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• Conversation as User Assistance

  - by ultan o'broin

  Applications User Experience members (Erika Web, Laurie Pattison, and I) attended the User Assistance Europe Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. We were impressed with the thought leadership and practical application of ideas in Anne Gentle's keynote address "Social Web Strategies for Documentation". After the conference, we spoke with Anne to explore the ideas further. Anne Gentle (left) with Applications User Experience Senior Director Laurie Pattison In Anne's book called Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, she explains how user assistance is undergoing a seismic shift. The direction is away from the old print manuals and online help concept towards a web-based, user community-driven solution using social media tools. User experience professionals now have a vast range of such tools to start and nurture this "conversation": blogs, wikis, forums, social networking sites, microblogging systems, image and video sharing sites, virtual worlds, podcasts, instant messaging, mashups, and so on. That user communities are a rich source of user assistance is not a surprise, but the extent of available assistance is. For example, we know from the Consortium for Service Innovation that there has been an 'explosion' of user-generated content on the web. User-initiated community conversations provide as much as 30 times the number of official help desk solutions for consortium members! The growing reliance on user community solutions is clearly a user experience issue. Anne says that user assistance as conversation "means getting closer to users and helping them perform well. User-centered design has been touted as one of the most important ideas developed in the last 20 years of workplace writing. Now writers can take the idea of user-centered design a step further by starting conversations with users and enabling user assistance in interactions." Some of Anne's favorite examples of this paradigm shift from the world of traditional documentation to community conversation include: Writer Bob Bringhurst's blog about Adobe InDesign and InCopy products and Adobe's community help The Microsoft Development Network Community Center ·The former Sun (now Oracle) OpenDS wiki, NetBeans Ruby and other community approaches to engage diverse audiences using screencasts, wikis, and blogs. Cisco's customer support wiki, EMC's community, as well as Symantec and Intuit's approaches The efforts of Ubuntu, Mozilla, and the FLOSS community generally Adobe Writer Bob Bringhurst's Blog Oracle is not without a user community conversation too. Besides the community discussions and blogs around documentation offerings, we have the My Oracle Support Community forums, Oracle Technology Network (OTN) communities, wiki, blogs, and so on. We have the great work done by our user groups and customer councils. Employees like David Haimes reach out, and enthusiastic non-employee gurus like Chet Justice (OracleNerd), Floyd Teter and Eddie Awad provide great "how-to" information too. But what does this paradigm shift mean for existing technical writers as users turn away from the traditional printable PDF manual deliverables? We asked Anne after the conference. The writer role becomes one of conversation initiator or enabler. The role evolves, along with the process, as the users define their concept of user assistance and terms of engagement with the product instead of having it pre-determined. It is largely a case now of "inventing the job while you're doing it, instead of being hired for it" Anne said. There is less emphasis on formal titles. Anne mentions that her own title "Content Stacker" at OpenStack; others use titles such as "Content Curator" or "Community Lead". However, the role remains one essentially about communications, "but of a new type--interacting with users, moderating, curating content, instead of sitting down to write a manual from start to finish." Clearly then, this role is open to more than professional technical writers. Product managers who write blogs, developers who moderate forums, support professionals who update wikis, rock star programmers with a penchant for YouTube are ideal. Anyone with the product knowledge, empathy for the user, and flair for relationships on the social web can join in. Some even perform these roles already but do not realize it. Anne feels the technical communicator space will move from hiring new community conversation professionals (who are already active in the space through blogging, tweets, wikis, and so on) to retraining some existing writers over time. Our own research reveals that the established proponents of community user assistance even set employee performance objectives for internal content curators about the amount of community content delivered by people outside the organization! To take advantage of the conversations on the web as user assistance, enterprises must first establish where on the spectrum their community lies. "What is the line between community willingness to contribute and the enterprise objectives?" Anne asked. "The relationship with users must be managed and also measured." Anne believes that the process can start with a "just do it" approach. Begin by reaching out to existing user groups, individual bloggers and tweeters, forum posters, early adopter program participants, conference attendees, customer advisory board members, and so on. Use analytical tools to measure the level of conversation about your products and services to show a return on investment (ROI), winning management support. Anne emphasized that success with the community model is dependent on lowering the technical and motivational barriers so that users can readily contribute to the conversation. Simple tools must be provided, and guidelines, if any, must be straightforward but not mandatory. The conversational approach is one where traditional style and branding guides do not necessarily apply. Tools and infrastructure help users to create content easily, to search and find the information online, read it, rate it, translate it, and participate further in the content's evolution. Recognizing contributors by using ratings on forums, giving out Twitter kudos, conference invitations, visits to headquarters, free products, preview releases, and so on, also encourages the adoption of the conversation model. The move to conversation as user assistance is not free, but there is a business ROI. The conversational model means that customer service is enhanced, as user experience moves from a functional to a valued, emotional level. Studies show a positive correlation between loyalty and financial performance (Consortium for Service Innovation, 2010), and as customer experience and loyalty become key differentiators, user experience professionals cannot explore the model's possibilities. The digital universe (measured at 1.2 million petabytes in 2010) is doubling every 12 to 18 months, and 70 percent of that universe consists of user-generated content (IDC, 2010). Conversation as user assistance cannot be ignored but must be embraced. It is a time to manage for abundance, not scarcity. Besides, the conversation approach certainly sounds more interesting, rewarding, and fun than the traditional model! I would like to thank Anne for her time and thoughts, and recommend that all user assistance professionals read her book. You can follow Anne on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/annegentle. Oracle's Acrolinx IQ deployment was used to author this article.

