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• Company Review: Google Products

  Google, Inc offers an array of products and services to all of its end-users. However their search capabilities are the foundation for Google’s current success and their primary business focus. Currently, Google offers over twenty different search applications that allow users to search the internet for books, maps, videos, images, products and much more. Their product decisions have allowed users demands to be met while focusing on the free based model. This allows users to access Google data free of charge and indirectly gives Google a strong competitive advantage of other competitors along with the accuracy of the search results. According to Google, Inc, they offer the following types of searching capabilities: Alerts Get email updates on the topics of your choice Blog Search Find blogs on your favorite topics  Books Search the full text of books  Custom Search Create a customized search experience for your community  Desktop Search and personalize your computer  Dictionary Search for definitions of words and phrases Directory Search the web, organized by topic or category Earth Explore the world from your computer Finance Business info, news and interactive charts GOOG-411 Find and connect for free with businesses from your phone  Images Search for images on the web Maps View maps and directions News Search thousands of news stories Patent Search Search the full text of US Patents Product Search Search for stuff to buy Scholar Search scholarly papers Toolbar Add a search box to your browser Trends Explore past and present search trends Videos Search for videos on the web Web Search Search billions of web pages Web Search Features Find movies, music, stocks, books and more mapping Google’s free based business model is only one way it differentiates itself from its competition. There is also a strong focus on the accuracy of search results and the speed in which they are returned to the end-user. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a structured method used to help connect user needs to the design features of a project proposed to address those needs. This method is particularly useful in accounting for needs that are not easily articulated or precisely defined according to the U. S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. Due to the fact that QFD is so customer driven Google is always in a constant state of change in attempt to reengineer its search algorithms, and other dependant systems so that end-users requirements are constantly being met. Value engineering is a key example of this, Google is constantly trying to improve all aspects of its products, improve system maintainability, and system interoperability. Bridgefield Group defines value engineering as an organized methodology that identifies and selects the lowest lifecycle cost options in design, materials and processes that achieves the desired level of performance, reliability and customer satisfaction. In addition, it seeks to remove unnecessary costs in the above areas and is often a joint effort with cross-functional internal teams and relevant suppliers. Common issues that appear when developing large scale systems like Google’s search applications include modular design of a product and/or service and providing accurate value analysis. A design approach that adheres to four fundamental tenets of cohesiveness, encapsulation, self-containment, and high binding to design a system component as an independently operable unit subject to change is how the Open System Joint Task Force defines modular design. More specifically M. S. Schmaltz defines modular software design as having a large collection of statements strung together in one partition of in-line code; we segment or divide the statements into logical groups called modules. Each module performs one or two tasks, and then passes control to another module. By breaking up the code into "bite-sized chunks", so to speak, we are able to better control the flow of data and control. This is especially true in large software systems. Value analysis is a process to evaluate products and services based on effectiveness, safety, and cost. Value analysis involves assessing the quality as well as the cost of a product or service as defined by the Healthcare Financial Management Association.  “Operations Management deals with the design and management of products, processes, services and supply chains. It considers the acquisition, development, and utilization of resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services their clients want.” (MIT,2010) Google, Inc encourages an open environment between all employees, also known as Googlers. This is reinforced by a cross-section team or cross-functional teams comprised from multiple departments assigned to every project so that every department like marketing, finance, and quality assurance has input on every project. In addition, Google is known for their openness to new ideas regardless of the status or seniority of an employee. In fact, Google allows for 20% of an employee’s time can be devoted to developing new ideas and/or pet projects. HumTech.com defines a cross-functional team as a collection of people with varied levels of skills and experience brought together to accomplish a task. As the name implies, Cross-Functional Team members come from different organizational units. Cross-Functional Teams may be permanent or ad hoc. Google’s search application product strategy primarily focuses on mass customization. This is allows Google to create a base search application and allows results to be returned to the end-users quickly based on specific parameters and search settings. In addition, they also store the data that is returned in case other desire the same results based on other end-users supplying the same customized settings. This allows Google to appear to render search results in virtually real-time to the user while allowing for complete customization of the searching criteria. Greg Vogl, a professor at Uganda Martyrs University, defines mass customization as when a business gives its customers the opportunity to tailor its products or services to the customer's specifications. The IT staff at Google play a key role in ensuring that the search application’s product strategy is maintained simply because the IT staff designs, develops, and maintains all of their proprietary applications. In fact, they also maintain all network infrastructure to ensure that it is available to all end-users. References: http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/publications/ftat_user_guide/sec5.htm http://www.bridgefieldgroup.com/bridgefieldgroup/glos9.htm#V http://www.acq.osd.mil/osjtf/termsdef.html http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~mssz/Pascal-CGS2462/prog-dsn.html http://www.hfma.org/publications/business_caring_newsletter/exclusives/Supply+and+Inventory+Terms+Defined.htm http://mitsloan.mit.edu/omg/om-definition.php http://www.humtech.com/opm/grtl/ols/ols3.cfm http://www.gregvogl.net/courses/mis1/glossary.htm

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• Waterfall Model (SDLC) vs. Prototyping Model

