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• How to manipulate *huge* amounts of data

  - by Alejandro

  Hi there! I'm having the following problem. I need to store huge amounts of information (~32 GB) and be able to manipulate it as fast as possible. I'm wondering what's the best way to do it (combinations of programming language + OS + whatever you think its important). The structure of the information I'm using is a 4D array (NxNxNxN) of double-precission floats (8 bytes). Right now my solution is to slice the 4D array into 2D arrays and store them in separate files in the HDD of my computer. This is really slow and the manipulation of the data is unbearable, so this is no solution at all! I'm thinking on moving into a Supercomputing facility in my country and store all the information in the RAM, but I'm not sure how to implement an application to take advantage of it (I'm not a professional programmer, so any book/reference will help me a lot). An alternative solution I'm thinking on is to buy a dedicated server with lots of RAM, but I don't know for sure if that will solve the problem. So right now my ignorance doesn't let me choose the best way to proceed. What would you do if you were in this situation? I'm open to any idea. Thanks in advance!

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• Most useful parallel programming algorithm?

  - by Zubair

  I recenty asked a question about parallel programming algorithms which was closed quite fast due to my bad ability to communicate my intent: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2407631/what-is-the-most-useful-parallel-programming-algorithm-closed I had also recently asked another question, specifically: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2407493/is-mapreduce-such-a-generalisation-of-another-programming-principle/2407570#2407570 The other question was specifically about map reduce and to see if mapreduce was a more specific version of some other concept in parallel programming. This question (about a useful parallel programming algorithm) is more about the whole series of algorithms for parallel programming. You will have to excuse me though as I am quite new to parallel programming, so maybe MapReduce or something that is a more general form of mapreduce is the "only" parallel programming construct which is available, in which case I apologise for my ignorance

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• AJI Report #19 | Scott K Davis and his son Tommy on Gamification and Programming for Kids

  - by Jeff Julian

  We are very excited about this show. John and Jeff sat down with Scott Davis and his son Tommy to talk about Gamification and Programming for Kids. Tommy is nine years old and the Iowa Code Camp was his second time presenting. Scott and Tommy introduce a package called Scratch that was developed by MIT to teach kids about logic and interacting with programming using sprites. Tommy's favorite experience with programming right now is Lego Mindstorms because of the interaction with the Legos and the development. Most adults when they get started with development also got started with interacting more with the physical machines. The next generation is given amazing tools, but the tools tend to be sealed and the physical interaction is not there. With some of these alternative hobby platforms like Legos, Arduino, and .NET Micro Framework, kids can write some amazing application and see their code work with physical movement and interaction with devices and sensors. In the second half of this podcast, Scott talks about how companies can us Gamification to prompt employees to interact with software and processes in the organization. We see gamification throughout the consumer space and you need to do is open up the majority of the apps on our phones or tablets and there is some interaction point to give the user a reward for using the tool. Scott gets into his product Qonqr which is described as the board game Risk and Foursquare together. Scott gets into the different mindsets of gamers (Bartle Index) and how you can use these mindsets to get the most out of your team through gamification techniques. Listen to the Show Site: http://scottkdavis.com/ Twitter: @ScottKDavis LinkedIn: ScottKDavis Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/ Lego Mindstorms: http://mindstorms.lego.com/ Bartle Test: Wikipedia Gamification: Wikipedia

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• Programming concepts taken from the arts and humanities

  - by Joey Adams

  After reading Paul Graham's essay Hackers and Painters and Joel Spolsky's Advice for Computer Science College Students, I think I've finally gotten it through my thick skull that I should not be loath to work hard in academic courses that aren't "programming" or "computer science" courses. To quote the former: I've found that the best sources of ideas are not the other fields that have the word "computer" in their names, but the other fields inhabited by makers. Painting has been a much richer source of ideas than the theory of computation. — Paul Graham, "Hackers and Painters" There are certainly other, much stronger reasons to work hard in the "boring" classes. However, it'd also be neat to know that these classes may someday inspire me in programming. My question is: what are some specific examples where ideas from literature, art, humanities, philosophy, and other fields made their way into programming? In particular, ideas that weren't obviously applied the way they were meant to (like most math and domain-specific knowledge), but instead gave utterance or inspiration to a program's design and choice of names. Good examples: The term endian comes from Gulliver's Travels by Tom Swift (see here), where it refers to the trivial matter of which side people crack open their eggs. The terms journal and transaction refer to nearly identical concepts in both filesystem design and double-entry bookkeeping (financial accounting). mkfs.ext2 even says: Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done Off-topic: Learning to write English well is important, as it enables a programmer to document and evangelize his/her software, as well as appear competent to other programmers online. Trigonometry is used in 2D and 3D games to implement rotation and direction aspects. Knowing finance will come in handy if you want to write an accounting package. Knowing XYZ will come in handy if you want to write an XYZ package. Arguably on-topic: The Monad class in Haskell is based on a concept by the same name from category theory. Actually, Monads in Haskell are monads in the category of Haskell types and functions. Whatever that means...

