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• Armchair Linguists: 'code' vs. 'codes'--or why I write 'code' and my manager asks for 'codes'

  - by Ukko

  I wanted to tap into the collective wisdom here to see if I can get some insight into one of my pet peeves, people who thread "code" as a countable noun. Let me also preface this by saying that I am not talking about anyone who speaks english as a second language, this is a native phenomenon. For those of us who slept through grammar class there are two classes of nouns which basically refer to things that are countable and non-countable (sometimes referred to as count and noncount). For instance 'sand' is a non-count noun and 'apple' is count. You can talk about "two apples" but "two sands" does not parse. The bright students then would point out a word like "beer" where is looks like this is violated. Beer as a substance is certainly a non-count noun, but I can ask for "two beers" without offending the grammar police. The reason is that there are actually two words tied up in that one utterance, Definition #1 is a yummy golden substance and Definition #2 is a colloquial term for a container of said substance. #1 is non-count and #2 is countable. This gets to my problem with "codes" as a countable noun. In my mind the code that we programmers write is non-count, "I wrote some code today." When used in the plural like "Have you got the codes" I can only assume that you are asking if I have the cryptographically significant numbers for launching a missile or the like. Every time my peer in marketing asks about when we will have the new codes ready I have a vision of rooms of code breakers going over the latest Enigma coded message. I corrected the usage in all the documents I am asked to review, but then I noticed that our customer was also using the work "codes" when they meant "code". At this point I have realized that there is a significant sub-population that uses "codes" and they seem to be impervious to what I see as the dominant "correct" usage. This is the part I want some help on, has anyone else noticed this phenomenon? Do you know what group it is associated with, old Fortran programmer perhaps? Is it a regionalism? I have become quick to change my terms when I notice a customer's usage, but it would be nice to know if I am sending a proposal somewhere what style they expect. I would hate to get canned with a review of "Ha, these guy's must be morons they don't even know 'code' is plural!"

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• What's the correct way to use Cakephp urls?

  - by Pichan

  Hello all, it's my first post here :) I'm having some difficulties with dealing with urls and parameters. I've gone through the router class api documentation over and over again and found nothing useful. First of all, I'd like to know if there is any 'universal' format in CakePHP(1.3) for handling urls. I'm currently handling all my urls as simple arrays(in the format that Router::url and $html-link accepts) and it's easy as long as I only need to pass them as arguments to cake's own methods. It usually gets tricky if I need something else. Mainly I'm having problems with converting string urls to the basic array format. Let's say I want to convert $arrayUrl to string and than again into url: $arrayUrl=array('controller'=>'SomeController','action'=>'someAction','someValue'); $url=Router::url($arrayUrl); //$url is now '/path/to/site/someController/someAction/someValue' $url=Router::normalize($url); //remove '/path/to/site' $parsed=Router::parse($url); /*$parsed is now Array( [controller] => someController [action] => someAction [named] => Array() [pass] => Array([0] => someValue) [plugin] => ) */ That seems an awful lot of code to do something as simple as to convert between 2 core formats. Also, note that $parsed is still not in the same as $arrayUrl. Of course I could tweak $parsed manually and actually I've done that a few times as a quick patch but I'd like to get to the bottom of this. I also noticed that when using prefix routing, $this-params in controller has the prefix embedded in the action(i.e. [action] = 'admin_edit') and the result of Router::parse() does not. Both of course have the prefix in it's own key. To summarize, how do I convert an url between any of these 3(or 4, if you include the prefix thing) mentioned formats the right way? Of course it would be easy to hack my way through this, but I'd still like to believe that cake is being developed by a bunch of people who have a lot more experience and insight than me, so I'm guessing there's a good reason for this "perceived misbehavior". I've tried to present my problem as good as I can, but due to my rusty english skills, I had to take a few detours :) I'll explain more if needed.

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• I've got my 2D/3D conversion working perfectly, how to do perspective

  - by user346992

  Although the context of this question is about making a 2d/3d game, the problem i have boils down to some math. Although its a 2.5D world, lets pretend its just 2d for this question. // xa: x-accent, the x coordinate of the projection // mapP: a coordinate on a map which need to be projected // _Dist_ values are constants for the projection, choosing them correctly will result in i.e. an isometric projection xa = mapP.x * xDistX + mapP.y * xDistY; ya = mapP.x * yDistX + mapP.y * yDistY; xDistX and yDistX determine the angle of the x-axis, and xDistY and yDistY determine the angle of the y-axis on the projection (and also the size of the grid, but lets assume this is 1-pixel for simplicity). x-axis-angle = atan(yDistX/xDistX) y-axis-angle = atan(yDistY/yDistY) a "normal" coordinate system like this --------------- x | | | | | y has values like this: xDistX = 1; yDistX = 0; xDistY = 0; YDistY = 1; So every step in x direction will result on the projection to 1 pixel to the right end 0 pixels down. Every step in the y direction of the projection will result in 0 steps to the right and 1 pixel down. When choosing the correct xDistX, yDistX, xDistY, yDistY, you can project any trimetric or dimetric system (which is why i chose this). So far so good, when this is drawn everything turns out okay. If "my system" and mindset are clear, lets move on to perspective. I wanted to add some perspective to this grid so i added some extra's like this: camera = new MapPoint(60, 60); dx = mapP.x - camera.x; // delta x dy = mapP.y - camera.y; // delta y dist = Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy); // dist is the distance to the camera, Pythagoras etc.. all objects must be in front of the camera fac = 1 - dist / 100; // this formula determines the amount of perspective xa = fac * (mapP.x * xDistX + mapP.y * xDistY) ; ya = fac * (mapP.x * yDistX + mapP.y * yDistY ); Now the real hard part... what if you got a (xa,ya) point on the projection and want to calculate the original point (x,y). For the first case (without perspective) i did find the inverse function, but how can this be done for the formula with the perspective. May math skills are not quite up to the challenge to solve this. ( I vaguely remember from a long time ago mathematica could create inverse function for some special cases... could it solve this problem? Could someone maybe try?)

