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• Best practices when creating/modeling databases?

  - by Oscar Mederos

  Hello, I learned at the University some steps to model a database: Model the problem using the Extended Entity-Relationship Model. Extract the functional dependencies Apply some algorithms to normalize the database (3NF or Boyce-Codd) Create the database I'm studying Computer Science and since I received that course I'm wondering if I always need to do those steps when creating a complex database for an specified problem. For example, do PHP / .NET / .. programmers always do that? or there are some tools to simplify that process, maybe using another way of represent the problem instead of the EERM?

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• Advice on SCRUM for the solitary developer [closed]

  - by ProfK

  Possible Duplicate: Agile for the Solo Developer I am looking for advice on the SCRUM process for a solitary developer. Most SCRUM resources I see focus on its use in a team environment, hence my question here. I'd like some guidance on structuring and managing my projects for SCRUM, with me as a solitary developer and business owner, but still occasionally including my clients for input and feedback. Areas I'm not clear on include resolving my backlog into 'sprintable' project areas and stories, defining user stories properly with a view to being digested by developer level users, defining feasible sprints for a single developer etc. Essentially I'm looking for advice on moving from using scrum in a team/office environment, with colleagues and project manager, and using chaos/cowboy-coding on my own, to assuming the role of PM myself and adopting scrum for work on my own. Any advice is welcome.

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• Is Test Driven Development viable in game development?

  - by Will Marcouiller

  As being Scrum certified, I tend to prone for Agile methodologies while developping a system, and even use some canvas from the Scrum framework to manage my day-to-day work. Besides, I am wondering whether TDD is an option in game development, if it is viable? If I believe this GD question, TDD is not much of a use in game development. Why are MVC & TDD not employed more in game architecture? I come from industrial programming where big projects with big budgets need to work flawlessly, as it could result to catastrophic scenarios if the code wasn't throroughly tested inside and out. Plus, following Scrum rules encourages meeting the due dates of your work while every single action in Scrum is time-boxed! So, I agree when in the question linked above they say to stop trying to build a system, and start writing the game. It is quite what Scrum says, try not to build the perfect system, first: make it work by the Sprint end. Then, refactor the code while working in the second Sprint if needed! I understand that if not all departments responsible for the game development use Scrum, Scrum becomes useless. But let's consider for a moment that all the departments do use Scrum... I think that TDD would be good to write bug-free code, though you do not want to write the "perfect" system/game. So my question is the following: Is TDD viable in game development anyhow?

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• What are the best practices for rapid prototyping using exclusively HTML/CSS/JS

  - by charlax

  I'm developing a prototype of a web application. I want to only use HTML, CSS and Javascript. I prefer to use my text editor and not having to learn (or pay, for that matter) a new tool like Axure. What would be, to your mind, the best practices? To me there are many qualities for a good prototype: Quickly developed Easy to improve Fair fidelity as regards UX (this disqualifies tools like Omnigraffle or PowerPoint that are more dedicated to wireframing) I trying to learn as quickly as possible, but I would like to know, based on your experience, on how you managed to be both quick and agile. Reference: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/prototyping-with

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• Web application Project management methodologie

  - by dutchiexl

  I am looking to streamline my company's web development process. Including analysis. I myself am specialized in XP and Scrum. But we are building web application with a process cycle of 3-4 weeks and a lifetime of 1-4 months. When a project is sold, only then the project managers (= people who do analysis but know nothing about it = a small flow chart and some screen shots as analysis) What is happening is: A LOT of change requests Minimal development time Minimal analysis time NOW: the main question :) can you recommend me some methodologies and books to read for the entire project management ? Thanks in advance @Edit, I myself was looking at a combination of SCRUM for the management with flowcharts, + RAD/LD for development, and trying to distilate something from that.

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• How do "custom software companies" deal with technical debt?