  The characters in the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare can easily be used to demonstrate the similarities and differences between the Waterfall and Prototyping software development models. This children fable is about a race between a consistently slow moving but steadfast turtle and an extremely fast but unreliable rabbit. After closely comparing each character’s attributes in correlation with both software development models, a trend seems to appear in that the Waterfall closely resembles the Tortoise in that Waterfall Model is typically a slow moving process that is broken up in to multiple sequential steps that must be executed in a standard linear pattern. The Tortoise can be quoted several times in the story saying “Slow and steady wins the race.” This is the perfect mantra for the Waterfall Model in that this model is seen as a cumbersome and slow moving. Waterfall Model Phases Requirement Analysis & Definition This phase focuses on defining requirements for a project that is to be developed and determining if the project is even feasible. Requirements are collected by analyzing existing systems and functionality in correlation with the needs of the business and the desires of the end users. The desired output for this phase is a list of specific requirements from the business that are to be designed and implemented in the subsequent steps. In addition this phase is used to determine if any value will be gained by completing the project. System Design This phase focuses primarily on the actual architectural design of a system, and how it will interact within itself and with other existing applications. Projects at this level should be viewed at a high level so that actual implementation details are decided in the implementation phase. However major environmental decision like hardware and platform decision are typically decided in this phase. Furthermore the basic goal of this phase is to design an application at the system level in those classes, interfaces, and interactions are defined. Additionally decisions about scalability, distribution and reliability should also be considered for all decisions. The desired output for this phase is a functional  design document that states all of the architectural decisions that have been made in regards to the project as well as a diagrams like a sequence and class diagrams. Software Design This phase focuses primarily on the refining of the decisions found in the functional design document. Classes and interfaces are further broken down in to logical modules based on the interfaces and interactions previously indicated. The output of this phase is a formal design document. Implementation / Coding This phase focuses primarily on implementing the previously defined modules in to units of code. These units are developed independently are intergraded as the system is put together as part of a whole system. Software Integration & Verification This phase primarily focuses on testing each of the units of code developed as well as testing the system as a whole. There are basic types of testing at this phase and they include: Unit Test and Integration Test. Unit Test are built to test the functionality of a code unit to ensure that it preforms its desired task. Integration testing test the system as a whole because it focuses on results of combining specific units of code and validating it against expected results. The output of this phase is a test plan that includes test with expected results and actual results. System Verification This phase primarily focuses on testing the system as a whole in regards to the list of project requirements and desired operating environment. Operation & Maintenance his phase primarily focuses on handing off the competed project over to the customer so that they can verify that all of their requirements have been met based on their original requirements. This phase will also validate the correctness of their requirements and if any changed need to be made. In addition, any problems not resolved in the previous phase will be handled in this section. The Waterfall Model’s linear and sequential methodology does offer a project certain advantages and disadvantages. Advantages of the Waterfall Model Simplistic to implement and execute for projects and/or company wide Limited demand on resources Large emphasis on documentation Disadvantages of the Waterfall Model Completed phases cannot be revisited regardless if issues arise within a project Accurate requirement are never gather prior to the completion of the requirement phase due to the lack of clarification in regards to client’s desires. Small changes or errors that arise in applications may cause additional problems The client cannot change any requirements once the requirements phase has been completed leaving them no options for changes as they see their requirements changes as the customers desires change. Excess documentation Phases are cumbersome and slow moving Learn more about the Major Process in the Sofware Development Life Cycle and Waterfall Model. Conversely, the Hare shares similar traits with the prototyping software development model in that ideas are rapidly converted to basic working examples and subsequent changes are made to quickly align the project with customers desires as they are formulated and as software strays from the customers vision. The basic concept of prototyping is to eliminate the use of well-defined project requirements. Projects are allowed to grow as the customer needs and request grow. Projects are initially designed according to basic requirements and are refined as requirement become more refined. This process allows customer to feel their way around the application to ensure that they are developing exactly what they want in the application This model also works well for determining the feasibility of certain approaches in regards to an application. Prototypes allow for quickly developing examples of implementing specific functionality based on certain techniques. Advantages of Prototyping Active participation from users and customers Allows customers to change their mind in specifying requirements Customers get a better understanding of the system as it is developed Earlier bug/error detection Promotes communication with customers Prototype could be used as final production Reduced time needed to develop applications compared to the Waterfall method Disadvantages of Prototyping Promotes constantly redefining project requirements that cause major system rewrites Potential for increased complexity of a system as scope of the system expands Customer could believe the prototype as the working version. Implementation compromises could increase the complexity when applying updates and or application fixes When companies trying to decide between the Waterfall model and Prototype model they need to evaluate the benefits and disadvantages for both models. Typically smaller companies or projects that have major time constraints typically head for more of a Prototype model approach because it can reduce the time needed to complete the project because there is more of a focus on building a project and less on defining requirements and scope prior to the start of a project. On the other hand, Companies with well-defined requirements and time allowed to generate proper documentation should steer towards more of a waterfall model because they are in a position to obtain clarified requirements and have to design and optimal solution prior to the start of coding on a project.

