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  • how do I write a functional specification quickly and efficiently

    - by giddy
    So I just read some fabulous articles by Joel on specs here. (Was written in 2000!!) I read all 4 parts, but Im looking for some methodical approaches to writing my specs. Im the only lonely dev, working on this fairly complicated app (or family of apps) for a very well known finance company. I've never made something this serious, I started out writing something like a bad spec, an overview of some sorts, and it has wasted a LOT of my time. Ive also made 3 mockup-kinda-thingies for my client so I have a good understanding of what they want. Also released a preview (a throw away working app with the most basic workflow), and Ive only written and tested some of the very core/base systems. I think the mistake Ive been making so far is not writing a detailed spec, so Im getting to it now. So the whole thing comprises of An MVC website (for admins & data viewing) 2 Silverlight modules (For 2 specific tasks) 1 Desktop Application Im totally short on time, resources and need to get this done quick, also, need to make sure these guys read it up equally quick and painlessly. So how do I go about it, Im looking for any tips, any real world stuff, how do you guys usually do it? Do you make a mock screenie of every dialog/form/page? Im thinking of making a dummy asp.net web forms project, then filling in html files in folders and making it look like my mvc url structure. Then having a section in the spec for the website and write up a page for every URL Ive got with a screenie. For my win forms app, Ive made somewhat of a demo Win Form project, would I then put in a dialog or stucture everything as I would in the real app and then screen shot it?

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  • Survey: Do you write custom SQL CLR procedures/functions/etc

    - by James Luetkehoelter
    I'm quite curious because despite the great capabilities of writing CLR-based stored procedures to off-load those nasty operations TSQL isn't that great at (like iteration, or complex math), I'm continuing to see a wealth of SQL 2008 databases with complex stored procedures and functions which would make great candidates. The in-house skill to create the CLR code exists as well, but there is flat out resistance to use it. In one scenario I was told "Oh, iteration isn't a problem because we've trained...(read more)

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  • ODI 11g - Dynamic and Flexible Code Generation

    - by David Allan
    ODI supports conditional branching at execution time in its code generation framework. This is a little used, little known, but very powerful capability - this let's one piece of template code behave dynamically based on a runtime variable's value for example. Generally knowledge module's are free of any variable dependency. Using variable's within a knowledge module for this kind of dynamic capability is a valid use case - definitely in the highly specialized area. The example I will illustrate is much simpler - how to define a filter (based on mapping here) that may or may not be included depending on whether at runtime a certain value is defined for a variable. I define a variable V_COND, if I set this variable's value to 1, then I will include the filter condition 'EMP.SAL > 1' otherwise I will just use '1=1' as the filter condition. I use ODIs substitution tags using a special tag '<$' which is processed just prior to execution in the runtime code - so this code is included in the ODI scenario code and it is processed after variables are substituted (unlike the '<?' tag).  So the lines below are not equal ... <$ if ( "#V_COND".equals("1")  ) { $> EMP.SAL > 1 <$ } else { $> 1 = 1 <$ } $> <? if ( "#V_COND".equals("1")  ) { ?> EMP.SAL > 1 <? } else { ?> 1 = 1 <? } ?> When the <? code is evaluated the code is executed without variable substitution - so we do not get the desired semantics, must use the <$ code. You can see the jython (java) code in red is the conditional if statement that drives whether the 'EMP.SAL > 1' or '1=1' is included in the generated code. For this illustration you need at least the ODI 11.1.1.6 release - with the vanilla 11.1.1.5 release it didn't work for me (may be patches?). As I mentioned, normally KMs don't have dependencies on variables - since any users must then have these variables defined etc. but it does afford a lot of runtime flexibility if such capabilities are required - something to keep in mind, definitely.