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• What are Web runtime environments and programming languages

  - by Bradly Spicer

  I've been looking into the details behind these two different categories: Web runtime environments Web application programming languages I believe I have the correct information and have phrased it correctly but I am unsure. I have been searching for a while but only find snippets of information or what I can see as useless information (I could be wrong). Here are my descriptions so far: Web runtime environments - A Run-time environment implements part of the core behaviour of any computer language and allows it to be modified via an API or embedded domain-specific language. A web runtime environment is similar except it uses web based languages such as Java-script which utilises the core behaviour a computer language. Another example of a Run-time environment web language is JsLibs which is a standable JavaScript development runtime environment for using JavaScript as a general all round scripting language. JavaScript is often used to create responsive interfaces which improve the user experience and provide dynamic functionality without having to wait for the server to react and direct to another page. Web application programming languages - A web application program language is something that mimics a traditional desktop application within a web page. For example, using PHP you can create forms and tables which use a database similar to that of Microsoft Excel. Some of the other languages for web application programming are: Ajax Perl Ruby Here are some of the resources used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application_development http://code.google.com/p/jslibs/ I would like some confirmation that the descriptions I have created are correct as I am still slightly unsure as to whether I have hit the nail on the head.

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• Empirical evidence for choice of programming paradigm to address a problem

  - by Graham Lee

  The C2 wiki has a discussion of Empirical Evidence for Object-Oriented Programming that basically concludes there is none beyond appeal to authority. This was last edited in 2008. Discussion here seems to bear this out: questions on whether OO is outdated, when functional programming is a bad choice and the advantages and disadvantages of AOP are all answered with contributors' opinions without reliance on evidence. Of course, opinions of established and reputed practitioners are welcome and valuable things to have, but they're more plausible when they're consistent with experimental data. Does this evidence exist? Is evidence-based software engineering a thing? Specifically, if I have a particular problem P that I want to solve by writing software, does there exist a body of knowledge, studies and research that would let me see how the outcome of solving problems like P has depended on the choice of programming paradigm? I know that which paradigm comes out as "the right answer" can depend on what metrics a particular study pays attention to, on what conditions the study holds constant or varies, and doubtless on other factors too. That doesn't affect my desire to find this information and critically appraise it. It becomes clear that some people think I'm looking for a "turn the crank" solution - some sausage machine into which I put information about my problem and out of which comes a word like "functional" or "structured". This is not my intention. What I'm looking for is research into how - with a lot of caveats and assumptions that I'm not going into here but good literature on the matter would - certain properties of software vary depending on the problem and the choice of paradigm. In other words: some people say "OO gives better flexibility" or "functional programs have fewer bugs" - (part of) what I'm asking for is the evidence of this. The rest is asking for evidence against this, or the assumptions under which these statements are true, or evidence showing that these considerations aren't important. There are plenty of opinions on why one paradigm is better than another; is there anything objective behind any of these?

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• Can I assume interface oriented programming as a good object oriented programming?

  - by david

  I have been programming for decades but I have not been used to object oriented programming. But for recenet years, I had a great opportunity to learn OOP, its principles, and a lot of patterns that are great. Since I've learned OOP, I tried to apply them to a couple of projects and found those projects successful. Unfortunately I didn't follow extreme programming that suggests writing test first, mainly because their time frame were tight. What I did for those projects were Identify all necessary classes and create them with proper properties and methods whenever there is dependency between classes, write interface between them see if there is any patterns for certain relationships between classes to replace By successful, I meant that it was quick development effort, the classes can be reused better, and flexible enough so that another programmer does not have to change something else to fix another part. But I wonder if this is a good practice. Of course, I know I need to put writing unit tests first in my work process. But other than that, is there any problem with this approach - creating lots of interfaces - in long term?