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• jConfirm and onbeforeunload

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  I have a basic function to alert the user upon refresh, browser back button (except the submit button) or when a link is clicked they will lose form data from a form wizard. <script type="text/javascript"> var okToSubmit = false; window.onbeforeunload = function() { document.getElementById('Register').onclick = function() { okToSubmit = true; }; if(!okToSubmit) return "Using the browsers back button will cause you to lose all form data. Please use the Next and Back buttons on the form"; }; </script> Im using jAlert plug in for alerts and would like to use jConfirm for the function above. When I add jConfirm after "return" it works...for a second. it pops the warning and then the page refreshes and the dialog box goes away. Does anyone know how to fix this?

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• Trouble adding success flag to onbeforeunload

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  having issues with onbeforeunload. I have a long form broken into segments via a jquery wizard plug in. I need to pop a confirm dialog if you hit back, refresh, close etc on any step but need it to NOT POP the confirm dialog on click of the submit button. had it working, or at least I thought, it doesn't now. <script type="text/javascript"> var okToSubmit = false; window.onbeforeunload = function() { document.getElementById('Register').onclick = function() { okToSubmit = true; }; if(!okToSubmit) return "Using the browsers back button will cause you to lose all form data. Please use the Next and Back buttons on the form"; }; </script> 'Register' is the submit button ID. Please help!

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• Trying to override onbeforeunload in first step of form wizard

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  This pertains to a form wizard with 5 steps, I don't want the user to hit back and lose form data in any step 2-4. I have added a flag for the submit function and need to add this one for the first step. If they get there by accident and try and leave I dont want the cofirm dialog popping up. <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ var action_is_post = false; $("form").submit(function () { action_is_post = true; }); //this is the trouble spot. on the first step the "navigation" of the form has a class of current (on step one = current) $(this).ready(function () { if ($("#stepDesc0").is(".current")) { action_is_post = true; } ); window.onbeforeunload = confirmExit; function confirmExit() { if (!action_is_post) return 'Using the browsers back, refresh or close button will cause you to lose all form data. Please use the Next and Back buttons on the form.'; } }); </script>

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• troulbe adding success flag to onbeforeunload

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  having issues with onbeforeunload. I have a long form broken into segments via a jquery wizard plug in. I need to pop a confirm dialog if you hit back, refresh, close etc on any step but need it to NOT POP the confirm dialog on click of the submit button. had it working, or at least I thought, it doesn't now. <script type="text/javascript"> var okToSubmit = false; window.onbeforeunload = function() { document.getElementById('Register').onclick = function() { okToSubmit = true; }; if(!okToSubmit) return "Using the browsers back button will cause you to lose all form data. Please use the Next and Back buttons on the form"; }; </script> 'Register' is the submit button ID. Please help!

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• applying a var to an if statement jquery

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  Need to apply a var to a statement if its conditions are met, this syntax isn't throwing errors but its not working. <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ var action_is_post = false; //stuff here $(this).ready(function () { if ($("#stepDesc0").is(".current")) { action_is_post = true; } }); //stuff here </script> should I use something other than .ready? Do I even need the $(this).ready(function ()... part? I need it to apply the var when #stepDesc0 has the class current.

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• Display a summary of form element values before submit

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  Using jquery formtowizard.js with an ajax submit. I want the last step of the form to display a summary of all form fields that were filled out. I can get it to work in isolated test cases, but not in full use. Form <form id="Commission" method="post" action="PHP/CommissionsSubmit.php"> <fieldset id="Initial"> <legend>Enter Your Information</legend> <ul> <li> <label for="FName">First Name*</label><input type="text" name="FName" id="FName"> </li> //repeat many li's </ul> </fieldset> <fieldset> <legend>Second Step</legend> //more li's </fieldset> <fieldset> <legend>Confirmation</legend> <span id="CFName"></span> </fieldset> </form> the jquery to get "#CFName" value $('#FName').keyup(function() { $('#CFName').val($(this).val()); }); I can't get the value to appear in the span "#CFName"... Could this have to do with the "serialize" function or anything going on with my $ajax submit function? its happening before submit... Please help! I apologize, but I've gone back and forth with "#CFName" being a span and an input, using .val and .html respectively

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• Facebook call back function with timeout

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  So I've been getting my ass kicked pretty good with Facebook's moving target of an API. I need to display some hidden content after a person clicks 'like' on a landing page. I can somewhat get this to work, when the user clicks 'like' the normal fb dialogue appears and then goes away immediately and content is displayed. I have 'achieved' this with the following js. <script> FB.Event.subscribe('edge.create', function(href, widget) { document.getElementById('goodies').style.display = "block"; document.getElementById('fb-content').style.display= "block"; document.getElementById('copy').style.display = "none"; }); </script> I cannot find any documentation about a callback event after someone hits "post to facebook" or after the dialogue closes, only afte they hit like. How would I incorporate a setTimeout function into this to give people some time to fill out the fb dialogue? thanks. If anyone has a better way to do this I'm all ears. This is for a business page and I cannot seem to add an app to get an app ID anymore so the API is pretty useless to me at this point. Also, if the url to be liked is a fb page, the callbacks don't seem to fire. Other code used: <html xmlns:fb="http://ogp.me/ns/fb#"> <div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); </script> <fb:like href="onlynonfburl.com" send="false" layout="button_count" width="450" show_faces="false" font="arial"></fb:like>

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• problem with live function