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  • AJI Report #15&ndash;Zac Harlan Talks About Iowa Code Camp

    - by Jeff Julian
    We sit down with Zac Harlen and talk about Iowa Code Camp, what makes up a Code Camp, and how to start your own Code Camp. Zac has been a part of the leadership team for a few years for Iowa Code Camp and is the Development Manager for JP Cycles. We also get into what it takes to speak at a Code Camp if you are interested in growing beyond the user group as a speaker. Listen to the Show Site: LinkedIn Profile Blog: Zac Harlan Twitter: @ZacHarlan

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  • how do I write a functional spec quickly and efficiently

    - by giddy
    So I just read some fabulous articles by Joel on specs here. (Was written in 2000!!) I read all 4 parts, but Im looking for some methodical approaches to writing my specs. Im the only lonely dev, working on this fairly complicated app (or family of apps) for a very well known finance company. I've never made something this serious, I started out writing something like a bad spec, an overview of some sorts, and it has wasted a LOT of my time. Ive also made 3 mockup-kinda-thingies for my client so I have a good understanding of what they want. Also released a preview (a throw away working app with the most basic workflow), and Ive only written and tested some of the very core/base systems. I think the mistake Ive been making so far is not writing a detailed spec, so Im getting to it now. So the whole thing comprises of An MVC website (for admins & data viewing) 2 Silverlight modules (For 2 specific tasks) 1 Desktop Application Im totally short on time, resources and need to get this done quick, also, need to make sure these guys read it up equally quick and painlessly. So how do I go about it, Im looking for any tips, any real world stuff, how do you guys usually do it? Do you make a mock screenie of every dialog/form/page? Im thinking of making a dummy asp.net web forms project, then filling in html files in folders and making it look like my mvc url structure. Then having a section in the spec for the website and write up a page for every URL Ive got with a screenie. For my win forms app, Ive made somewhat of a demo Win Form project, would I then put in a dialog or stucture everything as I would in the real app and then screen shot it?

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  • Who should write the test plan?

    - by Cheng Kiang
    Hi, I am in the in-house development team of my company, and we develop our company's web sites according to the requirements of the marketing team. Before releasing the site to them for acceptance testing, we were requested to give them a test plan to follow. However, the development team feels that since the requirements came from the requestors, they would have the best knowledge of what to test, what to lookout for, how things should behave etc and a test plan is thus not required. We are always in an argument over this, and developers find it a waste of time to write down things like:- Click on button A. Key in XYZ in the form field and click button B. You should see behaviour C. which we have to repeat for each requirement/feature requested. This is basically rephrasing what's already in the requirements document. We are moving towards using an Agile approach for managing our projects and this is also requested at the end of each iteration. Unit and integration testing aside, who should be the one to come up with the end user acceptance test plan? Should it be the reqestors or the developers? Many thanks in advance. Regards CK

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  • How to write constructors which might fail to properly instantiate an object

    - by whitman
    Sometimes you need to write a constructor which can fail. For instance, say I want to instantiate an object with a file path, something like obj = new Object("/home/user/foo_file") As long as the path points to an appropriate file everything's fine. But if the string is not a valid path things should break. But how? You could: 1. throw an exception 2. return null object (if your programming language allows constructors to return values) 3. return a valid object but with a flag indicating that its path wasn't set properly (ugh) 4. others? I assume that the "best practices" of various programming languages would implement this differently. For instance I think ObjC prefers (2). But (2) would be impossible to implement in C++ where constructors must have void as a return type. In that case I take it that (1) is used. In your programming language of choice can you show how you'd handle this problem and explain why?

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  • How to write a blog for SEO purpose

    - by Mathieu Imbert
    I have a photo sharing website, which provides very little textual content. Users can add tags to photos and a description, but it creates a lot of duplicate content, because most of the descriptions will be 'wow', 'lol', ... I don't think I should rely on users to build my SEO. I think it would be a great idea to write a blog, and use it to describe the best photos, start contests, explain themes, in short: create original content that search engines will love. Our website's main URL is like www.domain.com, and our new blog is hosted on blog.domain.com. From a SEO perspective, is it a good idea to keep the blog separate from the main site? This has the advantage to leave the original site unchanged, but will it add any page rank to the www.domain.com? If the blog ranks well it will obviously pass some page rank to the original through links. What do you think is the best option from a SEO perspective? Include the blog in www.domain.com? Or leave it in blog.domain.com?

