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  • preview form using javascript in popup

    - by user1015309
    please I need some help in previewing a form in popup. I have a form, quite big, so I added the option of preview to show as popup. The lightbox form popup works well, but the problem I now have is function passform ()passing the inputs(textfield, select, checkbox, radio) into the popup page for preview on Click(). Below are my javascript and html codes. I left the css and some html out, because I think they're not needed. I will appreciate your help. Thank you The Javascript function gradient(id, level) { var box = document.getElementById(id); box.style.opacity = level; box.style.MozOpacity = level; box.style.KhtmlOpacity = level; box.style.filter = "alpha(opacity=" + level * 100 + ")"; box.style.display="block"; return; } function fadein(id) { var level = 0; while(level <= 1) { setTimeout( "gradient('" + id + "'," + level + ")", (level* 1000) + 10); level += 0.01; } } // Open the lightbox function openbox(formtitle, fadin) { var box = document.getElementById('box'); document.getElementById('shadowing').style.display='block'; var btitle = document.getElementById('boxtitle'); btitle.innerHTML = formtitle; if(fadin) { gradient("box", 0); fadein("box"); } else { box.style.display='block'; } } // Close the lightbox function closebox() { document.getElementById('box').style.display='none'; document.getElementById('shadowing').style.display='none'; } //pass form fields into variables var divexugsotherugsexams1 = document.getElementById('divexugsotherugsexams1'); var exugsotherugsexams1 = document.form4.exugsotherugsexams1.value; function passform() { divexugsotherugsexams1.innerHTML = document.form4.exugsotherugsexams1.value; } The HTML(with just one text field try): <p><input name="submit4" type="submit" class="button2" id="submit4" value="Preview Note" onClick="openbox('Preview Note', 1)"/> </p> <div id="shadowing"></div> <div id="box"> <span id="boxtitle"></span> <div id="divexugsotherugsexams1"></div> <script>document.write('<PARAM name="SRC" VALUE="'+exugsotherugsexams1+'">')</script> <a href="#" onClick="closebox()">Close</a> </div>

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  • Should I continue to pursue programming based on my experience?

    - by El Be
    The reason I ask this question is because I am not sure my troubles come from a lack of confidence, or something much deeper like lack of passion. I'm hoping experienced programmers and developers can help identify the cause of my troubles. To be brief my undergraduate major was in Computer Science, but in a small school and I had the highest gpa in my year in computer science. The first time I ever programmed was once in the 5th grade (using logo) and when I was a freshman in college. I enjoyed programming when I was in school. Then I did an internships where I was expected to produce image processing software and program microchips. I was unsuccessful and produced little results and I hated the job, because I had to figure out everything for myself, did not have any help, and there was a lot of pressure to produce results. Although I tried I could not figure out what to do and was stuck all the time and made me dislike the job. When the internship ended I went to a PhD program for computer science at a prestigious computer science school. I had a very hard time with the course, met people who have been programming since they were 6 and made plenty of applications in their spare time (which I never did, although I tried). I even met many sophomores who understood more than I did. The combination of this and other things have made me feel that programming is not for me, but sometimes I consider a career in programming. I still consider programming as a career because of the career potential (not only just because of money). Based on my experience do you believe my confidence has just been shaken and I should continue to prepare for a programming career, or do you see a lack of passion and it would make it tough to continue programming. thank you for reading and for your advice Thank you for everyone's advice so far! Also: I dropped out of the ph.D program for computer science and switched to a master's in computer graphics. Its more applied, but I still find it hard to be motivated (due to either lack of confidence or passion), but since programming is such a big field I am looking for that niche area that I feel good programming in.

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  • Strategy to use two different measurement systems in software

    - by Dennis
    I have an application that needs to accept and output values in both US Custom Units and Metric system. Right now the conversion and input and output is a mess. You can only enter in US system, but you can choose the output to be US or Metric, and the code to do the conversions is everywhere. So I want to organize this and put together some simple rules. So I came up with this: Rules user can enter values in either US or Metric, and User Interface will take care of marking this properly All units internally will be stored as US, since the majority of the system already has most of the data stored like that and depends on this. It shouldn't matter I suppose as long as you don't mix unit. All output will be in US or Metric, depending on user selection/choice/preference. In theory this sounds great and seems like a solution. However, one little problem I came across is this: There is some data stored in code or in the database that already returns data like this: 4 x 13/16" screws, which means "four times screws". I need the to be in either US or Metric. Where exactly do I put the conversion code for doing the conversion for this unit? The above already mixing presentation and data, but the data for the field I need to populate is that whole string. I can certainly split it up into the number 4, the 13/16", and the " x " and the " screws", but the question remains... where do I put the conversion code? Different Locations for Conversion Routines 1) Right now the string is in a class where it's produced. I can put conversion code right into that class and it may be a good solution. Except then, I want to be consistent so I will be putting conversion procedures everywhere in the code at-data-source, or right after reading it from the database. The problem though is I think that my code will have to deal with two systems, all throughout the codebase after this, should I do this. 2) According to the rules, my idea was to put it in the view script, aka last change to modify it before it is shown to the user. And it may be the right thing to do, but then it strikes me it may not always be the best solution. (First, it complicates the view script a tad, second, I need to do more work on the data side to split things up more, or do extra parsing, such as in my case above). 3) Another solution is to do this somewhere in the data prep step before the view, aka somewhere in the middle, before the view, but after the data-source. This strikes me as messy and that could be the reason why my codebase is in such a mess right now. It seems that there is no best solution. What do I do?