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• Adult Swim Brings Their Programming Lineup to iOS Devices

  - by ETC

  If you’re a fan of the programming lineup on Adult Swim–such as Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and The Boondocks–you can now get the entire lineup for free on your iOS device. Adult Swim’s new iOS app streams Adult Swim’s programming lineup including popular shows such as Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Family Guy, The Boondocks, Metalocalypse. Hit up the link below to read more and grab a free copy. Adult Swim [iTunes App Store via Download Squad] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Make Efficient Use of Tab Bar Space by Customizing Tab Width in Firefox See the Geeky Work Done Behind the Scenes to Add Sounds to Movies [Video] Use a Crayon to Enhance Engraved Lettering on Electronics Adult Swim Brings Their Programming Lineup to iOS Devices Feel the Chill of the South Atlantic with the Antarctica Theme for Windows 7 Seas0nPass Now Offers Untethered Apple TV Jailbreaking

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• Learning Programming from scratch

  - by David542

  I am entirely new to programming, other than basic HTML/CSS knowledge. I want to learn programming as quickly and efficiently as possible, and I'm willing to put in the time (at least 70 hours a week). The reason I want to learn is because I have a startup that I've written a business plan for and have prototyped in Photoshop (both front-end and back-end pages). My goals is to have a prototype of the site up within 6 months. I have a good aptitude for math (A's in all math courses up through DiffEq and Linear Algebra). I assume learning programming from scratch can be a daunting task -- not because it is particularly difficult, but because there are so many areas and so much information. I want to make sure that I learn as efficiently as possible and have individuals (in addition to Google) to solicit advice from and that will help me when I get stuck or have questions. I know with other's help, my learning experience will be both more productive and enjoyable. What is the best way to find people that will help me in this? What are some good 'live' resources in addition to asking questions on Stack Overflow? Thank you very much for your time and help.

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• Interview questions for programming tutor?

  - by Emmett Gear

  My family is looking for a programming/computer science tutor. Personally, I want to learn Java or some other brand of web programming. I am best described as a PC "power user." I have never programmed in the past and would like a good jump start. I am a very quick learner and do not expect the tutor to have to teach me the ultra basic stuff that I can learn myself. My son also needs a programming tutor. He just got into Carnegie Mellon as a computer science major. Having done only robotics and mathematics in the past he is very nervous that he does not have the same level of knowledge as his future classmates. I need some help coming up with a list of questions to ask potential tutors and some criteria to judge them by. Thanks! Edit: So far I have come up with just the obvious... Where did you receive your education? What languages are you familiar with? How long have you been tutoring? What made you decide to become a tutor? What software projects have you worked on? What work references can you give me? How much do you charge?

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• Pure functional programming and game state

  - by Fu86

  Is there a common technique to handle state (in general) in a functional programming language? There are solutions in every (functional) programming language to handle global state, but I want to avoid this as far as I could. All state in a pure functional manner are function parameters. So I need to put the whole game state (a gigantic hashmap with the world, players, positions, score, assets, enemies, ...)) as a parameter to all functions which wants to manipulate the world on a given input or trigger. The function itself picks the relevant information from the gamestate blob, do something with it, manipulate the gamestate and return the gamestate. But this looks like a poor mans solution for the problem. If I put the whole gamestate into all functions, there is no benefit for me in contrast to global variables or the imperative approach. I could put just the relevant information into the functions and return the actions which will be taken for the given input. And one single function apply all the actions to the gamestate. But most functions need a lot of "relevant" information. move() need the object position, the velocity, the map for collision, position of all enemys, current health, ... So this approach does not seem to work either. So my question is how do I handle the massive amount of state in a functional programming language -- especially for game development?

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• How should I approach learning programming languages?

  - by gcc

  I am a student of computer engineering. I have never done any programming before, and as you can understand, I don't know how to study it or how to make my own programs. My English is weak [edited for clarity - ed], and so if you don't like the choices I list, please feel free to provide others. How should I study? How should I learn programming languages? Study completely from a book. Don't study from a book, just try writing code. A mix of the two; study from a book, then try writing code. Study half the book, then write the code by hand on paper. Listed to the teacher, then try to solve general problems (those not from any specific chapter). I have send that question to stackoverflow before when I am at first year. Now, I want to construct webpage to guide fresh students by giving advise of yours and mines.Maybe, you wonder Why I want to construct webpage , I just want help the other student. I am giving a link to that question < http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3389465/how-should-i-study-programming-languagess If you have other advice, feel free. EDIT: This web cite, I think , is constructed to share member's life experience and also I know these experiences is valuable . So I have no right to want your opinion, But I want your opinion / experience even if you think it is not so helpful to other

