Search Results

Search found 31582 results on 1264 pages for 'software design'.

Page 296/1264 | < Previous Page | 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303  | Next Page >

  • Best practice - logging events (general) and changes (database)

    - by b0x0rz
    need help with logging all activities on a site as well as database changes. requirements: * should be in database * should be easily searchable by initiator (user name / session id), event (activity type) and event parameters i can think of a database design but either it involves a lot of tables (one per event) so i can log each of the parameters of an event in a separate field OR it involves one table with generic fields (7 int numeric and 7 text types) and log everything in one table with event type field determining what parameter got written where (and hoping that i don't need more than 7 fields of a certain type, or 8 or 9 or whatever number i choose)... example of entries (the usual things): [username] login failed @datetime [username] login successful @datetime [username] changed password @datetime, estimated security of password [low/ok/high/perfect] @datetime [username] clicked result [result number] [result id] after searching for [search string] and got [number of results] @datetime [username] clicked result [result number] [result id] after searching for [search string] and got [number of results] @datetime [username] changed profile name from [old name] to [new name] @datetime [username] verified name with [credit card type] credit card @datetime datbase table [table name] purged of old entries @datetime via automated process etc... so anyone dealt with this before? any best practices / links you can share? i've seen it done with the generic solution mentioned above, but somehow that goes against what i learned from database design, but as you can see the sheer number of events that need to be trackable (each user will be able to see this info) is giving me headaches, BUT i do LOVE the one event per table solution more than the generic one. any thoughts? edit: also, is there maybe an authoritative list of such (likely) events somewhere? thnx stack overflow says: the question you're asking appears subjective and is likely to be closed. my answer: probably is subjective, but it is directly related to my issue i have with designing a database / writing my code, so i'd welcome any help. also i tried narrowing down the ideas to 2 so hopefully one of these will prevail, unless there already is an established solution for these kinds of things.

    Read the article

  • best practice - loging events (general) and changes (database)

    - by b0x0rz
    need help with logging all activities on a site as well as database changes. requirements: * should be in database * should be easily searchable by initiator (user name / session id), event (activity type) and event parameters i can think of a database design but either it involves a lot of tables (one per event) so i can log each of the parameters of an event in a separate field OR it involves one table with generic fields (7 int numeric and 7 text types) and log everything in one table with event type field determining what parameter got written where (and hoping that i don't need more than 7 fields of a certain type, or 8 or 9 or whatever number i choose)... example of entries (the usual things): [username] login failed @datetime [username] login successful @datetime [username] changed password @datetime, estimated security of password [low/ok/high/perfect] @datetime [username] clicked result [result number] [result id] after searching for [search string] and got [number of results] @datetime [username] clicked result [result number] [result id] after searching for [search string] and got [number of results] @datetime [username] changed profile name from [old name] to [new name] @datetime [username] verified name with [credit card type] credit card @datetime datbase table [table name] purged of old entries @datetime etc... so anyone dealt with this before? any best practices / links you can share? i've seen it done with the generic solution mentioned above, but somehow that goes against what i learned from database design, but as you can see the sheer number of events that need to be trackable (each user will be able to see this info) is giving me headaches, BUT i do LOVE the one event per table solution more than the generic one. any thoughts? edit: also, is there maybe an authoritative list of such (likely) events somewhere? thnx stack overflow says: the question you're asking appears subjective and is likely to be closed. my answer: probably is subjective, but it is directly related to my issue i have with designing a database / writing my code, so i'd welcome any help. also i tried narrowing down the ideas to 2 so hopefully one of these will prevail, unless there already is an established solution for these kinds of things.

    Read the article

  • how to model a follower stream in appengine?

    - by molicule
    I am trying to design tables to buildout a follower relationship. Say I have a stream of 140char records that have user, hashtag and other text. Users follow other users, and can also follow hashtags. I am outlining the way I've designed this below, but there are two limitaions in my design. I was wondering if others had smarter ways to accomplish the same goal. The issues with this are The list of followers is copied in for each record If a new follower is added or one removed, 'all' the records have to be updated. The code class HashtagFollowers(db.Model): """ This table contains the followers for each hashtag """ hashtag = db.StringProperty() followers = db.StringListProperty() class UserFollowers(db.Model): """ This table contains the followers for each user """ username = db.StringProperty() followers = db.StringListProperty() class stream(db.Model): """ This table contains the data stream """ username = db.StringProperty() hashtag = db.StringProperty() text = db.TextProperty() def save(self): """ On each save all the followers for each hashtag and user are added into a another table with this record as the parent """ super(stream, self).save() hfs = HashtagFollowers.all().filter("hashtag =", self.hashtag).fetch(10) for hf in hfs: sh = streamHashtags(parent=self, followers=hf.followers) sh.save() ufs = UserFollowers.all().filter("username =", self.username).fetch(10) for uf in ufs: uh = streamUsers(parent=self, followers=uf.followers) uh.save() class streamHashtags(db.Model): """ The stream record is the parent of this record """ followers = db.StringListProperty() class streamUsers(db.Model): """ The stream record is the parent of this record """ followers = db.StringListProperty() Now, to get the stream of followed hastags indexes = db.GqlQuery("""SELECT __key__ from streamHashtags where followers = 'myusername'""") keys = [k,parent() for k in indexes[offset:numresults]] return db.get(keys) Is there a smarter way to do this?

