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• Great examples of self-paced labs and exercises

  - by Mayo

  It is probably a safe bet that many of us are what they call Tactile / Kinesthetic Learners meaning that we learn best when we are physically doing something as opposed to listening to an online tutorial or reading a book. My goal with this question is to derive a list of books or online resources that serve as superb examples of self-paced programming labs and exercises. For example, I was extremely impressed with the SportsStore exercise in Steven Sanderson's Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework. The exercise spanned multiple chapters and gradually introduced new topics. I was also impressed with the materials associated with the Windows Azure Boot Camp. The demos and lab materials, accessible through the website, allow us to practice and reinforce what we can read about in articles and books. Please list any examples you might have, one per submission, below. The question is language/platform agnostic. Suggestions can be generic or specific to a given technology (PHP, SQL Server, Azure, Flash, Objective C, etc.). I only ask that the answers pertain to labs and exercises that relate to programming. My hope is that the best answers will float to the top allowing developers to review the top answers and find another programming topic that can be learned through example.

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• For the professional programmers - do you still write code for fun at home ? [closed]

  - by Led

  Possible Duplicate: Do you ever code just for fun? I've been working as a 'professional' coder for about 11 years. (I've just turned 33.) When I talk to my collegues, I find that most of them actually don't program any more in their spare time - 8 (or 10 :)) hours a day at their job is enough for them. A difference between me and them might be that I was always programming for fun (demoscene stuff etc.) which is why I got into the field, while most of them picked up programming later on (at university or whatever). When I get home my head is always full of ideas, so usually I have a hobby-project going on. Is it weird to spend 8 hours a day programming, and then get home, have dinner, and do some more ? For me the reasons are just - ideas : trying stuff - wanting to develop something all by myself, so when it's finished I can claim it as my own victory How about you ? And if you do, do you have other reasons to do so ? Edit: And if you've got sparetime projects, it might be fun to tell us a bit about it :) Spamming a link to your site/hobbyproject won't be frowned upon here ! Edit2: Vote for this if you want to encourage companies to make monitors that'll give you a nice tan ! ;-)

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• How to TDD Asynchronous Events?

  - by Padu Merloti

  The fundamental question is how do I create a unit test that needs to call a method, wait for an event to happen on the tested class and then call another method (the one that we actually want to test)? Here's the scenario if you have time to read further: I'm developing an application that has to control a piece of hardware. In order to avoid dependency from hardware availability, when I create my object I specify that we are running in test mode. When that happens, the class that is being tested creates the appropriate driver hierarchy (in this case a thin mock layer of hardware drivers). Imagine that the class in question is an Elevator and I want to test the method that gives me the floor number that the elevator is. Here is how my fictitious test looks like right now: [TestMethod] public void TestGetCurrentFloor() { var elevator = new Elevator(Elevator.Environment.Offline); elevator.ElevatorArrivedOnFloor += TestElevatorArrived; elevator.GoToFloor(5); //Here's where I'm getting lost... I could block //until TestElevatorArrived gives me a signal, but //I'm not sure it's the best way int floor = elevator.GetCurrentFloor(); Assert.AreEqual(floor, 5); } Edit: Thanks for all the answers. This is how I ended up implementing it: [TestMethod] public void TestGetCurrentFloor() { var elevator = new Elevator(Elevator.Environment.Offline); elevator.ElevatorArrivedOnFloor += (s, e) => { Monitor.Pulse(this); }; lock (this) { elevator.GoToFloor(5); if (!Monitor.Wait(this, Timeout)) Assert.Fail("Elevator did not reach destination in time"); int floor = elevator.GetCurrentFloor(); Assert.AreEqual(floor, 5); } }

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• Anonymous union definition/declaration in a macro GNU vs VS2008

