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  • Is there a good Lotus Notes open-source alternative?

    - by Ben S
    At my work we use Lotus Notes 6.5 for our email, meeting scheduling and instant messaging. I can't stand the horrible UI, buggy meeting scheduling and overall '90s feel when using it and would love to replace it with open-source alternatives. So far I've been able to setup Thunderbird for email, and I should also be able to configure pidgin to do IM, but I can't find any replacement for the meeting scheduling. I need to be able to receive meeting requests and respond to them. I've looked around trying to get the Thunderbird plugin Lightning to manage the scheduling, but everything I've read so far requires me to export .ics files from Lotus Notes or otherwise keep Lotus Notes around for day-to-day activities. I've also looked into using Evolution as the client, but I found even less information for it than I did for Thunderbird. How can I easily send, receive and respond to Lotus Notes meetings using an open-source alternative? Alternatively, if there exists a full drop-in replacement to Lotus Notes I would also consider it. Note: My desktop at work is a Windows XP machine, though I wouldn't be opposed to a solution requiring cygwin at this point. Edit: I have no power over the server. I only want a compatible client.

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  • Thunderbird doesn't show folders on a new Dovecot install

    - by Zoran Zaric
    Hey, I set up a new mailserver with postfix and Dovecot some days ago, everything is working except for Thunderbird not showing any folders. Evolution shows me all folders. I migrated from a Courier install using imapsync. In the filesystem the folders don't have a INBOX in their name, so the tho folders ar called .Folder 1 not .INBOX.Folder 1. This is the output of dovecot -n: # 1.0.10: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf Warning: mail_extra_groups setting was often used insecurely so it is now deprecated, use mail_access_groups or mail_privileged_group instead base_dir: /var/run/dovecot/ log_timestamp: “%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S ” protocols: imap pop3 listen(default): *:143 listen(imap): *:143 listen(pop3): *:110 disable_plaintext_auth: no login_dir: /var/run/dovecot//login login_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login login_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login login_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login first_valid_uid: 1001 last_valid_uid: 1001 mail_extra_groups: vmail mail_access_groups: vmail mail_location: maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%u maildir_copy_with_hardlinks: yes mail_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap mail_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap mail_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3 mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/pop3 pop3_uidl_format(default): pop3_uidl_format(imap): pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %08Xu%08Xv auth default: user: nobody passdb: driver: sql args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf userdb: driver: sql args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf socket: type: listen client: path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth mode: 432 user: postfix group: postfix master: path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-master mode: 432 user: vmail group: vmail Thanks!

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  • Compress a folder of PDF files into separate zip archives

    - by Panrubius
    I wanted to take a folder full of PDF files and create a number of separate zip files, after following the advice on this question everything worked *almost*perfectly. Here's what happened: When I issued this command in Terminal: zip -s 5m -r ~/Desktop/invoices ~/Desktop/Invoices/ Everything worked really well, in that I got 11 ZIP files of approximately 5 MB each; placed in the folder specified. However, the files they outputted were named as follows: invoices.z01 invoices.z02 invoices.z03 invoices.z04 invoices.z05 invoices.z06 invoices.z07 invoices.z08 invoices.z09 invoices.z10 invoices.zip So as you can see only invoices.zip has been named correctly. I could go through and rename them one by one, but seriously, if we start doing that then what in the name of Evolution are computers for?! Now, I am also aware that I'm relatively new to the Terminal; so I could be making a very silly mistake somewhere. If that's the case, please be patient :-) Any help would be greatly appreciated. One last note: I'm quadriplegic so I would like to avoid GUI applications as much as possible, I use voice recognition software you see this working in the Terminal is much much easier.

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  • How to Set Up an SMTP Submission Server on Linux

    - by Kevin Cox
    I was trying to set up a mail server with no luck. I want it to accept mail from authenticated users only and deliver them. I want the users to be able to connect over the internet. Ideally the mail server wouldn't accept any incoming mail. Essentially I want it to accept messages on a receiving port and transfer them to the intended recipient out port 25. If anyone has some good links and guides that would be awesome. I am quite familiar with linux but have never played around with MTA's and am currently running debian 6. More Specific Problem! Sorry, that was general and postfix is complex. I am having trouble enabling the submission port with encryption and authentication. What Works: Sending mail from the local machine. (sendmail [email protected]). Ports are open. (25 and 587) Connecting to 587 appears to work, I get a "need to starttls" warning and starttls appears to work. But when I try to connect with the next command I get the error below. # openssl s_client -connect localhost:587 -starttls smtp CONNECTED(00000003) depth=0 /CN=localhost.localdomain verify error:num=18:self signed certificate verify return:1 depth=0 /CN=localhost.localdomain verify return:1 --- Certificate chain 0 s:/CN=localhost.localdomain i:/CN=localhost.localdomain --- Server certificate -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIICvDCCAaQCCQCYHnCzLRUoMTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADAgMR4wHAYDVQQDExVs b2NhbGhvc3QubG9jYWxkb21haW4wHhcNMTIwMjE3MTMxOTA1WhcNMjIwMjE0MTMx OTA1WjAgMR4wHAYDVQQDExVsb2NhbGhvc3QubG9jYWxkb21haW4wggEiMA0GCSqG SIb3DQEBAQUAA4IBDwAwggEKAoIBAQDEFA/S6VhJihP6OGYrhEtL+SchWxPZGbgb VkgNJ6xK2dhR7hZXKcDtNddL3uf1YYWF76efS5oJPPjLb33NbHBb9imuD8PoynXN isz1oQEbzPE/07VC4srbsNIN92lldbRruDfjDrAbC/H+FBSUA2ImHvzc3xhIjdsb AbHasG1XBm8SkYULVedaD7I7YbnloCx0sTQgCM0Vjx29TXxPrpkcl6usjcQfZHqY ozg8X48Xm7F9CDip35Q+WwfZ6AcEkq9rJUOoZWrLWVcKusuYPCtUb6MdsZEH13IQ rA0+x8fUI3S0fW5xWWG0b4c5IxuM+eXz05DvB7mLyd+2+RwDAx2LAgMBAAEwDQYJ KoZIhvcNAQEFBQADggEBAAj1ib4lX28FhYdWv/RsHoGGFqf933SDipffBPM6Wlr0 jUn7wler7ilP65WVlTxDW+8PhdBmOrLUr0DO470AAS5uUOjdsPgGO+7VE/4/BN+/ naXVDzIcwyaiLbODIdG2s363V7gzibIuKUqOJ7oRLkwtxubt4D0CQN/7GNFY8cL2 in6FrYGDMNY+ve1tqPkukqQnes3DCeEo0+2KMGuwaJRQK3Es9WHotyrjrecPY170 dhDiLz4XaHU7xZwArAhMq/fay87liHvXR860tWq30oSb5DHQf4EloCQK4eJZQtFT B3xUDu7eFuCeXxjm4294YIPoWl5pbrP9vzLYAH+8ufE= -----END CERTIFICATE----- subject=/CN=localhost.localdomain issuer=/CN=localhost.localdomain --- No client certificate CA names sent --- SSL handshake has read 1605 bytes and written 354 bytes --- New, TLSv1/SSLv3, Cipher is DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA Server public key is 2048 bit Secure Renegotiation IS supported Compression: NONE Expansion: NONE SSL-Session: Protocol : TLSv1 Cipher : DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA Session-ID: E07926641A5EF22B15EB1D0E03FFF75588AB6464702CF4DC2166FFDAC1CA73E2 Session-ID-ctx: Master-Key: 454E8D5D40380DB3A73336775D6911B3DA289E4A1C9587DDC168EC09C2C3457CB30321E44CAD6AE65A66BAE9F33959A9 Key-Arg : None Start Time: 1349059796 Timeout : 300 (sec) Verify return code: 18 (self signed certificate) --- 250 DSN read:errno=0 If I try to connect from evolution I get the following error: The reported error was "HELO command failed: TCP connection reset by peer".