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• [NEWVERSION]algorithm || method to write prog[UNSOLVED] [closed]

  - by fatai

  I am one of the computer science student. Everyone solve problem with a different or same method, ( but actually I dont know whether they use method or I dont know whether there are such common method to approach problem.) if there are common method, What is it ? If there are different method, which method are you using ? All teacher give us problem which in simple form sometimes, but they donot introduce any approach or method(s) so that we cannot make a decision to choose the method then apply that one to problem , afterward find solution then write code.No help from teacher , push us to find method to solve homework. Ex: my friend is using no method , he says "I start to construct algorithm while I try to write prog." I have found one method when I failed the course, More accurately, my method: When I counter problem in language , I will get more paper and then ; first, input/ output step ; my prog will take this / these there argument(s) and return namely X , ex : in c, input length is not known and at same type , so I must use pointer desired output is in form of package , so use structure second, execution part ; in that step , I am writing all step which are goes to final output ex : in python ; 1.) [ + , [- , 4 , [ * , 1 , 2 ]], 5] 2.) [ + , [- , 4 , 2 ],5 ] 3.) [ + , 2 , 5] 4.) 7 ==> return 7 third, I will write test code ex : in c++ input : append 3 4 5 6 vector_x remove 0 1 desired output vector_x holds : 5 6 now, my other question is ; What is/are other method(s) which have/has been; used to construct class :::: for c++ , python, java used to communicate classes / computers used for solving embedded system problem ::::: for c by other user? Some programmer uses generalized method without considering prog-language(java , perl .. ), what is this method ? Why I wonder , because I learn if you dont costruct algorithm on paper, you may achieve your goal. Like no money no lunch , I can say no algorithm no prog therefore , feel free when you write your own method , a way which is introduced by someone else but you are using and you find it is so efficient

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• How to hide Amazon webstore default toolbar with Prototype?

  - by melaos

  Hi Guys, after playing around this morning, i've found that there's this default chunk of html code in the amazon webstore which will add a toolbar on top of the page. the html looks like below: <td id="wba_logo_bg"> <table class="logo" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr><td align="left"></td> <td class="wba_account" style="padding: 5px;" align="right" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <form action="#" id="searchForm" method="get" name="searchForm"></form> <tbody><tr><td class="wba_account_link"> <a xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="myAccountNav" href="#" onclick="return false;">home</a></td> <td class="myAccountDots"></td> <td class="wba_account_link"><a class="myAccountNav" href="#" onclick="return false;">view cart</a></td> <td class="myAccountDots"></td><td class="wba_account_link"><a class="myAccountNav" href="#" onclick="return false;">my account</a></td> <td class="myAccountDots"></td><td class="wba_account_link"><a class="myAccountNav" href="#" onclick="return false;">order status</a></td> <td><img src="pageEditor_files/1_pixel.gif" hspace="7"></td> <td><input name="keyword" tabindex="1" type="text"></td> <td><img alt="Search" class="wba_search_btn" onclick="return false;" onkeyup="if (13==event.keyCode) searchForm.submit();" src="pageEditor_files/btn_search.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" tabindex="2" title="Search" hspace="3"> </td></tr></tbody> </table> </td></tr></tbody> </table> </td> and thus far i was able to use prototype to find those with the class name of wba_account_link and hide them via the codes below: function hideAmazonToolbar() { $("wba_logo_bg").hide(); }//end function but what i really want to do is preferably to hide the whole tbody instead, but with my limited prototype skills, i don't really know how to do this. can anybody point me to the right resources on how to get this done? thanks! EDIT Went higher up and apparently there's a td with an id, and solve it using prototype hide function! man, i love javascript framework :) thanks :)

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• Advice for Architecture Design Logic for software application

  - by Prasad

  Hi, I have a framework of basic to complex set of objects/classes (C++) running into around 500. With some rules and regulations - all these objects can communicate with each other and hence can cover most of the common queries in the domain. My Dream: I want to provide these objects as icons/glyphs (as I learnt recently) on a workspace. All these objects can be dragged/dropped into the workspace. They have to communicate only through their methods(interface) and in addition to few iterative and conditional statements. All these objects are arranged finally to execute a protocol/workflow/dataflow/process. After drawing the flow, the user clicks the Execute/run button. All the user interaction should be multi-touch enabled. The best way to show my dream is : Jeff Han's Multitouch Video. consider Jeff is playing with my objects instead of the google maps. :-) it should be like playing a jigsaw puzzle. Objective: how can I achieve the following while working on this final product: a) the development should be flexible to enable provision for web services b) the development should enable easy web application development c) The development should enable client-server architecture - d) further it should also enable mouse based drag/drop desktop application like Adobe programs etc. I mean to say: I want to economize on investments. Now I list my efforts till now in design : a) Created an Editor (VB) where the user writes (manually) the object / class code b) On Run/Execute, the code is copied into a main() function and passed to interpreter. c) Catch the output and show it in the console. The interpreter can be separated to become a server and the Editor can become the client. This needs lot of standard client-server architecture work. But some how I am not comfortable in the tightness of this system. Without interpreter is there much faster and better embeddable solution to this? - other than writing a special compiler for these objects. Recently learned about AXIS-C++ can help me - looks like - a friend suggested. Is that the way to go ? Here are my questions: (pl. consider me a self taught programmer and NOT my domain) a) From the stage of C++ objects to multi-touch product, how can I make sure I will develop the parallel product/service models as well.? What should be architecture aspects I should consider ? b) What technologies are best suited for this? c) If I am thinking of moving to Cloud Computing, how difficult/ how redundant / how unnecessary my efforts will be ? d) How much time in months would it take to get the first beta ? I take the liberty to ask if any of the experts here are interested in this project, please email me: [email protected] Thank you for any help. Looking forward.

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• Performance Optimization for Matrix Rotation