  - by Alan_m

  I am attempting to alter an IAR specific header file for a lpc2138 so it can compile with Visual Studio 2008 (to enable compatible unit testing). My problem involves converting register definitions to be hardware independent (not at a memory address) The "IAR-safe macro" is: #define __IO_REG32_BIT(NAME, ADDRESS, ATTRIBUTE, BIT_STRUCT) \ volatile __no_init ATTRIBUTE union \ { \ unsigned long NAME; \ BIT_STRUCT NAME ## _bit; \ } @ ADDRESS //declaration //(where __gpio0_bits is a structure that names //each of the 32 bits as P0_0, P0_1, etc) __IO_REG32_BIT(IO0PIN,0xE0028000,__READ_WRITE,__gpio0_bits); //usage IO0PIN = 0x0xAA55AA55; IO0PIN_bit.P0_5 = 0; This is my comparable "hardware independent" code: #define __IO_REG32_BIT(NAME, BIT_STRUCT)\ volatile union \ { \ unsigned long NAME; \ BIT_STRUCT NAME##_bit; \ } NAME; //declaration __IO_REG32_BIT(IO0PIN,__gpio0_bits); //usage IO0PIN.IO0PIN = 0xAA55AA55; IO0PIN.IO0PIN_bit.P0_5 = 1; This compiles and works but quite obviously my "hardware independent" usage does not match the "IAR-safe" usage. How do I alter my macro so I can use IO0PIN the same way I do in IAR? I feel this is a simple anonymous union matter but multiple attempts and variants have proven unsuccessful. Maybe the IAR GNU compiler supports anonymous unions and vs2008 does not. Thank you.

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• How should a programmer go about getting started with Flash/Flex/ActionScript?

  - by Graphics Noob

  What is the shortest path between zero (ie no flash related development software on my computer or information about where to obtain it or get started) to running a "hello world" ActionScript? I'm hoping for an answer that gives step by step instructions about exactly what software is needed to get started, an example of some "hello world" code, and instructions for compiling and running the code. I've spent more time than I think should be necessary researching this question and not found much information. Hopefully this question will be found by programmers like me who want to get started with Flash/Flex/ActionScript (After my morning of researching I still don't even know what terminology to use so I'll just throw it all out there). ActionScript tutorials I've found are focused on programming concepts, ie logic, branching, OOP, etc, and some even have code examples to download, but not a single one I've found explains how to compile and run the code. They all seem to assume you have an IDE standing by but no knowledge of programming, exactly the opposite of the position I'm in. Here are the most related SO questions I've found: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/59083/what-is-adobe-flex-is-it-just-flash-ii http://stackoverflow.com/questions/554899/getting-started-with-flex-3-ui-actionscript-programming http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2123105/how-to-learn-flex

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• Core principles, rules, and habits for CS students

  - by Asad Butt

  No doubt there is a lot to read on blogs, in books, and on Stack Overflow, but can we identify some guidelines for CS students to use while studying? For me these are: Finish your course books early and read 4-5 times more material relative to your course work. Programming is the one of the fastest evolving professions. Follow the blogs on a daily basis for the latest updates, news, and technologies. Instead of relying on assignments and exams, do at least one extra, non-graded, small to medium-sized project for every programming course. Fight hard for internships or work placements even if they are unpaid, since 3 months of work 1 year at college. Practice everything, every possible and impossible way. Try doing every bit of your assignments project yourself; i.e. fight for every inch. Rely on documentation as the first source for help and samples, Google, and online forums as the last source. Participate often in online communities and forums to learn the best possible approach for every solution to your problem. (After doing your bit.) Make testing one of your habits as it is getting more important everyday in programming. Make writing one of your habits. Write something productive once or twice a week and publish it.

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• Ultra-Portable Laptop or Tablet PC for Development and Sketching

  - by Nelson LaQuet

  I am a software developer that primarily writes in PHP, [X]HTML, CSS, Javascript, C# and C++. I use Eclipse for web development, Visual Studio 2008 for C++ and C# work, TortoiseSVN, Subversion server for local repositories, SQL Server Express, Apache and MYSQL. I also use Office 2007 for word processing and spreadsheets and use Vista Ultimate 64 as my primary operating system. The only other things I do on my laptop are watch movies, surf the internet and listen to music. I currently have a Acer Aspire 5100 (1.4 GHz AMD Turion X2, 2 GB of RAM and a 15.4" screen). This thing does not cut it in performance or portability, and in addition, my DVD drive failed. And before anybody posts about vista: I have had XP Professional 32 on it for the last two years, and recently upgraded to Vista 64. It is actually faster (with areo disabled) then XP; so it is not the OS that is causing the laptop to be slow. I usually sketch a lot, for explaining things, developing user interfaces and software architecture. Because of my requirements, I was thinking about a Lenovo X61 Tablet PC. It outperforms my current laptop, is significantly more portable, and... is a tablet. My question is: do any other software developers use this (or other tablets) for programming? Does it help to be able to sketch on the computer itself? And is it capable of being a good development machine? Will it handle the above software listed? If not, what is the best ultra-portable laptop that is good for programming? Or are ultra-portable laptops even good for programming? I could manage with my 15.4" screen, but am spoiled by my two 19" at my home desktop and my job's workstation.