  - by andy

  What are "custom software companies"? By "custom software companies" I mean companies that make their money primarily from building custom, one off, bits of software. Example are agencies or middle-ware companies, or contractors/consultants like Redify. What's the opposite of "custom software companies"? The oposite of the above business model are companies that focus on long term products, whether they be deployable desktop/mobile apps, or SaaS software. A sure fire way to build up technical debt: I work for a company that attempts to focus on a suite of SaaS products. However, due to certain constraints we sometimes end up bending to the will of certain clients and we end building bits of custom software that can only be used for that client. This is a sure fire way to incur technical debt. Now we have a bit of software to maintain that adds nothing to our core product. If custom work is a sure fire way to build technical debt, how do agencies handle it? So that got me thinking. Companies who don't have a core product as the center of their business model, well they're always doing custom software work. How do they cope with the notion of technical debt? How does it not drive them into technical bankruptcy?

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• I need advice on how to best handle an e-commerce situation

  - by Mohamad

  I recently moved to Brazil and started a small subscription based service company. The payment gateway market is under-developed in Brazil, and implementing a local solution is too expensive for me. My requirements are a payment gateway that will automatically process monthly recurrent billing, and that will allow me to manually charge my customers when needed. They would also have to deal with storage and security. I'm leaning towards manually processing payments myself as a restaurant would do, for example, using small swipe machines. Unfortunately, this would require me to store credit card information and I would rather not, but I feel it's my only option. Can anyone give me advice on how to tackle this problem? Do I have other options? If I decide to store credit card information, what should I keep in mind and how should I go about it? I have moderate skills in programming, and through tenacity I can get most things done. I'm afraid that this might be out of my league, however.

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• Is "code that generates code" really all that great?

  - by Jaxo

  I was looking through CodePen's "popular pens" and I noticed this cool little spiral animation somebody made with a seemingly ridiculously small amount of code. This is quite impressive until you click the headings for HTML and CSS to show the "compiled" versions of the same code. Suddenly the 3 lines of HAML and ~40 lines of SCSS turns into a gigantic monster of repetition. Here's where my question comes in: Is it acceptable to do something like this in practice? Don't get me wrong - I love using preprocessors to help me write code faster, but in some cases it looks like it's an automatic copy-paste machine.

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• Scrolling a WriteableBitmap

  - by Skoder

  I need to simulate my background scrolling but I want to avoid moving my actual image control. Instead, I'd like to use a WriteableBitmap and use a blitting method. What would be the way to simulate an image scrolling upwards? I've tried various things buy I can't seem to get my head around the logic: //X pos, Y pos, width, height Rect src = new Rect(0, scrollSpeed , 480, height); Rect dest = new Rect(0, 700 - scrollSpeed , 480, height); //destination rect, source WriteableBitmap, source Rect, blend mode wb.Blit(destRect, wbSource, srcRect, BlendMode.None); scrollSpeed += 5; if (scrollSpeed > 700) scrollSpeed = 0; If height is 10, the image is quite fuzzy and moreso if the height is 1. If the height is a taller, the image is clearer, but it only seems to do a one to one copy. How can I 'scroll' the image so that it looks like it's moving up in a continuous loop? (The height of the screen is 700).

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• How to become a "faster" programmer?

  - by Nick Gotch

  My last job evaluation included just one weak point: timeliness. I'm already aware of some things I can do to improve this but what I'm looking for are some more. Does anyone have tips or advice on what they do to increase the speed of their output without sacrificing its quality? How do you estimate timelines and stick to them? What do you do to get more done in shorter time periods? Any feedback is greatly appreciated, thanks,

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• Why do people use programming books?

  - by Alex Hope O'Connor

  I find that when someone asks what is the best way to learn how to program, people usually provide them with references to a bunch texts written by various authors. However I don't believe many people at all learn to program from books? I find that they are usually faced with a challenge and then use programming as tool to overcome it. For example I 'got into' programming because I wanted to start a server for a game I was playing, so I googled and read through the support for that particular server and now I am a employed software engineer, using only the skills I developed (and then further developed) by coding C# scripts for a not very popular server package. So my question is, do people generally find it easier to learn from these books? I know I have looked at a few of them and found them far too 'dry' to encourage me to finish it.