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  • Powerful Lessons in Data from the Presidential Election

    - by Christina McKeon
    Now that we’ve had a few days to recover from the U.S. presidential election, it’s a good time to take a step back from politics and look for the customer experience lessons that we can take away. The most powerful lesson is that when you know more about your base, you will have an advantage over your competition. That advantage will translate into you winning and your competition losing. Michael Scherer of TIME was given access to Obama’s data analysts two days before the election. His account is documented in Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win. What we learned from Scherer’s inside view is how well Obama’s team did in getting the right data, analyzing it, and acting on it. This data team recognized how critical it was to break down data silos within the campaign. As Scherer noted, they created “a single system that merged information from pollsters, fundraisers, field workers, consumer databases, and social-media and mobile contacts with the main Democratic voter files in the swing states.” The Obama analysis was so meticulous that they knew which celebrity and which type of celebrity event would help them maximize campaign contributions. With a single system, their data models became more precise. They determined which messages were more successful with specific demographic groups and that who made the calls mattered. Data analysis also led to many other changes in Obama’s campaign including a new ad buying strategy, using social media and applications to tap into supporters’ friends, and using new social news sites. While we did not have that same inside view into Romney’s campaign, much of the post-mortem coverage indicates that Romney’s team did not have the right analysis. As Peter Hamby of CNN wrote in Analysis: Why Romney Lost, “Romney officials had modeled an electorate that looked something like a mix of 2004 and 2008….” That historical data did not account for the changing demographics in the U.S. Does your organization approach data like the Obama or Romney team? Do you really know your base? How well can you predict what is going to happen in your business? If you haven’t already put together a strategy and plan to know more, this week’s civics lesson is a powerful reason to do it sooner rather than later. Your competitors are probably thinking the same thing that you are!

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  • New grad; To overcome complete lack of experience, should I ditch a creative pet project in lieu of one that would demonstrate more applicable skills?

    - by Hart Simha
    I am currently working on a project on github that I think would be a good demonstration of my initiative, creativity and enthusiasm. It is an educational game I am developing in pygame that enables the user to learn to improve their development productivity by using vim, specifically with python, though learning to code faster with vim should be transferable to any language. I think this is something that might have a mass appeal and benefit to a lot of people in a measurable way. -However- I am graduating from college in a month (my degree is computer science with a minor in English), with no experience that is relevant to helping me get any kind of job in the field, and a gpa that doesn't tout my merits. I could pursue a career in game development, but it's not necessarily what I'm most interested in, and see myself applying to startups around the country. To the places I am looking at applying, showing that I have experience with pygame is going to be largely irrelevant, except in demonstration of my ability to code, period. A lot of skills that ARE more marketable, such a data modeling, GIS, mobile application, development, javascript, .net framework, and various web development technologies, are not going to be showcased by this project (on the upside, employers do like to see familiarity with git and python). I'm wondering if I should sink all my free time in the next couple of months into this project, since I'm motivated and interested in it, and if the value of being able to demonstrate ambition and 'good ideas' (for lack of a better term, and in my own opinion) will compensate for the absence of demonstrating more sought-after skills. I am probably at a point where I should either commit fully to this project now, or put it on the backburner in favor of something else, and I am leaning towards continuing with what I am already working on, because I think it's a great idea, and something achievable to me with enough dedication over the next couple months. But the most important thing to me is being able to get a job out of college, which I am exceedingly concerned about as the professional landscape which I am navigating for the first time is a lot more intimidating than I could have anticipated, with almost every job (even short-term contract positions) requiring years of experience which I lack. So in brief, the common denominator to answering the question "How can I overcome experience requirements for a job" seems to be "Show off your own project." I want to know WHICH project I should work on to best increase my chances of getting a job out of college, keeping in mind that I have no experience. I believe this question is applicable to any new grad that lacks demonstrable experience.

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  • Summit 2014 Registration Is Open

    - by KemButller
    Attention Oracle (employees) Field Team and Oracle JD Edwards Partners REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for Oracle's 5th Annual JD Edwards Summit - Monday, January 27th through Friday, January 31st, 2014, in Broomfield, Colorado. The theme of this year's Summit is "Success Through Continued Innovation”.  Our goals are to update you on our current and future product roadmap, new products, selling strategies for new prospects, growing the footprint in our JD Edwards install base, as well as providing a venue for networking.  The JD Edwards Summit is to the selling and servicing community what COLLABORATE is to the user community.  This is a MUST ATTEND event if you recommend, sell, implement and/or support the JD Edwards product, whether you are new to JD Edwards or a seasoned pro, an executive, account executive, in presales or in consulting.  The Summit promises a content-rich and unique networking experience for all attendees. Highlights include:  Monday afternoon kicks off the Summit with a variety of workshops as well as an afternoon preview of the Sponsor Showcase.  Start your networking at the Summit kickoff party Monday evening. Tuesday morning features several informative keynotes in the Summit General Assembly followed by key messages delivered in Super Sessions in the afternoon, focused on each of the JD Edwards community audiences. The educational offerings continue on Wednesday and Thursday with over 90 breakout sessions on topics spanning technology, applications (core JD Edwards, Edge, Fusion), Sales, Presales and Implementation. Friday concludes with new workshops for the implementation community.A Attendees will be enriched with numerous opportunities to network with fellow partners and Oracle throughout the week.  Consider bringing your team and using this venue to hold your own organization kickoff meeting prior to or post Summit. Contact Sheila Ebbitt (Sheila.ebbitt@oracle-DOT-com) for further assistance with your planning.  Attendees will be charged a Summit fee of US$ 250. Online registration cut-off is January 17, 2014. All registration requests after that time will be processed on-site at the event with an attendee fee of US$ 500. Please contact Rene Chapman (rene.chapman@oracle-DOT-com) for information on sponsorship opportunities. For further details on the JD Edwards Summit including agenda, workshops, educational sessions, lodging,  sponsors and Summit registration, click here! Register now! This is going to be an awesome event! John Schiff Vice President JD Edwards Business Development 