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• Why does this valid Tkinter code crash when mixed with a bit of PyWin32?

  - by Erlog

  So I'm making a very small program for personal use in tkinter, and I've run into a really strange wall. I'm mixing tkinter with the pywin32 bindings because I really hate everything to do with the syntax and naming conventions of pywin32, and it feels like tkinter gets more done with far less code. The strangeness is happening in the transition between the pywin32 clipboard watching and my program's reaction to it in tkinter. My window and all its controls are being handled in tkinter. The pywin32 bindings are doing clipboard watching and clipboard access when the clipboard changes. From what I've gathered about the way the clipboard watching pieces of pywin32 work, you can make it work with anything you want as long as you provide pywin32 with the hwnd value of your window. I'm doing that part, and it works when the program first starts. It just doesn't seem to work when the clipboard changes. When the program launches, it grabs the clipboard and puts it into the search box and edit box just fine. When the clipboard is modified, the event I want to fire off is firing off...except that event that totally worked before when the program launched is now causing a weird hang instead of doing what it's supposed to do. I can print the clipboard contents to stdout all I want if the clipboard changes, but not put that same data into a tkinter widget. It only hangs like that if it starts to interact with any of my tkinter widgets after being fired off by a clipboard change notification. It feels like there's some pywin32 etiquette I've missed in adapting the clipboard-watching sample code I was using over to my tkinter-using program. Tkinter apparently doesn't like to produce stack traces or error messages, and I can't really even begin to know what to look for trying to debug it with pdb. Here's the code: #coding: utf-8 #Clipboard watching cribbed from ## {{{ http://code.activestate.com/recipes/355593/ (r1) import pdb from Tkinter import * import win32clipboard import win32api import win32gui import win32con import win32clipboard def force_unicode(object, encoding="utf-8"): if isinstance(object, basestring) and not isinstance(object, unicode): object = unicode(object, encoding) return object class Application(Frame): def __init__(self, master=None): self.master = master Frame.__init__(self, master) self.pack() self.createWidgets() self.hwnd = self.winfo_id() self.nextWnd = None self.first = True self.oldWndProc = win32gui.SetWindowLong(self.hwnd, win32con.GWL_WNDPROC, self.MyWndProc) try: self.nextWnd = win32clipboard.SetClipboardViewer(self.hwnd) except win32api.error: if win32api.GetLastError () == 0: # information that there is no other window in chain pass else: raise self.update_search_box() self.word_search() def word_search(self): #pdb.set_trace() term = self.searchbox.get() self.resultsbox.insert(END, term) def update_search_box(self): clipboardtext = "" if win32clipboard.IsClipboardFormatAvailable(win32clipboard.CF_TEXT): win32clipboard.OpenClipboard() clipboardtext = win32clipboard.GetClipboardData() win32clipboard.CloseClipboard() if clipboardtext != "": self.searchbox.delete(0,END) clipboardtext = force_unicode(clipboardtext) self.searchbox.insert(0, clipboardtext) def createWidgets(self): self.button = Button(self) self.button["text"] = "Search" self.button["command"] = self.word_search self.searchbox = Entry(self) self.resultsbox = Text(self) #Pack everything down here for "easy" layout changes later self.searchbox.pack() self.button.pack() self.resultsbox.pack() def MyWndProc (self, hWnd, msg, wParam, lParam): if msg == win32con.WM_CHANGECBCHAIN: self.OnChangeCBChain(msg, wParam, lParam) elif msg == win32con.WM_DRAWCLIPBOARD: self.OnDrawClipboard(msg, wParam, lParam) # Restore the old WndProc. Notice the use of win32api # instead of win32gui here. This is to avoid an error due to # not passing a callable object. if msg == win32con.WM_DESTROY: if self.nextWnd: win32clipboard.ChangeClipboardChain (self.hwnd, self.nextWnd) else: win32clipboard.ChangeClipboardChain (self.hwnd, 0) win32api.SetWindowLong(self.hwnd, win32con.GWL_WNDPROC, self.oldWndProc) # Pass all messages (in this case, yours may be different) on # to the original WndProc return win32gui.CallWindowProc(self.oldWndProc, hWnd, msg, wParam, lParam) def OnChangeCBChain (self, msg, wParam, lParam): if self.nextWnd == wParam: # repair the chain self.nextWnd = lParam if self.nextWnd: # pass the message to the next window in chain win32api.SendMessage (self.nextWnd, msg, wParam, lParam) def OnDrawClipboard (self, msg, wParam, lParam): if self.first: self.first = False else: #print "changed" self.word_search() #self.word_search() if self.nextWnd: # pass the message to the next window in chain win32api.SendMessage(self.nextWnd, msg, wParam, lParam) if __name__ == "__main__": root = Tk() app = Application(master=root) app.mainloop() root.destroy()

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• Audiobooks for programmers?

  - by Zoot

  I'm a programmer with a two-hour round trip commute to work each day. I'd like to fill some of that time with audiobooks about software development. Any audiobooks that would help me become a better programmer would be appreciated. I'm thinking that books about design patterns and non-fiction about computing history might be good here, but I'm open to anything. Keeping in mind that I will be listening to this in a car, what are the best audiobooks that I can listen to? EDIT: Many people have also suggested podcasts. This is appreciated, but since podcasts arrive in a constantly arriving stream of data rather than as a finite amount of data, ways to juggle all of these different content streams would also be appreciated. To be more specific to my situation, my commuting vehicle has an MP3 CD player, USB input for MP3 files, and AUX input. I own Android and webOS devices that can be plugged into the AUX input.