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  • How to write PowerShell code part 2 (Using function)

    - by ybbest
    In the last post, I have showed you how to use external configuration file in your PowerShell script. In this post, I will show you how to create PowerShell function and call external PowerShell script.You can download the script here. 1. In the original script, I create the site directly using New-SPSite command. I will refactor it so that I will create a new function to create the site using New-SPSite. The PowerShell function is quite similar to a C# method. You put your function parameters in () and separate each parameter by a comma (,). Then you put your method body in {}. function add ([int] $num1 , [int] $num2){ $total=$num1+$num2 #Return $total $total } 2. The difference is you do not need semi-colon (;) at the end of each statement and when calling the method you do not need comma (,) to separate each parameter. function add ([int] $num1 , [int] $num2){ $total=$num1+$num2 #Return $total $total } #Calling the function [int] $num1=3 [int] $num2=4 $d= add $num1 $num2 Write-Host $d 3. If you like to return anything from the function, you just need to type in the object you like to return, not need to type return .e.g. $ObjectToReturn not return $ObjectToReturn

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  • How to write PowerShell code part 3 (calling external script)

    - by ybbest
    In this post, I’d like to show you how to calling external script from a PowerShell script. I’d like to use the site creation script as an example. You can download script here. 1. To call the external script, you need to first to grab the script path. You can do so by calling $scriptPath = Split-Path $myInvocation.MyCommand.Path to grab the current script path. You can then use this to build the path for your external script path. $scriptPath = Split-Path $myInvocation.MyCommand.Path $ExternalScript=$scriptPath+"\CreateSiteCollection.ps1" $configurationXmlPath=$scriptPath+"\SiteCollection.xml" [xml] $configurationXml=Get-Content $configurationXmlPath & "$ExternalScript" $configurationXml Write-Host 2.If you like to pass in any parameters , you need to define your script parameters in param () at the top of the script and separate each parameter by a comma (,) and when calling the method you do not need comma (,) to separate each parameter. #Pass in the Parameters. param ([xml] $xmlinput)

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  • How to write PowerShell code part 2 (Using function)

    - by ybbest
    In the last post, I have showed you how to use external configuration file in your PowerShell script. In this post, I will show you how to create PowerShell function and call external PowerShell script.You can download the script here. 1. In the original script, I create the site directly using New-SPSite command. I will refactor it so that I will create a new function to create the site using New-SPSite. The PowerShell function is quite similar to a C# method. You put your function parameters in () and separate each parameter by a comma (,). Then you put your method body in {}. function add ([int] $num1 , [int] $num2){ $total=$num1+$num2 #Return $total $total } 2. The difference is you do not need semi-colon (;) at the end of each statement and when calling the method you do not need comma (,) to separate each parameter. function add ([int] $num1 , [int] $num2){ $total=$num1+$num2 #Return $total $total } #Calling the function [int] $num1=3 [int] $num2=4 $d= add $num1 $num2 Write-Host $d 3. If you like to return anything from the function, you just need to type in the object you like to return, not need to type return .e.g. $ObjectToReturn not return $ObjectToReturn

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  • Depending on another open source library: copy/paste code or include

    - by user5794
    I'm working on a large class and started implementing new features that need graphics. I started writing the graphics functions myself, but I know that open source libraries exist that can provide me with this functionality without me having to write it myself. The problem is that I prefer the class to be self-sufficient and not dependent on any other library. If I don't write it myself, I would have to ask the user to make sure a graphics library is already installed (less user-friendly). If I write it myself, I do a lot more work than I have to. I could also copy/paste some of the relevant code into my own class, but not sure about the disadvantages of doing this (it's an open source library that matches my license, so I'm not concerned with legality, just programming-wise if there are disadvantages). So what should I do: copy paste code from the external library write the code myself so it's truly self-sufficient ask the user to download and install another library