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• Web Host which provides Latex and embedded programming [duplicate]

  - by Polymer

  This question already has an answer here: How to find web hosting that meets my requirements? 5 answers Hopefully this is a reasonable place to ask this question. I'll confess I'm a little green when it comes to web programming and websites in general (though not programming). I'm a Math and Physics person. I want to make a personal webpage containing a Math and Physics blog. Ideally the blog should support latex, and embedded programs. This would allow me to write, say, an equation for an orbit and then show what the orbit would look like (perhaps letting the reader configure parameters). The programming language can be javascript (though it isn't my favorite language). My budget is around 5 dollars a month. Does anybody have suggestions for a good Shared host with these kind of requirements? And a small aside, It would be useful if I can move the website content, since I might live at a university in the nearish future. They would have servers which could support such a webpage.

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• PHP usage outside the web?

  - by Anto

  As you probably are aware, PHP is not only usable for web programming, but also desktop programming. It even has things such as GTK bindings. Do you have any examples of places where PHP is actually used outside web programming for anything more than just very trivial programs? Do you know of any desktop program which uses PHP to some extent (e.g. as Python could be used in a C program)? Note: I don't program in PHP myself, I'm just curious

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• Is it worth being computer languages polyglot?

  - by Anton Barkowski

  You can often hear that programmers should learn many different languages to improve themselves. I still go to school and don't have big programming experience (a little more than year). But what was noble intention to improve programming skills turned into some kind of OCD: I feel that I won't calm down until I learn all relatively known programming languages. And here is question itself: Will being programming languages polyglot actually help you (And I don't mean usual "Programmer should know at least all paradigms", I mean really all languages you usually hear about)? Does anybody have similar experience? Does it help with job/skills/career? How often are you able to apply those skills?

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• Performance of concurrent software on multicore processors

  - by Giorgio

  Recently I have often read that, since the trend is to build processors with multiple cores, it will be increasingly important to have programming languages that support concurrent programming in order to better exploit the parallelism offered by these processors. In this respect, certain programming paradigms or models are considered well-suited for writing robust concurrent software: Functional programming languages, e.g. Haskell, Scala, etc. The actor model: Erlang, but also available for Scala / Java (Akka), C++ (Theron, Casablanca, ...), and other programming languages. My questions: What is the state of the art regarding the development of concurrent applications (e.g. using multi-threading) using the above languages / models? Is this area still being explored or are there well-established practices already? Will it be more complex to program applications with a higher level of concurrency, or is it just a matter of learning new paradigms and practices? How does the performance of highly concurrent software compare to the performance of more traditional software when executed on multiple core processors? For example, has anyone implemented a desktop application using C++ / Theron, or Java / Akka? Was there a boost in performance on a multiple core processor due to higher parallelism?

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• Code Line Delimiter [closed]

  - by John Isaiah Carmona

  Possible Duplicate: Why are statements in many programming languages terminated by semicolons? I just found out that R Programming Language, which is somewhat belong to the C family (I'm not sure about this but it uses {} instead of begin end), uses a new line as a delimiter for a new line of code instead of the semi-colon ;. Why is some programming language designed to use a new line instead of a symbol like semi-colon which I think will make the code more readable? Phyton total = item_one + \ item_two + \ item_three C total = item_one + item_two + item_three;

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• Starting small custom development company, type of niches to target?

  - by Rick

  This is kind of a new years thing for me as I want to be more entrepreneurial going forward with programming and this is kind of a general question for anyone who may share the same ambitions as me. I have experience with web programming and, although I work full time for a company doing programming, I have some freelance programmers that I work with / employ for small projects. I want to see about taking things to the next level as far as building a small company doing custom development. I'm just not sure how to figure out what niches to target as far as what type of apps to build as demos, etc. I was thinking mobile (maybe Android or Iphone) but am just curious if anyone has any advice / resources. A lot of "web development" seems to end up being just using a CMS like Joomla or Wordpress, for smaller sites, so I want to figure a way to steer clear of this crowd and find some opportunity with companies / entrepreneurs who actually need real programming development done to build apps. Thanks for any advice

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• Building a complete program?