    Read the article

  • Unity in C# for Platform Specific Implementations

    - by DxCK
    My program has heavy interaction with the operating system through Win32API functions. now i want to migrate my program to run under Mono under Linux (No wine), and this requires different implementations to the interaction with the operating system. I started designing a code that can have different implementation for difference platform and is extensible for new future platforms. public interface ISomeInterface { void SomePlatformSpecificOperation(); } [PlatformSpecific(PlatformID.Unix)] public class SomeImplementation : ISomeInterface { #region ISomeInterface Members public void SomePlatformSpecificOperation() { Console.WriteLine("From SomeImplementation"); } #endregion } public class PlatformSpecificAttribute : Attribute { private PlatformID _platform; public PlatformSpecificAttribute(PlatformID platform) { _platform = platform; } public PlatformID Platform { get { return _platform; } } } public static class PlatformSpecificUtils { public static IEnumerable<Type> GetImplementationTypes<T>() { foreach (Assembly assembly in AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()) { foreach (Type type in assembly.GetTypes()) { if (typeof(T).IsAssignableFrom(type) && type != typeof(T) && IsPlatformMatch(type)) { yield return type; } } } } private static bool IsPlatformMatch(Type type) { return GetPlatforms(type).Any(platform => platform == Environment.OSVersion.Platform); } private static IEnumerable<PlatformID> GetPlatforms(Type type) { return type.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(PlatformSpecificAttribute), false) .Select(obj => ((PlatformSpecificAttribute)obj).Platform); } } class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Type first = PlatformSpecificUtils.GetImplementationTypes<ISomeInterface>().FirstOrDefault(); } } I see two problems with this design: I can't force the implementations of ISomeInterface to have a PlatformSpecificAttribute. Multiple implementations can be marked with the same PlatformID, and i dont know witch to use in the Main. Using the first one is ummm ugly. How to solve those problems? Can you suggest another design?

    Read the article

  • Is this WPF error handling a good idea ?

    - by Adiel
    I have a multi threaded wpf application with various HW interfaces. I want to react to several HW failures that can happen. For example : one of the interfaces is a temperature sensor and i want that from a certain temp. a meesage would appear and notify the user that it happened. i came up with the follwing design : /// <summary> /// This logic reacts to errors that occur during the system run. /// The reaction is set by the component that raised the error. /// </summary> public class ErrorHandlingLogic : Logic { } the above class would consume ErrorEventData that holds all the information about the error that occurred. public class ErrorEventData : IEventData { #region public enum public enum ErrorReaction { } #endregion public enum #region Private Data Memebers and props private ErrorReaction m_ErrorReaction; public ErrorReaction ErrorReactionValue { get { return m_ErrorReaction; } set { m_ErrorReaction = value; } } private string m_Msg; public string Msg { get { return m_Msg; } set { m_Msg = value; } } private string m_ComponentName; public string ComponentName { get { return m_ComponentName; } set { m_ComponentName = value; } } #endregion Private Data Memebers and props public ErrorEventData(ErrorReaction reaction, string msg, string componenetName) { m_ErrorReaction = reaction; m_Msg = msg; m_ComponentName = componenetName; } } the above ErrorHandlingLogic would decide what to do with the ErrorEventData sent to him from various components of the application. if needed it would be forwarded to the GUI to display a message to the user. so what do you think is it a good design ? thanks, Adiel.

    Read the article

  • Help a CRUD programmer think about an "approval workflow"

    - by gerdemb
    I've been working on a web application that is basically a CRUD application (Create, Read, Update, Delete). Recently, I've started working on what I'm calling an "approval workflow". Basically, a request is generated for a material and then sent for approval to a manager. Depending on what is requested, different people need to approve the request or perhaps send it back to the requester for modification. The approvers need to keep track of what to approve what has been approved and the requesters need to see the status of their requests. As a "CRUD" developer, I'm having a hard-time wrapping my head around how to design this. What database tables should I have? How do I keep track of the state of the request? How should I notify users of actions that have happened to their requests? Is their a design pattern that could help me with this? Should I be drawing state-machines in my code? I think this is a generic programing question, but if it makes any difference I'm using Django with MySQL.

    Read the article

  • How to justify using a scripting language as part of a project

    - by sylvanaar
    I have a specific project in which I want to use either a scripting language + C, or as an alternative a 100% Java solution. The program adapts a legacy system for use with other moderns systems. Basically, I have few choices as to what language I can use. I have C/C++, Java 1.4, and I have also compiled the Lua for this environment. The program does 'screen scraping' and has to deal with alot of strings. That part of the code is highly variable. Most of the developers at my company use C, so - my original design was to write some portions in C, and use Lua for the part that dealt with strings and changed freqently. I was told 'You have to justify your use of the scripting language.' So i reworked my design using 100% Java, and was told - Java wont have enough performance. You should do the whole thing in C. I'm not controlling lasers or doing image processing - just some screen scraping. I still have to provide justification for using anything but C - so what justification can I provide?