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  I had this working to spec, until the specs changed. This function is now brought in via ajax .load. Easy enough to bring it in and I have all my other functions on the page that is brought in working in the parent page except this one: $("#CME").hide(); $(function() { $("#CME1, #CMEQL, #CBT1, #CBTQL, #NYM1, #CMX1").live("change", function(){ var checkBoxes = $("#CME1, #CMEQL, #CBT1, #CBTQL, #NYM1, #CMX1").filter(":not(:checked)"); if(checkBoxes.length == 0){ $("#CME").slideDown("fast"); } else { $("#CME").slideUp("fast"); } }); the div "#CME" is not hidden and the .live('change', function () { isn't working. I have other similar .live functions that are working and structured the same. How do I bind the initial $(function() with .live and why isn't the .hide() working? });//CME

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• A friend told me Python is garbage, I'm taking web design classes in the Spring and I have a textbook on C++. What should I do? [on hold]

  - by user107165

  I dont know if I should start digging into Python beforehand just to get acquanited with programming and "whet my appetite" or if I should work on the C++ book... Python definitely has more resources around town and I like the beginner friendly approach that seems to go along with every site that appeals to it. Or should I just wait for my assignments that start in 4 months? Any tips for an aspiring programmer?

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• Alert user when they hit the browser back button - with good reson

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  I know this borders on the taboo here, and please don't reply with "you should never do this etc" I have a very long form in a wizard, some users are too used to using the browsers back and forward buttons that they use those instead of the "Back" and "Next" buttons on the form wizard. If they hit the browsers back button they lose all of their form data which is a pain in the ass, since form is so long. Is it possible to display an alert that when will have a "take me out of here" and a "cancel" button so if they hit cancel it will cancel the function of the back button? Thanks!

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• Calculate a div's height with jQuery - minus header and footer

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  I'm using a sticky footer (negative margin solution) and it works fine. What I need to do is calculate the window's height, subtract the known height of the header and footer then apply that number and use it for the height of the main wrapper div. CSS solutions cause other issues, is there a good way to do this? var h = window.height(); var k = 300; //header is 100px footer is 200px $('#wrap').height(h-k); rough idea, pls help.

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• IE 7 floated div auto-clearing next element ?

  - by schweb-design-llc

  Hello, I'm having trouble with the following example. Background: I first have a element floated to the right with an image output inside it. I then have a element with other content within it. In FF and IE 8, as expected, the .images div floated to the right displays floated to the right pushing the content within the .product-body div to the left nicely. The problem: But when viewed in IE 7 compatibility mode, the .product-body div is cleared underneath the .images div and thus the .images div does not fall nicely to the right as expected. IT does this regardless of whether or not i have clear:none; on the .broduct-body div. Please see the example at www.hotelmarketingbudget.com Look at the source code there at the div element #content-body to see these divs. Feel free to use Firebug or IE Dev toolbar or whatnot to check this out. The relevant CSS: content-body{ width:auto; height:auto; position:relative; margin:0 auto; } .product-group .images { float:right; width:auto; height:auto; position:relative; margin:0 auto; margin-left:15px; } .product-group .product-body { width:auto; height:auto; position:relative; margin:0 auto; } I've spent hours already trying to figure out how to fix this- googling, reading other threads here on stackoverflow, but alas i cannot find any solutions and it's hard to know what words to even search with. I'm really hoping this is just some brain-fart on my part. Any advice or ideas or questions would be GREATLY appreciated!

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• Change $mailTo variable based on select input value (array)

  - by Dirty Bird Design

  I have the following select list: <form action="mail.php" method="POST"> <select name="foo" id="foo"> <option value="sales">Sales</option> <option value="salesAssist">Sales Assist</option> <option value="billing">Billing</option> <option value="billingAssist">Billing Assist</option> </select> </form> I need to route the $mailTo variable depending on which option they select, Sales and Sales Assist go to [email protected], while Billing and Billing Assist go to [email protected] PHP pseudeo code! <? php $_POST['foo'] if inArray(sales, salesAssist) foo="[email protected]"; else if inArray(billing, billingAssist) foo="[email protected]"; mailTo="foo" ?> I know there is nothing correct about the above, but you can see what I am trying to do, change a variable's value based on the selected value. I don't want to do this with JS, would rather learn more PHP here. Thank you.

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• Asyncronous While Loop?