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• Opinion for my recruitment portal idea [closed]

  - by user1498503

  I am creating a recruitment portal for IT professionals. In this, recruiters while creating a job post would be asked to create a skills requirement matrix. Essential Skills : asp.net MVC Entity Framework Desired Skills : SQL Server 2008 IIS 7.0 On the other hand job seekers would also have their own skills matrix Jobseeker #1 Core Skills : asp.net MVC Entity Framework MangoDB Secondary Skills : SQL Server 2008 IIS 7.0 Jobseeker #2 Core Skills : asp.net Web forms Secondary Skills : SQL Server 2008 IIS 7.0 So when both job seekers apply for the same job. Would it be a good idea for both of them to see each other's skills matrix for comparison?Also no personal details and CVs are shared. I think comparisons would help job seekers to understand what their areas of improvement are and could motivate to fill the skills gap. Your opinion would be appreciated. Regards

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• How refresh a DrawingArea in PyGTK ?

  - by Lialon

  I have an interface created with Glade. It contains a DrawingArea and buttons. I tried to create a Thread to refresh every X time my Canva. After a few seconds, I get error messages like: "X Window Server 0.0", "Fatal Error IO 11" Here is my code : import pygtk pygtk.require("2.0") import gtk import Canvas import threading as T import time import Map gtk.gdk.threads_init() class Interface(object): class ThreadCanvas(T.Thread): """Thread to display the map""" def __init__(self, interface): T.Thread.__init__(self) self.interface = interface self.started = True self.start() def run(self): while self.started: time.sleep(2) self.interface.on_canvas_expose_event() def stop(self): self.started = False def __init__(self): self.interface = gtk.Builder() self.interface.add_from_file("interface.glade") #Map self.map = Map.Map(2,2) #Canva self.canvas = Canvas.MyCanvas(self.interface.get_object("canvas"),self.game) self.interface.connect_signals(self) #Thread Canvas self.render = self.ThreadCanvas(self) def on_btnChange_clicked(self, widget): #Change map self.map.change() def on_interface_destroy(self, widget): self.render.stop() self.render.join() self.render._Thread__stop() gtk.main_quit() def on_canvas_expose_event(self): st = time.time() self.canvas.update(self.map) et = time.time() print "Canvas refresh in : %f times" %(et-st) def main(self): gtk.main() How can i fix these errors ?

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• What should a programmer's yearly routine be to maximize their technical skills?

  - by sguptaet

  2 years ago I made a big career change into programming. I learned various technologies on my own without any prior experience. I really love it and feel lucky with all the resources around us to help us learn. Books, courses, open-source, etc. There are so many avenues. I'm wondering what a good routine would be to follow to maximize my software development skills. I don't believe just building software is the way, because that leaves no time for learning new concepts or technologies. I'm looking for an answer like this: Take a new concept sabbatical/workshop 2 weeks per year. Read 1 theoretical and 1 practical programming book per year. Learn 1 additional language every 2 years. Take a 1 week vacation every 6 months. Etc. I realize that the above might sound naive and unrealistic as there are so many factors. But I'd like to know the "recipe" that you think is best that will serve as a guide for people.

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• At what point does programming become a useful skill?

  - by Elip

  This is probably a very difficult question to answer, because of its subjectivity, but even a vague guess would help me out: Now that Khan Academy is beginning to offer Computer Science lectures I'm getting an itch to learn programming again. I maybe am a bit more technical than your average computer user, using Ubuntu as my OS, LaTeX for writing and I know some small tricks like regular expressions or boolean search for google. However from my previous attempts to learn programming, I realized I do not have a natural aptitude for it and I also don't seem to enjoy the process. But I am fairly certain that a basic proficiency in programming could prove to be very beneficial for me career wise; I also often get ideas for little scripts that I cannot implement. My question is: Let's say you study programming 1 hour / day on average. At what point will you become good enough so that programming can be used for automating tasks and actually saving time? Do you think programming is worth picking up if you never have the ambition to make it your career or even your hobby, but use it strictly for utility purposes?

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• Refactoring a Single Rails Model with large methods & long join queries trying to do everything