    Read the article

  • Still Confused About Identifying vs. Non-Identifying Relationships

    - by Jason
    So, I've been reading up on identifying vs. non-identifying relationships in my database design, and a number of the answers on SO seem contradicting to me. Here are the two questions I am looking at: What's the Difference Between Identifying and Non-Identifying Relationships Trouble Deciding on Identifying or Non-Identifying Relationship Looking at the top answers from each question, I appear to get two different ideas of what an identifying relationship is. The first question's response says that an identifying relationship "describes a situation in which the existence of a row in the child table depends on a row in the parent table." An example of this that is given is, "An author can write many books (1-to-n relationship), but a book cannot exist without an author." That makes sense to me. However, when I read the response to question two, I get confused as it says, "if a child identifies its parent, it is an identifying relationship." The answer then goes on to give examples such as SSN (is identifying of a Person), but an address is not (because many people can live at an address). To me, this sounds more like a case of the decision between primary key and non-primary key. My own gut feeling (and additional research on other sites) points to the first question and its response being correct. However, I wanted to verify before I continued forward as I don't want to learn something wrong as I am working to understand database design. Thanks in advance.

    Read the article

  • Database choices

    - by flobadob
    I have a prickly design issue regarding the choice of database technologies to use for a group of new applications. The final suite of applications would have the following database requirements... Central databases (more than one database) using mysql (myst be mysql due to justhost.com). An application to be written which accesses the multiple mysql databases on the web host. This application will also write to local serverless database (sqlite/firebird/vistadb/whatever). Different flavors of this application will be created for windows (.NET), windows mobile, android if possible, iphone if possible. So, the design task is to minimise the quantity of code to achieve this. This is going to be tricky since the languages used are already c# / java (android) and objc (iphone). Not too worried about that, but can the work required to implement the various database access layers be minimised? The serverless database will hold similar data to the mysql server, so some kind of inheritance in the DAL would be useful. Looking at hibernate/nhibernate and there is linq to whatever. So many choices!

    Read the article

  • Modeling many-to-one with constraints?

    - by Greg Beech
    I'm attempting to create a database model for movie classifications, where each movie could have a single classification from each of one of multiple rating systems (e.g. BBFC, MPAA). This is the current design, with all implied PKs and FKs: TABLE Movie ( MovieId INT ) TABLE ClassificationSystem ( ClassificationSystemId TINYINT ) TABLE Classification ( ClassificationId INT, ClassificationSystemId TINYINT ) TABLE MovieClassification ( MovieId INT, ClassificationId INT, Advice NVARCHAR(250) -- description of why the classification was given ) The problem is with the MovieClassification table whose constraints would allow multiple classifications from the same system, whereas it should ideally only permit either zero or one classifications from a given system. Is there any reasonable way to restructure this so that a movie having exactly zero or one classifications from any given system is enforced by database constraints, given the following requirements? Do not duplicate information that could be looked up (i.e. duplicating ClassificationSystemId in the MovieClassification table is not a good solution because this could get out of sync with the value in the Classification table) Remain extensible to multiple classification systems (i.e. a new classification system does not require any changes to the table structure)? Note also the Advice column - each mapping of a movie to a classification needs to have a textual description of why that classification was given to that movie. Any design would need to support this.

    Read the article

  • How to translate the fields of a database model?

    - by Tõnis M
    I have some tables/models in a web app that will have multilingual content. For example a university, with it's description in a default language(english) and the user wants he can see the same information in another language( if the object has it's fields translated). If there were only a few languages then I would just add fields like name_en and name_de and so on, but the number of languages isn't fixed, so that' would create a mess. I could also just create a new object with the translated data but then foreign keys wouldn't work, and only some of the fields can be translated so that would create duplicate data. Storing the translations in a file and using gettext or something similar is also not an option since the objects fields can be translated by the website user, not only developers/admins. What would be the best way to design/architect such a database? Searching from the translated data should also be not too complex - as it should not require creating complex joins which would make the queries slower I'm using PostgreSQL and Ruby of Rails but I'm not looking for a technical solution but for a general idea how to design it.

    Read the article

  • Customer wants some data to appear after you later delete rows. System giant / not my creation. Fast

    - by John Sullivan
    This is a fairly common problem, it probably has a name, I just don't know what it is. A.) User sees obscure piece of information in Row B of L_OBSCURE_INFO displayed on some screen at a certain point. It is in table L_Obscure_info. B.) Under certain circumstances we want to correctly delete data in L_OBSCURE_INFO. Unfortunately, nobody accounted for the fact that the user might want to backtrack and see some random piece of information that was most recently in L_OBSCURE_INFO. C.) The system is enormous and L_OBSCURE_INFO is used all the time. You have no idea what the ramifications are of implementing some kind of hack and whatever you do, you don't want to introduce more bugs. I think the best approach would be to create an L_OBSCURE_INFO_HISTORY table and record a record in there every time you change data. But god help your ensuring it's accurate in this system where L_OBSCURE_INFO is being touched everywhere and you don't have time to implement L_OBSCURE_INFO_HISTORY. Is there a particularly easy, clever design solution for this kind of problem -- basically an elegant database hack? If not, is this kind of design problem under a particular class of problems or have a name?