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  • The Definitive C++ Book Guide and List

    - by grepsedawk
    After more than a few questions about deciding on C++ books I thought we could make a better community wiki version. Providing QUALITY books and an approximate skill level. Maybe we can add a short blurb/description about each book that you have personally read / benefited from. Feel free to debate quality, headings, etc. Note: There is a similar post for C: The Definitive C Book Guide and List Reference Style - All Levels The C++ Programming Language - Bjarne Stroustrup C++ Standard Library Tutorial and Reference - Nicolai Josuttis Beginner Introductory: C++ Primer - Stanley Lippman / Josée Lajoie / Barbara E. Moo Accelerated C++ - Andrew Koenig / Barbara Moo Thinking in C++ - Bruce Eckel (2 volumes, 2nd is more about standard library, but still very good) Best practices: Effective C++ - Scott Meyers Effective STL - Scott Meyers Intermediate More Effective C++ - Scott Meyers Exceptional C++ - Herb Sutter More Exceptional C++ - Herb Sutter C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules, Guidelines, and Best Practices - Herb Sutter / Andrei Alexandrescu C++ Templates The Complete Guide - David Vandevoorde / Nicolai M. Josuttis Large Scale C++ Software Design - John Lakos Above Intermediate Modern C++ Design - Andrei Alexandrescu C++ Template Metaprogramming - David Abrahams and Aleksey Gurtovoy Inside the C++ Object Model - Stanley Lippman Classics / Older Note: Some information contained within these books may not be up to date and no longer considered best practice. The Design and Evolution of C++ - Bjarne Stroustrup Ruminations on C++ Andrew Koenig / Barbara Moo Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms - James Coplien

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  • Making Vim ubiquitous?

    - by Hamish Downer
    The Pragmatic Programmer recommends that you should use one text editor for everything. My chosen weapon editor is Vim. So I want to collect all the ways in which Vim (and the Vim keybindings) can be used and setting up your computer to make Vim work well. This includes how to embed Vim in your IDE, web browser, email client, command shell ... But I don't want Vim tips - there are other questions for them. I want tips to get into Vim, or Vim mode. Though tips about Vim mode not in an editor would be allowed (e.g. tips for vi mode when using Bash). Update: Going quite well so far, with ways to edit in Vim/gVim, or to get vi mode in Firefox, Safari, Thunderbird, many IDEs and command line applications, MS Outlook and Word. But I'm wondering if there are more. Particular applications I wonder about include OpenOffice.org KOffice Kmail Evolution Internet Explorer GIMP and Photoshop ... (only joking ;)

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  • Consume webservice from a .NET DLL - app.config problem

    - by Asaf R
    Hi, I'm building a DLL, let's call it mydll.dll, and in it I sometimes need to call methods from webservice, myservice. mydll.dll is built using C# and .NET 3.5. To consume myservice from mydll I've Added A Service in Visual Studio 2008, which is more or less the same as using svcutil.exe. Doing so creates a class I can create, and adds endpoint and bindings configurations to mydll app.config. The problem here is that mydll app.config is never loaded. Instead, what's loaded is the app.config or web.config of the program I use mydll in. I expect mydll to evolve, which is why I've decoupled it's funcionality from the rest of my system to begin with. During that evolution it will likely add more webservice to which it'll call, ruling out manual copy-paste ways to overcome this problem. I've looked at several possible approaches to attacking this issue: Manually copy endpoints and bindings from mydell app.config to target EXE or web .config file. Couples the modules, not flexible Include endpoints and bindings from mydll app.config in target .config, using configSource (see here). Also add coupling between modules Programmatically load mydll app.config, read endpoints and bindings, and instantiate Binding and EndpointAddress. Use a different tool to create local frontend for myservice I'm not sure which way to go. Option 3 sounds promising, but as it turns out it's a lot of work and will probably introduce several bugs, so it doubtfully pays off. I'm also not familiar with any tool other than the canonical svcutil.exe. Please either give pros and cons for the above alternative, provide tips for implementing any of them, or suggest other approaches. Thanks, Asaf

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  • How can I convert this PHP script to Ruby? (build tree from tabbed string)

    - by Jon Sunrays
    I found this script below online, and I'm wondering how I can do the same thing with a Ruby on Rails setup. So, first off, I ran this command: rails g model Node node_id:integer title:string Given this set up, how can I make a tree from a tabbed string like the following? <?php // Make sure to have "Academia" be root node with nodeID of 1 $data = " Social sciences Anthropology Biological anthropology Forensic anthropology Gene-culture coevolution Human behavioral ecology Human evolution Medical anthropology Paleoanthropology Population genetics Primatology Anthropological linguistics Synchronic linguistics (or Descriptive linguistics) Diachronic linguistics (or Historical linguistics) Ethnolinguistics Sociolinguistics Cultural anthropology Anthropology of religion Economic anthropology Ethnography Ethnohistory Ethnology Ethnomusicology Folklore Mythology Political anthropology Psychological anthropology Archaeology ...(goes on for a long time) "; //echo "Checkpoint 2\n"; $lines = preg_split("/\n/", $data); $parentids = array(0 => null); $db = new PDO("host", 'username', 'pass'); $sql = 'INSERT INTO `TreeNode` SET ParentID = ?, Title = ?'; $stmt = $db->prepare($sql); foreach ($lines as $line) { if (!preg_match('/^([\s]*)(.*)$/', $line, $m)) { continue; } $spaces = strlen($m[1]); //$level = intval($spaces / 4); //assumes four spaces per indent $level = strlen($m[1]); // if data is tab indented $title = $m[2]; $parentid = ($level > 0 ? $parentids[$level - 1] : 1); //All "roots" are children of "Academia" which has an ID of "1"; $rv = $stmt->execute(array($parentid, $title)); $parentids[$level] = $db->lastInsertId(); echo "inserted $parentid - " . $parentid . " title: " . $title . "\n"; } ?>

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  • Runtime binding of XML Schema to Java code

    - by Yaneeve
    Hi all, The situation is thus: I have an application which provides editing capabilities to XML an file. This file follows a certain Schema. The Schema belongs to a subset of Schemas which actually follow a line of evolution from one to another - so they are not so different from one another. The main difference between the schemas is an enumeration of string labels. I now have need to save "meta data" in XML format (This is a second type of XML file). This "meta data" contains a list of labels from the set enumerated in the schema. The application can accept a new schema at runtime and adjust itself. Therefore I have an XML file that must be validated by two schemas one static containing the basic structure of the "meta data" stored in the XML and one which contains the 'proper' label enumeration. The latter schema is determined at runtime. I have glanced over JAXB, XMLBeans and JiBX. I can't figure out what technology to choose that would allow for a runtime bind of code and schema in the way that would most benefit my use-case. Any suggestions? Thanks!

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  • Exponential regression : p-value and F significance

    - by Saravanan K
    I am new to statistics. I have a set of independent data and dependent data (X,Y), where I would like to do an exponential regression to obtain its p-value and significant F (already obtained R2 and also the coefficients through mathematical calculation). What is the natural evolution from the (X,Y) data to mathematically calculate those variables. Spent a week on the internet to study this but unable to find the right answer. Often an exponential data, y=be^(mx) will be converted first to a linear data, ln y = mx + ln b . Then a linear regression will done on the converted data, obtaining its p-value etc. Assume we use a statistical tool such as Excel's Analysis ToolPak: Data Analysis : Regression, it will produce a result such as below, I believe the p-value and Significant F value is representing the converted linear data and not the original exponential data. Questions: What is the approach/steps used by Excel to get the p-value and Significant F value for the converted linear data as shown in the statistic output in the image above? It is not clear in their help page or website. Can the p-value and Significant F could be mathematically calculated for exponential regression without using a statistical tool? Can you assist to point me to the right link if this has been answered before.