  - by o7th Web Design

  I have a pretty great SqlDataReader wrapper in which I can map the output into a strongly typed list. What I am finding now is that on larger datasets with larger numbers of columns, performance could probably be a bit better if I can optimize my mapping. In thinking about this there is one section in particular that I am concerned about as it seems to be the heaviest hitter: while (_Rdr.Read()) { T newObject = new T(); for (int i = 0; i <= _Rdr.FieldCount - 1; ++i) { PropertyInfo info = (PropertyInfo)_ht[_Rdr.GetName(i).ToUpper()]; if ((info != null) && info.CanWrite) { info.SetValue(newObject, (_Rdr.GetValue(i) is DBNull) ? default(T) : _Rdr.GetValue(i), null); } } _en.Add(newObject); } _Rdr.Close(); What I would really like to know, is if there is a way that I can make this loop asyncronous? I feel that will make all the difference in the world with this beast :) Here is the entire Map method in case anyone can see where I can make further improvements on it... IList<T> Map<T> // Map our datareader object to a strongly typed list private static IList<T> Map<T>(IDataReader _Rdr) where T : new() { try { Type _t = typeof(T); List<T> _en = new List<T>(); Hashtable _ht = new Hashtable(); PropertyInfo[] _props = _t.GetProperties(); Parallel.ForEach(_props, info => { _ht[info.Name.ToUpper()] = info; }); while (_Rdr.Read()) { T newObject = new T(); for (int i = 0; i <= _Rdr.FieldCount - 1; ++i) { PropertyInfo info = (PropertyInfo)_ht[_Rdr.GetName(i).ToUpper()]; if ((info != null) && info.CanWrite) { info.SetValue(newObject, (_Rdr.GetValue(i) is DBNull) ? default(T) : _Rdr.GetValue(i), null); } } _en.Add(newObject); } _Rdr.Close(); return _en; }catch(Exception ex){ _Msg += "Wrapper.Map Exception: " + ex.Message; ErrorReporting.WriteEm.WriteItem(ex, "o7th.Class.Library.Data.Wrapper.Map", _Msg); return default(IList<T>); } }

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• jQuery center multiple dynamic images in different sized containers

  - by JVK Design

  So I've found similar questions but none that answer all the questions I have and I know there must be a simple jQuery answer to this. I've got multiple images that are being dynamically placed in their own containing div that have overflow:hidden, they need to fill their containing divs and be centered(horizontally and vertically) also. The containing divs will be different sizes as well. So in short: multiple different sized images fill and center in containing div. containing divs will be different sizes. will be used multiple times on a page. Hopefully this image helps explain what I'm after. Click here to view the image. HTML I'm using but can be changed <div class="imageHolder"> <div class="first SlideImage"> <img src="..." alt="..."/> </div> <div class="second SlideImage"> <img src="..." alt="..."/> </div> <div class="third SlideImage"> <img src="..." alt="..."/> </div> </div> And the CSS .imageHandler{ float:left; width:764px; height:70px; margin:1px 0px 0px; } .imageHolder .SlideImage{ float:left; position:relative; overflow:hidden; } .imageHolder .SlideImage img{ position:absolute; } .imageHolder .first.SlideImage{ width:381px; height:339px; margin-right:1px; } .imageHolder .second.SlideImage{margin-bottom:1px;} .imageHolder .second.SlideImage, .imageHolder .third.SlideImage { width: 382px; height: 169px; } Ask me anything if this doesn't make sense, thanks in advance

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• How can I call these urls in jquery to display content on one page?

  - by Thorbis Website Design

  ok I figured out the jquery part but not the parameters of them all can anyone help figure out the parameters for each url string? this is the jquery I figured out! also would this work better then what the below answer? $.get('adminajax.php', {'action':'getUsers'}, function(data){ $('#users .users').html(data); }); He sent me this in an email: You can specify a page by adding: p=[page #] You can specify a file and it will add a checkbox next to the user which will be checked if the user has permission to download: file=[file location] adminajax.php?action=createDirectory&directory=[new directory location] adminajax.php?action=setAvailability&user=[username]&file=[filelocation]&available=[true or false] I'm trying to get it to display in these html tags: <div id="files"> <b>Files:</b> <ul class="files"></ul> </div> <div id="file_options"> <b>Options:</b> </div> <div id="users"> <b>Users:</b> <ul class="users"></ul> </div>

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• Code is not the best way to draw

  - by Bertrand Le Roy

  It should be quite obvious: drawing requires constant visual feedback. Why is it then that we still draw with code in so many situations? Of course it’s because the low-level APIs always come first, and design tools are built after and on top of those. Existing design tools also don’t typically include complex UI elements such as buttons. When we launched our Touch Display module for Netduino Go!, we naturally built APIs that made it easy to draw on the screen from code, but very soon, we felt the limitations and tedium of drawing in code. In particular, any modification requires a modification of the code, followed by compilation and deployment. When trying to set-up buttons at pixel precision, the process is not optimal. On the other hand, code is irreplaceable as a way to automate repetitive tasks. While tools like Illustrator have ways to repeat graphical elements, they do so in a way that is a little alien and counter-intuitive to my developer mind. From these reflections, I knew that I wanted a design tool that would be structurally code-centric but that would still enable immediate feedback and mouse adjustments. While thinking about the best way to achieve this goal, I saw this fantastic video by Bret Victor: The key to the magic in all these demos is permanent execution of the code being edited. Whenever a parameter is being modified, everything is re-executed immediately so that the impact of the modification is instantaneously visible. If you do this all the time, the code and the result of its execution fuse in the mind of the user into dual representations of a single object. All mental barriers disappear. It’s like magic. The tool I built, Nutshell, is just another implementation of this principle. It manipulates a list of graphical operations on the screen. Each operation has a nice editor, and translates into a bit of code. Any modification to the parameters of the operation will modify the bit of generated code and trigger a re-execution of the whole program. This happens so fast that it feels like the drawing reacts instantaneously to all changes. The order of the operations is also the order in which the code gets executed. So if you want to bring objects to the front, move them down in the list, and up if you want to move them to the back: But where it gets really fun is when you start applying code constructs such as loops to the design tool. The elements that you put inside of a loop can use the loop counter in expressions, enabling crazy scenarios while retaining the real-time edition features. When you’re done building, you can just deploy the code to the device and see it run in its native environment: This works thanks to two code generators. The first code generator is building JavaScript that is executed in the browser to build the canvas view in the web page hosting the tool. The second code generator is building the C# code that will run on the Netduino Go! microcontroller and that will drive the display module. The possibilities are fascinating, even if you don’t care about driving small touch screens from microcontrollers: it is now possible, within a reasonable budget, to build specialized design tools for very vertical applications. Direct feedback is a powerful ally in many domains. Code generation driven by visual designers has become more approachable than ever thanks to extraordinary JavaScript libraries and to the powerful development platform that modern browsers provide. I encourage you to tinker with Nutshell and let it open your eyes to new possibilities that you may not have considered before. It’s open source. And of course, my company, Nwazet, can help you develop your own custom browser-based direct feedback design tools. This is real visual programming…

