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• How to present a stable data model in a public API that allows internal data structures to be changed without breaking the public view of the data?

  - by Max Palmer

  I am in the process of developing an application that allows users to write C# scripts. These scripts allow users to call selected methods and to access and manipulate data in a document. This works well, however, in the development version, scripts access the document's (internal) data structures directly. This means that if we were to change the internal data model/structure, there is a good chance that someone's script will no longer compile. We obviously want to prevent this breaking change from happening, but still want to allow the user to write sensible C# code (whilst not restricting how we develop our internal data model as a result). We therefore need to decouple our scripting API and its data structures from our internal methods and data structures. We've a few ideas as to how we might allow the user to access a what is effectively a stable public version of the document's internal data*, but I wanted to throw the question out there to someone who might have some real experience of this problem. NB our internal document's data structure is quite complex and it could be quite difficult to wrap. We know we want to expose as little as possible in our public API, especially as once it's out there, it's out there for good. Can anyone help? How do scripting languages / APIs decouple their public API and data structures from their internal data structures? Is there no real alternative to having to write a complex interaction layer? If we need to do this, what's a good approach or pattern for wrapping complex data structures that include nested objects, including collections? I've looked at the API facade pattern, which looks like it's trying to address these kinds of issues, but are there alternatives? *One idea is to build a data facade that is kept stable across versions of our application. The facade exposes a set of facade data objects that are used in the script code. These maintain backwards compatibility and wrap access to our internal document's data model.

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• How does one handle an incorrect resource file?

  - by AedonEtLIRA

  I'm starting the parser that will handle one of the key features of my app and realizing exactly who easy it would be for me to screw up a resource file that is provided to the application. For example, a simple resource that I provide to my app is a JSON file that contains an entity layout (name, fascia, location etc...). It would be easy for me to leave out the name of the entity or misspell the JSON key. Obviously catastrophic failures during parsing are to be handled in a try/catch, but how would subtle failures (such as a dyslexic spelling of name) be handled?

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• Version Changes: How considerable are the compatibility issues in project?

  - by Aditya P

  For example if we consider ActionScript2.0(based on Objects but programming does not implement much OOP ) vs 3.0(highly OOP) its like a whole new scripting language in the sense of approach, programming style,features you get the idea. In PHP we can see current versions going from 3-5. brief version changes Question :Developers who work on PHP is it easy to migrate from version to version? Question :Are there any extensive compatibility issues, forward or backward? Question :Does your project stick to a particular version till the end ? Question :Does the programming style ,approach change from version to version? Question :If you had to get started on PHP to contribute to a project built earlier versions, would learning the latest version be counterproductive towards this aim? Some related topics i had come across on SE How should I be keeping track of php script version/changes? What is happening to PHP 6? It would be Really helpful in understanding if you could answer this topic directly to the questions put forth.

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• How to price code reviews to encourage good behavior?

  - by Chris Clark

  I work for a company that has a hosted .net internet application with many clients. Those clients often want to write customizations for our application. We have APIs to hook into the app, but the customizations themselves are written in .net. This is a shared, secure hosting environment and we have to code review these customizations before we can deploy them in our datacenter to ensure that they don't degrade performance, crash our servers, or open any security vulnerabilities. We charge for these code reviews. The current pricing model is simply a function of the number of lines of code. I think this is a bad idea for a variety of reasons, but primarily because, if we are interested in verifying that the code works as expected, we should be incentivizing good, readable code, not compaction. I would like to propose a pricing model that incorporates some, or all of the following as inputs: Lines of code Cyclomatic complexity Avg function length # of functions Are there any other metrics I should incorporate, or other ideas for how we can reasonably create pricing for code reviews that encourages safe and understandable code?

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• Need explanation of hexagonal architecture

  - by Victor Grazi

  I am reading about Alistair Cockburn's Hexagonal Architecture http://alistair.cockburn.us/Hexagonal+architecture with interest. One claim he makes is: "Finally, the automated function regression tests detect any violation of the promise to keep business logic out of the presentation layer. The organization can detect, and then correct, the logic leak." I do not understand this point. Is he saying that because the test is headless, then calls to a ui layer will throw exceptions? That doesn't seem to be a very sound test!