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  • Code bacteria: evolving mathematical behavior

    - by Stefano Borini
    It would not be my intention to put a link on my blog, but I don't have any other method to clarify what I really mean. The article is quite long, and it's in three parts (1,2,3), but if you are curious, it's worth the reading. A long time ago (5 years, at least) I programmed a python program which generated "mathematical bacteria". These bacteria are python objects with a simple opcode-based genetic code. You can feed them with a number and they return a number, according to the execution of their code. I generate their genetic codes at random, and apply an environmental selection to those objects producing a result similar to a predefined expected value. Then I let them duplicate, introduce mutations, and evolve them. The result is quite interesting, as their genetic code basically learns how to solve simple equations, even for values different for the training dataset. Now, this thing is just a toy. I had time to waste and I wanted to satisfy my curiosity. however, I assume that something, in terms of research, has been made... I am reinventing the wheel here, I hope. Are you aware of more serious attempts at creating in-silico bacteria like the one I programmed? Please note that this is not really "genetic algorithms". Genetic algorithms is when you use evolution/selection to improve a vector of parameters against a given scoring function. This is kind of different. I optimize the code, not the parameters, against a given scoring function.

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  • How are you using C++0x today? [closed]

    - by Roger Pate
    This is a question in two parts, the first is the most important and concerns now: Are you following the design and evolution of C++0x? What blogs, newsgroups, committee papers, and other resources do you follow? Even where you're not using any new features, how have they affected your current choices? What new features are you using now, either in production or otherwise? The second part is a follow-up, concerning the new standard once it is final: Do you expect to use it immediately? What are you doing to prepare for C++0x, other than as listed for the previous questions? Obviously, compiler support must be there, but there's still co-workers, ancillary tools, and other factors to consider. What will most affect your adoption? Edit: The original really was too argumentative; however, I'm still interested in the underlying question, so I've tried to clean it up and hopefully make it acceptable. This seems a much better avenue than duplicating—even though some answers responded to the argumentative tone, they still apply to the extent that they addressed the questions, and all answers are community property to be cleaned up as appropriate, too.

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  • PreparedStatement question in Java against Oracle.

    - by fardon57
    Hi everyone, I'm working on the modification of some code to use preparedStatement instead of normal Statement, for security and performance reason. Our application is currently storing information into an embedded derby database, but we are going to move soon to Oracle. I've found two things that I need your help guys about Oracle and Prepared Statement : 1- I've found this document saying that Oracle doesn't handle bind parameters into IN clauses, so we cannot supply a query like : Select pokemon from pokemonTable where capacity in (?,?,?,?) Is that true ? Is there any workaround ? ... Why ? 2- We have some fields which are of type TIMESTAMP. So with our actual Statement, the query looks like this : Select raichu from pokemonTable where evolution = TO_TIMESTAMP('2500-12-31 00:00:00.000', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF') What should be done for a prepared Statement ? Should I put into the array of parameters : 2500-12-31 or TO_TIMESTAMP('2500-12-31 00:00:00.000', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF') ? Thanks for your help, I hope my questions are clear ! Regards,

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  • jQuery Looking for a function to equalize heights of divs based on tallest image in a table.

    - by Jamie
    I am doing a site that will have a table with a bunch of images in them. They are user added images so I have no control over aspect ratio, what I do have control over is I can the force a max height/width and the image will not exceed this in either direction, but the height can (and will) fluctuate. <table class="pl_upload"> <tr class="row1"> <td class="col1"> <div> <div class="img-container"> <a href="#"><img src="img.jpg" width="182" alt="X" /></a> </div> </div> </td> ....... What I need ideally is to get the height of the tallest image and then make the all of the children divs the same height based on the height of the tallest one. I hope that makes sense, been a long day. I made a jsfiddle page for it here: http://jsfiddle.net/Evolution/27EJB/

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  • Are you using C++0x today? [closed]

    - by Roger Pate
    This is a question in two parts, the first is the most important and concerns now: Are you following the design and evolution of C++0x? What blogs, newsgroups, committee papers, and other resources do you follow? Even where you're not using any new features, how have they affected your current choices? What new features are you using now, either in production or otherwise? The second part is a follow-up, concerning the new standard once it is final: Do you expect to use it immediately? What are you doing to prepare for C++0x, other than as listed for the previous questions? Obviously, compiler support must be there, but there's still co-workers, ancillary tools, and other factors to consider. What will most affect your adoption? Edit: The original really was too argumentative; however, I'm still interested in the underlying question, so I've tried to clean it up and hopefully make it acceptable. This seems a much better avenue than duplicating—even though some answers responded to the argumentative tone, they still apply to the extent that they addressed the questions, and all answers are community property to be cleaned up as appropriate, too.

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  • The Current State Of Serving a PHP 5.x App on the Apache, LightTPD & Nginx Web Servers?

    - by Gregory Kornblum
    Being stuck in a MS stack architecture/development position for the last year and a half has prevented me from staying on top of the world of open source stack based web servers recent evolution more than I would have liked to. However I am now building an open source stack based application/system architecture and sadly I do not have the time to give each of the above mentioned web servers a thorough test of my own to decide. So I figured I'd get input from the best development community site and more specifically the people who make it so. This is a site that is a resource for information regarding a specific domain and target audience with features to help users not only find the information but to also interact with one another in various ways for various reasons. I chose the open source stack for the wealth of resources it has along with much better offers than the MS stack (i.e. WordPress vs BlogEngine.NET). I feel Java is more in the middle of these stacks in this regard although I am not ruling out the possibility of using it in certain areas unrelated to the actual web app itself such as background processes. I have already come to the conclusion of using PHP (using CodeIgniter framework & APC), MySQL (InnoDB) and Memcached on CentOS. I am definitely serving static content on Nginx. However the 3 servers mentioned have no consensus on which is best for dynamic content in regards to performance. It seems LightTPD still has the leak issue which rules it out if it does, Nginx seems it is still not mature enough for this aspect and of course Apache tries to be everything for everybody. I am still going to compile the one chosen with as many performance tweaks as possible such as static linking and the likes. I believe I can get Apache to match the other 2 in regards to serving dynamic content through this process and not having it serve anything static. However during my research it seems the others are still worth considering. So with all things considered I would love to hear what everyone here has to say on the matter. Thanks!

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  • Is there a design pattern that expresses objects (an their operations) in various states?

    - by darren
    Hi I have a design question about the evolution of an object (and its state) after some sequence of methods complete. I'm having trouble articulating what I mean so I may need to clean up the question based on feedback. Consider an object called Classifier. It has the following methods: void initialise() void populateTrainingSet(TrainingSet t) void pupulateTestingSet(TestingSet t) void train() void test() Result predict(Instance i) My problem is that these methods need to be called in a certain order. Futher, some methods are invalid until a previous method is called, and some methods are invalid after a method has been called. For example, it would be invalid to call predict() before test() was called, and it would be invalid to call train() after test() was called. My approach so far has been to maintain a private enum that represents the current stateof the object: private static enum STATE{ NEW, TRAINED, TESTED, READY}; But this seems a bit cloogy. Is there a design pattern for such a problem type? Maybe something related to the template method.

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  • What library to choose to build a user interface for a C++ software that uses SDL

    - by Barth
    Dear all, I have a simulation software (C++) that runs on the command line. It is platform independent (currently compiling and running on Windows, MacOS X and Linux). When the simulation ends, I visualize the result with SDL; it is a very basic 2d view, mainly color squares next to each other. I would like to have a user interface on top of the simulation so that I can start and pause the simulation, and change the parameters on the fly. Something pretty simple I guess. Well, ideally I will also add a grapher somewhere to see the evolution over time of some parameters. Now, I am wondering what direction I should go. Should I try to use one of the UI libraries for SDL ? Or maybe wxwidget in conjunction with SDL ? Or simply wxwidget and get rid of SDL ? Do you have any experience with this ? Thanks in advance Barth PS: I tried to use AGAR, a SDL UI library. It seemed very promising but I couldn't get it working. Not even the helloworld.

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  • NDepend tool – Why every developer working with Visual Studio.NET must try it!