  - by Kelseydh

  I have a working Ruby on Rails Model that I suspect is inefficient, hard to maintain, and full of unnecessary SQL join queries. I want to optimize and refactor this Model (Quiz.rb) to comply with Rails best practices, but I'm not sure how I should do it. The Rails app is a game that has Missions with many Stages. Users complete Stages by answering Questions that have correct or incorrect Answers. When a User tries to complete a stage by answering questions, the User gets a Quiz entry with many Attempts. Each Attempt records an Answer submitted for that Question within the Stage. A user completes a stage or mission by getting every Attempt correct, and their progress is tracked by adding a new entry to the UserMission & UserStage join tables. All of these features work, but unfortunately the Quiz.rb Model has been twisted to handle almost all of it exclusively. The callbacks began at 'Quiz.rb', and because I wasn't sure how to leave the Quiz Model during a multi-model update, I resorted to using Rails Console to have the @quiz instance variable via self.some_method do all the heavy lifting to retrieve every data value for the game's business logic; resulting in large extended join queries that "dance" all around the Database schema. The Quiz.rb Model that Smells: class Quiz < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :user has_many :attempts, dependent: :destroy before_save :check_answer before_save :update_user_mission_and_stage accepts_nested_attributes_for :attempts, :reject_if => lambda { |a| a[:answer_id].blank? }, :allow_destroy => true #Checks every answer within each quiz, adding +1 for each correct answer #within a stage quiz, and -1 for each incorrect answer def check_answer stage_score = 0 self.attempts.each do |attempt| if attempt.answer.correct? == true stage_score += 1 elsif attempt.answer.correct == false stage_score - 1 end end stage_score end def winner return true end def update_user_mission_and_stage ####### #Step 1: Checks if UserMission exists, finds or creates one. #if no UserMission for the current mission exists, creates a new UserMission if self.user_has_mission? == false @user_mission = UserMission.new(user_id: self.user.id, mission_id: self.current_stage.mission_id, available: true) @user_mission.save else @user_mission = self.find_user_mission end ####### #Step 2: Checks if current UserStage exists, stops if true to prevent duplicate entry if self.user_has_stage? @user_mission.save return true else ####### ##Step 3: if step 2 returns false: ##Initiates UserStage creation instructions #checks for winner (winner actions need to be defined) if they complete last stage of last mission for a given orientation if self.passed? && self.is_last_stage? && self.is_last_mission? create_user_stage_and_update_user_mission self.winner #NOTE: The rest are the same, but specify conditions that are available to add badges or other actions upon those conditions occurring: ##if user completes first stage of a mission elsif self.passed? && self.is_first_stage? && self.is_first_mission? create_user_stage_and_update_user_mission #creates user badge for finishing first stage of first mission self.user.add_badge(5) self.user.activity_logs.create(description: "granted first-stage badge", type_event: "badge", value: "first-stage") #If user completes last stage of a given mission, creates a new UserMission elsif self.passed? && self.is_last_stage? && self.is_first_mission? create_user_stage_and_update_user_mission #creates user badge for finishing first mission self.user.add_badge(6) self.user.activity_logs.create(description: "granted first-mission badge", type_event: "badge", value: "first-mission") elsif self.passed? create_user_stage_and_update_user_mission else self.passed? == false return true end end end #Creates a new UserStage record in the database for a successful Quiz question passing def create_user_stage_and_update_user_mission @nu_stage = @user_mission.user_stages.new(user_id: self.user.id, stage_id: self.current_stage.id) @nu_stage.save @user_mission.save self.user.add_points(50) end #Boolean that defines passing a stage as answering every question in that stage correct def passed? self.check_answer >= self.number_of_questions end #Returns the number of questions asked for that stage's quiz def number_of_questions self.attempts.first.answer.question.stage.questions.count end #Returns the current_stage for the Quiz, routing through 1st attempt in that Quiz def current_stage self.attempts.first.answer.question.stage end #Gives back the position of the stage relative to its mission. def stage_position self.attempts.first.answer.question.stage.position end #will find the user_mission for the current user and stage if it exists def find_user_mission self.user.user_missions.find_by_mission_id(self.current_stage.mission_id) end #Returns true if quiz was for the last stage within that mission #helpful for triggering actions related to a user completing a mission def is_last_stage? self.stage_position == self.current_stage.mission.stages.last.position end #Returns true if quiz was for the first stage within that mission #helpful for triggering actions related to a user completing a mission def is_first_stage? self.stage_position == self.current_stage.mission.stages_ordered.first.position end #Returns true if current user has a UserMission for the current stage def user_has_mission? self.user.missions.ids.include?(self.current_stage.mission.id) end #Returns true if current user has a UserStage for the current stage def user_has_stage? self.user.stages.include?(self.current_stage) end #Returns true if current user is on the last mission based on position within a given orientation def is_first_mission? self.user.missions.first.orientation.missions.by_position.first.position == self.current_stage.mission.position end #Returns true if current user is on the first stage & mission of a given orientation def is_last_mission? self.user.missions.first.orientation.missions.by_position.last.position == self.current_stage.mission.position end end My Question Currently my Rails server takes roughly 500ms to 1 sec to process single @quiz.save action. I am confident that the slowness here is due to sloppy code, not bad Database ERD design. What does a better solution look like? And specifically: Should I use join queries to retrieve values like I did here, or is it better to instantiate new objects within the model instead? Or am I missing a better solution? How should update_user_mission_and_stage be refactored to follow best practices? Relevant Code for Reference: quizzes_controller.rb w/ Controller Route Initiating Callback: class QuizzesController < ApplicationController before_action :find_stage_and_mission before_action :find_orientation before_action :find_question def show end def create @user = current_user @quiz = current_user.quizzes.new(quiz_params) if @quiz.save if @quiz.passed? if @mission.next_mission.nil? && @stage.next_stage.nil? redirect_to root_path, notice: "Congratulations, you have finished the last mission!" elsif @stage.next_stage.nil? redirect_to [@mission.next_mission, @mission.first_stage], notice: "Correct! Time for Mission #{@mission.next_mission.position}", info: "Starting next mission" else redirect_to [@mission, @stage.next_stage], notice: "Answer Correct! You passed the stage!" end else redirect_to [@mission, @stage], alert: "You didn't get every question right, please try again." end else redirect_to [@mission, @stage], alert: "Sorry. We were unable to save your answer. Please contact the admministrator." end @questions = @stage.questions.all end private def find_stage_and_mission @stage = Stage.find(params[:stage_id]) @mission = @stage.mission end def find_question @question = @stage.questions.find_by_id params[:id] end def quiz_params params.require(:quiz).permit(:user_id, :attempt_id, {attempts_attributes: [:id, :quiz_id, :answer_id]}) end def find_orientation @orientation = @mission.orientation @missions = @orientation.missions.by_position end end Overview of Relevant ERD Database Relationships: Mission - Stage - Question - Answer - Attempt <- Quiz <- User Mission - UserMission <- User Stage - UserStage <- User Other Models: Mission.rb class Mission < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :orientation has_many :stages has_many :user_missions, dependent: :destroy has_many :users, through: :user_missions #SCOPES scope :by_position, -> {order(position: :asc)} def stages_ordered stages.order(:position) end def next_mission self.orientation.missions.find_by_position(self.position.next) end def first_stage next_mission.stages_ordered.first end end Stage.rb: class Stage < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :mission has_many :questions, dependent: :destroy has_many :user_stages, dependent: :destroy has_many :users, through: :user_stages accepts_nested_attributes_for :questions, reject_if: :all_blank, allow_destroy: true def next_stage self.mission.stages.find_by_position(self.position.next) end end Question.rb class Question < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :stage has_many :answers, dependent: :destroy accepts_nested_attributes_for :answers, :reject_if => lambda { |a| a[:body].blank? }, :allow_destroy => true end Answer.rb: class Answer < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :question has_many :attempts, dependent: :destroy end Attempt.rb: class Attempt < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :answer belongs_to :quiz end User.rb: class User < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :school has_many :activity_logs has_many :user_missions, dependent: :destroy has_many :missions, through: :user_missions has_many :user_stages, dependent: :destroy has_many :stages, through: :user_stages has_many :orientations, through: :school has_many :quizzes, dependent: :destroy has_many :attempts, through: :quizzes def latest_stage_position self.user_missions.last.user_stages.last.stage.position end end UserMission.rb class UserMission < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :user belongs_to :mission has_many :user_stages, dependent: :destroy end UserStage.rb class UserStage < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :user belongs_to :stage belongs_to :user_mission end