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• The theory of evolution applied to software

  - by Michel Grootjans

  I recently realized the many parallels you can draw between the theory of evolution and evolving software. Evolution is not the proverbial million monkeys typing on a million typewriters, where one of them comes up with the complete works of Shakespeare. We would have noticed by now, since the proverbial monkeys are now blogging on the Internet ;-) One of the main ideas of the theory of evolution is the balance between random mutations and natural selection. Random mutations happen all the time: millions of mutations over millions of years. Most of them are totally useless. Some of them are beneficial to the evolved species. Natural selection favors the beneficially mutated species. Less beneficial mutations die off. The mutated rabbit doesn't have to be faster than the fox. It just has to be faster than the other rabbits.   Theory of evolution Evolving software Random mutations happen all the time. Most of these mutations are so bad, the new species dies off, or cannot reproduce. Developers write new code all the time. New ideas come up during the act of writing software. The really bad ones don't get past the stage of idea. The bad ones don't get committed to source control. Natural selection favors the beneficial mutated species Good ideas and new code gets discussed in group during informal peer review. Less than good code gets refactored. Enhanced code makes it more readable, maintainable... A good set of traits makes the species superior to others. It becomes widespread A good design tends to make it easier to add new features, easier to understand the current implementations, easier to optimize for performance...thus superior. The best designs get carried over from project to project. They appear in blogs, articles and books about principles, patterns and practices.   Of course the act of writing software is deliberate. This can hardly be called random mutations. Though it sometimes might seem that code evolves through a will of its own ;-) Does this mean that evolving software (evolution) is better than a big design up front (creationism)? Not necessarily. It's a false idea to think that a project starts from scratch and everything evolves from there. Everyone carries his experience of what works and what doesn't. Up front design is necessary, but is best kept simple and minimal, just enough to get you started. Let the good experiences and ideas help to drive the process, whether they come from you or from others, from past experience or from the most junior developer on your team. Once again, balance is the keyword. Balance design up front with evolution on a daily basis. How do you know what balance is right? Through your own experience of what worked and what didn't (here's evolution again). Notes: The evolution of software can quickly degenerate without discipline. TDD is a discipline that leaves little to chance on that part. Write your test to describe the new behavior. Write just enough code to make it behave as specified. Refactor to evolve the code to a higher standard. The responsibility of good design rests continuously on each developers' shoulders. Promiscuous pair programming helps quickly spreading the design to the whole team.

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• Is a university education really worth it for a good programmer?

  - by Jon Purdy

  The title says it all, but here's the personal side of it: I've been doing design and programming for about as long as I can remember. If there's a programming problem, I can figure it out. (Though admittedly StackOverflow has allowed me to skip the figuring out and get straight to the doing in many instances.) I've made games, esoteric programming languages, and widgets and gizmos galore. I'm currently working on a general-purpose programming language. There's nothing I do better than programming. However, I'm just as passionate about design. Thus when I felt leaving high school that my design skills were lacking, I decided to attend university for New Media Design and Imaging, a digital design-related major. For a year, I diligently studied art and programmed in my free time. As the next year progressed, however, I was obligated to take fewer art and design classes and more technical classes. The trouble was of course that these classes were geared toward non-technical students, and were far beneath my skill level at the time. No amount of petitioning could overcome the institution's reluctance to allow me to test out of such classes, and the major offered no promise for any greater challenge in the future, so I took the extreme route: I switched into the technical equivalent of the major, New Media Interactive Development. A lot of my credits moved over into the new major, but many didn't. It would have been infeasible to switch to a more rigorous technical major such as Computer Science, and having tutored Computer Science students at every level here, I doubt I would be exposed to anything that I haven't already or won't eventually find out on my own, since I'm so involved in the field. I'm now on track to graduate perhaps a year later than I had planned, which puts a significant financial strain on my family and my future self. My schedule continues to be bogged down with classes that are wholly unnecessary for me to take. I'm being re-introduced to subjects that I've covered a thousand times over, simply because I've always been interested in it all. And though I succeed in avoiding the cynical and immature tactic of failing to complete work out of some undeserved sense of superiority, I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned by the lack of intellectual stimulation. Further, my school requires students to complete a number of quarters of co-op work experience proportional to their major. My original major required two quarters, but my current requires three, delaying my graduation even more. To top it all off, college is putting a severe strain on my relationship with my very close partner of a few years, so I've searched diligently for co-op jobs in my area, alas to no avail. I'm now in my third year, and approaching that point past which I can no longer handle this. Either I keep my head down, get a degree no matter what it takes, and try to get a job with a company that will pay me enough to do what I love that I can eventually pay off my loans; or I cut my losses now, move wherever there is work, and in six months start paying off what debt I've accumulated thus far. So the real question is: is a university education really more than just a formality? It's a big decision, and one I can't make lightly. I think this is the appropriate venue for this kind of question, and I hope it sticks around for the sake of others who might someday find themselves in similar situations. My heartfelt thanks for reading, and in advance for your help.