  - by Summer_More_More_Tea

  Hello everyone: I'm now trapped by a performance optimization lab in the book "Computer System from a Programmer's Perspective" described as following: In a N*N matrix M, where N is multiple of 32, the rotate operation can be represented as: Transpose: interchange elements M(i,j) and M(j,i) Exchange rows: Row i is exchanged with row N-1-i A example for matrix rotation(N is 3 instead of 32 for simplicity): ------- ------- |1|2|3| |3|6|9| ------- ------- |4|5|6| after rotate is |2|5|8| ------- ------- |7|8|9| |1|4|7| ------- ------- A naive implementation is: #define RIDX(i,j,n) ((i)*(n)+(j)) void naive_rotate(int dim, pixel *src, pixel *dst) { int i, j; for (i = 0; i < dim; i++) for (j = 0; j < dim; j++) dst[RIDX(dim-1-j, i, dim)] = src[RIDX(i, j, dim)]; } I come up with an idea by inner-loop-unroll. The result is: Code Version Speed Up original 1x unrolled by 2 1.33x unrolled by 4 1.33x unrolled by 8 1.55x unrolled by 16 1.67x unrolled by 32 1.61x I also get a code snippet from pastebin.com that seems can solve this problem: void rotate(int dim, pixel *src, pixel *dst) { int stride = 32; int count = dim >> 5; src += dim - 1; int a1 = count; do { int a2 = dim; do { int a3 = stride; do { *dst++ = *src; src += dim; } while(--a3); src -= dim * stride + 1; dst += dim - stride; } while(--a2); src += dim * (stride + 1); dst -= dim * dim - stride; } while(--a1); } After carefully read the code, I think main idea of this solution is treat 32 rows as a data zone, and perform the rotating operation respectively. Speed up of this version is 1.85x, overwhelming all the loop-unroll version. Here are the questions: In the inner-loop-unroll version, why does increment slow down if the unrolling factor increase, especially change the unrolling factor from 8 to 16, which does not effect the same when switch from 4 to 8? Does the result have some relationship with depth of the CPU pipeline? If the answer is yes, could the degrade of increment reflect pipeline length? What is the probable reason for the optimization of data-zone version? It seems that there is no too much essential difference from the original naive version. EDIT: My test environment is Intel Centrino Duo processor and the verion of gcc is 4.4 Any advice will be highly appreciated! Kind regards!

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• How to set a key binding to make Emacs as transparent/opaque as I want?

  - by Vivi

  I want to have a command in Emacs to make it as opaque/transparent as I want (refer to the fabulous question that pointed out that transparency is possible in Emacs, and the EmacsWiki page linked there which has the code I am using below). The EmacsWiki code sets "C-c t" to toggle the previously set transparency on and off: ;;(set-frame-parameter (selected-frame) 'alpha '(<active> [<inactive>])) (set-frame-parameter (selected-frame) 'alpha '(85 50)) (add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(alpha 85 50)) enter code here(eval-when-compile (require 'cl)) (defun toggle-transparency () (interactive) (if (/= (cadr (find 'alpha (frame-parameters nil) :key #'car)) 100) (set-frame-parameter nil 'alpha '(100 100)) (set-frame-parameter nil 'alpha '(85 60)))) (global-set-key (kbd "C-c t") 'toggle-transparency) What I would like to do is to be able to choose the % transparency when I am in Emacs. If possible, I would like a command where I type for example "C-c t N" (where N is the % opaqueness) for the active frame, and then "M-c t N" for the inactive window. If that can't be done like that, then maybe a command where if I type "C-c t" it asks me for the number which gives the opaqueness of the active window (and the same for the inactive window using "M-c t"). Thanks in advance for your time :) Below are just some comments that are not important to answer the question if you are not interested: I really want this because when I told my supervisor I was learning Emacs he said TexShop is much better and that I am using software from the 80's. I told him about the wonders of Emacs and he said TexShop has all of it and more. I matched everything he showed me except for the transparency (though he couldn't match the preview inside Emacs from preview-latex). I found the transparency thing by chance, and now I want to show him Emacs rules! I imagine this will be a piece of cake for some of you, and even though I could get it done if I spent enough time trying to learn lisp or reading around, I am not a programmer and I have only been using Emacs and a mac for a week. I am lost already as it is! So thanks in advance for your time and help - I will learn lisp eventually!

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• Creating a spam list with a web crawler in python

  - by user313623

  Hey guys, I'm not trying to do anything malicious here, I just need to do some homework. I'm a fairly new programmer, I'm using python 3.0, and I having difficulty using recursion for problem-solving. I've been stuck on this question for quite a while. Here's the assignment: Write a recursive method spam(url, n) that takes a url of a web page as input and a non-negative integer n, collects all the email address contained in the web page and adds them to a global dictionary variable spam_dict, and then recursively calls itself on every http hyperlink contained in the web page. You will use a dictionary so only one copy of every email address is save; your dictionary will store (key,value) pairs (email, email). The recursive call should use the parameter n-1 instead of n. If n = 0, you should collect the email addresses but no recursive calls should be made. The parameter n is used to limit the recursion to at most depth n. You will need to use the solutions of the two above problems; you method spam() will call the methods links2() and emails() and possibly other functions as well. Notes: 1. running spam() directly will produce no output on the screen; to find your spam_dict, you will need to read the value of spam_dict, and you will also need to reset it to the empty dictionary before every run of spam. 2. Recall how global variables are used. Usage: spam_dict = {} spam('http://reed.cs.depaul.edu/lperkovic/csc242/test1.html',0) spam_dict.keys() dict_keys([]) spam_dict = {} spam('http://reed.cs.depaul.edu/lperkovic/csc242/test1.html',1) spam_dict.keys() dict_keys(['[email protected]', '[email protected]']) So far, I've written a function that traverses web pages and puts all the links in a nice little list, and what I wanted to do was call that functions. And why would I use recursion on a dictionary? And how? I don't understand how n ties into all of this. def links2(url): content = str(urlopen(url).read()) myparser = MyHTMLParser() myparser.feed(content) lst = myparser.get() mergelst = [] for link in lst: mergelst.append(urljoin(lst[0],link)) print(mergelst) Any input (except why spam is bad) would be greatly appreciated. Also, I realize that the above function could probably look better, if you have a way to do it, I'm all ears. However, all I need is the point is for the program to produce the proper output.

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• random, Graphics point ,searching- algorithm, via dual for loop set