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  • Our own Daily WTF

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/dvroegop/archive/2014/08/20/our-own-daily-wtf.aspxIf you're a developer, you've probably heard of the website the DailyWTF. If you haven't, head on over to http://www.thedailywtf.com and read. And laugh. I'll wait. Read it? Good. If you're a bit like me probably you've been wondering how on earth some people ever get hired as a software engineer. Most of the stories there seem to weird to be true: no developer would write software like that right? And then you run into a little nugget of code one of your co-workers wrote. And then you realize: "Hey, it happens everywhere!" Look at this piece of art I found in our codebase recently: public static decimal ToDecimal(this string input) {     System.Globalization.CultureInfo cultureInfo = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InstalledUICulture;     var numberFormatInfo = (System.Globalization.NumberFormatInfo)cultureInfo.NumberFormat.Clone();     int dotIndex = input.IndexOf(".");     int commaIndex = input.IndexOf(",");     if (dotIndex > commaIndex)         numberFormatInfo.NumberDecimalSeparator = ".";     else if (commaIndex > dotIndex)         numberFormatInfo.NumberDecimalSeparator = ",";     decimal result;     if (decimal.TryParse(input, System.Globalization.NumberStyles.Float, numberFormatInfo, out result))         return result;     else         throw new Exception(string.Format("Invalid input for decimal parsing: {0}. Decimal separator: {1}.", input, numberFormatInfo.NumberDecimalSeparator)); }  Me and a collegue have been looking long and hard at this and what we concluded was the following: Apparently, we don't trust our users to be able to correctly set the culture in Windows. Users aren't able to determine if they should tell Windows to use a decimal point or a comma to display numbers. So what we've done here is make sure that whatever the user enters, we'll translate that into whatever the user WANTS to enter instead of what he actually did. So if you set your locale to US, since you're a US citizen, but you want to enter the number 12.34 in the Dutch style (because, you know, the Dutch are way cooler with numbers) so you enter 12,34 we will understand this and respect your wishes! Of course, if you change your mind and in the next input field you decide to use the decimal dot again, that's fine with us as well. We will do the hard work. Now, I am all for smart software. Software that can handle all sorts of input the user can think of. But this feels a little uhm, I don't know.. wrong.. Or am I too old fashioned?

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  • How far should an entity take care of its properties values by itself?

    - by Kharlos Dominguez
    Let's consider the following example of a class, which is an entity that I'm using through Entity Framework. - InvoiceHeader - BilledAmount (property, decimal) - PaidAmount (property, decimal) - Balance (property, decimal) I'm trying to find the best approach to keep Balance updated, based on the values of the two other properties (BilledAmount and PaidAmount). I'm torn between two practices here: Updating the balance amount every time BilledAmount and PaidAmount are updated (through their setters) Having a UpdateBalance() method that the callers would run on the object when appropriate. I am aware that I can just calculate the Balance in its getter. However, it isn't really possible because this is an entity field that needs to be saved back to the database, where it has an actual column, and where the calculated amount should be persisted to. My other worry about the automatically updating approach is that the calculated values might be a little bit different from what was originally saved to the database, due to rounding values (an older version of the software, was using floats, but now decimals). So, loading, let's say 2000 entities from the database could change their status and make the ORM believe that they have changed and be persisted back to the database the next time the SaveChanges() method is called on the context. It would trigger a mass of updates that I am not really interested in, or could cause problems, if the calculation methods changed (the entities fetched would lose their old values to be replaced by freshly recalculated ones, simply by being loaded). Then, let's take the example even further. Each invoice has some related invoice details, which also have BilledAmount, PaidAmount and Balance (I'm simplifying my actual business case for the sake of the example, so let's assume the customer can pay each item of the invoice separately rather than as a whole). If we consider the entity should take care of itself, any change of the child details should cause the Invoice totals to change as well. In a fully automated approach, a simple implementation would be looping through each detail of the invoice to recalculate the header totals, every time one the property changes. It probably would be fine for just a record, but if a lot of entities were fetched at once, it could create a significant overhead, as it would perform this process every time a new invoice detail record is fetched. Possibly worse, if the details are not already loaded, it could cause the ORM to lazy-load them, just to recalculate the balances. So far, I went with the Update() method-way, mainly for the reasons I explained above, but I wonder if it was right. I'm noticing I have to keep calling these methods quite often and at different places in my code and it is potential source of bugs. It also has a detrimental effect on data-binding because when the properties of the detail or header changes, the other properties are left out of date and the method has no way to be called. What is the recommended approach in this case?

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  • June 2013 release of SSDT contains a minor bug that you should be aware of

    - by jamiet
    I have discovered what seems, to me, like a bug in the June 2013 release of SSDT and given the problems that it created yesterday on my current gig I thought it prudent to write this blog post to inform people of it. I’ve built a very simple SSDT project to reproduce the problem that has just two tables, [Table1] and [Table2], and also a procedure [Procedure1]: The two tables have exactly the same definition, both a have a single column called [Id] of type integer. CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Table1] (     [Id] INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY ) My stored procedure simply joins the two together, orders them by the column used in the join predicate, and returns the results: CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[Procedure1] AS     SELECT t1.*     FROM    Table1 t1     INNER JOIN Table2 t2         ON    t1.Id = t2.Id     ORDER BY Id Now if I create those three objects manually and then execute the stored procedure, it works fine: So we know that the code works. Unfortunately, SSDT thinks that there is an error here: The text of that error is: Procedure: [dbo].[Procedure1] contains an unresolved reference to an object. Either the object does not exist or the reference is ambiguous because it could refer to any of the following objects: [dbo].[Table1].[Id] or [dbo].[Table2].[Id]. Its complaining that the [Id] field in the ORDER BY clause is ambiguous. Now you may well be thinking at this point “OK, just stick a table alias into the ORDER BY predicate and everything will be fine!” Well that’s true, but there’s a bigger problem here. One of the developers at my current client installed this drop of SSDT and all of a sudden all the builds started failing on his machine – he had errors left right and centre because, as it transpires, we have a fair bit of code that exhibits this scenario.  Worse, previous installations of SSDT do not flag this code as erroneous and therein lies the rub. We immediately had a mass panic where we had to run around the department to our developers (of which there are many) ensuring that none of them should upgrade their SSDT installation if they wanted to carry on being productive for the rest of the day. Also bear in mind that as soon as a new drop of SSDT comes out then the previous version is instantly unavailable so rolling back is going to be impossible unless you have created an administrative install of SSDT for that previous version. Just thought you should know! In the grand schema of things this isn’t a big deal as the bug can be worked around with a simple code modification but forewarned is forearmed so they say! Last thing to say, if you want to know which version of SSDT you are running check my blog post Which version of SSDT Database Projects do I have installed? @Jamiet