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• how to create an object using self?

  - by Nick

  I thought I understood the use of self while referring to anything in the current class. After encountering this warning and subsequent run failure, I have googled many variants of "define self" or "usage of self" and gotten nowhere. This problem is how to create an object without the warning, and understand why. #import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h> @interface Foo : NSObject { Foo *obj; } -(void)beta; @end #import "Foo.h" @implementation Foo -(void)beta{ obj = [self new]; // 'Foo' may not respond to '-new' } @end Note, if I substitute Foo for self, there's no problem. I thought the class name and self were equivalent, but obviously the compiler doesn't think so. Perhaps an explanation of what's wrong here will not only solve my problem but also enlighten my understanding of the usage of self. Are there any tutorials about proper usage of self? I couldn't find anything beyond something like "self is the receiver of the message," which I didn't help me at all.

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• Jack of all trades, master of none [closed]

  - by Rope

  I've got a question similar to this one: Is looking for code examples constantly a sign of a bad developer? though not entirely. I got off college 2 years ago and I'm currently struggling with a University study. Most likely I'll have to drop out and start working within the next couple of months. Now here's the pickle. I have no speciality what so ever. When I got out of college I had worked with C, C++ and Java. I had had an internship at NEC-Philips and got familiar with C# (.NET) and I taught myself how it worked. After college I started working with PHP, HTML,SQL, MySQL Javascript and Jquery. I'm currently teaching myself Ruby on Rails and thus Ruby. At my university I also got familiar with MATLAB. As you can see I've got a broad scope of languages and frameworks I'm familiar with, but none I know inside-out. So I guess this kinda applies to me: "Jack of all trades, master of none.". I've been looking for jobs and I've noticed that most of them require some years of experience with a certain language and some specifications that apply to that language. My question is: How do I pick a speciality? And how do I know if I'll actually enjoy it? As I've worked with loads of languages how would I be able to tell this is right for me? I don't like being tied down to a specific role and I quite like being a generalist. But in order to make more money I would need a specialisation. How would I pick something that goes against my nature? Thanks in advance, Rope.

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• How to learn programming for a medium scale project form a beginner? [closed]

  - by Lin Xiangyu

  I study programming by myself.I have learn servel programming languages. but I never write a project more than 1000 lines. I know the best way to improve programming skills is practise. The problem is many books, just talk about the programming language, or talk about build a project from a high level. Fews of books will teach how to build a middle scale project. For example, I want to build a simple HTTP Server(Nor like Apache or just a simple listenr to a port), a Markdown Parser, or a download tools just like emule or wget. I don't know what to do. I may found peaces of code in the web, or found familiar project in the Github. I don't know how to read the code. I want to some tutorial that can told me how to build the project step by step, teacher me how to write thousands lines of code. Any suggest?

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• Learning and Developing with PHP [closed]

  - by KyelJmD

  I am here to ask you What is a good PHP Book that doesn't contain too much details but it is compose of all necessary information to develop in PHP such as (OO PHP, Handling Forms, Database etc etc) This may be subjective but I've tried to look php book recomendations here at Stackoverflow but I cannot find any. Next is What are the things I need to know in learning a PHp framework? specifically I want to learn CAKEPHP. NOTE I do not need those lenghty books that discuss loops and such I already have experience programming with java and C#.

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• Could someone break this nasty habit of mine please?

  - by MimiEAM

  I recently graduated in cs and was mostly unsatisfied since I realized that I received only a basic theoretical approach in a wide range of subjects (which is what college is supposed to do but still...) . Anyway I took the habit of spending a lot of time looking for implementations of concepts and upon finding those I will used them as guides to writing my own implementation of those concepts just for fun. But now I feel like the only way I can fully understand a new concept is by trying to implement from scratch no matter how unoptimized the result may be. Anyway this behavior lead me to choose by default the hard way, that is time consuming instead of using a nicely written library until I hit my head again a huge wall and then try to find a library that works for my purpose.... Does anyone else do that and why? It seems so weird why would anyone (including me) do that ? Is it a bad practice ? and if so how can i stop doing that ?