    - by hajan
    In the past two months, I have had a chance to test the capabilities and features of the amazing NDepend tool designed to help you make your .NET code better, more beautiful and achieve high code quality. In other words, this tool will definitely help you harmonize your code. I mean, you’ve probably heard about Chaos Theory. Experienced developers and architects are already advocates of the programming chaos that happens when working with complex project architecture, the matrix of relationships between objects which simply even if you are the one who have written all that code, you know how hard is to visualize everything what does the code do. When the application get more and more complex, you will start missing a lot of details in your code… NDepend will help you visualize all the details on a clever way that will help you make smart moves to make your code better. The NDepend tool supports many features, such as: Code Query Language – which will help you write custom rules and query your own code! Imagine, you want to find all your methods which have more than 100 lines of code :)! That’s something simple! However, I will dig much deeper in one of my next blogs which I’m going to dedicate to the NDepend’s CQL (Code Query Language) Architecture Visualization – You are an architect and want to visualize your application’s architecture? I’m thinking how many architects will be really surprised from their architectures since NDepend shows your whole architecture showing each piece of it. NDepend will show you how your code is structured. It shows the architecture in graphs, but if you have very complex architecture, you can see it in Dependency Matrix which is more suited to display large architecture Code Metrics – Using NDepend’s panel, you can see the code base according to Code Metrics. You can do some additional filtering, like selecting the top code elements ordered by their current code metric value. You can use the CQL language for this purpose too. Smart Search – NDepend has great searching ability, which is again based on the CQL (Code Query Language). However, you have some options to search using dropdown lists and text boxes and it will generate the appropriate CQL code on fly. Moreover, you can modify the CQL code if you want it to fit some more advanced searching tasks. Compare Builds and Code Difference – NDepend will also help you compare previous versions of your code with the current one at one of the most clever ways I’ve seen till now. Create Custom Rules – using CQL you can create custom rules and let NDepend warn you on each build if you break a rule Reporting – NDepend can automatically generate reports with detailed stats, graph representation, dependency matrixes and some additional advanced reporting features that will simply explain you everything related to your application’s code, architecture and what you’ve done. And that’s not all. As I’ve seen, there are many other features that NDepend supports. I will dig more in the upcoming days and will blog more about it. The team who built the NDepend have also created good documentation, which you can find on the NDepend website. On their website, you can also find some good videos that will help you get started quite fast. It’s easy to install and what is very important it is fully integrated with Visual Studio. To get you started, you can watch the following Getting Started Online Demo and Tutorial with explanations and screenshots. If you are interested to know more about how to use the features of this tool, either visit their website or wait for my next blogs where I will show some real examples of using the tool and how it helps make your code better. And the last thing for this blog, I would like to copy one sentence from the NDepend’s home page which says: ‘Hence the software design becomes concrete, code reviews are effective, large refactoring are easy and evolution is mastered.’ Website: www.ndepend.com Getting Started: http://www.ndepend.com/GettingStarted.aspx Features: http://www.ndepend.com/Features.aspx Download: http://www.ndepend.com/NDependDownload.aspx Hope you like it! Please do let me know your feedback by providing comments to my blog post. Kind Regards, Hajan

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  • The Incremental Architect&rsquo;s Napkin - #5 - Design functions for extensibility and readability