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  • Storing hierarchical template into a database

    - by pduersteler
    If this title is ambiguous, feel free to change it, I don't know how to put this in a one-liner. Example: Let's assume you have a html template which contains some custom tags, like <text_field />. We now create a page based on a template containing more of those custom tags. When a user wants to edit the page, he sees a text field. he can input things and save it. This looks fairly easy to set up. You either have something like a template_positions table which stores the content of those fields. Case: I now have a bit of a blockade keeping things as simple as possible. Assume you have the same tag given in your example, and additionally, <layout> and <repeat> tags. Here's an example how they should be used: <repeat> <layout name="image-left"> <image /> <text_field /> </layout> <layout name="image-right"> <text_field /> <image /> </layout> </repeat> We now have a block which can be repeated, obviously. This means: when creting/editing a page containing such a template block, I can choose between a layout image-left and image-right which then gets inserted as content element (where content for <image /> and <text_field /> gets stored). And because this is inside a <repeat>, content elements from the given layouts can be inserted multiple times. How do you store this? Simply said, this could be stored with the same setup I've wrote in the example above, I just need to add a parent_id or something similiar to maintain a hierarchy. but I think I am missing something. At least the relation between an inserted content element and the origin/insertion point is missing. And what happens when I update the template file? Do I have to give every custom tag that acts as editable part of a template an identifier that matches an identifier in the template to substitue them correctly? Or can you think of a clean solution that might be better?

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  • Designing Snake AI

    - by Ronald
    I'm new to this gamedev stackechange but have used the math and cs sites before. So, I'm in a competition to create AI for a snake that will compete with 3 other snakes in 5 minute rounds where the rules are much like the traditional Nokia snake game except that there are 4 snakes, the board is 50x50 and there are a number of small obstacles on the field. Like the Nokia game, your snake grows when you get to the fruit and if you crash into yourself, another snake or the wall you die. The game runs with a 50ms delay between moves and the server sends the new game state every 50ms which the code must analyze and what not and output the next move. The winner is the snake who had the longest length at any point in the game. Tie breakers are decided by kills. So far what I have done is implemented an A* graph search from each snake to determine if my snake is the closest to the apple and if it is, it goes for the apple. Otherwise, I made a neat little algorithm to determine the emptiest area of the board, which my snake goes for, to anticipate the next apple. Other than this I have some small survivability checks to ensure my snake isn't walking into a trap that it can't get out and if it does get stuck, I have something to give it a better chance of getting out. ... Anyway, I've tested my snake on a test server and it does quite well. Generally, my strategy of only going for the apple when its a sure thing and finding space when its not makes it grow faster than any other snakes (some snakes do a similar thing but often just go to the middle or a corner) sometimes it wins these trial games but is more often than not beaten by the same snake who seems to have the edge on survivability(my snake grows quicker but then dies somehow and this other snake just plods slowly along and wins on consistency. So I was wondering about any ideas anyone has to try and improve my snake. Or maybe ideas at a new approach to take. My functions and classes are good so changes that might seem drastic shouldn't be too bad. I encourage all ideas. Any thoughts ??

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  • Are separate business objects needed when persistent data can be stored in a usable format?

    - by Kylotan
    I have a system where data is stored in a persistent store and read by a server application. Some of this data is only ever seen by the server, but some of it is passed through unaltered to clients. So, there is a big temptation to persist data - whether whole rows/documents or individual fields/sub-documents - in the exact form that the client can use (eg. JSON), as this removes various layers of boilerplate, whether in the form of procedural SQL, an ORM, or any proxy structure which exists just to hold the values before having to re-encode them into a client-suitable form. This form can usually be used on the server too, though business logic may have to live outside of the object, On the other hand, this approach ends up leaking implementation details everywhere. 9 times out of 10 I'm happy just to read a JSON structure out of the DB and send it to the client, but 1 in every 10 times I have to know the details of that implicit structure (and be able to refactor access to it if the stored data ever changes). And this makes me think that maybe I should be pulling this data into separate business objects, so that business logic doesn't have to change when the data schema does. (Though you could argue this just moves the problem rather than solves it.) There is a complicating factor in that our data schema is constantly changing rapidly, to the point where we dropped our previous ORM/RDBMS system in favour of MongoDB and an implicit schema which was much easier to work with. So far I've not decided whether the rapid schema changes make me wish for separate business objects (so that server-side calculations need less refactoring, since all changes are restricted to the persistence layer) or for no separate business objects (because every change to the schema requires the business objects to change to stay in sync, even if the new sub-object or field is never used on the server except to pass verbatim to a client). So my question is whether it is sensible to store objects in the form they are usually going to be used, or if it's better to copy them into intermediate business objects to insulate both sides from each other (even when that isn't strictly necessary)? And I'd like to hear from anybody else who has had experience of a similar situation, perhaps choosing to persist XML or JSON instead of having an explicit schema which has to be assembled into a client format each time.

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  • Criteria for a programming language to be considered "mature"

    - by Giorgio
    I was recently reading an answer to this question, and I was struck by the statement "The language is mature". So I was wondering what we actually mean when we say that "A programming language is mature"? Normally, a programming language is initially developed out of a need, e.g. Try out / implement a new programming paradigm or a new combination of features that cannot be found in existing languages. Try to solve a problem or overcome a limitation of an existing language. Create a language for teaching programming. Create a language that solves a particular class of problems (e.g. concurrency). Create a language and an API for a special application field, e.g. the web (in this case the language might reuse a well-known paradigm, but the whole API must be new). Create a language to push your competitor out of the market (in this case the creator might want the new language to be very similar to an existing one, in order to attract developers to the new programming language and platform). Regardless of what the original motivation and scenario in which a language has been created, eventually some languages are considered mature. In my intuition, this means that the language has achieved (at least one of) its goals, e.g. "We can now use language X as a reliable tool for writing web applications." This is however a bit vague, so I wanted to ask what you consider the most important criteria (if any) that are applied when saying that a language is mature. IMPORTANT NOTE This question is (on purpose) language-agnostic because I am only interested in general criteria. Please write only language-agnostic answers and comments! I am not asking whether any specific "language X is mature" or "which programming languages can be considered mature", or whether "language X is more mature than language Y": please avoid posting any opinions or reference about any specific languages because these are out of the scope of this question. EDIT To make the question more precise, by criteria I mean such things as "tool support", "adoption by the industry", "stability", "rich API", "large user community", "successful application record", "standardization", "clean and uniform semantics", and so on.