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• Tips for achieving "continual" delivery

  - by Ben

  A team is experiencing difficulty releasing software on a frequent basis (once every week). What follows is a typical release timeline: During the iteration: Developers work on stories on the backlog on short-lived (this is enthusiastically enforced) feature branches based on the master branch. Developers frequently pull their feature branches into the integration branch, which is continually built and tested (as far as the test coverage goes) automatically. The testers have the ability to auto-deploy integration to a staging environment and this occurs multiple times per week, enabling continual running of their test suites. Every Monday: there is a release planning meeting to determine which stories are "known good" (based on the testers' work), and hence will be in the release. If there is a known issue with a story, the source branch is pulled out of integration. no new code (only bug fixes requested by the testers) may be pulled into integration on this Monday to ensure the testers have a stable codebase to cut a release from. Every Tuesday: The testers have tested the integration branch as much as they possibly can have given the time available and there are no known bugs so a release is cut and pushed out to the production nodes slowly. This sounds OK in practise, but we have found that it is incredibly difficult to achieve. The team sees the following symptoms "subtle" bugs are found on production that were not identified on the staging environment. last minute hot-fixes continue into the Tuesday. problems on the production environment require roll-backs which blocks continued development until a successful live deployment is achieved and the master branch can be updated (and hence branched from). I think test coverage, code quality, ability to regression test quickly, last minute changes and environmental differences are at play here. Can anyone offer any advice regarding how best to achieve "continual" delivery?

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• Switching between levels, re-initialize existing structure or create new one?

  - by Martino Wullems

  This is something I've been wondering for quite a while. When building games that exist out of multiple levels (platformers, shmups etc) what is the prefered method to switch between the levels? Let's say we have a level class that does the following: Load data for the level design (tiles), enemies, graphics etc. Setup all these elements in their appriopate locations and display them Start physics and game logic I'm stuck between the following 2 methods: 1: Throw away everything in the level class and make a new one, we have to load an entirely new level anyway! 2: pause the game logic and physics, unload all currents assets, then re-initialize those components with the level data for the new level. They both have their pros and cons. Method 1 is alot easier and seems to make sense since we have to redo everything anyway. But method 2 allows you to re-use exisiting elements which might save resources and allows for a smoother transfer to the new level.

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• Inspiring the method of teaching. Example- C++ :)

  - by Ashwin

  A year ago I graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering. Considering C++ as the first choice of programming language I have been in the process of learning C++ in many ways. At first - five years back - I had many conceptions, most of which were so abstract to me. It started when I knew almost everything about Structs in C and nothing about Classes in C++. I went through a great time experimenting them all and learning a lot. I had a hard time evaluating Procedural programming vs Object-Oriented Programming. Deciding when to choose Procedural or Object-Oriented Programming took a great deal of patience for me. I knew that I cannot underestimate any of these Programming styles... Though Procedural programming is often a better choice than simple sequential unstructured programming, when solving problems with procedural programming, we usually divide one problem into several steps in order regarded as functions. Then we call these functions one by one to get the result of the problem. When solving problems with Object Oriented Priciples we divide one problem into several classes and form the interaction between them. Evaluating these two at the beginning (as a learner) required a lot of inspiration and thoughts. Instructing to think step by step. Relative concepts to understand deeply. Intensive interests to contrast both solving in both POP and OOP. If you were ever a mentor: What ideas/methods would you teach to students in which it will Inspire them to learn a programming language (in general, computer sciences)?

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• Methods of ordering function definitions in code

  - by xralf

  When I work on some programming project (usually command line application in Python with many switches), I'm usually creating about 30 and more functions. Most of the functions are in one file (except some helpers that I utilize in more projects). Some of the functions are called on particular switch (like -p or --print) but many functions do some helper computations, print operations or database operations because I don't want to main functions be too large. When I have an idea for a new functionality I often put new functions randomly to the file. Should I think more about it and place it to some particular place? Are there some methods for this?

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• How to create games with scrolling?

  - by Chandan Shetty SP

  In games like city story or we farm how do they implement scrolling? To do scrolling using UIScrollView the EAGLView size has to be bigger. In those games EAGLView size look like more than 1024*1024. But there is limitation in viewport size in iphone devices(in 3G iphone max is 1024). I played those games in 3G iphone they are working fine. Any idea how they implemented their scrolling mechanism?

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• How to sell logistical procedures that require less time to perform but more finesse?