  - by LoneXcoder

  hello and thanks for joining me in my journey to the custom made algorithm for "guess where the pixel is" this for Loop set (over Point.X, Point.Y), is formed in consecutive/linear form: //Original\initial Location Point initPoint = new Point(150, 100); // No' of pixels to search left off X , and above Y int preXsrchDepth, preYsrchDepth; // No' of pixels to search to the right of X, And Above Y int postXsrchDepth, postYsrchDepth; preXsrchDepth = 10; // will start search at 10 pixels to the left from original X preYsrchDepth = 10; // will start search at 10 pixels above the original Y postXsrchDepth = 10; // will stop search at 10 pixels to the right from X postYsrchDepth = 10; // will stop search at 10 pixels below Y int StopXsearch = initPoint.X + postXsrchDepth; //stops X Loop itarations at initial pointX + depth requested to serch right of it int StopYsearch = initPoint.Y + postYsrchDepth; //stops Y Loop itarations at initial pointY + depth requested below original location int CountDownX, CountDownY; // Optional not requierd for loop but will reports the count down how many iterations left (unless break; triggerd ..uppon success) Point SearchFromPoint = Point.Empty; //the point will be used for (int StartX = initPoint.X - preXsrchDepth; StartX < StopXsearch; StartX++) { SearchFromPoint.X = StartX; for (int StartY = initPoint.Y - preYsrchDepth; StartY < StpY; StartY++) { CountDownX = (initPoint.X - StartX); CountDownY=(initPoint.Y - StartY); SearchFromPoint.Y = StartY; if (SearchSuccess) { same = true; AAdToAppLog("Search Report For: " + imgName + "Search Completed Successfully On Try " + CountDownX + ":" + CountDownY); break; } } } <-10 ---- -5--- -1 X +1--- +5---- +10 what i would like to do is try a way of instead is have a little more clever approach <+8---+5-- -8 -5 -- +2 +10 X -2 - -10 -8-- -6 ---1- -3 | +8 | -10 Y +1 -6 | | +9 .... I do know there's a wheel already invented in this field (even a full-trailer truck amount of wheels (: ) but as a new programmer, I really wanted to start of with a simple way and also related to my field of interest in my project. can anybody show an idea of his, he learnt along the way to Professionalism in algorithm /programming having tests to do on few approaches (kind'a random cleverness...) will absolutely make the day and perhaps help some others viewing this page in the future to come it will be much easier for me to understand if you could use as much as possible similar naming to variables i used or implenet your code example ...it will be Greatly appreciated if used with my code sample, unless my metod is a realy flavorless. p.s i think that(atleast as human being) the tricky part is when throwing inconsecutive numbers you loose track of what you didn't yet use, how do u take care of this too . thanks allot in advance looking forward to your participation !

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• SharedObject (Flex 3.2) behaving unexpectedly when query string present in URL

  - by rhtx

  Summary: The behavior detailed below seems to indicate that if your app at www.someplace.com sets/retrieves data via a SharedObject, there is some sort of .sol collision if the user hits your app at someplace.com, and then later at someplace.com?name=value. Can anyone confirm or refute this? I'm working on a Flex web app that presents the user with a login page. When the user has logged in, he/she is presented with a 'room' which is associated with a 'group'. We store the last-visited room/group combination in a SharedObject - so when a given user logs in, they are taken into the most recent room in which they were active. That works fine, but we also have an auto-login system which involves the user clicking on a link to the app url with a query string attached. There are two types of these links. 1) the query string includes username, groupId, and roomId 2) the query string includes only the username Because we are working fast and have only a few developers, the auto-login system is built on the last-vist system. During the auto-login process, the url is inspected and if groupId and roomId values are found in the query string, the SharedObject is opened and the last-visit group/room id values are overwritten by the param values. That works fine, also, when the app is hit with a query string of the second type (no groupId and roomId params), the app goes to the SharedObject to get the stored room and group id values, as it normally would. And here's the problem: The values it comes back with are whatever the last room/group param values were, not whatever the last last-visit room/group values are. And if the given user has never hit the app with query string that included group and room id values, the app gets null values from the SharedObject. It took some digging around, but what it looks like is happening is that a second set of data is being stored/expected in the SharedObject if a query string is present in the URL. Looking at the .sol file in a text editor I see more untranslated code, and additional group and room values, once I've hit the app with URLs that contain query strings. I'm not finding anything on the web about this, but that may just be due to a lack of necessary search skills. Has anyone else run into anything similar? Or do you know how to address this? I've tried setting Security.exactSettings to false, already - was really hoping that was going to work.

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• Function Point Analysis -- a seriously over-estimating technique?

  - by kizzx2

  I know questions about FPA has been asked numerous times before, but this time I'm taking a more analytical angle at it, backed up with data. 1. First, some data This question is based on a tutorial. He had a "Sample Count" section where he demonstrated it step by step. You can see some screenshots of his sample application here. In the end, he calculated the unadjusted FP to be 99. There is another article on InformIT with industry data on typical hour/FP. It ranges from 2 hours/FP to 27.4 hours/FP. Let's try to stick with 2 for the moment (since SO readers are probably the more efficient crowd :p). 2. Reality check!? Now just check out the screenshots again. Do a little math here 99 * 2 = 198 hours 198 hours / 40 hours per week = 5 weeks Seriously? That sample application is going to take 5 weeks to implement? Is it just my feeling that it wouldn't take any decent programmer longer than one week to have it completed? Now let's try estimating the cost of the project. We'll use New York's minimum wage at the moment (Wikipedia), which is $7.25 198 * 7.25 = $1435.5 From what I could see from the screenshots, this application is a small excel-improvement app. I could have bought MS Office Pro for 200 bucks which gives me greater interoperability (.xls files) and flexibility (spreadsheets). (For the record, that same Web site has another article discussing productivity. It seems like they typically use 4.2 hours/FP, which gives us even more shocking stats: 99 * 4.2 = 415 hours = 10 weeks = almost 3 whopping months! 415 hours * $7.25 = $3000 zomg (That's even assuming that all our poor coders get the minimum wage!) 3. Am I missing something here? Right now, I could come up with several possible explanation: FPA is really only suited for bigger projects (1000+ FPs) so it becomes extremely inaccurate at smaller scale. The hours/FP metric fluctuates abruptly from team to team, project to project. For a small project like this, we could have used something like 0.5 hour/FP or something. (Now this kind of makes the whole estimation thing pointless, unless my firm does the same type of projects for several years with the same team, not really common.) From my experience with several software metrics, Function Point is really not a lightweight metric. If the hour/FP thing fluctuates so much, then what's the point, maybe I could have gone with User Story Points which is a lot faster to get and arguably almost as uncertain. What would be the FP experts' answers to this?