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  • High-Powered Sites for low Cost

    - by HighAltitudeCoder
    Ahh, I am experiencing the intimidation of my very first post - visible by the whole world. Ok, here goes.   This first post is nothing exceptional.  It is simply a recommendation based (fittingly, I suppose) upon the job search you may be gearing up for.  I find myself in this very situation right now.  And, I will take my own recommendation after posting this entry. Job-Seekers: To the left you will notice two links under "Recommended Learning".  I have found these links to be invaluable when it comes to re-tooling, re-familiarizing, or otherwise resharping my skills when looking for that next job. Often, you will find job-postings with the text, usually posted after a laborious list of qualifications indicating the company's desire to hire candidates who know what they are doing: "...Looking for a candidate who can hit the ground running...".  The interesting thing about this post to me is I've encountered many individuals who, after speaking and working with them for some time, I've realized are perfectly capable of hitting the ground running - and FAST.  But what if they speed off in the wrong direction? The next time you spearhead a major task in your job, ask yourself: Am I headed in the wrong direction?  There are many ways to do this.  In fact, I've found in this new field there are more tempting ways to steer your project in the wrong direction than there are good ones.  I don't want to suggest that every one of my posts will fall into the "right direction" category, however I do think a healthy dose of introspection of the pros and cons will always be beneficial before you set off. That said, allow me to expound on the previously mentioned links. These web sites are invaluable.  They demonstrate the capabilities of existing as well as new and upcoming tools available in several IDE's.  I've viewed many tutorials in LearnVisualStudio.NET, and only one or two so far in TrainingSpot, however I've been delighted in their simplicity and straightforward approach to proper usage of the particular tool or concept being discussed.  They have not (so far in my experience) demonstrated ways in which to use the tools that become cumbersome, impractical, or error-prone. Each website has step-by-step videos that can be paused, replayed, and most importantly, they are done in real time.  As the author is typing, the viewer gets to experience the coding experience from a first-person perspective, including syntax errors, unexpected behaviors, IDE setup idiosyncracies, everything.  A subtle value I've gained from these videos is that a certain degree of confusion and introspection is normal when working with new tools and exploring new paths.  They (as well as your own experience) are not to be feared, but enjoyed.  I highly recommend them. Good work, guys!

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  • Validation and Error Generation when using the Data Mapper Pattern

    - by AndyPerlitch
    I am working on saving state of an object to a database using the data mapper pattern, but I am looking for suggestions/guidance on the validation and error message generation step (step 4 below). Here are the general steps as I see them for doing this: (1) The data mapper is used to get current info (assoc array) about the object in db: +=====================================================+ | person_id | name | favorite_color | age | +=====================================================+ | 1 | Andy | Green | 24 | +-----------------------------------------------------+ mapper returns associative array, eg. Person_Mapper::getPersonById($id) : $person_row = array( 'person_id' => 1, 'name' => 'Andy', 'favorite_color' => 'Green', 'age' => '24', ); (2) the Person object constructor takes this array as an argument, populating its fields. class Person { protected $person_id; protected $name; protected $favorite_color; protected $age; function __construct(array $person_row) { $this->person_id = $person_row['person_id']; $this->name = $person_row['name']; $this->favorite_color = $person_row['favorite_color']; $this->age = $person_row['age']; } // getters and setters... public function toArray() { return array( 'person_id' => $this->person_id, 'name' => $this->name, 'favorite_color' => $this->favorite_color, 'age' => $this->age, ); } } (3a) (GET request) Inputs of an HTML form that is used to change info about the person is populated using Person::getters <form> <input type="text" name="name" value="<?=$person->getName()?>" /> <input type="text" name="favorite_color" value="<?=$person->getFavColor()?>" /> <input type="text" name="age" value="<?=$person->getAge()?>" /> </form> (3b) (POST request) Person object is altered with the POST data using Person::setters $person->setName($_POST['name']); $person->setFavColor($_POST['favorite_color']); $person->setAge($_POST['age']); *(4) Validation and error message generation on a per-field basis - Should this take place in the person object or the person mapper object? - Should data be validated BEFORE being placed into fields of the person object? (5) Data mapper saves the person object (updates row in the database): $person_mapper->savePerson($person); // the savePerson method uses $person->toArray() // to get data in a more digestible format for the // db gateway used by person_mapper Any guidance, suggestions, criticism, or name-calling would be greatly appreciated.

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  • Practices for domain models in Javascript (with frameworks)

    - by AndyBursh
    This is a question I've to-and-fro'd with for a while, and searched for and found nothing on: what're the accepted practices surrounding duplicating domain models in Javascript for a web application, when using a framework like Backbone or Knockout? Given a web application of a non-trivial size with a set of domain models on the server side, should we duplicate these models in the web application (see the example at the bottom)? Or should we use the dynamic nature to load these models from the server? To my mind, the arguments for duplicating the models are in easing validation of fields, ensuring that fields that expected to be present are in fact present etc. My approach is to treat the client-side code like an almost separate application, doing trivial things itself and only relying on the server for data and complex operations (which require data the client-side doesn't have). I think treating the client-side code like this is akin to separation between entities from an ORM and the models used with the view in the UI layer: they may have the same fields and relate to the same domain concept, but they're distinct things. On the other hand, it seems to me that duplicating these models on the server side is a clear violation of DRY and likely to lead to differing results on the client- and server-side (where one piece gets updated but the other doesn't). To avoid this violation of DRY we can simply use Javascripts dynamism to get the field names and data from the server as and when they're neeed. So: are there any accepted guidelines around when (and when not) to repeat yourself in these situations? Or this a purely subjective thing, based on the project and developer(s)? Example Server-side model class M { int A DateTime B int C int D = (A*C) double SomeComplexCalculation = ServiceLayer.Call(); } Client-side model function M(){ this.A = ko.observable(); this.B = ko.observable(); this.C = ko.observable(); this.D = function() { return A() * C(); } this.SomeComplexCalculation = ko.observalbe(); return this; }l M.GetComplexValue = function(){ this.SomeComplexCalculation(Ajax.CallBackToServer()); }; I realise this question is quite similar to this one, but I think this is more about almost wholly untying the web application from the server, where that question is about doing this only in the case of complex calculation.