    Read the article

  • IOC Container Handling State Params in Non-Default Constructor

    - by Mystagogue
    For the purpose of this discussion, there are two kinds of parameters an object constructor might take: state dependency or service dependency. Supplying a service dependency with an IOC container is easy: DI takes over. But in contrast, state dependencies are usually only known to the client. That is, the object requestor. It turns out that having a client supply the state params through an IOC Container is quite painful. I will show several different ways to do this, all of which have big problems, and ask the community if there is another option I'm missing. Let's begin: Before I added an IOC container to my project code, I started with a class like this: class Foobar { //parameters are state dependencies, not service dependencies public Foobar(string alpha, int omega){...}; //...other stuff } I decide to add a Logger service depdendency to the Foobar class, which perhaps I'll provide through DI: class Foobar { public Foobar(string alpha, int omega, ILogger log){...}; //...other stuff } But then I'm also told I need to make class Foobar itself "swappable." That is, I'm required to service-locate a Foobar instance. I add a new interface into the mix: class Foobar : IFoobar { public Foobar(string alpha, int omega, ILogger log){...}; //...other stuff } When I make the service locator call, it will DI the ILogger service dependency for me. Unfortunately the same is not true of the state dependencies Alpha and Omega. Some containers offer a syntax to address this: //Unity 2.0 pseudo-ish code: myContainer.Resolve<IFoobar>( new parameterOverride[] { {"alpha", "one"}, {"omega",2} } ); I like the feature, but I don't like that it is untyped and not evident to the developer what parameters must be passed (via intellisense, etc). So I look at another solution: //This is a "boiler plate" heavy approach! class Foobar : IFoobar { public Foobar (string alpha, int omega){...}; //...stuff } class FoobarFactory : IFoobarFactory { public IFoobar IFoobarFactory.Create(string alpha, int omega){ return new Foobar(alpha, omega); } } //fetch it... myContainer.Resolve<IFoobarFactory>().Create("one", 2); The above solves the type-safety and intellisense problem, but it (1) forced class Foobar to fetch an ILogger through a service locator rather than DI and (2) it requires me to make a bunch of boiler-plate (XXXFactory, IXXXFactory) for all varieties of Foobar implementations I might use. Should I decide to go with a pure service locator approach, it may not be a problem. But I still can't stand all the boiler-plate needed to make this work. So then I try this: //code named "concrete creator" class Foobar : IFoobar { public Foobar(string alpha, int omega, ILogger log){...}; static IFoobar Create(string alpha, int omega){ //unity 2.0 pseudo-ish code. Assume a common //service locator, or singleton holds the container... return Container.Resolve<IFoobar>( new parameterOverride[] {{"alpha", alpha},{"omega", omega} } ); } //Get my instance: Foobar.Create("alpha",2); I actually don't mind that I'm using the concrete "Foobar" class to create an IFoobar. It represents a base concept that I don't expect to change in my code. I also don't mind the lack of type-safety in the static "Create", because it is now encapsulated. My intellisense is working too! Any concrete instance made this way will ignore the supplied state params if they don't apply (a Unity 2.0 behavior). Perhaps a different concrete implementation "FooFoobar" might have a formal arg name mismatch, but I'm still pretty happy with it. But the big problem with this approach is that it only works effectively with Unity 2.0 (a mismatched parameter in Structure Map will throw an exception). So it is good only if I stay with Unity. The problem is, I'm beginning to like Structure Map a lot more. So now I go onto yet another option: class Foobar : IFoobar, IFoobarInit { public Foobar(ILogger log){...}; public IFoobar IFoobarInit.Initialize(string alpha, int omega){ this.alpha = alpha; this.omega = omega; return this; } } //now create it... IFoobar foo = myContainer.resolve<IFoobarInit>().Initialize("one", 2) Now with this I've got a somewhat nice compromise with the other approaches: (1) My arguments are type-safe / intellisense aware (2) I have a choice of fetching the ILogger via DI (shown above) or service locator, (3) there is no need to make one or more seperate concrete FoobarFactory classes (contrast with the verbose "boiler-plate" example code earlier), and (4) it reasonably upholds the principle "make interfaces easy to use correctly, and hard to use incorrectly." At least it arguably is no worse than the alternatives previously discussed. One acceptance barrier yet remains: I also want to apply "design by contract." Every sample I presented was intentionally favoring constructor injection (for state dependencies) because I want to preserve "invariant" support as most commonly practiced. Namely, the invariant is established when the constructor completes. In the sample above, the invarient is not established when object construction completes. As long as I'm doing home-grown "design by contract" I could just tell developers not to test the invariant until the Initialize(...) method is called. But more to the point, when .net 4.0 comes out I want to use its "code contract" support for design by contract. From what I read, it will not be compatible with this last approach. Curses! Of course it also occurs to me that my entire philosophy is off. Perhaps I'd be told that conjuring a Foobar : IFoobar via a service locator implies that it is a service - and services only have other service dependencies, they don't have state dependencies (such as the Alpha and Omega of these examples). I'm open to listening to such philosophical matters as well, but I'd also like to know what semi-authorative reference to read that would steer me down that thought path. So now I turn it to the community. What approach should I consider that I havn't yet? Must I really believe I've exhausted my options?