    - by Ralf Westphal
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/theArchitectsNapkin/archive/2014/08/24/the-incremental-architectrsquos-napkin---5---design-functions-for.aspx The functionality of programs is entered via Entry Points. So what we´re talking about when designing software is a bunch of functions handling the requests represented by and flowing in through those Entry Points. Designing software thus consists of at least three phases: Analyzing the requirements to find the Entry Points and their signatures Designing the functionality to be executed when those Entry Points get triggered Implementing the functionality according to the design aka coding I presume, you´re familiar with phase 1 in some way. And I guess you´re proficient in implementing functionality in some programming language. But in my experience developers in general are not experienced in going through an explicit phase 2. “Designing functionality? What´s that supposed to mean?” you might already have thought. Here´s my definition: To design functionality (or functional design for short) means thinking about… well, functions. You find a solution for what´s supposed to happen when an Entry Point gets triggered in terms of functions. A conceptual solution that is, because those functions only exist in your head (or on paper) during this phase. But you may have guess that, because it´s “design” not “coding”. And here is, what functional design is not: It´s not about logic. Logic is expressions (e.g. +, -, && etc.) and control statements (e.g. if, switch, for, while etc.). Also I consider calling external APIs as logic. It´s equally basic. It´s what code needs to do in order to deliver some functionality or quality. Logic is what´s doing that needs to be done by software. Transformations are either done through expressions or API-calls. And then there is alternative control flow depending on the result of some expression. Basically it´s just jumps in Assembler, sometimes to go forward (if, switch), sometimes to go backward (for, while, do). But calling your own function is not logic. It´s not necessary to produce any outcome. Functionality is not enhanced by adding functions (subroutine calls) to your code. Nor is quality increased by adding functions. No performance gain, no higher scalability etc. through functions. Functions are not relevant to functionality. Strange, isn´t it. What they are important for is security of investment. By introducing functions into our code we can become more productive (re-use) and can increase evolvability (higher unterstandability, easier to keep code consistent). That´s no small feat, however. Evolvable code can hardly be overestimated. That´s why to me functional design is so important. It´s at the core of software development. To sum this up: Functional design is on a level of abstraction above (!) logical design or algorithmic design. Functional design is only done until you get to a point where each function is so simple you are very confident you can easily code it. Functional design an logical design (which mostly is coding, but can also be done using pseudo code or flow charts) are complementary. Software needs both. If you start coding right away you end up in a tangled mess very quickly. Then you need back out through refactoring. Functional design on the other hand is bloodless without actual code. It´s just a theory with no experiments to prove it. But how to do functional design? An example of functional design Let´s assume a program to de-duplicate strings. The user enters a number of strings separated by commas, e.g. a, b, a, c, d, b, e, c, a. And the program is supposed to clear this list of all doubles, e.g. a, b, c, d, e. There is only one Entry Point to this program: the user triggers the de-duplication by starting the program with the string list on the command line C:\>deduplicate "a, b, a, c, d, b, e, c, a" a, b, c, d, e …or by clicking on a GUI button. This leads to the Entry Point function to get called. It´s the program´s main function in case of the batch version or a button click event handler in the GUI version. That´s the physical Entry Point so to speak. It´s inevitable. What then happens is a three step process: Transform the input data from the user into a request. Call the request handler. Transform the output of the request handler into a tangible result for the user. Or to phrase it a bit more generally: Accept input. Transform input into output. Present output. This does not mean any of these steps requires a lot of effort. Maybe it´s just one line of code to accomplish it. Nevertheless it´s a distinct step in doing the processing behind an Entry Point. Call it an aspect or a responsibility - and you will realize it most likely deserves a function of its own to satisfy the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP). Interestingly the above list of steps is already functional design. There is no logic, but nevertheless the solution is described - albeit on a higher level of abstraction than you might have done yourself. But it´s still on a meta-level. The application to the domain at hand is easy, though: Accept string list from command line De-duplicate Present de-duplicated strings on standard output And this concrete list of processing steps can easily be transformed into code:static void Main(string[] args) { var input = Accept_string_list(args); var output = Deduplicate(input); Present_deduplicated_string_list(output); } Instead of a big problem there are three much smaller problems now. If you think each of those is trivial to implement, then go for it. You can stop the functional design at this point. But maybe, just maybe, you´re not so sure how to go about with the de-duplication for example. Then just implement what´s easy right now, e.g.private static string Accept_string_list(string[] args) { return args[0]; } private static void Present_deduplicated_string_list( string[] output) { var line = string.Join(", ", output); Console.WriteLine(line); } Accept_string_list() contains logic in the form of an API-call. Present_deduplicated_string_list() contains logic in the form of an expression and an API-call. And then repeat the functional design for the remaining processing step. What´s left is the domain logic: de-duplicating a list of strings. How should that be done? Without any logic at our disposal during functional design you´re left with just functions. So which functions could make up the de-duplication? Here´s a suggestion: De-duplicate Parse the input string into a true list of strings. Register each string in a dictionary/map/set. That way duplicates get cast away. Transform the data structure into a list of unique strings. Processing step 2 obviously was the core of the solution. That´s where real creativity was needed. That´s the core of the domain. But now after this refinement the implementation of each step is easy again:private static string[] Parse_string_list(string input) { return input.Split(',') .Select(s => s.Trim()) .ToArray(); } private static Dictionary<string,object> Compile_unique_strings(string[] strings) { return strings.Aggregate( new Dictionary<string, object>(), (agg, s) => { agg[s] = null; return agg; }); } private static string[] Serialize_unique_strings( Dictionary<string,object> dict) { return dict.Keys.ToArray(); } With these three additional functions Main() now looks like this:static void Main(string[] args) { var input = Accept_string_list(args); var strings = Parse_string_list(input); var dict = Compile_unique_strings(strings); var output = Serialize_unique_strings(dict); Present_deduplicated_string_list(output); } I think that´s very understandable code: just read it from top to bottom and you know how the solution to the problem works. It´s a mirror image of the initial design: Accept string list from command line Parse the input string into a true list of strings. Register each string in a dictionary/map/set. That way duplicates get cast away. Transform the data structure into a list of unique strings. Present de-duplicated strings on standard output You can even re-generate the design by just looking at the code. Code and functional design thus are always in sync - if you follow some simple rules. But about that later. And as a bonus: all the functions making up the process are small - which means easy to understand, too. So much for an initial concrete example. Now it´s time for some theory. Because there is method to this madness ;-) The above has only scratched the surface. Introducing Flow Design Functional design starts with a given function, the Entry Point. Its goal is to describe the behavior of the program when the Entry Point is triggered using a process, not an algorithm. An algorithm consists of logic, a process on the other hand consists just of steps or stages. Each processing step transforms input into output or a side effect. Also it might access resources, e.g. a printer, a database, or just memory. Processing steps thus can rely on state of some sort. This is different from Functional Programming, where functions are supposed to not be stateful and not cause side effects.[1] In its simplest form a process can be written as a bullet point list of steps, e.g. Get data from user Output result to user Transform data Parse data Map result for output Such a compilation of steps - possibly on different levels of abstraction - often is the first artifact of functional design. It can be generated by a team in an initial design brainstorming. Next comes ordering the steps. What should happen first, what next etc.? Get data from user Parse data Transform data Map result for output Output result to user That´s great for a start into functional design. It´s better than starting to code right away on a given function using TDD. Please get me right: TDD is a valuable practice. But it can be unnecessarily hard if the scope of a functionn is too large. But how do you know beforehand without investing some thinking? And how to do this thinking in a systematic fashion? My recommendation: For any given function you´re supposed to implement first do a functional design. Then, once you´re confident you know the processing steps - which are pretty small - refine and code them using TDD. You´ll see that´s much, much easier - and leads to cleaner code right away. For more information on this approach I call “Informed TDD” read my book of the same title. Thinking before coding is smart. And writing down the solution as a bunch of functions possibly is the simplest thing you can do, I´d say. It´s more according to the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle than returning constants or other trivial stuff TDD development often is started with. So far so good. A simple ordered list of processing steps will do to start with functional design. As shown in the above example such steps can easily be translated into functions. Moving from design to coding thus is simple. However, such a list does not scale. Processing is not always that simple to be captured in a list. And then the list is just text. Again. Like code. That means the design is lacking visuality. Textual representations need more parsing by your brain than visual representations. Plus they are limited in their “dimensionality”: text just has one dimension, it´s sequential. Alternatives and parallelism are hard to encode in text. In addition the functional design using numbered lists lacks data. It´s not visible what´s the input, output, and state of the processing steps. That´s why functional design should be done using a lightweight visual notation. No tool is necessary to draw such designs. Use pen and paper; a flipchart, a whiteboard, or even a napkin is sufficient. Visualizing processes The building block of the functional design notation is a functional unit. I mostly draw it like this: Something is done, it´s clear what goes in, it´s clear what comes out, and it´s clear what the processing step requires in terms of state or hardware. Whenever input flows into a functional unit it gets processed and output is produced and/or a side effect occurs. Flowing data is the driver of something happening. That´s why I call this approach to functional design Flow Design. It´s about data flow instead of control flow. Control flow like in algorithms is of no concern to functional design. Thinking about control flow simply is too low level. Once you start with control flow you easily get bogged down by tons of details. That´s what you want to avoid during design. Design is supposed to be quick, broad brush, abstract. It should give overview. But what about all the details? As Robert C. Martin rightly said: “Programming is abot detail”. Detail is a matter of code. Once you start coding the processing steps you designed you can worry about all the detail you want. Functional design does not eliminate all the nitty gritty. It just postpones tackling them. To me that´s also an example of the SRP. Function design has the responsibility to come up with a solution to a problem posed by a single function (Entry Point). And later coding has the responsibility to implement the solution down to the last detail (i.e. statement, API-call). TDD unfortunately mixes both responsibilities. It´s just coding - and thereby trying to find detailed implementations (green phase) plus getting the design right (refactoring). To me that´s one reason why TDD has failed to deliver on its promise for many developers. Using functional units as building blocks of functional design processes can be depicted very easily. Here´s the initial process for the example problem: For each processing step draw a functional unit and label it. Choose a verb or an “action phrase” as a label, not a noun. Functional design is about activities, not state or structure. Then make the output of an upstream step the input of a downstream step. Finally think about the data that should flow between the functional units. Write the data above the arrows connecting the functional units in the direction of the data flow. Enclose the data description in brackets. That way you can clearly see if all flows have already been specified. Empty brackets mean “no data is flowing”, but nevertheless a signal is sent. A name like “list” or “strings” in brackets describes the data content. Use lower case labels for that purpose. A name starting with an upper case letter like “String” or “Customer” on the other hand signifies a data type. If you like, you also can combine descriptions with data types by separating them with a colon, e.g. (list:string) or (strings:string[]). But these are just suggestions from my practice with Flow Design. You can do it differently, if you like. Just be sure to be consistent. Flows wired-up in this manner I call one-dimensional (1D). Each functional unit just has one input and/or one output. A functional unit without an output is possible. It´s like a black hole sucking up input without producing any output. Instead it produces side effects. A functional unit without an input, though, does make much sense. When should it start to work? What´s the trigger? That´s why in the above process even the first processing step has an input. If you like, view such 1D-flows as pipelines. Data is flowing through them from left to right. But as you can see, it´s not always the same data. It get´s transformed along its passage: (args) becomes a (list) which