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  • The type of programmer I want to be [closed]

    - by Aventinus_
    I'm an undergraduate Software Engineer student, although I've decided that pure programming is what I want to do for the rest of my life. The thing is that programming is a vast field and although most of its aspects are extremely interesting, soon or later I'll have to choose one (?) to focus on. I have several ideas on small projects I'd like to develop this summer, having in mind that this will gain me some experience and, in the best scenario, some cash. But the most important reason I'd like to develop something close to “professional” is to give myself direction on what I want to do as a programmer. One path is that of the Web Programmer. I enjoy PHP and MySQL, as well as HTML and CSS, although I don't really like ASP.NET. I can see myself writing web apps, using the above technologies, as well as XML and Javascript. I also have a neat idea on a Facebook app. The other path is that of the Desktop Programmer. This is a little more complicated cause I really-really enjoy high level languages such as Java and Python but not the low level ones, such as C. I use both Linux and Windows for the last 6 years and I like their latest DEs (meaning Gnome Shell and Metro). I can see myself writing desktop applications for both OSs as long as it means high level programming. Ideally I'd like being able to help the development of GNOME. The last path that interests me is the path of the Smartphone Programmer. I have created some sample applications on Android and due to Java I found it a quite interesting experience. I can also see myself as an independent smartphone developer. These 3 paths seem equally interesting at the moment due to the shallowness of my experience, I guess. I know that I should spend time with all of them and then choose the right one for me but I'd like to know what are the pros and cons in terms of learning curve, fun, job finding and of course financial rewards with each of these paths. I have fair or basic understanding of the languages/technologies I described earlier and this question will help me choose where to focus, at least for now.

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  • Does OO, TDD, and Refactoring to Smaller Functions affect Speed of Code?

    - by Dennis
    In Computer Science field, I have noticed a notable shift in thinking when it comes to programming. The advice as it stands now is write smaller, more testable code refactor existing code into smaller and smaller chunks of code until most of your methods/functions are just a few lines long write functions that only do one thing (which makes them smaller again) This is a change compared to the "old" or "bad" code practices where you have methods spanning 2500 lines, and big classes doing everything. My question is this: when it call comes down to machine code, to 1s and 0s, to assembly instructions, should I be at all concerned that my class-separated code with variety of small-to-tiny functions generates too much extra overhead? While I am not exactly familiar with how OO code and function calls are handled in ASM in the end, I do have some idea. I assume that each extra function call, object call, or include call (in some languages), generate an extra set of instructions, thereby increasing code's volume and adding various overhead, without adding actual "useful" code. I also imagine that good optimizations can be done to ASM before it is actually ran on the hardware, but that optimization can only do so much too. Hence, my question -- how much overhead (in space and speed) does well-separated code (split up across hundreds of files, classes, and methods) actually introduce compared to having "one big method that contains everything", due to this overhead? UPDATE for clarity: I am assuming that adding more and more functions and more and more objects and classes in a code will result in more and more parameter passing between smaller code pieces. It was said somewhere (quote TBD) that up to 70% of all code is made up of ASM's MOV instruction - loading CPU registers with proper variables, not the actual computation being done. In my case, you load up CPU's time with PUSH/POP instructions to provide linkage and parameter passing between various pieces of code. The smaller you make your pieces of code, the more overhead "linkage" is required. I am concerned that this linkage adds to software bloat and slow-down and I am wondering if I should be concerned about this, and how much, if any at all, because current and future generations of programmers who are building software for the next century, will have to live with and consume software built using these practices. UPDATE: Multiple files I am writing new code now that is slowly replacing old code. In particular I've noted that one of the old classes was a ~3000 line file (as mentioned earlier). Now it is becoming a set of 15-20 files located across various directories, including test files and not including PHP framework I am using to bind some things together. More files are coming as well. When it comes to disk I/O, loading multiple files is slower than loading one large file. Of course not all files are loaded, they are loaded as needed, and disk caching and memory caching options exist, and yet still I believe that loading multiple files takes more processing than loading a single file into memory. I am adding that to my concern.

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  • LibGDX - Textures rendering at wrong position

    - by ACluelessGuy
    Update 2: Let me further explain my problem since I think that i didn't make it clear enough: The Y-coordinates on the bottom of my screen should be 0. Instead it is the height of my screen. That means the "higher" i touch/click the screen the less my y-coordinate gets. Above that the origin is not inside my screen, atleast not the 0 y-coordinate. Original post: I'm currently developing a tower defence game for fun by using LibGDX. There are places on my map where the player is or is not allowed to put towers on. So I created different ArrayLists holding rectangles representing a tile on my map. (towerPositions) for(int i = 0; i < map.getLayers().getCount(); i++) { curLay = (TiledMapTileLayer) map.getLayers().get(i); //For all Cells of current Layer for(int k = 0; k < curLay.getWidth(); k++) { for(int j = 0; j < curLay.getHeight(); j++) { curCell = curLay.getCell(k, j); //If there is a actual cell if(curCell != null) { tileWidth = curLay.getTileWidth(); tileHeight = curLay.getTileHeight(); xTileKoord = tileWidth*k; yTileKoord = tileHeight*j; switch(curLay.getName()) { //If layer named "TowersAllowed" picked case "TowersAllowed": towerPositions.add(new Rectangle(xTileKoord, yTileKoord, tileWidth, tileHeight)); // ... AND SO ON If the player clicks on a "allowed" field later on he has the opportunity to build a tower of his coice via a menu. Now here is the problem: The towers render, but they render at wrong position. (They appear really random on the map, no certain pattern for me) for(Rectangle curRect : towerPositions) { if(curRect.contains(xCoord, yCoord)) { //Using a certain tower in this example (left the menu out if(gameControl.createTower("towerXY")) { //RenderObject is just a class holding the Texture and x/y coordinates renderList.add(new RenderObject(new Texture(Gdx.files.internal("TowerXY.png")), curRect.x, curRect.y)); } } } Later on i render it: game.batch.begin(); for(int i = 0; i < renderList.size() ; i++) { game.batch.draw(renderList.get(i).myTexture, renderList.get(i).x, renderList.get(i).y); } game.batch.end(); regards