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• MATLAB: Best fitness vs mean fitness, initial range

  - by Sa Ta

  Based on the example of Rastrigin's function. At the plot function, if I chose 'best fitness', on the same graph 'mean fitness' will also be plotted. I understand well about 'best fitness' whereby it plots the best function value in each generation versus iteration number. It will reach value zero after some times. I don't understand about 'mean fitness'in the graph plotted. What do those 'mean fitness' values mean? How does the 'mean fitness' graph help to understand Rastrigin's function? What are the meaning of the term initial population, initial score and initial range? I wish to have a better understanding of these terms. The default value for initial range is [0,1]. Does it mean that 0 is the lower bound (lb) and 1 is the upper bound (ub)? Do these values interfere with the lb and ub values I set in the constraints? I try to better understand about lb and ub. If my lb is 0 and ub is 5, does it mean that my final point values will be within 0 and 5? If I know the lb and ub for my problem is between 0 and 5, do I just set the initial range as [0,5] at all times and may I assume that this is the best option for initial range, and I need not try it with any other values?

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• When connecting to a server using the DRDA protocol, is it true that the first Client-To-Server command MUST be EXCSAT chained with ACCSEC?

  - by Alon Rew

  When connecting to a server using the DRDA protocol, is it true that the first Client-To-Server command MUST be EXCSAT chained with ACCSEC? I found 2 different answers when I googled it. If you look at The Open Group web site (https://collaboration.opengroup.org/dbiop/) it can be understood that the answer is NO. However, if you look at the IBM website (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/dzichelp/v2r2/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.ims11.doc.apr%2Fims_ddm_excsat.htm) you can understand the answer is YES. So which is it?

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• Are too many assertions code smell?

  - by Florents

  I've really fallen in love with unit testing and TDD - I am test infected. However, unit testing is used for public methods. Sometimes though I do have to test some assumptions-assertions in private methods too, because some of them are "dangerous" and refactoring can't help further. (I know, testing frameworks allo testing private methods). So, It became a habit of mine that (almost always) the first and the last line of a private method are both assertions. I guess this couldn't be bad (right ??). However, I've noticed that I also tend to use assertions in public methods too (as in the private) just "to be sure". Could this be "testing duplication" since the public method assumpotions are tested from the unit testng framework? Could someone think of too many assertions as a code smell?

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• How to deal with social login

  - by Matteo Pagliazzi

  In my new web app I'm going to allow social login through Twitter (maybe), Facebook and Google and I'm in search of the best way to do it. Actually I'm using Rails with Devise + Omniauth and this is the problem: Should I ask the user to choose a password so that he can login without a social network? Or maybe the user should be able to set a password if he want (for example when editing his account?) The second way seems the best one but since Twitter doesn't provide user email and google doesn't provide an username I'll probably have to ask the user for username/email when he log in so in that case I may also ask for the password... waht do you think?

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• In a multidisciplinary team, how much should each member's skills overlap?

  - by spade78

  I've been working in embedded software development for this small startup and our team is pretty small: about 3-4 people. We're responsible for all engineering which involves an RF device controlled by an embedded microcontroller that connects to a PC host which runs some sort of data collection and analysis software. I have come to develop these two guidelines when I work with my colleagues: Define a clear separation of responsibilities and make sure each person's contribution to the final product doesn't overlap. Don't assume your colleagues know everything about their responsibilities. I assume there is some sort of technology that I will need to be competent at to properly interface with the work of my colleagues. The first point is pretty easy for us. I do firmware, one guy does the RF, another does the PC software, and the last does the DSP work. Nothing overlaps in terms of two people's work being mixed into the final product. For that to happen, one guy has to hand off work to another guy who will vet it and integrate it himself. The second point is the heart of my question. I've learned the hard way not to trust the knowledge of my colleagues absolutley no matter how many years experience they claim to have. At least not until they've demonstrated it to me a couple of times. So given that whenever I develop a piece of firmware, if it interfaces with some technology that I don't know then I'll try to learn it and develop a piece of test code that helps me understand what they're doing. That way if my piece of the product comes into conflict with another piece then I have some knowledge about possible causes. For example, the PC guy has started implementing his GUI's in .NET WPF (C#) and using LibUSBdotNET for USB access. So I've been learning C# and the .NET USB library that he uses and I build a little console app to help me understand how that USB library works. Now all this takes extra time and energy but I feel it's justified as it gives me a foothold to confront integration problems. Also I like learning this new stuff so I don't mind. On the other hand I can see how this can turn into a time synch for work that won't make it into the final product and may never turn into a problem. So how much experience/skills overlap do you expect in your teammates relative to your own skills? Does this issue go away as the teams get bigger and more diverse?