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• How do we, as a community, help encourage programming in public schools? (Or state Schools for the U

  - by NoMoreZealots

  PRIMARY MOTIVATION My office gets involved with the "First Robotics" competitions and one thing that lingers year to year is the students typically have no preparation for doing even simple programming as part of the public schools system. While the science classes provide some basic grasp of mechanical and electrical concepts, by in large computer programming gets no coverage from the curriculum. (This my be different in other areas of the country/world.) What makes it worse is there is only a short period of time you have to prepare the student's and help them design the robot. Talking to some professors from local colleges, it's a problem because you can't assume even the most basic understanding for freshman CS majors. Languages like Python, Lua and BASIC are simple enough for at least high school level students, if not younger. SCOPE So how do you get public schools to support a programming, at least to the level of "Try it in BASIC" examples that used to be at the end of a chapter in my Algebra book? At least enough to prepare them for event's such as the FIRST Robotic competitions. Which the primary objectives are to teach problem solving and team work, and to possible foster an interest in Math, Science and Engineering in general. (Not force feed to them, as some people her seem to be implying.) Edit: Why teach kids: (Since 2000 CS enrollment in US colleges has decreased by 70% while college enrollment has increased, this is a PROBLEM.) Saying there is no value in teaching someone programming in Jr./High school because they might think "they know programming." Is like saying there's no value in teaching High school science and physics, because they might decide they "know physics." Leading to abuse like: "I passed a high school physics class, I'm going to develop a Unified Quantum Gravitational Theory." Better Prepared students are better students. Instead it would allows college programs to raise the bar on the entry level courses, allowing students to be weeded out based on their understanding of more advanced material. Plus people who did poorly in that in topic in High school aren't as likely to say "I think there's money in computer's so I'll computer science." Plus if people take it in high school and decide THEN that it's not for them, it's better than them wasting their money to PAY a college to figure that out. The result is that people who take the degree are more likely to succeed and be there for the RIGHT reasons. (i.e. It's what they REALLY want to do. And that's REALLY the key to being good at anything.) Programming is like anything else, the more practice and genuine interest you have the better you get. If you start them later, they get less practice. The earlier give them the opportunity to start, the more practice they will get. All other things equal, the more practice the better the programmer.

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• SQL efficiency argument, add a column or solvable by query?

  - by theTurk

  I am a recent college graduate and a new hire for software development. Things have been a little slow lately so I was given a db task. My db skills are limited to pet projects with Rails and Django. So, I was a little surprised with my latest task. I have been asked by my manager to subclass Person with a 'Parent' table and add a reference to their custodian in the Person table. This is to facilitate going from Parent to Form when the custodian, not the Parent, is the FormContact. Here is a simplified, mock structure of a sql-db I am working with. I would have drawn the relationship tables if I had access to Visio. We have a table 'Person' and we have a table 'Form'. There is a table, 'FormContact', that relates a Person to a Form, not all Persons are related to a Form. There is a relationship table for Person to Person relationships (Employer, Parent, etc.) I've asked, "Why this couldn't be handled by a query?" Response, Inefficient. (Really!?!) So, I ask, "Why not have a reference to the Form? That would be more efficient since you wouldn't be querying the FormContacts table with the reference from child/custodian." Response, this would essentially make the Parent is a FormContact. (Fair enough.) I went ahead an wrote a query to get from non-FormContact Parent to Form, and tested on the production server. The response time was instantaneous. *SOME_VALUE* is the Parent's fk ID. SELECT FormID FROM FormContact WHERE FormContact.ContactID IN (SELECT SourceContactID FROM ContactRelationship WHERE (ContactRelationship.RelatedContactID = *SOME_VALUE*) AND (ContactRelationship.Relationship = 'Parent')); If I am right, "This is an unnecessary change." What should I do, defend my position or should I concede to the managers request? If I am wrong. What is my error? Is there a better solution than the manager's?

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• How do you delete rows from UITableView?

  - by James

  This has been bugging me for hours now and i have not been able to figure it out. I am importing data into a tableview using core data and NSMutableArray. As shown below. CORE DATA ARRAY NSMutableArray *mutableFetchResults = [CoreDataHelper getObjectsFromContext:@"Spot" :@"Name" :YES :managedObjectContext]; self.entityArray = mutableFetchResults; TABLE VIEW - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { NSManagedObject *object = (NSManagedObject *)[entityArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]; NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell"; UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier]; if (cell == nil) { cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease]; } NSString *lat1 = [object valueForKey:@"Email"]; //NSLog(@"Current Spot Latitude:%@",lat1); float lat2 = [lat1 floatValue]; //NSLog(@"Current Spot Latitude Float:%g", lat2); NSString *long1 = [object valueForKey:@"Description"]; //NSLog(@"Current Spot Longitude:%@",long1); float long2 = [long1 floatValue]; //NSLog(@"Current Spot Longitude Float:%g", long2); //Getting current location from NSDictionary CoreDataTestAppDelegate *appDelegate = (CoreDataTestAppDelegate *) [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate]; NSString *locLat = [NSString stringWithFormat:appDelegate.latitude]; float locLat2 = [locLat floatValue]; //NSLog(@"Lat: %g",locLat2); NSString *locLong = [NSString stringWithFormat:appDelegate.longitude]; float locLong2 = [locLong floatValue]; //NSLog(@"Long: %g",locLong2); //Distance Shizzle //Prime's Location CLLocation *loc1 = [[CLLocation alloc] initWithLatitude:lat2 longitude:long2]; //Home Location CLLocation *loc2 = [[CLLocation alloc] initWithLatitude:locLat2 longitude:locLong2]; double distance = [loc1 getDistanceFrom: loc2] / 1000; int myInt = (int)(distance + (distance>0 ? 0.5 : -0.5)); //NSLog(@"INT VAL :%i", myInt); NSMutableString* converted = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:@"%.1f", distance]; [converted appendString: @" Km"]; //NSLog(@"Distance between Prime and home = %g", converted); if (myInt < 11) { cell.textLabel.text = [object valueForKey:@"Name"]; cell.detailTextLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:converted]; } else { } // Configure the cell... return cell; } I am trying to get the table only to display results that are within a certain distance. This method here works apart from the fact that the results over a certain distance are still in the table, they are just not graphically visible. I am led to believe that i have to carry out the filtering process before the formatting the table but i can not seem to do this. Please help. My xcode skills are not brilliant so code suggestions would be helpfull.

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• Good working habits to observe in project development?