  - by Bob

  Reading books, watching videos, and reviewing tutorials is all very easy. Taking notes and actually learning the material may be slightly harder, but even then, anyone with a decent brain and a fair amount of interest, it's easy enough (not to mention, fun). The thing is, it doesn't really prepare you to write a full program or website. Let's say you're those teens (only in highschool, no true (college level) computer science or programming courses, and no real world experience), and you come out with Groupon. Or even Mark Zuckerburg, sure he was a genius, and he was a very capable programmer... but how? How do you recommend that people who are not necessarily new to programming, but new to programming real applications and real programmers go about developing it? What is the "development process" - especially for single programmers (or maybe 2-3 teens)? Also, as far as web development goes, what is the process? Was something like Facebook or Groupon written with a framework (like CodeIgniter or Zend for PHP)? Or do they develop their own frameworks? I'm not asking how to come up with a great idea, but how to implement great ideas in an effective way? Does anyone have advice? I've read a couple of books on both C and C++ (primarily the C Programming Language and the C++ Programming Language) and taken AP Computer Science (as well as read a few additional books on Java and OOP). I also have read a few tutorials on PHP (and CodeIgniter) and Python. But I'm still in highschool, and I'm technically not even old enough to work at an internship for a few more months.

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• Diving into a computer science career [closed]

  - by Willis

  Well first I would like to say thank you for taking the time to read my question. I'll give you some background. I graduated two years ago from a local UC in my state with a degree in cognitive psychology and worked in a neuroscience lab. During this time I was exposed to some light Matlab programming and other programming tidbits, but before this I had some basic understanding of programming. My father worked IT for a company when I was younger so I picked up his books and took learned things along the way growing up. Naturally I'm an inquisitive person, constantly learning, love challenges, and have had exposure to some languages. Yet at this point I was fully pursue it as a career and always had this in the back of my head. Where do I start? I'm 25 and feel like I still have time to make a switch. I've immersed myself in the terminal/command prompt to start, but which language do I focus on? I've read the A+ book and planning to take on the exam, then the networking exam, but I want to deal with more programming, development, and troubleshooting. I understand to get involved in open source, but where? I took the next step and got a small IT assistant job, but doesn't really deal with programming, development, just troubling shooting and small network issues. Thank you!

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• Is there any online programmer's community, focusing on core game development?

  - by kasperov

  I am looking for a stricktly/mostly programming oriented game community, focusing on core graphics, middleware, and research. Any suggestions? Edit: I am specifically looking for people/community/group, having expertise in core game engine design/programming, directx/opengl reservoir.(And specifically targetting the programming part only).(The platforms can be anything from PC to xbox360/ps3/wii and even 3ds.)

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• AppKata - Enter the next level of programming exercises

  - by Ralf Westphal

  Doing CodeKatas is all the rage lately. That´s great since widely accepted exercises are important to further the art. They provide a means of communication across platforms and allow to compare results which is part of any deliberate practice. But CodeKatas suffer from their size. They are intentionally small, so they can be done again and again. Repetition helps to build habit and to dig deeper. Over time ever new nuances of the problem or one´s approach become visible. On the other hand, though, their small size limits the methods, techniques, technologies that can be applied. To improve your TDD skills doing CodeKatas might be enough. But what about other skills? Developing on a software in a team, designing larger pieces of software, iteratively releasing software… all this and more is kinda hard to train using the tiny CodeKata problems. That´s why I´d like to present here another kind of kata I call Application Kata (or just AppKata). AppKatas are larger programming problems. They require the development of “whole” applications, i.e. not just one class or method, but bunches of classes accessible through a user interface. Also AppKata problems always are split into iterations. To get the most out of them, just look at the requirements of one iteration at a time. This way you´re closer to reality where requirements evolve in unexpected ways. So if you´re looking for more of a challenge for your software development skills, check out these AppKatas – or invent your own. AppKatas are platform independent like CodeKatas. Use whatever programming language and IDE you like. Also use whatever approach to software development you like. Just be sensitive to how easy it is to evolve your code across iterations. Reflect on what went well and what not. Compare your solutions with others. Or – for even more challenge – go for the “Coding Carousel” (see below). CSV Viewer An application to view CSV files. Sounds easy, but watch out! Requirements sometimes drastically change if the customer is happy with what you delivered. Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 Iteration 5 (to come) Questionnaire If you like GUI programming, this AppKata might be for you. It´s about an app to let people fill out questionnaires. Also this problem might be interestin for you, if you´re into DDD. Iteration 1 Iteration 2 (to come) Iteration 3 (to come) Iteration 4 (to come) Tic Tac Toe For developers who like game programming. Although Tic Tac Toe is a trivial game, this AppKata poses some interesting infrastructure challenges. The GUI, however, stays simple; leave any 3D ambitions at home ;-) Iteration 1 Iteration 2 (to come) Iteration 3 (to come) Iteration 4 (to come) Iteration 5 (to come) Coding Carousel There are many ways you can do AppKatas. Work on them alone or in a team, pitch several devs against each other in an AppKata contest – or go around in a Coding Carousel. For the Coding Carousel you need at least 3 dev teams (regardless of size). All teams work on the same iteration at the same time. But here´s the trick: After each iteration the teams swap their code. Whatever they did for iteration n will be the basis for changes another team has to apply in iteration n+1. The code is going around the teams like in a carousel. I promise you, that´s gonna be fun! :-)