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• The Implications of Modern Day Software Development Abstractions

  - by Andreas Grech

  I am currently doing a dissertation about the implications or dangers that today's software development practices or teachings may have on the long term effects of programming. Just to make it clear: I am not attacking the use abstractions in programming. Every programmer knows that abstractions are the bases for modularity. What I want to investigate with this dissertation are the positive and negative effects abstractions can have in software development. As regards the positive, I am sure that I can find many sources that can confirm this. But what about the negative effects of abstractions? Do you have any stories to share that talk about when certain abstractions failed on you? The main concern is that many programmers today are programming against abstractions without having the faintest idea of what the abstraction is doing under-the-covers. This may very well lead to bugs and bad design. So, in you're opinion, how important is it that programmers actually know what is going below the abstractions? Taking a simple example from Joel's Back to Basics, C's strcat: void strcat( char* dest, char* src ) { while (*dest) dest++; while (*dest++ = *src++); } The above function hosts the issue that if you are doing string concatenation, the function is always starting from the beginning of the dest pointer to find the null terminator character, whereas if you write the function as follows, you will return a pointer to where the concatenated string is, which in turn allows you to pass this new pointer to the concatenation function as the *dest parameter: char* mystrcat( char* dest, char* src ) { while (*dest) dest++; while (*dest++ = *src++); return --dest; } Now this is obviously a very simple as regards abstractions, but it is the same concept I shall be investigating. Finally, what do you think about the issue that schools are preferring to teach Java instead of C and Lisp ? Can you please give your opinions and your says as regards this subject? Thank you for your time and I appreciate every comment.

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• Doing coding in Linux through a virtual machine on Windows VS partitioning

  - by ihaveitnow

  I already have experience with setting up virtual machines, running them and other minor tasks. Im a gamer, so I wont get rid of windows (for now at least...) but I do want to be a great programmer and to be involved with the Open-Source community. Id like to know if its a good idea to do my programming in linux through a virtual machine, vs giving it a partitioned section of the HDD. Id like to know about performance pros and cons and functionality. All responses are appreciated, thanks in advance. The type of programming I intend to dive into : Android Dev, Web Dev, Desktop Dev...More Android and Web right now though. So im looking at C#,C,C++,Java,PHP,HTML,MySQL...Off the top of the dome. I do web designing as well, so dreamweaver is added as an "essential". But im sure I can do dreamweaver files and upload them to the server after programming in Linux...Right? And any info on IDE's in Linux for the above mentioned are appreciated, but i would prefer going the coding route and understanding the essence of whats happening "under the covers" Thanks to all for reading, I appreciate it. Hope this isnt confusing :S

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• Leveraging hobby experience to get a job

  - by Bernard

  Like many other's I began programming at an early age. I started when I was 11 and I learned C when I was 14 (now 26). While most of what I did were games just to entertain myself I did everything from low level 2D graphics, and binary I/O, to interfacing with free API's, custom file systems, audio, 3D animations, OpenGL, web sites, etc. I worked on a wide variety of things trying to make various games. Because of this experience I have tested out of every college level C/C++ programming course I have ever been offered. In the classes I took, my classmates would need a week to do what I finished in class with an hour or two of work. I now have my degree now and I have 2 years of experience working full time as a web developer however I would like to get back into C++ and hopefully do simulation programming. Unfortunately I have yet to do C++ as a job, I have only done it for testing out of classes and doing my senior project in college. So most of what I have in C++ is still hobby experience and I don't know how to best convey that so that I don't end up stuck doing something too low level for me. Right now I see a job offer that requires 2 years of C++ experience, but I have at least 9 (I didn't do C++ everyday for the last 14 years). How do I convey my experience? How much is it truly worth? and How do I get it's full value? The best thing that I can think of is a demo and a portfolio, however that only comes into play after an interview has been secured. I used a portfolio to land my current job. All answers and advice are appreciated.

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• Keeping updated with the latest technologies.