  - by Will Marcouiller

  As my development experience grows, I see fit to stick to best practices from here and there to build somehow my own working practices while observing the conventions, etc. I'm currently working on a project which my goals is to graduate the security access model from an environment's Active Directory to another environment's automatically. I don't know for any of you, but as far as I'm concerned, I meet some real difficulties sticking to only one way, then develop. I mean, I learn something new everyday while visiting SO, and recently wanted to get acquainted with generics. On the other hand, I better know the Façade pattern which proved to be very practical in transactional programming in process systems. This seems to be less practical for desktop application as there are plenty of variables to consider in a desktop application that you don't have to care in transactional programming, as you're playing only with information data. As for my current project, I have: Groups; Organizational Units; Users. Which are all considered an entry in the Active Directory. This points out to be a good candidate for generics, as also approached this way by Bart de Smett's Linq to AD on CodePlex. He has a DirectorySource<T>, and to manage let's say groups, then he instantiate a source with the proper type: var groups = new DirectorySource<Group>(); This seems to be very a good way of doing. Despite, I seem to go from one pattern to another and I don't seem to be able to strictly stick to one. While I'm aware that one must not stay with only one way of doing, since each pattern statisfies certain advantages, while also illustrating disadvantages under some usage conditions, I seem to want to develop with both patterns having a singleton Façade class with the underlying factories which represent the sub systems: GroupsFactory; UsersFactory; OrganizationalUnitsFactory. Each of the factories offers the possible operations for their respective entity (group, user, OU). To make a very long story short, I often have plenty of ideas while developping and this causes me some trouble, as I go from an idea to another feeling completely lost after a while. Yet I understand the advantages and disavantages, I have no trouble choosing from one pattern to another depending on the situation. Nevertheless, when it comes to programming itself, if I'm not part of a team, I feel sometimes like I can't do anything good. That is, because I can't stand not doing something "perfect" the first time. The role I play within the project is both: the project manager and the programmer. I am more comfortable in the project manager role, architectural role, analytical role than the developer's. Has any of you some good habbits to observe in project development? Thanks to you all! =)

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• Multiple infowindows - tearing my hair out

  - by thewinchester

  Ok, I'll admit I'm nowhere near the best programmer on the planet - and I'm used to the answer staring me right in the face but not making sense of it. Problem I need to display multiple markers on a map, each with their own infowindow. I have created the individual markers without a problem, but don't know how to create the infowindows for each. Steps so far I am generating a map using the V3 API within an ASP-based website, with markers being created from a set of DB records. The markers are created by looping through a rs and defining a marker() with the relevant variables: var myLatlng = new google.maps.LatLng(lat,long); var marker = new google.maps.Marker({ map: map, position: myLatlng, title: 'locationname', icon: 'http://google-maps-icons.googlecode.com/files/park.png' }); This is creating all the relevant markers in their correct locations. What I need to do now, and am not sure of how to achieve is give each of them their own unique infowindow which I can use to display information and links relevant to that marker. Source <script type="text/javascript" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"></script> <script language="javascript"> $(document).ready(function() { //Google Maps var myOptions = { zoom: 5, center: new google.maps.LatLng(-26.66, 122.25), mapTypeControl: false, mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP, navigationControl: true, navigationControlOptions: { style: google.maps.NavigationControlStyle.SMALL } } var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), myOptions); <!-- While locations_haslatlong not BOF.EOF --> <% While ((Repeat1__numRows <> 0) AND (NOT locations_haslatlong.EOF)) %> var myLatlng = new google.maps.LatLng(<%=(locations_haslatlong.Fields.Item("llat").Value)%>,<%=(locations_haslatlong.Fields.Item("llong").Value)%>); var marker = new google.maps.Marker({ map: map, position: myLatlng, title: '<%=(locations_haslatlong.Fields.Item("ldescription").Value)%>', icon: 'http://google-maps-icons.googlecode.com/files/park.png', clickable: true, }); <% Repeat1__index=Repeat1__index+1 Repeat1__numRows=Repeat1__numRows-1 locations_haslatlong.MoveNext() Wend %> <!-- End While locations_haslatlong not BOF.EOF --> google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function() { infowindow.open(map,marker); }); google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'dblclick', function() { map.setZoom(14); }); });

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• Overloading framework methods in objective-c, or retaining local changes with framework updates.

  - by Jeff B

  I am using cocos2d to build an iPhone game. It's mostly done, but along the way I came across some things that I would like to handle better. I am fairly new to Objective C, and honestly I do more Perl scripting in my day-to-day job than anything, so my C skills are a little rusty. One of them is the fact that I have modified cocos2d files for some specific cases in my game. However, when I update to a new version, I have to manually pull my changes forward. So, the question is, what is the best way to deal with this? Some options I have thought of: Overload/redefine the cocos2d classes. I was under the impression that I cannot overload existing class functions, so I don't think this will work. Create patches that I re-apply after library updates. I don't think this will work as the new files won't necessarily be the same as the old ones, and if they were, I could just copy the whole file forward. Turn in my changes to Cocos2d. Not an option as my changes are very specific to my application. Am I missing something obvious? UPDATE: I will explain what I am doing to be more clear. Cocos2d has a CCNode object, which can contain children, etc. I added a shadow, which is very similar to a child, but handled a little differently. The shadow has an offset from the parent, and translates with it's parent, rotates around it's own center when the parent rotates, etc. The shadow is not included as a true child, however, so given the correct z-index, the shadows can render under ALL other objects, but still move with the parent. To do this I added addShadow functions to CCNode, and modified the setPosition and setRotate functions to move the shadowSprite: CCNode.m: -(id) init { if ((self=[super init]) ) { ... shadowSprite_ = nil; ... } } ... -(BOOL) addShadow: (CCNode*) child offset: (CGPoint) offset { shadowSprite_ = child; shadowSprite_.position = CGPointMake(position_.x+offset.x, position_.y+offset.y); return YES; } ... -(void) setRotation: (float)newRotation { rotation_ = newRotation; isTransformDirty_ = isInverseDirty_ = YES; if(shadowSprite_) { [shadowSprite_ setRotation: newRotation]; } } There is more, of course, including the prototypes in the .h file, but that is the basics. I don't think I need shadowSprite to be a property, because I don't need to access it after it has been added.

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• JavaScript + Maths: Image zoom with CSS3 Transforms, How to set Origin? (with example)

  - by Sunday Ironfoot

  My Math skills really suck! I'm trying to implement an image zoom effect, a bit like how the Zoom works with Google Maps, but with a grid of fix position images. I've uploaded an example of what I have so far here: http://www.dominicpettifer.co.uk/Files/MosaicZoom.html (uses CSS3 transforms so only works with Firefox, Opera, Chrome or Safari) Use your mouse wheel to zoom in/out. The HTML source is basically an outer div with an inner-div, and that inner-div contains 16 images arranged using absolute position. It's going to be a Photo Mosaic basically. I've got the zoom bit working using CSS3 transforms: $(this).find('div').css('-moz-transform', 'scale(' + scale + ')'); ...however, I'm relying on the mouse X/Y position on the outer div to zoom in on where the mouse cursor is, similar to how Google Maps functions. The problem is that if you zoom right in on an image, move the cursor to the bottom/left corner and zoom again, instead of zooming to the bottom/left corner of the image, it zooms to the bottom/left of the entire mosaic. This has the effect of appearing to jump about the mosaic as you zoom in closer while moving the mouse around, even slightly. That's basically the problem, I want the zoom to work exactly like Google Maps where it zooms exactly to where your mouse cursor position is, but I can't get my head around the Maths to calculate the transform-origin: X/Y values correctly. Please help, been stuck on this for 3 days now. Here is the full code listing for the mouse wheel event: var scale = 1; $("#mosaicContainer").mousewheel(function(e, delta) { if (delta > 0) { scale += 1; } else { scale -= 1; } scale = scale < 1 ? 1 : (scale > 40 ? 40 : scale); var x = e.pageX - $(this).offset().left; var y = e.pageY - $(this).offset().top; $(this).find('div').css('-moz-transform', 'scale(' + scale + ')') .css('-moz-transform-origin', x + 'px ' + y + 'px'); return false; });