    Read the article

  • How can you learn to design nice looking websites?

    - by Richard
    I am a moderately capable web developer. I can put stuff where I want it to go and put some JQuery stuff in there if I need to. However, if I am making my own website (which I am starting to do) I have no idea how to design it. If someone was to sit next to me a point to the screen and say "put this picture there, text there" I can do that quite easily. But designing my own site with my choice of colours and text will look like a toddler has invented it. Does anyone know any websites/books I can look at or has anyone got any tips on the basics of non-toddler web design?

    Read the article

  • Craftsmanship is ALL that Matters

    - by Wayne Molina
    Today, I'm going to talk about a touchy subject: the notion of working in a company that doesn't use the prescribed "best practices" in its software development endeavours.  Over the years I have, using a variety of pseudonyms, asked this question on popular programming forums.  Although I always add in some minor variation of the story to avoid suspicion that it's the same person posting, the crux of the tale remains the same: A Programmer’s Tale A junior software developer has just started a new job at an average company, creating average line-of-business applications for internal use (the most typical scenario programmers find themselves in).  This hypothetical newbie has spent a lot of time reading up on the "theory" of software development, devouring books, blogs and screencasts from well-known and respected software developers in the community in order to broaden his knowledge and "do what the pros do".  He begins his new job, eager to apply what he's learned on a real-world project only to discover that his new teammates doesn't use any of those concepts and techniques.  They hack their way through development, or in a best-case scenario use some homebrew, thrown-together semblance of a framework for their applications that follows not one of the best practices suggested by the “elite” in the software community - things like TDD (TDD as a "best practice" is the only subjective part of this post, but it's included here due to a very large following of respected developers who consider it one), the SOLID principles, well-known and venerable tools, even version control in a worst case and truly nightmarish scenario.  Our protagonist is frustrated that he isn't doing things the "proper" way - a way he's spent personal time digesting and learning about and, more importantly, a way that some of the top developers in the industry advocate - and turns to a forum to ask the advice of his peers. Invariably the answer I, in the guise of the concerned newbie, will receive is that A) I don't know anything and should just shut my mouth and sling code the bad way like everybody else on the team, and B) These "best practices" are fade or a joke, and the only thing that matters is shipping software to your customers. I am here today to say that anyone who says this, or anything like it, is not only full of crap but indicative of exactly the type of “developer” that has helped to give our industry a bad name.  Here is why: One Who Knows Nothing, Understands Nothing On one hand, you have the cognoscenti of the .NET development world.  Guys like James Avery, Jeremy Miller, Ayende Rahien and Rob Conery; all well-respected and noted programmers that are pretty much our version of celebrities.  These guys write blogs, books, and post videos outlining the "correct" way of writing software to make sure it not only works but is maintainable and extensible and a joy to work with.  They tout the virtues of the SOLID principles, or of using TDD/BDD, or using a mature ORM like NHibernate, Subsonic or even Entity Framework. On the other hand, you have Joe Everyman, Lead Software Developer at Initrode Corporation - in our hypothetical story Joe is the junior developer's new boss.  Joe's been with Initrode for 10 years, starting as the company’s very first programmer and over the years building up a little fiefdom of his own until at the present he’s in charge of all Initrode’s software development.  Joe writes code the same way he always has, without bothering to learn much, if anything.  He looked at NHibernate once and found it was "too hard", so he uses a primitive implementation of the TableDataGateway pattern as a wrapper around SqlClient.SqlConnection and SqlClient.SqlCommand instead of an actual ORM (or, in a better case scenario, has created his own ORM); the thought of using LINQ or Entity Framework or really anything other than his own hastily homebrew solution has never occurred to him.  He doesn't understand TDD and considers “testing” to be using the .NET debugger to step through code, or simply loading up an app and entering some values to see if it works.  He doesn't really understand SOLID, and he doesn't care to.  He's worked as a programmer for years, and that's all that counts.  Right?  WRONG. Who would you rather trust?  Someone with years of experience and who writes books, creates well-known software and is akin to a celebrity, or someone with no credibility outside their own minute environment who throws around their clout and company seniority as the "proof" of their ability?  Joe Everyman may have years of experience at Initrode as a programmer, and says to do things "his way" but someone like Jeremy Miller or Ayende Rahien have years of experience at companies just like Initrode, THEY know ten times more than Joe Everyman knows or could ever hope to know, and THEY say to do things "this way". Here's another way of thinking about it: If you wanted to get into politics and needed advice on the best way to do it, would you rather listen to the mayor of Hicktown, USA or Barack Obama?  One is a small-time nobody while the other is very well-known and, as such, would probably have much more accurate and beneficial advice. NOTE: The selection of Barack Obama as an example in no way, shape, or form suggests a political affiliation or political bent to this post or blog, and no political innuendo should be mistakenly read from it; the intent was merely to compare a small-time persona with a well-known persona in a non-software field.  