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• More Stuff less Fluff

  - by brendonpage

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/brendonpage/archive/2013/11/08/more-stuff-less-fluff.aspxYAGNI – "You Aren't Going To Need It". This is an acronym commonly used in software development to remind developers to only write what they need. This acronym exists because software developers have gotten into the habit of writing everything they need to solve a problem and then everything they think they're going to possibly need in the future. Since we can't predict the future this results in a large portion of the code that we write never being used. That extra code causes unnecessary complexity, which makes it harder to understand and harder to modify when we inevitably have to write something that we didn't think of. I've known about YAGNI for some time now but I never really got it. The words made sense and the idea was clear but the concept never sank in. I was one of those devs who'd happily write a ton of code in the anticipation of future needs. In my mind this was an essential part of writing high quality code. I didn't realise that in doing so I was actually writing low quality code. If you are anything like me you are probably thinking "Lies and propaganda! High quality code needs to be future proof." I agree! But what makes code future proof? If we could see into the future the answer would be simple, code that allows for or meets all future requirements. Since we can't see the future the best we can do is write code that can easily adapt to future requirements, this means writing flexible code. Flexible code is: Fast to understand. Fast to add to. Fast to modify. To be flexible code has to be simple, this means only making it as complex as it needs to be to meet those 3 criteria. That is high quality code. YAGNI! The art is in deciding where to place the seams (abstractions) that will give you flexibility without making decisions about future functionality. Robert C Martin explains it very nicely, he says a good architecture allows you to defer decisions because if you can defer a decision then you have the flexibility to change it. I've recently had a YAGNI experience which brought this all into perspective. I was working on a new project which had multiple clients that connect to a server hosted in the cloud. I was tasked with adding a feature to the desktop client that would allow users to capture items that would then be saved to the cloud. My immediate thought was "Hey we have multiple clients so I should build a web service for these items, that way we can access them from other clients", so I went to work and this is what I created.  I stood back and gazed upon what I'd created with a warm fuzzy feeling. It was beautiful! Then the time came for the team to use the design I'd created for another feature with a new entity. Let's just say that they didn't get the same warm fuzzy feeling that I did when they looked at the design. After much discussion they eventually got it through to me that I'd bloated the design based on an assumption of future functionality. After much more discussion we cut the design down to the following. This design gives us future flexibility with no extra work, it is as complex as it needs to be. It has been a couple of months since this incident and we still haven't needed to access either of the entities from other clients. Using the simpler design allowed us to do more stuff with less stuff!

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• Should I expose IObservable<T> on my interfaces?

  - by Alex

  My colleague and I have dispute. We are writing a .NET application that processes massive amounts of data. It receives data elements, groups subsets of them into blocks according to some criterion and processes those blocks. Let's say we have data items of type Foo arriving some source (from the network, for example) one by one. We wish to gather subsets of related objects of type Foo, construct an object of type Bar from each such subset and process objects of type Bar. One of us suggested the following design. Its main theme is exposing IObservable objects directly from the interfaces of our components. // ********* Interfaces ********** interface IFooSource { // this is the event-stream of objects of type Foo IObservable<Foo> FooArrivals { get; } } interface IBarSource { // this is the event-stream of objects of type Bar IObservable<Bar> BarArrivals { get; } } / ********* Implementations ********* class FooSource : IFooSource { // Here we put logic that receives Foo objects from the network and publishes them to the FooArrivals event stream. } class FooSubsetsToBarConverter : IBarSource { IFooSource fooSource; IObservable<Bar> BarArrivals { get { // Do some fancy Rx operators on fooSource.FooArrivals, like Buffer, Window, Join and others and return IObservable<Bar> } } } // this class will subscribe to the bar source and do processing class BarsProcessor { BarsProcessor(IBarSource barSource); void Subscribe(); } // ******************* Main ************************ class Program { public static void Main(string[] args) { var fooSource = FooSourceFactory.Create(); var barsProcessor = BarsProcessorFactory.Create(fooSource) // this will create FooSubsetToBarConverter and BarsProcessor barsProcessor.Subscribe(); fooSource.Run(); // this enters a loop of listening for Foo objects from the network and notifying about their arrival. } } The other suggested another design that its main theme is using our own publisher/subscriber interfaces and using Rx inside the implementations only when needed. //********** interfaces ********* interface IPublisher<T> { void Subscribe(ISubscriber<T> subscriber); } interface ISubscriber<T> { Action<T> Callback { get; } } //********** implementations ********* class FooSource : IPublisher<Foo> { public void Subscribe(ISubscriber<Foo> subscriber) { /* ... */ } // here we put logic that receives Foo objects from some source (the network?) publishes them to the registered subscribers } class FooSubsetsToBarConverter : ISubscriber<Foo>, IPublisher<Bar> { void Callback(Foo foo) { // here we put logic that aggregates Foo objects and publishes Bars when we have received a subset of Foos that match our criteria // maybe we use Rx here internally. } public void Subscribe(ISubscriber<Bar> subscriber) { /* ... */ } } class BarsProcessor : ISubscriber<Bar> { void Callback(Bar bar) { // here we put code that processes Bar objects } } //********** program ********* class Program { public static void Main(string[] args) { var fooSource = fooSourceFactory.Create(); var barsProcessor = barsProcessorFactory.Create(fooSource) // this will create BarsProcessor and perform all the necessary subscriptions fooSource.Run(); // this enters a loop of listening for Foo objects from the network and notifying about their arrival. } } Which one do you think is better? Exposing IObservable and making our components create new event streams from Rx operators, or defining our own publisher/subscriber interfaces and using Rx internally if needed? Here are some things to consider about the designs: In the first design the consumer of our interfaces has the whole power of Rx at his/her fingertips and can perform any Rx operators. One of us claims this is an advantage and the other claims that this is a drawback. The second design allows us to use any publisher/subscriber architecture under the hood. The first design ties us to Rx. If we wish to use the power of Rx, it requires more work in the second design because we need to translate the custom publisher/subscriber implementation to Rx and back. It requires writing glue code for every class that wishes to do some event processing.