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• Doing practice jobsearch/technical interviews?

  - by Beekguk

  I graduated college last year & I've never gone through the interview process - my current programming position evolved out of projects I did in school, but in a few months I'm making a clean break and moving across the country so I'm going to have to face a "grown-up" jobsearch. I'm kind of scared of technical interviews - I think I'm pretty good at my job and my hobby programming projects ... but what if it turns out I'm part of that group that thinks they're qualified, but really just cause despair at the state of education in the hearts of interviewers? So, I'm thinking of doing a "practice" job hunt in my current city to get an idea of what it's like and what kind of experience/expertise employers are really looking for. Is this a dick move ethically (applying to/interviewing for jobs I can't take)? If so, is there another good way to prepare for technical interviews, especially those little trick puzzle-type questions?

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• Topics for covering in-depth programming knowledge

  - by black_belt

  I pursued my bachelors' degree in business administration, but my interest in Information Technology led me to acquire some knowledge of PHP programming and MySQL database. I find programming so interesting that I haven't applied for any job since my graduation. Currently I am staying home and just trying to acquire in-depth knowledge of PHP programming. So far I have developed couple of websites and web applications including Inventory+ Point of Sale Software and an Accounting system for small organizations. I aim to have knowledge that a Computer Science graduate should have, and for that I want to read books but I have no idea where to start from. Could you please suggest me some books and topics that I should study on? Thanks a lot :)

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• Progressing past CRUD applications in PHP?

  - by Anonymous -

  I've been programming in PHP for about a year and am at the following stage: Have a good 'feel' for the language Can create CRUD applications competently Can utilize an MVC structure to allow for future expansion of code Using the points listed above, I've created a number of my own applications for practise - including but not limited to; a forum, social network etc. My question may be a little vague but should hopefully be answerable. I feel as though there isn't anything else I would need to know about PHP to allow me to create websites, though I'm sure I'm wrong. What advanced/complex PHP topics could I look at that have a real-world use and will allow me to enhance both my skill as a programmer and applications in general? Recently I've looked a lot more at javascript/jQuery allowing me to give my applications a richer user interface which has been a great learning experience and proving very useful.

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• Recommended learning path?

  - by stairmast0r

  First, my current standing: I know C++ at an.. advanced beginner level? I've gone through a book, I know the syntax well enough, I know a fair amount of standard library functions, and I've programmed some simple console stuff with it. I'd probably be able to program more with it if I knew how to structure a program, but I just can't seem to wrap my head around the whole concept of structuring something remotely complex. I've messed around with Java for a day or two, and the syntax was extremely easy to get the hang of, except that I didn't really know any functions. I'm plenty willing to learn, and to work hard to do so, but I don't really know where to go from here. Now, at the risk of sounding cliche, what I'd like to become is someone like the great three of id; Carmack, Romero, and Abrash. To be considered a genius. I believe anything can be learned, and nothing mentally limits anyone except lack of desire to learn. But I don't know how to learn this. They learned by doing, and making do with what resources they had. On the other hand, I have access to almost any books I want, access to the internet, and access to a more than capable computer and software. Should I learn more languages? Assembly? LISP? BASIC? Haskell? Should I dive straight into advanced topics like OpenGL? Or should I wait until I feel I've come closer to mastering the simpler things, like console programs, first? Should I follow tutorials? Should I follow books? Should I just dive into writing something and follow a reference manual as I go? What order should I do all this in? How should I do it? I want to completely master this; to be considered a genius. The most perfect career I can imagine is to start the next id. I have the drive to do it, I just don't know where to begin...

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• How to learn programming from very basic level to advanced level? [closed]

  - by user1022209

  I know many programming languages ,skills and concepts in very basic, such as PHP, Java, Object-oriented technology. Using PHP, I can build a simple website with CRUD, login function. Using Java, I can make an basic swing csv/plain text editor in which user can switch between 2 different views. In term of object-oriented Technology, I clearly understand what encapsulation, inheritance and Polymorphism are I want to know more about programming. Sometimes I "google" some of the topics I am interested at , the more I see on the internet, the more I feel I am a small potato in the world ( indeed I am ). The codings/concepts are difficult to understand. I lacks confidence right now so I am asking this question :( What is the best way to learn programming to advanced level? Just buy a book and read it page to page? Thanks for any helps

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• Segmentation fault while switching QCompleter for QLineEdit [on hold]