is turned into (strings). The Principle of Mutual Oblivion A very characteristic trait of flows put together from function units is: no functional units knows another one. They are all completely independent of each other. Functional units don´t know where their input is coming from (or even when it´s gonna arrive). They just specify a range of values they can process. And they promise a certain behavior upon input arriving. Also they don´t know where their output is going. They just produce it in their own time independent of other functional units. That means at least conceptually all functional units work in parallel. Functional units don´t know their “deployment context”. They now nothing about the overall flow they are place in. They are just consuming input from some upstream, and producing output for some downstream. That makes functional units very easy to test. At least as long as they don´t depend on state or resources. I call this the Principle of Mutual Oblivion (PoMO). Functional units are oblivious of others as well as an overall context/purpose. They are just parts of a whole focused on a single responsibility. How the whole is built, how a larger goal is achieved, is of no concern to the single functional units. By building software in such a manner, functional design interestingly follows nature. Nature´s building blocks for organisms also follow the PoMO. The cells forming your body do not know each other. Take a nerve cell “controlling” a muscle cell for example:[2] The nerve cell does not know anything about muscle cells, let alone the specific muscel cell it is “attached to”. Likewise the muscle cell does not know anything about nerve cells, let a lone a specific nerve cell “attached to” it. Saying “the nerve cell is controlling the muscle cell” thus only makes sense when viewing both from the outside. “Control” is a concept of the whole, not of its parts. Control is created by wiring-up parts in a certain way. Both cells are mutually oblivious. Both just follow a contract. One produces Acetylcholine (ACh) as output, the other consumes ACh as input. Where the ACh is going, where it´s coming from neither cell cares about. Million years of evolution have led to this kind of division of labor. And million years of evolution have produced organism designs (DNA) which lead to the production of these different cell types (and many others) and also to their co-location. The result: the overall behavior of an organism. How and why this happened in nature is a mystery. For our software, though, it´s clear: functional and quality requirements needs to be fulfilled. So we as developers have to become “intelligent designers” of “software cells” which we put together to form a “software organism” which responds in satisfying ways to triggers from it´s environment. My bet is: If nature gets complex organisms working by following the PoMO, who are we to not apply this recipe for success to our much simpler “machines”? So my rule is: Wherever there is functionality to be delivered, because there is a clear Entry Point into software, design the functionality like nature would do it. Build it from mutually oblivious functional units. That´s what Flow Design is about. In that way it´s even universal, I´d say. Its notation can also be applied to biology: Never mind labeling the functional units with nouns. That´s ok in Flow Design. You´ll do that occassionally for functional units on a higher level of abstraction or when their purpose is close to hardware. Getting a cockroach to roam your bedroom takes 1,000,000 nerve cells (neurons). Getting the de-duplication program to do its job just takes 5 “software cells” (functional units). Both, though, follow the same basic principle. Translating functional units into code Moving from functional design to code is no rocket science. In fact it´s straightforward. There are two simple rules: Translate an input port to a function. Translate an output port either to a return statement in that function or to a function pointer visible to that function. The simplest translation of a functional unit is a function. That´s what you saw in the above example. Functions are mutually oblivious. That why Functional Programming likes them so much. It makes them composable. Which is the reason, nature works according to the PoMO. Let´s be clear about one thing: There is no dependency injection in nature. For all of an organism´s complexity no DI container is used. Behavior is the result of smooth cooperation between mutually oblivious building blocks. Functions will often be the adequate translation for the functional units in your designs. But not always. Take for example the case, where a processing step should not always produce an output. Maybe the purpose is to filter input. Here the functional unit consumes words and produces words. But it does not pass along every word flowing in. Some words are swallowed. Think of a spell checker. It probably should not check acronyms for correctness. There are too many of them. Or words with no more than two letters. Such words are called “stop words”. In the above picture the optionality of the output is signified by the astrisk outside the brackets. It means: Any number of (word) data items can flow from the functional unit for each input data item. It might be none or one or even more. This I call a stream of data. Such behavior cannot be translated into a function where output is generated with return. Because a function always needs to return a value. So the output port is translated into a function pointer or continuation which gets passed to the subroutine when called:[3]void filter_stop_words( string word, Action<string> onNoStopWord) { if (...check if not a stop word...) onNoStopWord(word); } If you want to be nitpicky you might call such a function pointer parameter an injection. And technically you´re right. Conceptually, though, it´s not an injection. Because the subroutine is not functionally dependent on the continuation. Firstly continuations are procedures, i.e. subroutines without a return type. Remember: Flow Design is about unidirectional data flow. Secondly the name of the formal parameter is chosen in a way as to not assume anything about downstream processing steps. onNoStopWord describes a situation (or event) within the functional unit only. Translating output ports into function pointers helps keeping functional units mutually oblivious in cases where output is optional or produced asynchronically. Either pass the function pointer to the function upon call. Or make it global by putting it on the encompassing class. Then it´s called an event. In C# that´s even an explicit feature.class Filter { public void filter_stop_words( string word) { if (...check if not a stop word...) onNoStopWord(word); } public event Action<string> onNoStopWord; } When to use a continuation and when to use an event dependens on how a functional unit is used in flows and how it´s packed together with others into classes. You´ll see examples further down the Flow Design road. Another example of 1D functional design Let´s see Flow Design once more in action using the visual notation. How about the famous word wrap kata? Robert C. Martin has posted a much cited solution including an extensive reasoning behind his TDD approach. So maybe you want to compare it to Flow Design. The function signature given is:string WordWrap(string text, int maxLineLength) {...} That´s not an Entry Point since we don´t see an application with an environment and users. Nevertheless it´s a function which is supposed to provide a certain functionality. The text passed in has to be reformatted. The input is a single line of arbitrary length consisting of words separated by spaces. The output should consist of one or more lines of a maximum length specified. If a word is longer than a the maximum line length it can be split in multiple parts each fitting in a line. Flow Design Let´s start by brainstorming the process to accomplish the feat of reformatting the text. What´s needed? Words need to be assembled into lines Words need to be extracted from the input text The resulting lines need to be assembled into the output text Words too long to fit in a line need to be split Does sound about right? I guess so. And it shows a kind of priority. Long words are a special case. So maybe there is a hint for an incremental design here. First let´s tackle “average words” (words not longer than a line). Here´s the Flow Design for this increment: The the first three bullet points turned into functional units with explicit data added. As the signature requires a text is transformed into another text. See the input of the first functional unit and the output of the last functional unit. In between no text flows, but words and lines. That´s good to see because thereby the domain is clearly represented in the design. The requirements are talking about words and lines and here they are. But note the asterisk! It´s not outside the brackets but inside. That means it´s not a stream of words or lines, but lists or sequences. For each text a sequence of words is output. For each sequence of words a sequence of lines is produced. The asterisk is used to abstract from the concrete implementation. Like with streams. Whether the list of words gets implemented as an array or an IEnumerable is not important during design. It´s an implementation detail. Does any processing step require further refinement? I don´t think so. They all look pretty “atomic” to me. And if not… I can always backtrack and refine a process step using functional design later once I´ve gained more insight into a sub-problem. Implementation The implementation is straightforward as you can imagine. The processing steps can all be translated into functions. Each can be tested easily and separately. Each has a focused responsibility. And the process flow becomes just a sequence of function calls: Easy to understand. It clearly states how word wrapping works - on a high level of abstraction. And it´s easy to evolve as you´ll see. Flow Design - Increment 2 So far only texts consisting of “average words” are wrapped correctly. Words not fitting in a line will result in lines too long. Wrapping long words is a feature of the requested functionality. Whether it´s there or not makes a difference to the user. To quickly get feedback I decided to first implement a solution without this feature. But now it´s time to add it to deliver the full scope. Fortunately Flow Design automatically leads to code following the Open Closed Principle (OCP). It´s easy to extend it - instead of changing well tested code. How´s that possible? Flow Design allows for extension of functionality by inserting functional units into the flow. That way existing functional units need not be changed. The data flow arrow between functional units is a natural extension point. No need to resort to the Strategy Pattern. No need to think ahead where extions might need to be made in the future. I just “phase in” the remaining processing step: Since neither Extract words nor Reformat know of their environment neither needs to be touched due to the “detour”. The new processing step accepts the output of the existing upstream step and produces data compatible with the existing downstream step. Implementation - Increment 2 A trivial implementation checking the assumption if this works does not do anything to split long words. The input is just passed on: Note how clean WordWrap() stays. The solution is easy to understand. A developer looking at this code sometime in the future, when a new feature needs to be build in, quickly sees how long words are dealt with. Compare this to Robert C. Martin´s solution:[4] How does this solution handle long words? Long words are not even part of the domain language present in the code. At least I need considerable time to understand the approach. Admittedly the Flow Design solution with the full implementation of long word splitting is longer than Robert C. Martin´s. At least it seems. Because his solution does not cover all the “word wrap situations” the Flow Design solution handles. Some lines would need to be added to be on par, I guess. But even then… Is a difference in LOC that important as long as it´s in the same ball park? I value understandability and openness for extension higher than saving on the last line of code. Simplicity is not just less code, it´s also clarity in design. But don´t take my word for it. Try Flow Design on larger problems and compare for yourself. What´s the easier, more straightforward way to clean code? And keep in mind: You ain´t seen all yet ;-) There´s more to Flow Design than described in this chapter. In closing I hope I was able to give you a impression of functional design that makes you hungry for more. To me it´s an inevitable step in software development. Jumping from requirements to code does not scale. And it leads to dirty code all to quickly. Some thought should be invested first. Where there is a clear Entry Point visible, it´s functionality should be designed using data flows. Because with data flows abstraction is possible. For more background on why that´s necessary read my blog article here. For now let me point out to you - if you haven´t already noticed - that Flow Design is a general purpose declarative language. It´s “programming by intention” (Shalloway et al.). Just write down how you think the solution should work on a high level of abstraction. This breaks down a large problem in smaller problems. And by following the PoMO the solutions to those smaller problems are independent of each other. So they are easy to test. Or you could even think about getting them implemented in parallel by different team members. Flow Design not only increases evolvability, but also helps becoming more productive. All team members can participate in functional design. This goes beyon collective code ownership. We´re talking collective design/architecture ownership. Because with Flow Design there is a common visual language to talk about functional design - which is the foundation for all other design activities.   PS: If you like what you read, consider getting my ebook “The Incremental Architekt´s Napkin”. It´s where I compile all the articles in this series for easier reading. I like the strictness of Function Programming - but I also find it quite hard to live by. And it certainly is not what millions of programmers are used to. Also to me it seems, the real world is full of state and side effects. So why give them such a bad image? That´s why functional design takes a more pragmatic approach. State and side effects are ok for processing steps - but be sure to follow the SRP. Don´t put too much of it into a single processing step. ? Image taken from www.physioweb.org ? My code samples are written in C#. C# sports typed function pointers called delegates. Action is such a function pointer type matching functions with signature void someName(T t). Other languages provide similar ways to work with functions as first class citizens - even Java now in version 8. I trust you find a way to map this detail of my translation to your favorite programming language. I know it works for Java, C++, Ruby, JavaScript, Python, Go. And if you´re using a Functional Programming language it´s of course a no brainer. ? Taken from his blog post “The Craftsman 62, The Dark Path”. ?