  - by Prashanth

  I am a software developer and I have been programming since the past six years. I simply love the mental challenge involved in trying to come up with solutions to hard problems, reading up programming literature, blogs by prominent developers and so on. I work on Microsoft platform and I have trouble keeping up with the pace at which various frameworks are rolled out. Remoting,WCF,ASP.NET,ASP.NET MVC, LINQ, WPF, WWF, OSLO, ADO.NET data services, DSL tools etc etc. Even understanding all these frameworks at an abstract level and see how they are all tied up with MS vision itself is a major hurdle. Now when you add other non microsoft technologies, programming languages etc to the equation, I wonder how do people manage? Given that there are only 24 hours in a day, how does one keep himself updated about so many technology changes that happen everyday? My question is , is it even worth doing that? The thing is, I am also interested in other fields such as literature, science. I try my best to at least gain a superficial understanding of what is happening in other fields of my interest and don't want to give up on that :)

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• Career day in kindergarten

  - by Péter Török

  I was invited to the kindergarten group of my elder daughter to talk and answer the kids' questions about my profession. There are 26 kids of age 4-6 in the group, plus 3 teachers who are fairly scared of anything related to programming and IT themselves, but bold enough to learn new tricks. I would have about 20-30 minutes, without projector or anything. They have an old computer though, which by its look may be a 486, and I am not even sure if it's functioning. My research turned up excellent earlier threads, with lots of good tips: How would you explain your job to a 5-year old? Career Day: how do I make “computer programmer” sound cool to 8 year olds? What things can I teach a group of children about programming in one day? My situation is different from each of the above though: the latter ones are concerned with older children, while the first one is about talking to a single kid (or elder person)—a group of 20 is a whole different challenge. How can I teach the kids and their teachers about programming in a fun way?

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• How can someone with no experience learn how to program?

  - by Mugatu

  A friend and I have been coming up with website ideas for a couple years, mostly just jotting them down whenever we come up with a good, useful idea when browsing the web. For the past 6 months we've hired a couple different programmers to make a couple of the sites for us, but have been disappointed with how it's gone. Been too slow and too many miscommunications for our liking. So like the saying goes if you want something done right do it yourself, we're going to do it ourselves. I know nothing about programming, I've never written a line of code in my life. I consider myself very good with math and about as logical as you can get, but I have zero real-life programming knowledge. The sites we want to make are all pretty 'Web 2.0'ish', meaning user-generated content, commenting on posts, pages that change on the fly, etc. So here are some of my questions for anyone who's been there before: Is there a language you'd recommend learning first? Something that is a good indicator how most other languages work? What web programming languages do you recommend learning first based on popularity both now and the future. I don't want to learn a language that's going to be outdated by the time I'm an expert at it. Any specific books you'd recommend? Any general advice you'd give to someone literally starting at square zero for coding who plans on being in it for the long haul?

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• Is C++ (one of) the best language to learn at first

  - by AlexV

  C++ is one of the most used programming language in the world since like 25+ years. My first job as programmer was in C++ and I coded in C++ everyday for nearly 4 years. Now I do mostly PHP, but I will forever cherish this C++ background. C++ has helped me understand many "under the hood" features/behaviors/restrictions of many other (and different) programming languages like PHP and Delphi. I'm a full time programmer for 6+ years now and since I have a quite varied programming background I often get questions by "newbies" as where to start to become a "good" programmer. I think C++ is one of the best language to start with because it gives you a real usefull experience that will last and will teach you how things work under the hood. It's not the easier one to learn for a newbie, but in my opinion it's one that will reward in the long term. I would like to know your opinion on this matter to add to my arguments when I guide "newbies". After this introduction, here's my question : Is C++ (one of) the best language to learn at first for you. Since it's subjective, I've marked this question as community wiki. EDIT: This question is not about why Java (or C# or any other language) is better than C++ to start with, it's about what's make C++ a good choice or not a good choice to learn as one of your firsts languages. For example, for me C++ made me understand how the memory works. Now today in many languages everything is managed by the garbadge collector and some people don't even know that. I'm glad I know how it works underneath and I think it can help you to write better code.

