started with existing software systems, because there is no good documenation. But what makes a system documentation good? One thing is a good API documentation like the Java API doc, but how to transfer the "bigger picture" and other things that cannot be placed in the API doc? One constraint is that it should not be to hard and time consuming to write the docs, because that is one reason why it is omitted so often. So, what makes documentation good?

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• Interviews by Software Companies

  - by Glenn Nelson

  I have been chosen as one of the 12 final people for a full out scholarship to the college of my choice and it is paid for by a software company so long as I major in Computer Science.I have already had to write an essay on what has most shaped my life (Programming being it) and that was the basis for the interview decision. I now have to go in for an interview with people from the company for the final decision in a week. I do believe I have a good foundation in computer science already. I have roughly 4 years of programming experience in Java, C++, ASM and your typical web stuff. I have done everything from making my own CMS for my site to an assembler to network file transfer applications. That said what types of questions should I expect in an interview of this sort? Do I seem reasonably knowledgeable?

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