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  • Agile Database Techniques: Effective Strategies for the Agile Software Developer – book review

    - by DigiMortal
       Agile development expects mind shift and developers are not the only ones who must be agile. Every chain is as strong as it’s weakest link and same goes also for development teams. Agile Database Techniques: Effective Strategies for the Agile Software Developer by Scott W. Ambler is book that calls also data professionals to be part of agile development. Often are DBA-s in situation where they are not part of application development and later they have to survive large set of applications that all use databases different way. Of course, only some of these applications are not problematic when looking what database server has to do to serve them. I have seen many applications that rape database servers because developers have no clue what is going on in database (~3K queries to database per web application request – have you seen something like this? I have…) Agile Database Techniques covers some object and database design technologies and gives suggestions to development teams about topics they need help or assistance by DBA-s. The book is also good reading for DBA-s who usually are not very strong in object technologies. You can take this book as bridge between these two worlds. I think teams that build object applications that use databases should buy this book and try at least one or two projects out with Ambler’s suggestions. Table of contents Foreword by Jon Kern. Foreword by Douglas K. Barry. Acknowledgments. Introduction. About the Author. Part One: Setting the Foundation. Chapter 1: The Agile Data Method. Chapter 2: From Use Cases to Databases — Real-World UML. Chapter 3: Data Modeling 101. Chapter 4: Data Normalization. Chapter 5: Class Normalization. Chapter 6: Relational Database Technology, Like It or Not. Chapter 7: The Object-Relational Impedance Mismatch. Chapter 8: Legacy Databases — Everything You Need to Know But Are Afraid to Deal With. Part Two: Evolutionary Database Development. Chapter 9: Vive L’ Évolution. Chapter 10: Agile Model-Driven Development (AMDD). Chapter 11: Test-Driven Development (TDD). Chapter 12: Database Refactoring. Chapter 13: Database Encapsulation Strategies. Chapter 14: Mapping Objects to Relational Databases. Chapter 15: Performance Tuning. Chapter 16: Tools for Evolutionary Database Development. Part Three: Practical Data-Oriented Development Techniques. Chapter 17: Implementing Concurrency Control. Chapter 18: Finding Objects in Relational Databases. Chapter 19: Implementing Referential Integrity and Shared Business Logic. Chapter 20: Implementing Security Access Control. Chapter 21: Implementing Reports. Chapter 22: Realistic XML. Part Four: Adopting Agile Database Techniques. Chapter 23: How You Can Become Agile. Chapter 24: Bringing Agility into Your Organization. Appendix: Database Refactoring Catalog. References and Suggested Reading. Index.

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  • SharePoint 2010 release date - is it that important?

    - by CharlesLee
    There has been lots of excitement in the SharePoint community over the last few days as Microsoft have announced the official release date of SharePoint 2010. May 12th is the date for your diaries (RTM in April.) The twittersphere has been telling everyone for the last few days about this news and there is much excitement. The major conferences this year all seem to have a SharePoint 2010 focus and some are entirely focussed on the new product (e.g. SharePoint Evolution Conference.)  Now by all accounts Microsoft have plugged some significant functionality gaps that exist in WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 and provided some exciting new functionality.  You don't need me to tell you about these as the MVPs (and other community members) are doing a sterling job, after all that is why Microsoft has MVPs in the first place. Lets get real for a second though as there is a significant investment involved in moving to SharePoint 2010:  Firstly you need 64 bit architecture across the board, now for some environments that is no inconsequential hurdle, that's a pretty significant roadblock.   The development farm, test farm and UAT farm are all going to require the same infrastructure upgrades. To take advantage of the tooling for SP2010 you will need to upgrade to Visual Studio 2010 and your development team is going to require 64 bit hardware/OS too.  I would not recommend installing SP 2010 in client installation mode (i.e. for Windows 7) on your developer machines, I would use this for demo machines only. Something that lots of people seem to forget in all their whooping and hollering about the new release is that there is a large amount of end user training going to be required as the browser UI has now adopted the omnipotent ribbon interface and there are other new and more complicated features. SharePoint Designer has also entirely changed in both look and feel and some significant feature changes have taken place. Lest we should forget that some companies have not long upgraded to MOSS 2007 and are yet to see a significant ROI for that project. And the reticence that most companies feel about implementing v1 Microsoft products.  This is only the surface of the deeper issues which would be involved in any upgrade process, so I guess I share a small part of the concern voiced by Mark Miller of EndUserSharePoint.com.  Is SharePoint 2010 relevant? I don't share this sentiment in its entirety as I firmly believe that all companies should be looking at SharePoint 2010 from day one, however most large scale existing implementations of MOSS 2007 are going to be several years away from a serious upgrade project.  So should the conference organisers and the SharePoint community as a whole be a little more understanding of the real world issues?  It's easy to get carried away in the excitement of a new product and new tools to play with but there needs to be a focus on the real world issues that most people are facing day to day and at the moment and for the short term future (at the very least the next 12 months) that is fairly and squarely in the WSS 2.0/3.0 and SPS 2003/MOSS 2007 camps. Don't get me wrong, I am very very excited about getting to grips with SharePoint 2010 in the real world and I cannot wait for my first real project to come along, but for now I am just being realistic about the reality for most people who work with SharePoint. I have been spending a lot of time on www.sharepointoverflow.com recently as there is a community of people building up who are committed to answering the real world questions that folks are dealing with every day.  I urge you to take a look and either ask or answer some questions direct from the front line of the SharePoint world.