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  • Test Driven Development Code Order

    - by Bobby Kostadinov
    I am developing my first project using test driven development. I am using Zend Framework and PHPUnit. Currently my project is at 100% code coverage but I am not sure I understand in what order I am supposed to write my code. Am I supposed to write my test FIRST with what my objects are expected to do or write my objects and then test them? Ive been working on completing a controller/model and then writing at test for it but I am not sure this is what TDD is about? Any advice? For example, I wrote my Auth plugin and my Auth controller and tested that they work properly in my browser, and then I sat down to write the tests for them, which proved that there were some logical errors in the code that did work in the browser.

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  • How to write PowerShell code part 3 (calling external script)

    - by ybbest
    In this post, I’d like to show you how to calling external script from a PowerShell script. I’d like to use the site creation script as an example. You can download script here. 1. To call the external script, you need to first to grab the script path. You can do so by calling $scriptPath = Split-Path $myInvocation.MyCommand.Path to grab the current script path. You can then use this to build the path for your external script path. $scriptPath = Split-Path $myInvocation.MyCommand.Path $ExternalScript=$scriptPath+"\CreateSiteCollection.ps1" $configurationXmlPath=$scriptPath+"\SiteCollection.xml" [xml] $configurationXml=Get-Content $configurationXmlPath & "$ExternalScript" $configurationXml Write-Host 2.If you like to pass in any parameters , you need to define your script parameters in param () at the top of the script and separate each parameter by a comma (,) and when calling the method you do not need comma (,) to separate each parameter. #Pass in the Parameters. param ([xml] $xmlinput)

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  • Using Queries with Coherence Write-Behind Caches

    - by jpurdy
    Applications that use write-behind caching and wish to query the logical entity set have the option of querying the NamedCache itself or querying the database. In the former case, no particular restrictions exist beyond the limitations intrinsic to the Coherence query engine itself. In the latter case, queries may see partially committed transactions (e.g. with a parent-child relationship, the version of the parent may be different than the version of the child objects) and/or significant version skew (the query may see the current version of one object and a far older version of another object). This is consistent with "read committed" semantics, but the read skew may be far greater than would ever occur in a non-cached environment. As is usually the case, the application developer may choose to accept these limitations (with the hope that they are sufficiently infrequent), or they may choose to validate the reads (perhaps via a version flag on the objects). This also applies to situations where a third party application (such as a reporting tool) is querying the database. In many cases, the database may only be in a consistent state after the Coherence cluster has been halted.

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  • How can I go about learning to write a shader

    - by Donutz
    So here's the background: I'm writing a game, just for my own amusement and education really. I've already come to the conclusion that XNA was the way to go for graphics, I've bought a couple of books, I've gotten basic game graphics going, and that's great. Now I'm starting to get a little in-depth and I'm starting to need to do stuff not covered in my (beginner) books. In particular, I need to display a sprite using a mask. Actually, what I need to do is display a generic sprite with a different color for each player. After banging around on the web, it seems the way to go is to have a color texture (one for each player) which I display using the mask, then display the generic part of the sprite. This has to be done dynamically, i.e. at runtime because there are too many sprites to keep in memory if I try to generate all the permutations at startup. So, I need to use a shader. Fine. I've downloaded a sample shader program, and managed to hit it with a hammer until it does something close enough to what I want so that I know I'm on the right track. And here, we come to my problem... I have no friggin' clue what I'm doing. While there are a lot of samples and such about shaders, no one ever actually explains what's going on. For instance, I can't find any real docs on Tex2D. I feel like the guys in Zoolander poking at the computer. So, my question (yes, I have a question) -- where is a good URL or what is a good book to take me from dumskie to reasonably competent to write a basic shader?