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• Get back the changes after accidental checkout?

  - by Millisami

  The following was the status of my repo. [~/rails_apps/jekyll_apps/nepalonrails (design)?] ? gst # On branch design # Changed but not updated: # (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed) # (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory) # # modified: _layouts/default.html # deleted: _site/blog/2010/04/07/welcome-to-niraj-blog/index.html # deleted: _site/blog/2010/04/08/the-code-syntax-highlight/index.html # deleted: _site/blog/2010/05/01/showing-demo-to-kalyan/index.html # deleted: _site/config.ru # deleted: _site/index.html # deleted: _site/static/css/style.css # deleted: _site/static/css/syntax.css # modified: static/css/style.css # no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a") Accedently, I did git checkout -f and now the changes are gone which I wasnt supposed to do. [~/rails_apps/jekyll_apps/nepalonrails (design)?] ? git co -f [~/rails_apps/jekyll_apps/nepalonrails (design)] ? gst # On branch design nothing to commit (working directory clean) [~/rails_apps/jekyll_apps/nepalonrails (design)] ? Can I get back the changes back?

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• Getting Started With nServiceBus on VAN Mar 31

  - by van

  Topic: nServiceBus is mature and powerful open source framework that enables to design robust, scalable, message-based, service-oriented architectures. Latest improvements in the configuration API enables developers to quickly get started and build a working simple system that uses messaging infrastructure. The goal of this session is to give a jump start with the framework, introduce basic concepts such as message handlers, Sagas, Pub/Sub, Generic Host and also create a working demo application that uses publish/subscribe messaging. The content of the session is addressed to developers that are interested in learning how to get started using nServiceBus in order to design and build distributed systems. Bio: Bernard Kowalski is currently a Software Developer at Microdesk, one of Autodesk's leading partners in providing variety of Geospatial and Computer-Aided Design solutions. Bernard has experience developing .NET framework-based applications utilizing Windows Forms, Windows Services, ASP.NET MVC, and Web services. In a recent project, Bernard architected and implemented a distributed system based on SOA principles using an open source implementation of an Enterprise Service Bus. Bernard develops software with Agile patterns and practices using Domain Driven Design combined with TDD (Test Driven Development). He is familiar with all of the following APIs: Autodesk Vault/Product Stream API, AutoCAD ActiveX/VBA/.NET API, AutoCAD Mechanical API, Autodesk Inventor API, Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise. Prior to joining Microdesk, Bernard worked as a researcher and teacher at the University of Science and Technology in Krakow, Poland where he was awarded with a PhD in Computer Methods in Materials Science. He also participated in research projects where he developed applications for analysis of hot compression test results using advanced optimization techniques. He also developed Finite Element Method-based programs for thermal and stress analysis using C++ and FORTRAN. Bernard is a member of the Domain Driven Design and ALT.NET user groups in NYC. Virtual ALT.NET (VAN) is the online gathering place of the ALT.NET community. Through conversations, presentations, pair programming and dojos, we strive to improve, explore, and challenge the way we create software. Using net conferencing technology such as Skype and LiveMeeting, we hold regular meetings, open to anyone, usually taking the form of a presentation or an Open Space Technology-style conversation. Please see the Calendar(http://www.virtualaltnet.com/Home/Calendar) to find a VAN group that meets at a time convenient to you, and feel welcome to join a meeting. Past sessions can be found on the Recording page. To stay informed about VAN activities, you can subscribe to the Virtual ALT.NET Google Group and follow the Virtual ALT.NET blog. Times below are Central Standard Time Start Time: Wed, Mar 31, 2010 8:00 PM UTC/GMT -5 hours End Time: Wed, Mar 31, 2010 10:00 PM UTC/GMT -5 hours Attendee URL: http://www.virtualaltnet.com/van Zach Young http://www.virtualaltnet.com

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