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  • Lazy Processing of Streams

    - by Giorgio
    I have the following problem scenario: I have a text file and I have to read it and split it into lines. Some lines might need to be dropped (according to criteria that are not fixed). The lines that are not dropped must be parsed into some predefined records. Records that are not valid must be dropped. Duplicate records may exist and, in such a case, they are consecutive. If duplicate / multiple records exist, only one item should be kept. The remaining records should be grouped according to the value contained in one field; all records belonging to the same group appear one after another (e.g. AAAABBBBCCDEEEFF and so on). The records of each group should be numbered (1, 2, 3, 4, ...). For each group the numbering starts from 1. The records must then be saved somewhere / consumed in the same order as they were produced. I have to implement this in Java or C++. My first idea was to define functions / methods like: One method to get all the lines from the file. One method to filter out the unwanted lines. One method to parse the filtered lines into valid records. One method to remove duplicate records. One method to group records and number them. The problem is that the data I am going to read can be too big and might not fit into main memory: so I cannot just construct all these lists and apply my functions one after the other. On the other hand, I think I do not need to fit all the data in main memory at once because once a record has been consumed all its underlying data (basically the lines of text between the previous record and the current record, and the record itself) can be disposed of. With the little knowledge I have of Haskell I have immediately thought about some kind of lazy evaluation, in which instead of applying functions to lists that have been completely computed, I have different streams of data that are built on top of each other and, at each moment, only the needed portion of each stream is materialized in main memory. But I have to implement this in Java or C++. So my question is which design pattern or other technique can allow me to implement this lazy processing of streams in one of these languages.

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  • Is it smart to take a year off from school to get experience?

    - by user134147
    firstly I apologize if this question is not appropriate for the site, but I've seen other similar (though slightly deviant) questions on this sight before and I know the people here are the most qualified to answer my question. Anyways, I'm currently between my sophomore and junior years at a 4 year university, and after a bit of deliberation I've decided on computer science as a major (BA, by the way, as a BS would require me to stay at least an extra year the way our program is set up). I've been interested now in programming for a few months and I've developed a passion for it in a very short time. I began learning C++, migrating to Java recently when I learned my school focuses on this language. Now, I should mention that the concept of higher education has never sat well with me, so part of my motivation for wanting to take time off is to truly challenge myself and see what I can accomplish when I actually try at something. The autodidact in me finds it difficult to focus on my passions while trying to keep a high GPA in unrelated classes. However, I understand the times we live in and therefore would plan to complete my degree after this year. So my question is whether or not the skills I learn in a year off from college could justify the time off from school. Unfortunately, I don't believe I know enough yet to gain any professional experience (internship, etc.) so I would mostly focus my time on learning Java and another language, possibly Wordpress (to gain an understanding of web programming concepts as I have not yet decided what field I want to get into, and to make some money to fund my off-year), and to delve into security concepts, which also interest me. I'm hoping I could work on projects, such as simple applications or contributions to open source software during this time to enhance my resume once I do finish school, so I can find a job out of college easier. I do not want to be the new hire who knows nothing beyond the concepts of his Java textbooks. Does anyone have any input about these thoughts of mine, or any ideas for where I should focus my studies or how high I might set the bar for my work? Thanks a lot everyone!

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  • How to configure a longer version Number in artifactory

    - by claudine
    The version-numbers for our jars have to be longer them x.x.x. We would rather need x.x.x.x to integrate some old-fashioned self-made mechanism. This is, because we tag our software with x.x.x and as soon as we have a delivery to a customer one specific jar has to be build exactly at this point of time to fit to another backend, which communicates with our program. For that reason this one jar has the version 2.3.4.1, when generated and in next delivery of the same Version it is build and named 2.3.4.2. Now artifactory cannot handle this an doesn't save more than x.x.x.2 in some cases. So we thought of maybe edit the regular expression in the maven repository layout (see attached Screenshot) Because testing the path in the field below shows, that it cannot handle the version number. Of course for the rest of our jars still x.x.x has to work.. For Example here is the maven-metadata.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <metadata> <groupId>com.firm</groupId> <artifactId>someid</artifactId> <version>1.5.1</version> <versioning> <latest>1.5.1</latest> <release>1.5.1</release> <versions> <version>1.4.62</version> </versions> <lastUpdated>20120926073942</lastUpdated> </versioning> </metadata> The folder structure looks like: someid 1.4.62 1.4.62.1 1.4.62.2 1.4.62.3 If we deploy an new artifact version (1.4.62.1), the maven-metadata.xml contains the 1.4.62.1 version. But the artifactory overrides the version number (1.4.62.x) to (1.4.62) after an unspecified time. It seems that the artifactory only support major, minor and revision numbers, and deletes the buildnumber. Now we looking for a solution do disable this behavior. We use the JFrog Artifactory version 2.5.0 (rev. 13086). Any ideas, maybe? Thanks in andvance

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  • Basic Android game loop having issues