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• Communicating with all network computers regardless of IP address

  - by Stephen Jennings

  I'm interested in finding a way to enumerate all accessible devices on the local network, regardless of their IP address. For example, in a 192.168.1.X network, if there is a computer with a 10.0.0.X IP address plugged into the network, I want to be able to detect that rogue computer and preferrably communicate with it as well. Both computers will be running this custom software. I realize that's a vague description, and a full solution to the problem would be lengthy, so I'm really looking for help finding the right direction to go in ("Look into using class XYZ and ABC in this manner") rather than a full implementation. The reason I want this is that our company ships imaged computers to thousands of customers, each of which have different network settings (most use the same IP scheme, but a large percentage do not, and most do not have DHCP enabled on their networks). Once the hardware arrives, we have a hard time getting it up on the network, especially if the IP scheme doesn't match, since there is no one technically oriented on-site. Ideally, I want to design some kind of console to be used from their main workstation which looks out on the network, finds all computers running our software, displays their current IP address, and allows you to change the IP. I know it's possible to do this because we sell a couple pieces of custom hardware which have exactly this capability (plug the hardware in anywhere and view it from another computer regardless of IP), but I'm hoping it's possible to do in .NET 2.0, but I'm open to using .NET 3.5 or P/Invoke if I have to.

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• What are some of the core principles needed to master Multi threading using Delphi?

  - by Gary Becks

  I am kind of new to programming in general (about 8 months with on and off in delphi and a little python here and there) and I am in the process of buying some books. I am interested in learning about concurrent programming and building multi threaded apps using Delphi. Whenever I do a search for "multithreading delphi" or "delphi multithreading tutorial" I seem to get conflicting results as some of the stuff is about using certain libraries (omnithread library) and other stuff seems to be more geared towards programmers with more experience. I have studied quite a few books on delphi and for the most part they seem to kind of skim the surface and not really go into depth on the subject. I have a friend who is a programmer (he uses c++) who recommends I learn what is actually going on with the underlying system when using threads as opposed to jumping into how to actually implement them in my programs first. On amazon.com there are quite a few books on concurrent programming but none of them seem to be made with Delphi in mind. Basically I need to know what are the main things I should be focused on learning before jumping into using threads, if I can/should attempt to learn them using books that are not specifically aimed at delphi developers (don't want to confuse myself reading books with a bunch of code examples in other languages right now) and if there are any reliable resources/books on the subject that anyone here could recommend. Thanks in advance.

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• How is external memory, internal memory, and cache organized?

  - by goldenmean

  Consider a system as follows:= A hardware board having say ARM Cortex-A8 and Neon Vector coprocessor, and Embedded Linux OS running on Cortex-A8. On this environment, if there is some application - say, a video decoder is executing - then: How is it decided that which buffers would be in external memory, which ones would be allocated in internal SRAM, etc. When one says calloc/malloc on such system/code, the pointer returned is from which memory: internal or external? Can a user make buffers to be allocated to the memories of his choice (internal/external)? In ARM architectures, there is another memory called as Tightly coupled memory (TCM). What is that and how can user enable and use it? Can I declare buffers in this memory? Do I need to see the memory map (if any) of the hardware board to understand about all these different physical memories present in a typical hardware board? How much of a role does the OS play in distinguishing these different memories? Sorry for multiple questions, but i think they all are interlinked.

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• Is there really such a thing as "being good at math"?

  - by thezhaba

  Aside from gifted individuals able to perform complex calculations in their head, I'm wondering if proficiency in mathematics, namely calculus and algebra, has really got to do with one's natural inclination towards sciences, if you can put it that way. A number of students in my calculus course pick up material in seemingly no time whereas I, personally, have to spend time thinking about and understanding most concepts. Even then, if a question that requires a bit more 'imagination' comes up I don't always recognize the concepts behind it, as is the case with calculus proofs, for instance. Nevertheless, I refuse to believe that I'm simply not made for it. I do very well in programming and software engineering courses where a lot of students struggle. At first I could not grasp what they found to be so difficult, but eventually I realized that having previous programming experience is a great asset -- once I've seen and made practical use of the programming concepts learning about them in depth in an academic setting became much easier as I have then already seen their use "in the wild". I suppose I'm hoping that something similar happens with mathematics -- perhaps once the practical idea behind a concept (which authors of textbooks sure do a great job of concealing..) is evident, understanding the seemingly dry and symbolic ideas and proofs would be more obvious? I'm really not sure. All I'm sure of is I'd like to get better at calculus, but I don't yet understand why some of us pick it up easily while others have to spend considerable amounts of time on it and still not have complete understanding if an unusual problem is given.