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• How should I update Ajax Control Toolkit in VS 2010?

  - by Soham

  Suppose if there is a new version available of Ajax Control Toolkit then how should I install/update it in my visual studio 2010 which has already install older version of same toolkit? I would like to install new one while older toolkit would totally uninstalled, because mostly new toolkit always has all controls that were in the old toolkit & also some new controls. Then 1) Should I've to remove .dll file in my toolkit installation folder and place new .dll file there? If I do so then will VS 2010 automatically delete older entries of toolkit controls in .NET Components list and place new control there? Or 2) Should I've to uninstall old toolkit manually i.e delete .dll file and uncheck all entries in .NET Components list & after that install new one from scratch?

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• Using my own code in freelance projects.

  - by Witchunter

  I have been into freelance business for more than 2 years. While doing projects for other people, I've build a compilation of common tasks that I implement in projects and put them into code. It's kind of a library with some functions that I can reuse without having to rewrite the same thing dozen times. I'm talking about accessing Access databases, downloading information from FTP and similar stuff. Is this acceptable from a legal point of view? What's the difference in reusing the old code and rewriting it from the scratch (using you own brain again, therefore the exact same logic)? I do not hold any copyright to it, of course, and provide the source code for these classes to my clients.

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• Should I ditch a creative pet project in lieu of one that would demonstrate skills more applicable to an employer?

  - by Hart Simha

  I am currently working on a project on github that I think would be a good demonstration of my initiative, creativity and enthusiasm. It is an educational game I am developing in pygame that enables the user to learn to improve their development productivity by using vim, specifically with python, though learning to code faster with vim should be transferable to any language. I think this is something that might have a mass appeal and benefit to a lot of people in a measurable way. -However- I am graduating from college in a month (my degree is computer science with a minor in english), with no experience that is relevant to helping me get any kind of job in the field, and a gpa that doesn't tout my merits. I could pursue a career in game development, but it's not necessarily what I'm most interested in, and see myself applying to startups around the country. To the places I am looking at applying, showing that I have experience with pygame is going to be largely irrelevant, except in demonstration of my ability to code, period. A lot of skills that ARE more marketable, such a data modeling, GIS, mobile development, javascript, .net framework, and various web development technologies, are not going to be showcased by this project (on the upside, employers do like to see familiarity with git and python). I'm wondering if I should sink all my free time in the next couple of months into this project, since I'm motivated and interested in it, and if the value of being able to demonstrate ambition and 'good ideas' (for lack of a better term, and in my own opinion) will compensate for the absence of demonstrating more sought-after skills. I am probably at a point where I should either commit fully to this project now, or put it on the backburner in favor of something else, and I am leaning towards continuing with what I am already working on, because I think it's a great idea, and something achievable to me with enough dedication over the next couple months. But the most important thing to me is being able to get a job out of college, which I am exceedingly concerned about as the professional landscape which I am navigating for the first time is a lot more intimidating than I could have anticipated, with almost every job (even short-term contract positions) requiring years of experience which I lack. Oh, and in case anyone is interested, my repository is here: www.github.com/hmsimha/vimagine

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• What are the arguments against parsing the Cthulhu way?