  - by foampile

  I am working with a group where part of the responsibilities is managing a certain set of configuration files which, of course, have the same skeleton/structure across different environments but different values (like server, user, this setting, that setting etc.). Pretty classic scenario... The problem is that everyone just goes and modifies final, environment-specific files and basically repeats the work for every environment. Personally, I am offended to have to peform repeatable, mundane tasks in this day and age when we have technologies to automate it all. So I devised a very simple procedure of abstracting the files into templates, stubbing env-specific values with parameters and then wrote a simple Perl script that, given a template and an environment matrix with env-specific values for each param, produces the final file. So this is nothing special, cutting-edge or revolutionary -- I am pretty sure that 20 years ago efficient places did their CM like that. However, that requires that changes are made at the template level and then distributed across different environments using the script and not making changes in the final environment-specific files. This is where I am encountering resentment as they feel "comfortable" doing it their old, manual, repeated labor way. Personally, I don't have a problem with them working hard rather than smart but the problem is when I have to build on top of someone else's changes, I have to merge their changes into my template from a specific file, which takes time and is grueling. So my question is how to go about selling my method, which makes it so much faster in an environment that is resentful to change and where most things have to be done at the level of the least competent team member?

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• Are there some methodologies to define a game's rules?

  - by bAN

  I would like to write some rules for a game I have in head but I don't know how to do that. So are there some methodologies or modeling tools (like UML) to do that? I'm thinking about a kind of tree of competencies or some kind of map to be sure that the game is well balanced. I always wonder how the team who imagines some powers in magic the gathering for example does it. Do they have some diagrams to be sure the powers or creatures they imagine are well balanced for the entire game? I'm pretty noob in the game creation so I'll be happy with some directions to seek.. Technical terms or basic principles to learn. Thanks for help.

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• Is writing recursive functions hard for you?

  - by null

  I'm taking a computer science course now. I feel it is so hard compared to my polytechnic IT course. I can't understand recursive methods well. How do you manage to get your brain to understand it? When the recursive method returns back, my brain can not trace it nicely. Is there a better way to understand recursion? How do you start learning it? Is it normal that feel that it is very hard at then beginning? Look at the example, I'm very surprised how can I write this if it appears in exam. public class Permute { public static void main(String[] args) { new Permute().printPerms(3); } boolean[] used; int max; public void printPerms(int size) { used = new boolean[size]; max = size; for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { used[i] = false; } perms(size, ""); } public void perms(int remaining, String res) { if (remaining == 0) { System.out.println(res); } else { for (int i = 0; i < max; i++) { if (!(used[i])) { used[i] = true; perms(remaining - 1, res + " " + i); used[i] = false; } } } } }

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• Can we ask idea of software?

  - by jailed abroad

  I am new to Programmers Stack Exchange. I have read the faq. I have a basic question here that can I ask about the idea of developing software. Just for sake of example, I have started a job in software house and my CEO hands me a project. And I have no idea or flow chart in my mind through which I would develop that application. For example client needs an E-diary. I have idea of WPF but lacking flow of app. So my question is can I ask about the app that "what would be the idea to develop the application"?

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• User input and Automated input seperation

  - by tpaksu

  I have a mysql db and I have an automation script which modifies the data inside once a day. And, these columns may have changed by an user manually. What is the best approach to make the system only update the automated data, not the manually edited ones? I mean yes, flagging the cell which is manually edited is one way to do it, but I want to know if there's another way to accomplish this? Just curiosity.

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• How can I work efficiently on a desktop sharing workflow?