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  • Gamify your Web

    - by Isabel F. Peñuelas
    Yesterday Valencia welcomed the Gamification World Congress that I follow virtually through #GWC2012. BBVA, Iberia, Ligeresa, Axe, Wayra, ESADE, GlaxoSmithKline, Macmillan, Gamisfaction, Nomaders, Blaffin were among the companies presenting success stories on gaming. It has been proved that people remember things easily when an emotion is created. The marketing expectations around Gamification techniques have a lot to do with Neuromarketing theories. There are a lot of expectations on internal enterprise Gamification. In the public Web some sectors are taking the lead on following the trend. The Gartner Analyst Brian Burke opened another Gamification recent event in Madrid remembering that “Gamification is mostly about Engagement”, and this can be applied both to customers or employees. Gamification and Banking The experience of the Spanish Financial Group BBVA that just launched BBVA Game was also presented a week ago at the BBVA Innovation Centre during the event “Gamification & Banking: a fad or a serious business?” . One of the objectives of the BBVA Game was to double the name of registered users. “People like the efficiency of the online channel want to keep a one-to-one contact with the brand”-explained Bernardo Crespo. Another interested data coming out the BBVA presentation was that “only 20% of Spanish users –out of the total holders of Bank Accounts in the country- is familiar with the use of a Web Site to consult their bank accounts”, the project aims also to reverse this situation helping people to learn making a heavy use of the Video in the gaming context. In general Banking presenters seem to agree that Gamification techniques are helping to increase the time spent on the Web. Gamification and Health Using Gamification techniques for chronic illness rehabilitation was another topic of the World Congress. Here you can find some ideas and experiences What can games do for the health (In Spanish) I have personally started my own mental-health gaming project at http://www.lumosity.com/ Gamification in the Enterprise I really recommend Reading this excellent post of Ultan ÓBroin my Introduction to Gamification and Applications. Employee´s motivation and learning are experiencing a 360º turn and it looks than some of us will become soon the Dragon of the year instead of the Employee of the Year. Using Web 2.0 Tools for Gamification Projects  What type of tools do we need for a quick-win Gamification project? To certain extend Gamification can be considered an evolution of the participative Web. Badging, avatars, points and awards, leader boards, progress charts, virtual currencies, gifting and giving challenges and quests are common components and elements. The Web is offering new development frameworks to that purpose as this Avatar Framework from Paypal or Badgeville to include in web applications. Besides, tools to create communities around a game are required to comment, share and vote players as well as for an efficient multimedia management. Due to its entirely open architecture, its community features, and its multimedia and imaging solutions is were I see WebCenter as a tool helping brands to success. Link to Sources & Recommended Readings YouTube Video of BBVAGame presentation Where To Apply Gamification In Your Incentive Jim Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride and Walkh For my Spanish Readers El aburrimiento es el enemigo número uno del éxito

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  • WebCenter Marketing and Upcoming Events

    - by rituchhibber
    Events: Events: Date Event Name Location/Country October 30, 2012 ResCare Solves Content Lifecycle Challenges with Oracle WebCenter Webcast November 1, 2012 Paper Burying Your HR Processes? Dig Your Way Out With Oracle WebCenter! Webcast November 15, 2012 Social Business Thought Leader Webcast: Three Ways to Fix Your Broken Organization, featuring Christian Finn Webcast Marketing: Marketing: WebCenter Sites Sales eVite:Embrace the Base: Create an Exceptional Online Customer Experience with Oracle WebCenter Sites Directs recipients to the Connected Customer Experience Resource Center to see the latest demos, analyst reports, and customer webcasts promoting WebCenter Sites. For more information Click  here. WebCenter Social Business Thought Leaders Series: Digital Darwinism: How Brands Can Survive the Rapid Evolution of Society and TechnologyBrian Solis, Altimeter Group digital analyst and futuristDecember 13, 2012 10am PDTRegistration available soon, find other content from this speaker here. Webcast: WebCenter Sites for Applications: Disconnected Online Customer Experience? Connect it with Oracle WebCenter November 8, 2012  eVite | Registration Page WebCenter in Action Customer & Partner webcast series: Started earlier in FY13, a new webcast series featuring WebCenter customer deployments that are executed by a partner.The next webcast in the series will be November 14th:Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety Lowers Customer Service Costs with Oracle WebCenter Click here to learn more. OnDemand Webcast: ResCare Solves Content Lifecycle Challenges with Oracle WebCenterComplex documents must be created, assembled, reviewed, and tracked. To avoid fragmented, chaotic information processes, organizations must adopt an integrated set of strategies, standards, best practices, and technologies for managing information. Attend this webcast to learn how Oracle WebCenter has allowed ResCare to: solve content lifecycle challenges, reduce compliance and business risks and increase adoption of intranet as primary business communication tool. On-Demand Assets Date Event Name Location/Country On Demand Avoid Social Media Fatigue - Learn the 9 C’s of Customer Engagement, featuring Ray Wang, Principal Analyst and CEO, Constellation Research Webcast On Demand WebCenter in Action Series: Hitachi Data Systems Improves Global Web Experience with Oracle WebCenter, presented by Hitachi Data Systems and Lingotek. Webcast On Demand Managing Social Relationships for the Enterprise, featuring Jeremiah Owyang, Industry Analyst, Altimeter Group and Reggie Bradford, Vice President, Oracle Webcast On Demand Oracle’s Vision for the Social-Enabled Enterprise, presented by Mark Hurd, Thomas Kurian and Reggie Bradford Webcast On Demand WebCenter in Action Series: Qualcomm Provides a Seamless Experience for Customers with Oracle WebCenter, presented by Qualcomm and Keste. Webcast On Demand Social Business Thought Leaders Series: 6 Counterintuitive Best Practices for Social Collaboration Adoption, featuring John Brunswick, Oracle. Webcast On Demand Oracle WebCenter Connects Patients and Researchers in Cancer Control Mission, presented by Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and App-Systems Webcast On Demand Oracle WebCenter: Modernize, Aggregate and Extend Your Portals Webcast On Demand Top 10 Technology Trends Driving Business Innovation, featuring Andy Mulholland, CTO, Capgemini Webcast On Demand Ancestry.com Helps Families Uncover History with Oracl e WebCenter Webcast On Demand Organic Business Networks: Doing Business in a Hyper-Connected World, featuring Mike Fauscette, GVP, IDC Webcast On Demand Social Business and Innovation, featuring John Mancini, President, AIIM Webcast On Demand Do More with Oracle WebCenter: Expand Beyond Web Experience Management Webcast On Demand Race Against the Machine, featuring Andrew McAfee, author and principal scientist at MIT Webcast On Demand Introducing Oracle WebCenter Sites 11gR1: Transforming the Online Experience Webcast On Demand Mobile is the New Face of Engagement, featuring Ted Schadler, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research Inc Webcast Analyst Report: IDC Research: Oracle Debuts New Release of Oracle WebCenter Sites.

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  • Stuck due to "knowing too much"

    - by Ran Biron
    Note more discussion at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4037794 Welcome Hacker News Visitors! While HN is a fine forum for discussion and debate, Programmers - Stack Exchange is not. From the FAQ: If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ____”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ____ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.) Currently, this question is viewed by the membership of Programmers.SE as more likely to provoke unproductive discussion than constructive answers; while debates on its form and future are conducted, it will be locked to prevent arguments and vandalism. -- Shog9 I have a relatively simple development task, but every time I try to attack it, I end up spiraling in deep thoughts - how could it extending the future, what are the 2nd generation clients going to need, how does it affect "non functional" aspects (e.g. Performance, authorization...), how would it best be architectured to allow change... I remember myself a while ago, younger and, perhaps, more eager. The "me" I was then wouldn't have given a thought about all that - he would've gone ahead and wrote something, then rewrote it, then rewrote it again (and again...). The "me" today is more hesitant, more careful. I find it much easier today to sit and plan and instruct other people on how to do things than to actually go ahead and do them myself - not because I don't like to code - the opposite, I love to! - but because every time I sit at the keyboard, I end up in that same annoying place. Is this wrong? Is this a natural evolution, or did I drive myself into a rut? Fair disclosure - in the past I was a developer, today my job title is a "system architect". Good luck figuring what it means - but that's the title. Wow. I honestly didn't expect this question to generate that many responses. I'll try to sum it up. Reasons: Analysis paralysis / Over engineering / gold plating / (any other "too much thinking up-front can hurt you"). Too much experience for the given task. Not focusing on what's important. Not enough experience (and realizing that). Solutions (not matched to reasons): Testing first. Start coding (+ for fun) One to throw away (+ one API to throw away). Set time constraints. Strip away the fluff, stay with the stuff. Make flexible code (kinda opposite to "one to throw away", no?). Thanks to everyone - I think the major benefit here was to realize that I'm not alone in this experience. I have, actually, already started coding and some of the too-big things have fallen off, naturally. Since this question is closed, I'll accept the answer with most votes as of today. When/if it changes - I'll try to follow.

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