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• Which programming language is manageable by an 11 year old kid?

  - by tangens

  Possible Duplicates: What is the easiest language to start with? What are some recommended programming resources for pre-teens? My son is 11 years old and he would like to learn a programming language. Of course his primary goal is to develop some (simple) games. Do you know of a programming language that is suitable for this situation? Summary of languages recommended in the answers Snake Wrangling for Kids (answer) Scratch (answer) Small Basic (answer) (answer) Logo NXT-G for Lego Mindstorms (answer) Alice (answer) BlueJ (answer) Squeak Smalltalk (answer) (answer) (answer) Blender Game Engine (answer) PyGame (answer) (answer) (answer) Inform (answer) Phrogram (answer) Dr Scheme (answer) eToys (answer) runrev (answer) Karel Programming (answer) Hackety Hack (answer) Visual Basic (answer) (answer) Learn to Program (answer) QBasic (answer) (answer) Visual Basic Express (answer) Processing (answer) C# (answer) JavaScript (answer) (answer) Ruby (answer) ToonTalk (answer) Flash and ActionScript (answer) StarLogo (answer) Java (answer) Kodu (answer) XNA (answer) (answer) unity3D (answer) BlitzBasic (answer)(answer) Lua (answer)

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• What trivial real-life example do you use to explain programming to total non-programmers?

  - by anon

  Programmers seem to live in a world of their own (as this site indicates), with their own vibrant culture - and their own premises and vocabulary. Once we've been in the field for a bit, we take a lot of things for granted. But I'm often faced with the question "What do you do?" Or "What is programming?" I generally try to answer this with a small, often trivial, real-world example of how programming is prevalent in our everyday lives and keeps things running. The example I use most often is an elevator - someone has to program the logic of that... And I've seen elevators that are "smart" and ones that are quite backwards and foolish. (And you can easily understand if/decision and looping from that... incorporates a lot of important programming concepts in a very small example.) I've sometimes heard people use traffic lights as an example. What example do you / would you use to explain the concept of programming to someone completely clueless?

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• Have I taken a wrong path in programming by being excessively worried about code elegance and style?

  - by Ygam

  I am in a major stump right now. I am a BSIT graduate, but I only started actual programming less than a year ago. I observed that I have the following attitude in programming: I tend to be more of a purist, scorning unelegant approaches to solving problems using code I tend to look at anything in a large scale, planning everything before I start coding, either in simple flowcharts or complex UML charts I have a really strong impulse on refactoring my code, even if I miss deadlines or prolong development times I am obsessed with good directory structures, file naming conventions, class, method, and variable naming conventions I tend to always want to study something new, even, as I said, at the cost of missing deadlines I tend to see software development as something to engineer, to architect; that is, seeing how things relate to each other and how blocks of code can interact (I am a huge fan of loose coupling) i.e the OOP thinking I tend to combine OOP and procedural coding whenever I see fit I want my code to execute fast (thus the elegant approaches and refactoring) This bothers me because I see my colleagues doing much better the other way around (aside from the fact that they started programming since our first year in college). By the other way around I mean, they fire up coding, gets the job done much faster because they don't have to really look at how clean their codes are or how elegant their algorithms are, they don't bother with OOP however big their projects are, they mostly use web APIs, piece them together and voila! Working code! CLients are happy, they get paid fast, at the expense of a really unmaintainable or hard-to-read code that lacks structure and conventions, or slow executions of certain actions (which the common reasoning against would be that internet connections are much faster these days, hardware is more powerful). The excuse I often receive is clients don't care about how you write the code, but they do care about how long you deliver it. If it works then all is good. Now, did my "purist" approach to programming may have been the wrong way to start programming? Should I just dump these purist concepts and just code the hell up because I have seen it: clients don't really care how beautifully coded it is?

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