Feel free to replace the name "Barack Obama" with any well-known Congressman, Senator or US President of your choice. DIY Considered Harmful I will say right now that the homebrew development environment is the WORST one for an aspiring programmer, because it relies on nothing outside it's own little box - no useful skill outside of the small pond.  If you are forced to use some half-baked, homebrew ORM created by your Director of Software, you are not learning anything valuable you can take with you in the future; now, if you plan to stay at Initrode for 10 years like Joe Everyman, this is fine and dandy.  However if, like most of us, you want to advance your career outside a very narrow space you will do more harm than good by sticking it out in an environment where you, to be frank, know better than everybody else because you are aware of alternative and, in almost most cases, better tools for the job.  A junior developer who understands why the SOLID principles are good to follow, or why TDD is beneficial, or who knows that it's better to use NHibernate/Subsonic/EF/LINQ/well-known ORM versus some in-house one knows better than a senior developer with 20 years experience who doesn't understand any of that, plain and simple.  Anyone who disagrees is either a liar, or someone who, just like Joe Everyman, Lead Developer, relies on seniority and tenure rather than adapting their knowledge as things evolve. In many cases, the Joe Everymans of the world act this way out of fear - they cannot possibly fathom that a “junior” could know more than them; after all, they’ve spent 10 or more years in the same company, doing the same job, cranking out the same shoddy software.  And here comes a newbie who hasn’t spent 10+ years doing the same things, with a fresh and often radical take on the craft, and Joe Everyman is afraid he might have to put some real effort into his career again instead of just pointing to his 10 years of service at Initrode as “proof” that he’s good, or that he might have to learn something new to improve; in most cases the problem is Joe Everyman, and by extension Initrode itself, has a mentality of just being “good enough”, and mediocrity is the rule of the day. A Thorn Bush is No Place for a Phoenix My advice is that if you work on a team where they don't use the best practices that some of the most famous developers in our field say is the "right" way to do things (and have legions of people who agree), and YOU are aware of these practices and can see why they work, then LEAVE the company.  Find a company where they DO care about quality, and craftsmanship, otherwise you will never be happy.  There is no point in "dumbing" yourself down to the level of your co-workers and slinging code without care to craftsmanship.  In 95% of these situations there will be no point in bringing it to the attention of Joe Everyman because he won't listen; he might even get upset that someone is trying to "upstage" him and fire the newbie, and replace someone with loads of untapped potential with a drone that will just nod affirmatively and grind out the tasks assigned without question. Find a company that has people smart enough to listen to the "best and brightest", and be happy.  Do not, I repeat, DO NOT waste away in a job working for ignorant people.  At the end of the day software development IS a craft, and a level of craftsmanship is REQUIRED for any serious professional.  When you have knowledgeable people with the credibility to back it up saying one thing, and small-time people who are, to put it bluntly, nobodies in the field saying and doing something totally different because they can't comprehend it, leave the nobodies to their own devices to fade into obscurity.  Work for a company that uses REAL software engineering techniques and really cares about craftsmanship.  The biggest issue affecting our career, and the reason software development has never been the respected, white-collar career it was meant to be, is because hacks and charlatans can pass themselves off as professional programmers without following a lick of good advice from programmers much better at the craft than they are.  These modern day snake-oil salesmen entrench themselves in companies by hoodwinking non-technical businesspeople and customers with their shoddy wares, end up in senior/lead/executive positions, and push their lack of knowledge on everybody unfortunate enough to work with/for/under them, crushing any dissent or voices of reason and change under their tyrannical heel and leaving behind a trail of dismayed and, often, unemployed junior developers who were made examples of to keep up the facade and avoid the shadow of doubt being cast upon them. To sum this up another way: If you surround yourself with learned people, you will learn.  Surround yourself with ignorant people who can't, as the saying goes, see the forest through the trees, and you'll learn nothing of any real value.  There is more to software development than just writing code, and the end goal should not be just "shipping software", it should be shipping software that is extensible, maintainable, and above all else software whose creation has broadened your knowledge in some capacity, even if a minor one.  An eager newbie who knows theory and thirsts for knowledge can easily be moulded and taught the advanced topics, but the same can't be said of someone who only cares about the finish line.  This industry needs more people espousing the benefits of software craftsmanship and proper software engineering techniques, and less Joe Everymans who are unwilling to adapt or foster new ways of thinking. Conclusion - I Cast “Protection from Fire” I am fairly certain this post will spark some controversy and might even invite the flames.  Please keep in mind these are opinions and nothing more.  A little healthy rant and subsequent flamewar can be good for the soul once in a while.  To paraphrase The Godfather: It helps to get rid of the bad blood.

    Read the article

  • Is there a distributed project management software like Redmine?