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• About Interview structure for test automation lab developers

  - by Ikaso

  Hi, I am interviewing new applicants for a team that is doing test automation on our company product(s). The team is composed of junior software developers and a team leader. The product runs on windows and has both managed and unmanaged parts. The test automation is done on both client side (user mode and kernel mode) and server side (IIS, Windows Services, backend). We are doing mainly intergration tests and black box tests. I am trying to figure out how to organize my interview. My overall idea is to ask about a project they have done, then ask some technical questions (multithreading, GC, design patterns) and one programming question. Please note that there is another interview done before me with 2 programming questions. My programming question is rather simple (for example: reversing a singly-linked linked list). My coworkers think that my questions will not find good developers since my questions are rather simple and well known, but so far most of the applicants fail those questions. My questions are: Should I change the structure of my interview for this kind of job? What questions do you ask to figure our if the applicant is test oriented? (Maybe I should provide a buggy implementation of a problem and let them find the bugs and then ask them about what tests they would have done) Regards,

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• System Calls in windows & Native API?

  - by claws

  Recently I've been using lot of Assembly language in *NIX operating systems. I was wondering about the windows domain. Calling convention in linux: mov $SYS_Call_NUM, %eax mov $param1 , %ebx mov $param2 , %ecx int $0x80 Thats it. That is how we should make a system call in linux. Reference of all system calls in linux: Regarding which $SYS_Call_NUM & which parameters we can use this reference : http://docs.cs.up.ac.za/programming/asm/derick_tut/syscalls.html OFFICIAL Reference : http://kernel.org/doc/man-pages/online/dir_section_2.html Calling convention in Windows: ??? Reference of all system calls in Windows: ??? Unofficial : http://www.metasploit.com/users/opcode/syscalls.html , but how do I use these in assembly unless I know the calling convention. OFFICIAL : ??? If you say, they didn't documented it. Then how is one going to write libc for windows without knowing system calls? How is one gonna do Windows Assembly programming? Atleast in the driver programming one needs to know these. right? Now, whats up with the so called Native API? Is Native API & System calls for windows both are different terms referring to same thing? In order to confirm I compared these from two UNOFFICIAL Sources System Calls: http://www.metasploit.com/users/opcode/syscalls.html Native API: http://undocumented.ntinternals.net/aindex.html My observations: All system calls are beginning with letters Nt where as Native API is consisting of lot of functions which are not beginning with letters Nt. System Call of windows are subset of Native API. System calls are just part of Native API. Can any one confirm this and explain.

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• BackOffice Database Application FrontEnd - Program in C#/VB.Net or PHP?

  - by HK1

  I'm working on a project where there will be a MySQL database containing data that will mostly be displayed on the web using PHP. However, there is a need here for a back-office data entry application (linked to the same MySQL database) that is feature rich and easy to use. what I'm trying to understand is where we are at with web-based frontends. I find that there are still so many events and features that I can make use of in a Windows Desktop GUI written in something like C#, VB.Net or MS Access. I don't have a lot of experience programming UI for web but it's my impression that it's still more difficult and takes longer to get similar or the same functionality using non-MS web technologies (I dislike ASP.net, sorry) as compared to programming the desktop portion in a traditional desktop application language like C#, VB.Net, or MS Access. jQuery and jQuery UI are definately making things easier. Also, there's very rich online applications like Google Docs and Zoho but it's my impression that these are programmed by some of the top web UI programmers around, not to mention that it takes longer to write it and intensive testing to make it work in all of your target browsers. It also takes extra time and code to "block" browsers that don't meet the requirements. What programming language would you recommend? I know I may not have given enough information here but I'm not sure what I'm missing. If you have questions just leave a comment below so I can edit this post and answer the questions.

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• Why C++ is (one of) the best language to learn at first [closed]

  - by AlexV

  C++ is one of the most used programming language in the world since like 25+ years. My first job as programmer was in C++ and I coded in C++ everyday for nearly 4 years. Now I do mostly PHP, but I will forever cherish this C++ background. C++ has helped me understand many "under the hood" features/behaviors/restrictions of many other (and different) programming languages like PHP and Delphi. I'm a full time programmer for 6+ years now and since I have a quite varied programming background I often get questions by "newbies" as where to start to become a "good" programmer. I think C++ is one of the best language to start with because it gives you a real usefull experience that will last and will teach you how things work under the hood. It's not the easier one to learn for a newbie, but in my opinion it's the one who will reward the most in long term. I would like to know your opinion on this matter to add to my arguments when I guide "newbies". After this introduction, here's my question : Why C++ is for you (one of) the best language to learn at first. Since it's subjective, I've marked this question as community wiki.