  - by san

  I have a QLineEdit that uses autocompletion one which on focusIn event in which it shows paths from XML List(here I have used hardcoded list) but if user doesn't find the path from that list popped by QCompleter than I want user to be able to browse to path typing '/' in QLineEdit , I am not able to select the paths say /Users etc and on trying to type Segmentation fault occurs. from PyQt4.Qt import Qt, QObject,QLineEdit from PyQt4.QtCore import pyqtSlot,SIGNAL,SLOT from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore import sys class DirLineEdit(QLineEdit, QtCore.QObject): """docstring for DirLineEdit""" def __init__(self): super(DirLineEdit, self).__init__() self.defaultList = ['~/Development/python/searchMethod', '~/Development/Nuke_python', '~/Development/python/openexr', '~/Development/python/cpp2python'] self.textChanged.connect(self.__dirCompleter) def focusInEvent(self, event): if len(self.text()) == 0: self._pathsList() QtGui.QLineEdit.focusInEvent(self, event) self.completer().complete() def __dirCompleter(self): if len(self.text()) == 0: model = MyListModel(self.defaultList, self) completer = QtGui.QCompleter(model, self) completer.setModel(model) else: dirModel = QtGui.QFileSystemModel() dirModel.setRootPath(QtCore.QDir.currentPath()) dirModel.setFilter(QtCore.QDir.AllDirs | QtCore.QDir.NoDotAndDotDot | QtCore.QDir.Files) dirModel.setNameFilterDisables(0) completer = QtGui.QCompleter(dirModel, self) completer.setCaseSensitivity(QtCore.Qt.CaseInsensitive) completer.setModel(dirModel) self.setCompleter(completer) def _pathsList(self): completerList = QtCore.QStringList() for i in self.defaultList: completerList.append(QtCore.QString(i)) lineEditCompleter = QtGui.QCompleter(completerList) lineEditCompleter.setCompletionMode(QtGui.QCompleter.UnfilteredPopupCompletion) self.setCompleter(lineEditCompleter) class MyListModel(QtCore.QAbstractListModel): def __init__(self, datain, parent=None, *args): """ datain: a list where each item is a row """ QtCore.QAbstractTableModel.__init__(self, parent, *args) self.listdata = datain def rowCount(self, parent=QtCore.QModelIndex()): return len(self.listdata) def data(self, index, role): if index.isValid() and role == QtCore.Qt.DisplayRole: return QtCore.QVariant(self.listdata[index.row()]) else: return QtCore.QVariant() app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv) smObj = DirLineEdit() smObj.show() app.exec_() Please help fix this or suggest better way of implementation?

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• Pygame: Save a list of objects/classes/surfaces

  - by Sam Tubb

  I am working on a game, in which you can create mazes. You place blocks on a 16x16 grid, while choosing from a variety of block to make the level with. Whenever you create a block, it adds this class: class Block(object): def __init__(self,x,y,spr): self.x=x self.y=y self.sprite=spr self.rect=self.sprite.get_rect(x=self.x,y=self.y) to a list called instances. I tried shelving it to a .bin file, but it returns some error dealing with surfaces. How can I go about saving and loading levels? Any help is appreciated! :) Here is the whole code for reference: import pygame from pygame.locals import * #initstuff pygame.init() screen=pygame.display.set_mode((640,480)) pygame.display.set_caption('PiMaze') instances=[] #loadsprites menuspr=pygame.image.load('images/menu.png').convert() b1spr=pygame.image.load('images/b1.png').convert() b2spr=pygame.image.load('images/b2.png').convert() currentbspr=b1spr curspr=pygame.image.load('images/curs.png').convert() curspr.set_colorkey((0,255,0)) #menu menuspr.set_alpha(185) menurect=menuspr.get_rect(x=-260,y=4) class MenuItem(object): def __init__(self,pos,spr): self.x=pos[0] self.y=pos[1] self.sprite=spr self.pos=(self.x,self.y) self.rect=self.sprite.get_rect(x=self.x,y=self.y) class Block(object): def __init__(self,x,y,spr): self.x=x self.y=y self.sprite=spr self.rect=self.sprite.get_rect(x=self.x,y=self.y) while True: #menu items b1menu=b1spr.get_rect(x=menurect.left+32,y=48) b2menu=b2spr.get_rect(x=menurect.left+64,y=48) menuitems=[MenuItem(b1menu,b1spr),MenuItem(b2menu,b2spr)] screen.fill((20,30,85)) mse=pygame.mouse.get_pos() key=pygame.key.get_pressed() placepos=((mse[0]/16)*16,(mse[1]/16)*16) if key[K_q]: if mse[0]<260: if menurect.right<255: menurect.right+=1 else: if menurect.left>-260: menurect.left-=1 else: if menurect.left>-260: menurect.left-=1 for e in pygame.event.get(): if e.type==QUIT: exit() if menurect.right<100: if e.type==MOUSEBUTTONUP: if e.button==1: to_remove = [i for i in instances if i.rect.collidepoint(placepos)] for i in to_remove: instances.remove(i) if not to_remove: instances.append(Block(placepos[0],placepos[1],currentbspr)) for i in instances: screen.blit(i.sprite,i.rect) if not key[K_q]: screen.blit(curspr,placepos) screen.blit(menuspr,menurect) for item in menuitems: screen.blit(item.sprite,item.pos) if item.rect.collidepoint(mse): if pygame.mouse.get_pressed()==(1,0,0): currentbspr=item.sprite pygame.draw.rect(screen, ((255,0,0)), item, 1) pygame.display.flip()

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• Live programming help

  - by frazras

  This idea has been floating around my head for a few years. I started some work on it but I just want to know if it is feasible, sensible, or if there is something else like it out there. Dont want to know I was wasting time on a solved issue. Whenever I have a programming issue, this is my sequence: Google it!: That usually brings up a lot of things: blogs, forums, stackoverflow, stackexchange, and even the official docs of the language/framework/cms. Ask on IRC: I format my question and try to get people on IRC to help me. Make a post: I create a post on forums/stackoverflow/stackexchange or shout on twitter with hashtags. Now a lot of the time I am in the middle of a project with a deadline. So I want answers NOW!!! Sometimes just 5-15 minutes worth of attention. Usually by the time I am failing at getting answers at #2, I am imagining how many people are ONLINE NOW with the skill and my exact answer but playing video games, watching youtube or idling online. However, if they were motivated, they would invest the 15 mintes helping me, that would make a world of a difference. I am even in positions where I would PAY for that 15 minutes of instant help. If your rate is as much as $100/hour (relatively good programmer) that is $25 that might save me 3 hours. This help would be live, text chat/skype/phone/screenshare. Should I continue developing this idea or is there a better alternative out there? Or is this even an unfeasible idea?