    - by Tobias Kienzler
    I am quite familiar with and love using git, among other reasons due to its distributed nature. Now I'd like to set up some similarly distributed (FOSS) Project Management software with features similar to what Redmine offers, such as Issue & time tracking, milestones Gantt charts, calendar git integration, maybe some automatic linking of commits and issues Wiki (preferably with Mathjax support) Forum, news, notifications Multiple Projects However, I am looking for a solution that does not require a permanently accesible server, i.e. like in git, each user should have their own copy which can be easily synchronized with others. However it should be possible to not have a copy of every Project on every machine. Since trac uses multiple instances for multiple projects anyway, I was considering using that, but I neither know how well it adapts to simply giting the database itself (which would be be easiest way to handle the distribution due to git being used anyway), nor does it include all of Redmine's feature. So, can you recommend me a distributed project management software? If your suggestion is a software that usually runs on a server please include a description of the distribution method (e.g. whether simply putting the data in a git repository would do the trick), and if it's e.g. trac, please mention plugins required to include the features mentioned.

    Read the article

  • Is it more valuable to double major in Computer Science/Software Engineering or get an undergraduate CS degree with a Masters in SE?

    - by Austin Hyde
    A friend and I (both in college) are currently in a debate over which is better, in terms of employment opportunities, experience, and education: a Bachelors degree in both Computer Science and Software Engineering, or a Bachelors in Computer Science with a Masters in Software Engineering. My point of view is that I would rather go to school for 4-4.5 years to learn both sides of the field, and be out working on real projects gaining real experience, by going the double major route. His point of view is that it would look better to potential employers if he had a Bachelors in CS and Masters in SE. That way, when he's finally done after 4 years of CS and 2-4 of SE (depending on where he goes), he can pretty much have his choosing of what he wants to do. We are both in agreement on the distinction between the two degrees: CS is "traditional" and about the theory of algorithms, data structures, and programming, where SE is the study of the design of software and the implementation of CS theory. So, what's your stance on this debate? Have you gone one route or another? And most importantly, why?

    Read the article

  • I'm hoping to start an online supermarket and needs advice on open source shopping cart software and applications..

    - by Betterman Simidi
    I have been researching on both open source software and off-the-shelf software for an online supermarket project in Africa. I have now narrowed by search to X-cart and the PHP based PrestaShop shopping carts. My plan is to acquire an open source shopping cart either by purchasing or as a free open source cart and hire a local developer to customize it to our local needs. I have been doing the demo for x-cart for three weeks now and had thought it might work best for us but after going through the 600 page manual and I'm concerned with how far it can be localized. Yesterday i was looking at the possible Prestashop free open source cart and i seem to like the back-end. Didn't like the back-end for Magento much but from reviews conducted by third-parties they seem to recommend it. I'm now wondering whether i should have a developer start the whole project from scratch, or use an open source software such us PrestaShop or get x-cart which can then be customized. Note that my store will have thousands of products and services including groceries and so i want something that can handle upto 500,000 products and over. Kindly advice. 93276

    Read the article

  • Is there such a thing as "closure" with software work?

    - by Bobby Tables
    I burned out last year (after a decade of fulltime programming jobs) and am on a sabbatical now. With all the self-examination I've started to figure out some of the root causes of my burnout, and one of the major ones is basically this: there was never any real closure in any of the work I've ever done. It was always a case of getting into an open-ended support/maintenance grind and going stale. When I first entered the industry, I had this image of programming work being very project-based. And I expected projects to have a start, beginning, and END. And then you move on and start on something totally new and fresh. Basically I never expected that a lot (most) of software work involves supporting and maintaining the same code base for open-ended long periods of time - years and even decades. That, combined with generally having itchy feet makes me think that burnout is inevitable for me, after 2-3 years, in ANY fulltime software job. All this sounds like I probably should have been a contractor instead of a fulltimer. But when I discuss this with people, a lot of them say that even THEN you can't really escape having to go back and maintain/support the stuff you worked on, over and over (eg. Coming back on support contracts, for example). The nature of software work is simply like that. There is no project closure, unlike in many other engineering fields. So my question is - Is there ANY programming work out there which is based on short to mid term projects/stints and then moving on cleanly? And is there any particular industry domain or specialization where this kind of project work is typical?

    Read the article

  • Tuesday at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 - Must See Session: “Oracle Fusion Applications: Best Practices in Integration Design Patterns”

    - by Lionel Dubreuil
    Don’t miss this “CON8685 - Oracle Fusion Applications: Best Practices in Integration Design Patterns “ session: Speakers: Rajesh Raheja - Senior Director, Development, Oracle Ravi Sankaran - Director, Applications Development, Oracle Date: Tuesday, Oct 2 Time: 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Location: Palace Hotel - Telegraph Oracle Fusion Applications provide various ways to integrate their functional capabilities with other Oracle applications as well as third-party and legacy applications. In this session, you will learn the patterns used when communicating with Oracle Fusion Applications with a SOA approach. It addresses items related to identifying the integration artifacts available, also known as assets, in Oracle Enterprise Repository; how to invoke synchronous and asynchronous Web services; importing and exporting bulk data; and any integration issues to look out for. The patterns will be applicable to on-premises and SaaS/cloud deployment modes and are indicated as such. Objectives for this session are to: Highlight the various ways to integrate with Oracle Fusion Applications Showcase use of Oracle Fusion Middleware technologies for integration Describe best practices and design patterns for integration

    Read the article

  • Tuesday at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 - Must See Session: “Oracle Fusion Applications: Best Practices in Integration Design Patterns”