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• Autocomplete server-side implementation

  - by toluju

  What is a fast and efficient way to implement the server-side component for an autocomplete feature in an html input box? I am writing a service to autocomplete user queries in our web interface's main search box, and the completions are displayed in an ajax-powered dropdown. The data we are running queries against is simply a large table of concepts our system knows about, which matches roughly with the set of wikipedia page titles. For this service obviously speed is of utmost importance, as responsiveness of the web page is important to the user experience. The current implementation simply loads all concepts into memory in a sorted set, and performs a simple log(n) lookup on a user keystroke. The tailset is then used to provide additional matches beyond the closest match. The problem with this solution is that it does not scale. It currently is running up against the VM heap space limit (I've set -Xmx2g, which is about the most we can push on our 32 bit machines), and this prevents us from expanding our concept table or adding more functionality. Switching to 64-bit VMs on machines with more memory isn't an immediate option. I've been hesitant to start working on a disk-based solution as I am concerned that disk seek time will kill performance. Are there possible solutions that will let me scale better, either entirely in memory or with some fast disk-backed implementations? Edits: @Gandalf: For our use case it is important the the autocompletion is comprehensive and isn't just extra help for the user. As for what we are completing, it is a list of concept-type pairs. For example, possible entries are [("Microsoft", "Software Company"), ("Jeff Atwood", "Programmer"), ("StackOverflow.com", "Website")]. We are using Lucene for the full search once a user selects an item from the autocomplete list, but I am not yet sure Lucene would work well for the autocomplete itself. @Glen: No databases are being used here. When I'm talking about a table I just mean the structured representation of my data. @Jason Day: My original implementation to this problem was to use a Trie, but the memory bloat with that was actually worse than the sorted set due to needing a large number of object references. I'll read on the ternary search trees to see if it could be of use.

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• The Math of a Jump in a 2D game.

  - by ONi

  I have been all around with this question and I can't find the correct answer! So, behold, the description of my question: I'm working in J2ME, I have my gameloop that do the following: public void run() { Graphics g = this.getGraphics(); while (running) { long diff = System.currentTimeMillis() - lastLoop; lastLoop = System.currentTimeMillis(); input(); this.level.doLogic(); render(g, diff); try { Thread.sleep(10); } catch (InterruptedException e) { stop(e); } } } so it's just a basic gameloop, the doLogic() function calls for all the logic functions of the characters in the scene and render(g, diff) calls the animateChar function of every character on scene, following this, the animChar function in the Character class sets up everything in the screen as this: protected void animChar(long diff) { this.checkGravity(); this.move((int) ((diff * this.dx) / 1000), (int) ((diff * this.dy) / 1000)); if (this.acumFrame > this.framerate) { this.nextFrame(); this.acumFrame = 0; } else { this.acumFrame += diff; } } This ensures me that everything must to move according to the time that the machine takes to go from cycle to cycle (remember it's a phone, not a gaming rig). I'm sure it's not the most efficient way to achieve this behavior so I'm totally open for criticism of my programming skills in the comments, but here my problem: When I make I character jump, what I do is that I put his dy to a negative value, say -200 and I set the boolean jumping to true, that makes the character go up, and then I have this function called checkGravity() that ensure that everything that goes up has to go down, checkGravity also checks for the character being over platforms so I will strip it down a little for the sake of your time: public void checkGravity() { if (this.jumping) { this.jumpSpeed += 10; if (this.jumpSpeed > 0) { this.jumping = false; this.falling = true; } this.dy = this.jumpSpeed; } if (this.falling) { this.jumpSpeed += 10; if (this.jumpSpeed > 200) this.jumpSpeed = 200; this.dy = this.jumpSpeed; if (this.collidesWithPlatform()) { this.falling = false; this.standing = true; this.jumping = false; this.jumpSpeed = 0; this.dy = this.jumpSpeed; } } } So, the problem is, that this function updates the dy regardless of the diff, making the characters fly like Superman in slow machines, and I have no idea how to implement the diff factor so that when a character is jumping, his speed decrement in a proportional way to the game speed. Can anyone help me fix this issue? or give me pointers on how to make a 2D Jump in J2ME the right way. Thank you very much for your time.

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• Design Technique: How to design a complex system for processing orders, products and units.

  - by Shyam

  Hi, Programming is fun: I learned that by trying out simple challenges, reading up some books and following some tutorials. I am able to grasp the concepts of writing with OO (I do so in Ruby), and write a bit of code myself. What bugs me though is that I feel re-inventing the wheel: I haven't followed an education or found a book (a free one that is) that explains me the why's instead of the how's, and I've learned from the A-team that it is the plan that makes it come together. So, armed with my nuby Ruby skills, I decided I wanted to program a virtual store. I figured out the following: My virtual Store will have: Products and Services Inventories Orders and Shipping Customers Now this isn't complex at all. With the help of some cool tools (CMapTools), I drew out some concepts, but quickly enough (thanks to my inferior experience in designing), my design started to bite me. My very first product-line were virtual "laptops". So, I created a class (Ruby): class Product attr_accessor :name, :price def initialize(name, price) @name = name @price = price end end which can be instantiated by doing (IRb) x = Product.new("Banana Pro", 250) Since I want my virtual customers to be able to purchase more than one product, or various types, I figured out I needed some kind of "Order" mechanism. class Order def initialize(order_no) @order_no = order_no @line_items = [] end def add_product(myproduct) @line_items << myproduct end def show_order() puts @order_no @line_items.each do |x| puts x.name.to_s + "\t" + x.price.to_s end end end that can be instantiated by doing (IRb) z = Order.new(1234) z.add_product(x) z.show_order Splendid, I have now a very simple ordering system that allows me to add products to an order. But, here comes my real question. What if I have three models of my product (economy, business, showoff)? Or have my products be composed out of separate units (bigger screen, nicer keyboard, different OS)? Surely I could make them three separate products, or add complexity to my product class, but I am looking for are best practices to design a flexible product object that can be used in the real world, to facilitate a complex system. My apologies if my grammar and my spelling are with error, as english is not my first language and I took the time to check as far I could understand and translate properly! Thank you for your answers, comments and feedback!