    - by WillDaBeast509
    I've set up a very basic game loop that should draw a circle, run 100 times, then draw another. I also have a text field that should display how many times the loop has ran. However, the screen seems to not update. It displays a different value for the tick count (different each time the app is ran) and simply stays there. After exiting the app, I get an error saying "Unfortunately, MyApp has stopped." Here is the relevant code: DrawView public class DrawView extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback { Paint p = new Paint(); MainThread thread; private int y=0; public DrawView(Context c) { super(c); thread = new MainThread(this, getHolder()); thread.running = true; getHolder().addCallback(this); setFocusable(true); } public void draw(Canvas c) { if(c==null) return; //super.onDraw(c); c.drawColor(Color.WHITE); p.setColor(Color.RED); p.setTextSize(32); p.setTypeface(Typeface.SANS_SERIF); c.drawCircle(getWidth()/2-100,getHeight()/2, 50, p); c.drawText("y = " + y, 50, 50, p); if(y>=100) { Log.i("DRAW", "drawing circle"); c.drawCircle(getWidth()/2+100,getHeight()/2, 50, p); } else y++; Log.i("INFO", "y = " + y); } @Override public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) { return true; } public void onDraw(Canvas c){} public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder p1) { thread.start(); } public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder p1, int p2, int p3, int p4) { // TODO: Implement this method } public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder p1) { thread.running = false; boolean retry = true; while (retry) { try { thread.join(); retry = false; } catch (InterruptedException e) { Log.i("EX", "cathing exception"); } } } } MainThread public class MainThread extends Thread { private DrawView page; private SurfaceHolder holder; public boolean running; public MainThread(DrawView p, SurfaceHolder h) { super(); page = p; holder = h; } @Override public void run() { while(running) { Canvas c = holder.lockCanvas(); page.draw(c); holder.unlockCanvasAndPost(c); } } } Here is an example log outupt: http://pastebin.com/tM9dUPuk It counts the number of ticks correctly and should draw the second circle, but the screen looks like its not updating. After closing the app, the log continues to run and keep outputting "y = 100 drawing circle" until it crashes and shows the error report. What is going on and how can I fix these two problems?

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  • Protobuf design patterns

    - by Monster Truck
    I am evaluating Google Protocol Buffers for a Java based service (but am expecting language agnostic patterns). I have two questions: The first is a broad general question: What patterns are we seeing people use? Said patterns being related to class organization (e.g., messages per .proto file, packaging, and distribution) and message definition (e.g., repeated fields vs. repeated encapsulated fields*) etc. There is very little information of this sort on the Google Protobuf Help pages and public blogs while there is a ton of information for established protocols such as XML. I also have specific questions over the following two different patterns: Represent messages in .proto files, package them as a separate jar, and ship it to target consumers of the service --which is basically the default approach I guess. Do the same but also include hand crafted wrappers (not sub-classes!) around each message that implement a contract supporting at least these two methods (T is the wrapper class, V is the message class (using generics but simplified syntax for brevity): public V toProtobufMessage() { V.Builder builder = V.newBuilder(); for (Item item : getItemList()) { builder.addItem(item); } return builder.setAmountPayable(getAmountPayable()). setShippingAddress(getShippingAddress()). build(); } public static T fromProtobufMessage(V message_) { return new T(message_.getShippingAddress(), message_.getItemList(), message_.getAmountPayable()); } One advantage I see with (2) is that I can hide away the complexities introduced by V.newBuilder().addField().build() and add some meaningful methods such as isOpenForTrade() or isAddressInFreeDeliveryZone() etc. in my wrappers. The second advantage I see with (2) is that my clients deal with immutable objects (something I can enforce in the wrapper class). One disadvantage I see with (2) is that I duplicate code and have to sync up my wrapper classes with .proto files. Does anyone have better techniques or further critiques on any of the two approaches? *By encapsulating a repeated field I mean messages such as this one: message ItemList { repeated item = 1; } message CustomerInvoice { required ShippingAddress address = 1; required ItemList = 2; required double amountPayable = 3; } instead of messages such as this one: message CustomerInvoice { required ShippingAddress address = 1; repeated Item item = 2; required double amountPayable = 3; } I like the latter but am happy to hear arguments against it.

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  • Is the Observer pattern adequate for this kind of scenario?

    - by Omega
    I'm creating a simple game development framework with Ruby. There is a node system. A node is a game entity, and it has position. It can have children nodes (and one parent node). Children are always drawn relatively to their parent. Nodes have a @position field. Anyone can modify it. When such position is modified, the node must update its children accordingly to properly draw them relatively to it. @position contains a Point instance (a class with x and y properties, plus some other useful methods). I need to know when a node's @position's state changes, so I can tell the node to update its children. This is easy if the programmer does something like this: @node.position = Point.new(300,300) Because it is equivalent to calling this: # Code in the Node class def position=(newValue) @position = newValue update_my_children # <--- I know that the position changed end But, I'm lost when this happens: @node.position.x = 300 The only one that knows that the position changed is the Point instance stored in the @position property of the node. But I need the node to be notified! It was at this point that I considered the Observer pattern. Basically, Point is now observable. When a node's position property is given a new Point instance (through the assignment operator), it will stop observing the previous Point it had (if any), and start observing the new one. When a Point instance gets a state change, all observers (the node owning it) will be notified, so now my node can update its children when the position changes. A problem is when this happens: @someNode.position = @anotherNode.position This means that two nodes are observing the same point. If I change one of the node's position, the other would change as well. To fix this, when a position is assigned, I plan to create a new Point instance, copy the passed argument's x and y, and store my newly created point instead of storing the passed one. Another problem I fear is this: somePoint = @node.position somePoint.x = 500 This would, technically, modify @node's position. I'm not sure if anyone would be expecting that behavior. I'm under the impression that people see Point as some kind of primitive rather than an actual object. Is this approach even reasonable? Reasons I'm feeling skeptical: I've heard that the Observer pattern should be used with, well, many observers. Technically, in this scenario there is only one observer at a time. When assigning a node's position as another's (@someNode.position = @anotherNode.position), where I create a whole new instance rather than storing the passed point, it feels hackish, or even inefficient.

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