    - by Lionel Dubreuil
    Don’t miss this “CON8685 - Oracle Fusion Applications: Best Practices in Integration Design Patterns “ session: Speakers: Rajesh Raheja - Senior Director, Development, Oracle Ravi Sankaran - Director, Applications Development, Oracle Date: Tuesday, Oct 2 Time: 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Location: Palace Hotel - Telegraph Oracle Fusion Applications provide various ways to integrate their functional capabilities with other Oracle applications as well as third-party and legacy applications. In this session, you will learn the patterns used when communicating with Oracle Fusion Applications with a SOA approach. It addresses items related to identifying the integration artifacts available, also known as assets, in Oracle Enterprise Repository; how to invoke synchronous and asynchronous Web services; importing and exporting bulk data; and any integration issues to look out for. The patterns will be applicable to on-premises and SaaS/cloud deployment modes and are indicated as such. Objectives for this session are to: Highlight the various ways to integrate with Oracle Fusion Applications Showcase use of Oracle Fusion Middleware technologies for integration Describe best practices and design patterns for integration

    Read the article

  • How do I prevent useless content load on the page in responsive design?

    - by Ícaro Leandro
    In responsive design, elements are hidden in the page with @media queries and display: none in CSS. Ok. In my design however browsers that have less than 800px in width should avoid loading some content at all. When accessed with on a device with more than 800px of screen, the page loads fully. In mobile devices or even on desktop with less than 800px of width some content is hidden. I want to make the page load faster for low-resolution devices and avoid loading chunks of content that the user will never see. How can I go about this?

    Read the article

  • Are there currently any modern, standardized, aptitude test for software engineering?

    - by Matthew Patrick Cashatt
    Background I am a working software engineer who is in the midst of seeking out a new contract for the next year or so. In my search, I am enduring several absurd technical interviews as indicated by this popular question I asked earlier today. Even if the questions I was being asked weren't almost always absurd, I would be tired nonetheless of answering them many times over for various contract opportunities. So this got me thinking that having a standardized exam that working software professionals could take would provide a common scorecard that could be referenced by interviewers in lieu of absurd technical interview questions (i.e. nerd hazing). Question Is there a standardized software engineering aptitude test (SEAT??) available for working professionals to take? If there isn't a such an exam out there, what questions or topics should be covered? An additional thought Please keep in mind, if suggesting a question or topic, to focus on questions or topics that would be relevant to contemporary development practices and realistic needs in the workforce as that would be the point of a standard aptitude test. In other words, no clown traversal questions.

    Read the article

  • FREE three days of online SharePoint 2010 development training for UK software houses Feb 9th to 11th

    - by Eric Nelson
    I have been working to get a SharePoint development course delivered online in February and March – online means lots of opportunities to ask questions. The first dates are now in place. The training is being delivered as a benefit for companies signed up to Microsoft Platform Ready. It is intended for UK based companies who develop software products* Agenda: Day 1 (Live Meeting 3 hours) 1:30 - 4:30 •         Getting Started with SharePoint: Understand why and how to start developing for SharePoint 2010 •         SharePoint 2010 Developer Roadmap:  Explore the new capabilities and features •         UI Enhancements: How to take advantage of the many UI enhancements including the fluent UI ribbon and  extensible dialog system. Day 2 (Live Meeting 3 hours) 1:30 - 4:30 •         Visual Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint 2010: Overview of the project and item templates and a walkthrough of the designers •         Sandboxed Solutions: The new deployment model can help mitigate the risk of deploying custom code   •         LINQ to SharePoint:  SharePoint now fully supports LINQ for querying lists Day 3 (Live Meeting 3 hours) 1:30 - 4:30 •         Client Object Model: The Client OM can be accessed via web services, via a client (JavaScript) API, and via REST •         Accessing External Data: Business Connectivity Services (BCS) enables integration with back end systems •         Workflow: A powerful mechanism to create functionality using Windows Workflow Foundation Register for FREE (and tell your colleagues – we have a pretty decent capacity) To take advantage of this you need to: Sign your company up to Microsoft Platform Ready and record your SharePoint interest against one of your companies products Read about Microsoft Platform Ready Navigate to the “Get Technical Benefits” tab for SharePoint and click on Register Today You will then ultimately get an email with details of the Live Meeting to join on the 9th. But you should also favourite the team blog for any last minute details * Such companies are often referred to as an Independent Software Vendors. My team is focused on companies that create products used by many other companies or individuals. That could be a packaged product you can buy "off the shelf" or a Web Site offering a service - the definition is actually pretty wide these days :-) What it does not include is a company building software which will only be used by its own people.

    Read the article

  • How to design a game engine in an object-oriented language?

    - by chuzzum
    Whenever I try and write a game in any object-oriented language, the first problem I always face (after thinking about what kind of game to write) is how to design the engine. Even if I'm using existing libraries or frameworks like SDL, I still find myself having to make certain decisions for every game, like whether to use a state machine to manage menus, what kind of class to use for resource loading, etc. What is a good design and how would it be implemented? What are some tradeoffs that have to be made and their pros/cons?

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303  | Next Page >