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• Recommended textbook for machine-level programming?

  - by Norman Ramsey

  I'm looking at textbooks for an undergraduate course in machine-level programming. If the perfect book existed, this is what it would look like: Uses examples written in C or assembly language, or both. Covers machine-level operations such as two's-complement integer arithmetic, bitwise operations, and floating-point arithmetic. Explains how caches work and how they affect performance. Explains machine instructions or assembly instructions. Bonus if the example assembly language includes x86; triple bonus if it includes x86-64 (aka AMD64). Explains how C values and data structures are represented using hardware registers and memory. Explains how C control structures are translated into assembly language using conditional and unconditional branch instructions. Explains something about procedure calling conventions and how procedure calls are implemented at the machine level. Books I might be interested in would probably have the words "machine organization" or "computer architecture" in the title. Here are some books I'm considering but am not quite happy with: Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective by Randy Bryant and Dave O'Hallaron. This is quite a nice book, but it's a book for a broad, shallow course in systems programming, and it contains a great deal of material my students don't need. Also, it is just out in a second edition, which will make it expensive. Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface by Dave Patterson and John Hennessy. This is also a very nice book, but it contains way more information about how the hardware works than my students need. Also, the exercises look boring. Finally, it has a show-stopping bug: it is based very heavily on MIPS hardware and the use of a MIPS simulator. My students need to learn how to use DDD, and I can't see getting this to work on a simulator. Not to mention that I can't see them cross-compiling their code for the simulator, and so on and so forth. Another flaw is that the book mentions the x86 architecture only to sneer at it. I am entirely sympathetic to this point of view, but news flash! You guys lost! Write Great Code Vol I: Understanding the Machine by Randall Hyde. I haven't evaluated this book as thoroughly as the other two. It has a lot of what I need, but the translation from high-level language to assembler is deferred to Volume Two, which has mixed reviews. My students will be annoyed if I make them buy a two-volume series, even if the price of those two volumes is smaller than the price of other books. I would really welcome other suggestions of books that would help students in a class where they are to learn how C-language data structures and code are translated to machine-level data structures and code and where they learn how to think about performance, with an emphasis on the cache.

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• USB windows xp final USB access issues

  - by Lex Dean

  I basically understand you C++ people, Please do not get distracted because I'm writing in Delphi. I have a stable USB Listing method that accesses all my USB devices I get the devicepath, and this structure: TSPDevInfoData = packed record Size: DWORD; ClassGuid: TGUID; DevInst: DWORD; // DEVINST handle Reserved: DWord; end; I get my ProductID and VenderID successfully from my DevicePath Lists all USB devices connected to the computer at the time That enables me to access the registry data to each device in a stable way. What I'm lacking is a little direction Is friendly name able to be written inside the connected USB Micro chips by the firmware programmer? (I'm thinking of this to identify the device even further, or is this to help identify Bulk data transfer devices like memory sticks and camera's) Can I use SPDRP_REMOVAL_POLICY_OVERRIDE to some how reset these polices What else can I do with the registry details. Identifying when some one unplugs a device The program is using (in windows XP standard) I used a documented windows event that did not respond. Can I read a registry value to identify if its still connected? using CreateFileA (DevicePath) to send and receive data I have read when some one unplugs in the middle of a data transfer its difficult clearing resources. what can IoCreateDevice do for me and how does one use it for that task This two way point of connection status and system lock up situations is very concerning. Has some one read anything about this subject recently? My objectives are to 1. list connected USB devices identify a in development Micro Controller from everything else send and receive data in a stable and fast way to the limits of the controller No lock up's transferring data Note I'm not using any service packs I understand everything USB is in ANSI when windows xp is not and .Net is all about ANSI (what a waste of memory) I plan to continue this project into a .net at a later date as an addition. MSDN gives me Structures and Functions and what should link to what ok but say little to what they get used for. What is available in my language Delphi is way over priced that it needs a major price drop.

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• Function Point Analysis -- a seriously overestimating technique?

  - by kizzx2

  I know questions about FPA has been asked numerous times before, but this time I'm taking a more analytical angle at it, backed up with data. 1. First, some data This question is based on a tutorial. He had a "Sample Count" section where he demonstrated it step by step. You can see some screenshots of his sample application here. In the end, he calculated the unadjusted FP to be 99. There is another article on InformIT with industry data on typical hour/FP. It ranges from 2 hours/FP to 27.4 hours/FP. Let's try to stick with 2 for the moment (since SO readers are probably the more efficient crowd :p). 2. Reality check!? Now just check out the screenshots again. Do a little math here 99 * 2 = 198 hours 198 hours / 40 hours per week = 5 weeks Seriously? That sample application is going to take 5 weeks to implement? Is it just my feeling that it wouldn't take any decent programmer longer than one week (I"m not even saying weekend) to have it completed? Now let's try estimating the cost of the project. We'll use New York's minimum wage at the moment (Wikipedia), which is $7.25 198 * 7.25 = $1435.5 From what I could see from the screenshots, this application is a small excel-improvement app. I could have bought MS Office Pro for 200 bucks which gives me greater interoperability (.xls files) and flexibility (spreadsheets). (For the record, that same Web site has another article discussing productivity. It seems like they typically use 4.2 hours/FP, which gives us even more shocking stats: 99 * 4.2 = 415 hours = 10 weeks = almost 3 whopping months! 415 hours * $7.25 = $3000 zomg (That's even assuming that all our poor coders get the minimum wage!) 3. Am I missing something here? Right now, I could come up with several possible explanation: FPA is really only suited for bigger projects (1000+ FPs) so it becomes extremely inaccurate at smaller scale. The hours/FP metric fluctuates abruptly from team to team, project to project. For a small project like this, we could have used something like 0.5 hour/FP or something. (Now this kind of makes the whole estimation thing pointless, unless my firm does the same type of projects for several years with the same team, not really common.) From my experience with several software metrics, Function Point is really not a lightweight metric. If the hour/FP thing fluctuates so much, then what's the point, maybe I could have gone with User Story Points which is a lot faster to get and arguably almost as uncertain. What would be the FP experts' answers to this?

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