  - by smarmy53

  I have been assigned the task of implementing a Domain Specific Language for a tool that may become quite important for the company. The language is simple but not trivial, it already allows nested loops, string concatenation, etc. and it is practically sure that other constructs will be added as the project advances. I know by experience that writing a lexer/parser by hand -unless the grammar is trivial- is a time consuming and error prone process. So I was left with two options: a parser generator à la yacc or a combinator library like Parsec. The former was good as well but I picked the latter for various reasons, and implemented the solution in a functional language. The result is pretty spectacular to my eyes, the code is very concise, elegant and readable/fluent. I concede it may look a bit weird if you never programmed in anything other than java/c#, but then this would be true of anything not written in java/c#. At some point however, I've been literally attacked by a co-worker. After a quick glance at my screen he declared that the code is uncomprehensible and that I should not reinvent parsing but just use a stack and String.Split like everybody does. He made a lot of noise, and I could not convince him, partially because I've been taken by surprise and had no clear explanation, partially because his opinion was immutable (no pun intended). I even offered to explain him the language, but to no avail. I'm positive the discussion is going to re-surface in front of management, so I'm preparing some solid arguments. These are the first few reasons that come to my mind to avoid a String.Split-based solution: you need lot of ifs to handle special cases and things quickly spiral out of control lots of hardcoded array indexes makes maintenance painful extremely difficult to handle things like a function call as a method argument (ex. add( (add a, b), c) very difficult to provide meaningful error messages in case of syntax errors (very likely to happen) I'm all for simplicity, clarity and avoiding unnecessary smart-cryptic stuff, but I also believe it's a mistake to dumb down every part of the codebase so that even a burger flipper can understand it. It's the same argument I hear for not using interfaces, not adopting separation of concerns, copying-pasting code around, etc. A minimum of technical competence and willingness to learn is required to work on a software project after all. (I won't use this argument as it will probably sound offensive, and starting a war is not going to help anybody) What are your favorite arguments against parsing the Cthulhu way?* *of course if you can convince me he's right I'll be perfectly happy as well

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• What are basic programming directions? [closed]

  - by Goward Gerald

  What are basic programming directions? Can you please list them and give a brief review of each? Would be nice to have a list for each direction (web-development/*enterprise*/standalone/*mobile*/etc, correct me if I skipped something) like this: 1). Most popular languages of this direction (php for web, objective C for iOS mobile development etc) 2). It's demand on market (from 0 to 5, subjective) 3). How much tasks differ (do you always create same-of-a-kind programs which are like clones of each oother or projects change and you often get to create something interesting, new and fresh?) 4). Freelance demand (from 0 to 5) 5). Fun factor (from 0 to 5, totally subjective but still write it please) Thanks!

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• Are There Realistic/Useful Solutions for Source Control for Ladder Logic Programs

  - by Steven A. Lowe

  Version control for ladder logic (LL) programs for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) seems to be virtually non-existent. It may be because LL is a visual language and tends to be stored in binary files, or it may be because source code control hasn't "caught on" in process control engineering circles - or perhaps my Google-Fu is weak tonight. Do you know of any realistic and useful solutions for version control for such systems? Definitions: realistic = changes to the programs are tracked by user and subject to reversion and merges useful = the system integrates with visual LL designers, is not limited to LL from a single PLC manufacturer, and does not cost a ridiculous amount of money? Note: I have heard of people using SVN or Mercurial et al to track the binary files, but I don't think the diff/merge capabilities would display readable differences.

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• Is event sourcing ready for prime time?

  - by Dakotah North

  Event Sourcing was popularized by LMAX as a means to provide speed, performance scalability, transparent persistence and transparent live mirroring. Before being rebranded as Event Sourcing, this type of architectural pattern was known as System Prevalence but yet I was never familiar with this pattern before the LMAX team went public. Has this pattern proved itself in numerous production systems and therefore even conservative individuals should feel empowered to embrace this pattern or is event sourcing / system prevalence an exotic pattern that is best left for the fearless?