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• Type-safe generic data structures in plain-old C?

  - by Bradford Larsen

  I have done far more C++ programming than "plain old C" programming. One thing I sorely miss when programming in plain C is type-safe generic data structures, which are provided in C++ via templates. For sake of concreteness, consider a generic singly linked list. In C++, it is a simple matter to define your own template class, and then instantiate it for the types you need. In C, I can think of a few ways of implementing a generic singly linked list: Write the linked list type(s) and supporting procedures once, using void pointers to go around the type system. Write preprocessor macros taking the necessary type names, etc, to generate a type-specific version of the data structure and supporting procedures. Use a more sophisticated, stand-alone tool to generate the code for the types you need. I don't like option 1, as it is subverts the type system, and would likely have worse performance than a specialized type-specific implementation. Using a uniform representation of the data structure for all types, and casting to/from void pointers, so far as I can see, necessitates an indirection that would be avoided by an implementation specialized for the element type. Option 2 doesn't require any extra tools, but it feels somewhat clunky, and could give bad compiler errors when used improperly. Option 3 could give better compiler error messages than option 2, as the specialized data structure code would reside in expanded form that could be opened in an editor and inspected by the programmer (as opposed to code generated by preprocessor macros). However, this option is the most heavyweight, a sort of "poor-man's templates". I have used this approach before, using a simple sed script to specialize a "templated" version of some C code. I would like to program my future "low-level" projects in C rather than C++, but have been frightened by the thought of rewriting common data structures for each specific type. What experience do people have with this issue? Are there good libraries of generic data structures and algorithms in C that do not go with Option 1 (i.e. casting to and from void pointers, which sacrifices type safety and adds a level of indirection)?

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• Binding the selected value from a combobox to a member of a class.

  - by CM

  I have a combobox that is bound to a an instance of a class. I need to get the user's selection ID of the combobox and set a class property equal to it. For example, here is the class: public class robot { private string _ID; private string _name; private string _configFile; [XmlElement("hardware")] public hardware[] hardware; public string ID { get { return _ID; } set { _ID = value; } } public string name { get { return _name; } set { _name = value; } } public string configFile { get { return _configFile; } set { _configFile = value; } } } Now here is the code to bind the combobox to an instance of that class. This display's the name of each robot in the array in the combobox. private void SetupDevicesComboBox() { robot[] robot = CommConfig.robot; cmbDevices.DataSource = robot; cmbDevices.DisplayMember = "name"; cmbDevices.ValueMember = "ID"; } But now I can't seem to take what the user selects and use it. How do I use the "ID" of what the user select's from the combobox? Settings.selectedRobotID = cmbDevices.ValueMember; //This just generates "ID" regardless of what is selected. I also tried Settings.selectedRobotID = cmbDevices.SelectedItem.ToString(); //This just generates "CommConfig.robot" Thanks

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• Does the Java Memory Model (JSR-133) imply that entering a monitor flushes the CPU data cache(s)?

  - by Durandal

  There is something that bugs me with the Java memory model (if i even understand everything correctly). If there are two threads A and B, there are no guarantees that B will ever see a value written by A, unless both A and B synchronize on the same monitor. For any system architecture that guarantees cache coherency between threads, there is no problem. But if the architecture does not support cache coherency in hardware, this essentially means that whenever a thread enters a monitor, all memory changes made before must be commited to main memory, and the cache must be invalidated. And it needs to be the entire data cache, not just a few lines, since the monitor has no information which variables in memory it guards. But that would surely impact performance of any application that needs to synchronize frequently (especially things like job queues with short running jobs). So can Java work reasonably well on architectures without hardware cache-coherency? If not, why doesn't the memory model make stronger guarantees about visibility? Wouldn't it be more efficient if the language would require information what is guarded by a monitor? As i see it the memory model gives us the worst of both worlds, the absolute need to synchronize, even if cache coherency is guaranteed in hardware, and on the other hand bad performance on incoherent architectures (full cache flushes). So shouldn't it be more strict (require information what is guarded by a monitor) or more lose and restrict potential platforms to cache-coherent architectures? As it is now, it doesn't make too much sense to me. Can somebody clear up why this specific memory model was choosen? EDIT: My use of strict and lose was a bad choice in retrospect. I used "strict" for the case where less guarantees are made and "lose" for the opposite. To avoid confusion, its probably better to speak in terms of stronger or weaker guarantees.

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