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• Missing help files for Microsoft.WindowsMobile in Visual Studio 2008 help system

  - by Johann Gerell

  I've just installed the Windows Mobile 6.5.3 DTK, both standard and professional. Before that I had the standard and professional Windows Mobile 6 SDKs. All Windows Mobile help pages are missing in Visual Studio 2008's help system - in particular everything in the Microsoft.WindowsMobile namespace. Microsoft.WindowsMobile.DirectX is there, but it's not part of the Windows Mobile 6 SDK or 6.5.3 DTK. If I open the WM6 docs from the freshly created program group, then it's all fine and dandy, but there doesn't seem to have been a proper integration with VS during installation. Any ideas what's gone wrong and how to fix it?

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• Managing Instances in Python

  - by BeensTheGreat

  Hello, I am new to Python and this is my first time asking a stackOverflow question, but a long time reader. I am working on a simple card based game but am having trouble managing instances of my Hand class. If you look below you can see that the hand class is a simple container for cards(which are just int values) and each Player class contains a hand class. However, whenever I create multiple instances of my Player class they all seem to manipulate a single instance of the Hand class. From my experience in C and Java it seems that I am somehow making my Hand class static. If anyone could help with this problem I would appreciate it greatly. Thank you, Thad To clarify: An example of this situation would be p = player.Player() p1 = player.Player() p.recieveCard(15) p1.recieveCard(21) p.viewHand() which would result in: [15,21] even though only one card was added to p Hand class: class Hand: index = 0 cards = [] #Collections of cards #Constructor def __init__(self): self.index self.cards def addCard(self, card): """Adds a card to current hand""" self.cards.append(card) return card def discardCard(self, card): """Discards a card from current hand""" self.cards.remove(card) return card def viewCards(self): """Returns a collection of cards""" return self.cards def fold(self): """Folds the current hand""" temp = self.cards self.cards = [] return temp Player Class import hand class Player: name = "" position = 0 chips = 0 dealer = 0 pHand = [] def __init__ (self, nm, pos, buyIn, deal): self.name = nm self.position = pos self.chips = buyIn self.dealer = deal self.pHand = hand.Hand() return def recieveCard(self, card): """Recieve card from the dealer""" self.pHand.addCard(card) return card def discardCard(self, card): """Throw away a card""" self.pHand.discardCard(card) return card def viewHand(self): """View the players hand""" return self.pHand.viewCards() def getChips(self): """Get the number of chips the player currently holds""" return self.chips def setChips(self, chip): """Sets the number of chips the player holds""" self.chips = chip return def makeDealer(self): """Makes this player the dealer""" self.dealer = 1 return def notDealer(self): """Makes this player not the dealer""" self.dealer = 0 return def isDealer(self): """Returns flag wether this player is the dealer""" return self.dealer def getPosition(self): """Returns position of the player""" return self.position def getName(self): """Returns name of the player""" return self.name

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• Need help identifing what resources (eg. In MIT OpenCourseWare) can help me prepare for a test [closed]

  - by jiewmeng

  I am entering uni soon. I can sit for a placement test to see if I elegible for exemptions. The details are http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/undergraduates/TestScope11_12.html Or CS2100 Computer Organisation (please click title) The objective of this module is to familiarise students with the fundamentals of computing devices. Through this module students will understand the basics of data representation, and how the various parts of a computer work, separately and with each other. This allows students to understand the issues in computing devices, and how these issues affect the implementation of solutions. Topics covered include data representation systems, combinational and sequential circuit design techniques, assembly language, processor execution cycles, pipelining, memory hierarchy and input/output systems. Recommended Textbooks Digital Design: Principles and Practices [DDPP] by John F. Wakerly, Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-324500-4. Computer Organizations and Design (The hardware/software interface) by David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy. CS2105 Introduction to Computer Networks (please click title) This course aims to provide a broad introduction to computer networks and some appreciations of network application programming. It covers a range of topics including basic data communication and computer network concepts, protocols, networked computing concepts and principles, network applications development and network security. The emphasis of teaching is on the working principles and application of computer networks. As an integral part of the course, tutorials and practical assignments enforcing learning will also be given. These assignments provide an early exposure in network application programming and they should be able to complete by using personal computers and school's network facilities. Topics included: An overview of computer networks and the Internet Basic data communications Application layer Transport layer Network layer and routing Link layer and local area networks Recommended Textbook James F. Kurose & Keith W. Ross, Computer networking: A top-down approach featuring internet, Addison Wesley, 2001 I am wondering what resources eg. MIT OpenCourseWare or other universities resources are available to help he perpare for these particular modubles. I am thinking does the Networking one look like CCNA? The computer oragization. Its like electronics, assembly etc? I learnt some electronics in Poly but looking at the sample papers, uni looks very different... I have about 1 month to prepare if I want any chance of exempting from these modules :) any help?

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• vbscript help needed [migrated]

  - by Romeo

  I am trying to move a group of files with in a group of folders named recup_dir.1 through recup_dir.535 into a single folder so that all the files will be out of the folders and just in the single folder. I know I will need to use a loop to move the files and probably concatenation to go from recup_dir.1 to recup_dir.535 but I just am not that skilled in programming please help!! I just want it to automate the copying and moving of the files rather than do it manually.

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