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• How to visualize the design of a program in order to communicate it to others

  - by Joris Meys

  I am (re-)designing some packages for R, and I am currently working out the necessary functions, objects, both internal and for the interface with the user. I have documented the individual functions and objects. So I have the description of all the little parts. Now I need to give an overview of how the parts fit together. The scheme of the motor so to say. I've started with making some flowchart-like graphs in Visio, but that quickly became a clumsy and useless collection of boxes, arrrows and-what-not. So hence the question: Is there specific software you can use for vizualizing the design of your program If so, care to share some tips on how to do this most efficiently If not, how do other designers create the scheme of their programs and communicate that to others? Edit: I am NOT asking how to explain complex processes to somebody, nor asking how to illustrate programming logic. I am asking how to communicate the design of a program/package, i.e.: the objects (with key features and representation if possible) the related functions (with arguments and function if possible) the interrelation between the functions at the interface and the internal functions (I'm talking about an extension package for a scripting language, keep that in mind) So something like this : But better. This is (part of) the interrelations between functions in the old package that I'm now redesigning for obvious reasons :-) PS : I made that graph myself, using code extraction tools on the source and feeding the interrelation matrix to yEd Graph Editor.

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• How to convince management to deal with technical debt?

  - by Desolate Planet

  This is a question that I often ask myself when working with developers. I've worked at four companies so far, and I've noticed a lack of attention to keeping code clean and dealing with technical debt that hinders future progress in a software app. For example, the first company I worked for had written a database from scratch rather than take something like MySQL and that created hell for the team when refacoring or extending the app. I've always tried to be honest and clear with my manager when he discusses projections, but management doesn't seem interested in fixing what's already there and it's horrible to see the impact it has on team morale and in their attitude towards others. What are your thoughts on the best way to tackle this problem? What I've seen is people packing up and leaving and the company becomes a revolving door with developers coming and and out and making the code worse. How do you communicate this to management to get them interested in sorting out technical debt?

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• API Design Techniques

  - by Dehumanizer

  Is it right or more beautiful to name the functions with an prefix, like in Qt? Or using "many" namespaces, but 'normal' names for functions? For example, slOpenFile(); //"sl" means "some lib" vs some_lib::file_functions::openFile(); UPD: I've read somewhere that the first variant(using some prefix) is better, because the API users can perform 'fast' search among the documentation and in the Internet. E.g. by typing the magic prefix search engine starts to advice the exact functions. Is it enough to use the first variant?

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• Do logged in users need to browse a site over https?

  - by Luke

  I've never thought it was necessary, but a client has requested that all webpages served to logged in users be delivered over HTTPS. Aside from the implementation standpoint, which I don't think I'm going to pursue is there any real reason for this request ? For clarity, the login / logout process, account settings, registration preferences and all user related scripts are served over https. but I can't see the point in my news articles, press releases, events etc... being served in this manner? Am I missing something ?

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• null values vs "empty" singleton for optional fields

  - by Uko

  First of all I'm developing a parser for an XML-based format for 3D graphics called XGL. But this question can be applied to any situation when you have fields in your class that are optional i.e. the value of this field can be missing. As I was taking a Scala course on coursera there was an interesting pattern when you create an abstract class with all the methods you need and then create a normal fully functional subclass and an "empty" singleton subclass that always returns false for isEmpty method and throws exceptions for the other ones. So my question is: is it better to just assign null if the optional field's value is missing or make a hierarchy described above and assign it an empty singleton implementation?

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• I don't understand why algorithms are so special

  - by Jessica

  I'm a student of computer science trying to soak up as much information on the topic as I can during my free time. I keep returning to algorithms time and again in various formats (online course, book, web tutorial), but the concept fails to sustain my attention. I just don't understand: why are algorithms so special? I can tell you why fractals are awesome, why the golden ratio is awesome, why origami is awesome and scientific applications of all the above. Heck I even love Newton's laws and conical sections. But when it comes to algorithms, I'm just not astounded. They are not insightful in new ways about human cognition at all. I was expecting algorithms to be shattering preconceptions and mind-altering but time and time again they fail miserably. What am I doing wrong in my approach? Can someone tell me why algorithms are so awesome?