  - by OSdave

  I am a freelance Magento developer, based in Spain. One of my clients is a Germany based web development company and they're asking me something I think it's impossible. OK, maybe not impossible but definitely not a preferred way of doing things. One of their clients has a Magento Entreprise installation, which is the paid (and I think proprietary) version of Magento. Their client has forbidden them to download the files from his server. My client is asking me now to study one particular module of the application in order to interact with it from a custom module I'll have to develop. As they have a read-only ssh access to their client's server, they came up with this solution: Set up a desktop/screen sharing session between one of their developer's station and mine, alongsides with a skype conversation. Their idea is that I'll say to the developer: show me file foo.php The developer will then open this foo.php file in his IDE. I'll have then to ask him to show me the bar method, the parent class, etc... Remember that it's a read-only session, so forget about putting a Zend_Debug::log() anywhere, and don't even think about a xDebug breakpoint (they don't use any kind of debugger, sic). Their client has also forbidden them to use any version control system... My first reaction when they explained to me this was (and I actually did say it outloud to them): Well, find another client. but they took it as a joke from me. I understand that in a business point of view rejecting a client is not a good practice, but I think that the condition of this assignment make it impossible to complete. At least according to my workflow. I mean, the way I work or learn a new framework/program is: download all files and copy of db on my pc create a git repository and a branch run the application locally use breakpoints use Zend_Debug::log() write the code and tests commit to git repo upload to (test/staging first if there is one, production if not) server I have agreed to try the desktop sharing session, although I think it will be a waste of time. On one hand I don't mind, they pay me for that time, but I know me and I don't like the sensation of loosing my time. On the other hand, I have other clients for whom I can work according to my workflow. I am about to say to them that I cannot (don't want to) do it. Well, I'll first try this desktop sharing session: maybe I'm wrong and it can actually work. But I like to consider myself as a professional, and I know that I don't know everything. So I try to keep an open mind and I am always willing to learn new stuff. So my questions are: Can this desktop-sharing workflow work? What should be done in order to take the most of it? Taking into account all the obstacles (geographic locations, no local, no git), is there another way for me to work on that project?

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• Is there a formal name for gradually initiating software changes?

  - by g .

  At times when we develop new features or functionality, we gradually "turn it on" to ensure a smooth transition and minimal impact for users. Instead of one big sudden change, we are able to control with the configuration aspects of the functionality that make it more or less intrusive to the user. This is all done in the same release/version of the software, so no software development changes are required (unless bugs turn up that need to be fixed). For example, initially we may only perform logging or analysis of data without acting upon it. Or we make something optional for a period of time before it becomes compulsory. The idea is that this reduces the potential for problems either on the technical side as well as unexpected changes by the user. The question is, is there a formal name for this approach?

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• How do you keep down your urge to learn many things [closed]

  - by devsundar

  One of the difficulties i have is to lower my urge to learn new things (Languages, tools, frameworks etc.). I know it's good to stay the bleeding edge, but at the same time i want to learn things properly. I really see that i need to strike a balance between staying bleeding edge and knowing things properly. For example: Before choosing Arch (Desktop), Ubuntu(Server) and Knoppix(Portable) -- depending on situation -- as favourite distributions. Virtually i have tried all popular linux distributions. You name any popular linux (Redhat, Ubuntu, Arch, Suse, Knoppix, Slax, Slackware) i have tried it for some time. In fact i have spent few years experimenting the operating systems. Before choosing Python, Javascript (nodejs). I have tried all the languages i cameacross Scala, Haskell, Erlang, Ruby, Python, Perl, Scheme. Same applies for database. All popular db RDBMS (Oracle, Mysql, Postgres, SQLite[Favourite] etc) and NoSQL (Mongo, Couch, Neo4j etc.). Advantages i see: We get a overall picture of the technologies/tools/languages. It's useful to select the right tool for the job. We develop a taste and choose the One we like. Disadvantages: I feel that i spend somuch time and see a need to strike a balance. In summary, for e.g. If i see a blog post in HackerNews about CofeeScript i will try it out irrespective of what i am currently learning (Say Haskell). I switch back to learning Haskell, then again i see DART i check it out. And this continues.. Effectively i take more time to learn Haskell, but learnt about other new stuff on the way. The quetion i have is how do you strike a balance between staying bleeding edge and learning properly.

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• Is there a formal name for gradually activating software changes?

  - by g .

  At times when we develop new features or functionality, we gradually "turn it on" to ensure a smooth transition and minimal impact for users. Instead of one big sudden change, we are able to control with the configuration aspects of the functionality that make it more or less intrusive to the user. This is all done in the same release/version of the software, so no software development changes are required (unless bugs turn up that need to be fixed). For example, initially we may only perform logging or analysis of data without acting upon it. Or we make something optional for a period of time before it becomes compulsory. The idea is that this reduces the potential for problems either on the technical side as well as unexpected changes by the user. The question is, is there a formal name for this approach?

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