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• Algorithm for tracking progress of controller method running in background

  - by SilentAssassin

  I am using Codeigniter framework for PHP on Windows platform. My problem is I am trying to track progress of a controller method running in background. The controller extracts data from the database(MySQL) then does some processing and then stores the results again in the database. The complete aforesaid process can be considered as a single task. A new task can be assigned while another task is running. The newly assigned task will be added in a queue. So if I can track progress of the controller, I can show status for each of these tasks. Like I can show "Pending" status for tasks in the queue, "In Progress" for tasks running and "Done" for tasks that are completed. Main Issue: Now first thing I need to find is an algorithm to track the progress of how much amount of execution the controller method has completed and that means tracking how much amount of method has completed execution. For instance, this PHP script tracks progress of array being counted. Here the current state and state after total execution are known so it is possible to track its progress. But I am not able to devise anything analogous to it in my case. Maybe what I am trying to achieve is programmtically not possible. If its not possible then suggest me a workaround or a completely new approach. If some details are pending you can mention them. Sorry for my ignorance this is my first post here. I welcome you to point out my mistakes. EDIT: Database outline: The URL(s) and keyword(s) are first entered by user which are stored in a database table called link_master and keyword_master respectively. Then keywords are extracted from all the links present in this table and compared with keywords entered by user and their frequency is calculated which is the final result. And the results are stored in another table called link_result. Now sub-links are extracted from the domain links and stored in a table called sub_link_master. Now again the keywords are extracted from these sub-links and the corresponding results are stored in a table called sub_link_result. The number of records cannot be defined beforehand as the number of links on any web page can be different. Only the cardinality of *link_result* table can be known which will be equal to multiplication of number of keyword(s) and URL(s) . I insert multiple records at a time using this resource. Controller outline: The controller extracts keywords from a web page and also extracts keywords from all the links present on that page. There is a method called crawlLink. I used Rolling Curl to extract keywords and web page content. It has callback function which I used for extracting keywords alongwith generating results and extracting valid sub-links. There is a insertResult method which stores results for links and sub-links in the respective tables. Yes, the processing depends on the number of records. The more the number of records, the more time it takes to execute: Consider this scenario: Number of Domain Links = 1 Number of Keywords = 3 Number of Domain Links Result generated = 3 (3 x 1 as described in the question) Number of Sub Links generated = 41 Number of Sub Links Result = 117 (41 x 3 = 123 but some links are not valid or searchable) Approximate time taken for above process to complete = 55 seconds. The above result is for a single link. I want to track the progress of the above results getting stored in database. When all results are stored, the task is complete. If results are getting stored, the task is In Progress. I am not clear how can I track this progress.

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• Count unique visitors by group of visited places

  - by Mathieu

  I'm facing the problem of counting the unique visitors of groups of places. Here is the situation: I have visitors that can visit places. For example, that can be internet users visiting web pages, or customers going to restaurants. A visitor can visit as much places as he wishes, and a place can be visited by several visitors. A visitor can come to the same place several times. The places belong to groups. A group can obviously contain several places, and places can belong to several groups. Given that, for each visitor, we can have a list of visited places, how can I have the number of unique visitors per group of places? Example: I have visitors A, B, C and D; and I have places x, y and z. I have these visiting lists: [ A -> [x,x,y,x], B -> [], C -> [z,z], D -> [y,x,x,z] ] Having these number of unique visitors per place is quite easy: [ x -> 2, // A and D visited x y -> 2, // A and D visited y z -> 2 // C and D visited z ] But if I have these groups: [ G1 -> [x,y,z], G2 -> [x,z], G3 -> [x,y] ] How can I have this information? [ G1 -> 3, // A, C and D visited x or y or z G2 -> 3, // A, C and D visited x or z G3 -> 2 // A and D visited x or y ] Additional notes : There are so many places that it is not possible to store information about every possible group; It's not a problem if approximation are made. I don't need 100% precision. Having a fast algorithm that tells me that there were 12345 visits in a group instead of 12543 is better than a slow algorithm telling the exact number. Let's say there can be ~5% deviation. Is there an algorithm or class of algorithms that addresses this type of problem?

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