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  • How to compile a C++ source code written for Linux/Unix on Windows Vista (code given)

    - by HTMZ
    I have a c++ source code that was written in linux/unix environment by some other author. It gives me errors when i compile it in windows vista environment. I am using Bloodshed Dev C++ v 4.9. please help. #include <iostream.h> #include <map> #include <vector> #include <string> #include <string.h> #include <strstream> #include <unistd.h> #include <stdlib.h> using namespace std; template <class T> class PrefixSpan { private: vector < vector <T> > transaction; vector < pair <T, unsigned int> > pattern; unsigned int minsup; unsigned int minpat; unsigned int maxpat; bool all; bool where; string delimiter; bool verbose; ostream *os; void report (vector <pair <unsigned int, int> > &projected) { if (minpat > pattern.size()) return; // print where & pattern if (where) { *os << "<pattern>" << endl; // what: if (all) { *os << "<freq>" << pattern[pattern.size()-1].second << "</freq>" << endl; *os << "<what>"; for (unsigned int i = 0; i < pattern.size(); i++) *os << (i ? " " : "") << pattern[i].first; } else { *os << "<what>"; for (unsigned int i = 0; i < pattern.size(); i++) *os << (i ? " " : "") << pattern[i].first << delimiter << pattern[i].second; } *os << "</what>" << endl; // where *os << "<where>"; for (unsigned int i = 0; i < projected.size(); i++) *os << (i ? " " : "") << projected[i].first; *os << "</where>" << endl; *os << "</pattern>" << endl; } else { // print found pattern only if (all) { *os << pattern[pattern.size()-1].second; for (unsigned int i = 0; i < pattern.size(); i++) *os << " " << pattern[i].first; } else { for (unsigned int i = 0; i < pattern.size(); i++) *os << (i ? " " : "") << pattern[i].first << delimiter << pattern[i].second; } *os << endl; } } void project (vector <pair <unsigned int, int> > &projected) { if (all) report(projected); map <T, vector <pair <unsigned int, int> > > counter; for (unsigned int i = 0; i < projected.size(); i++) { int pos = projected[i].second; unsigned int id = projected[i].first; unsigned int size = transaction[id].size(); map <T, int> tmp; for (unsigned int j = pos + 1; j < size; j++) { T item = transaction[id][j]; if (tmp.find (item) == tmp.end()) tmp[item] = j ; } for (map <T, int>::iterator k = tmp.begin(); k != tmp.end(); ++k) counter[k->first].push_back (make_pair <unsigned int, int> (id, k->second)); } for (map <T, vector <pair <unsigned int, int> > >::iterator l = counter.begin (); l != counter.end (); ) { if (l->second.size() < minsup) { map <T, vector <pair <unsigned int, int> > >::iterator tmp = l; tmp = l; ++tmp; counter.erase (l); l = tmp; } else { ++l; } } if (! all && counter.size () == 0) { report (projected); return; } for (map <T, vector <pair <unsigned int, int> > >::iterator l = counter.begin (); l != counter.end(); ++l) { if (pattern.size () < maxpat) { pattern.push_back (make_pair <T, unsigned int> (l->first, l->second.size())); project (l->second); pattern.erase (pattern.end()); } } } public: PrefixSpan (unsigned int _minsup = 1, unsigned int _minpat = 1, unsigned int _maxpat = 0xffffffff, bool _all = false, bool _where = false, string _delimiter = "/", bool _verbose = false): minsup(_minsup), minpat (_minpat), maxpat (_maxpat), all(_all), where(_where), delimiter (_delimiter), verbose (_verbose) {}; ~PrefixSpan () {}; istream& read (istream &is) { string line; vector <T> tmp; T item; while (getline (is, line)) { tmp.clear (); istrstream istrs ((char *)line.c_str()); while (istrs >> item) tmp.push_back (item); transaction.push_back (tmp); } return is; } ostream& run (ostream &_os) { os = &_os; if (verbose) *os << transaction.size() << endl; vector <pair <unsigned int, int> > root; for (unsigned int i = 0; i < transaction.size(); i++) root.push_back (make_pair (i, -1)); project (root); return *os; } void clear () { transaction.clear (); pattern.clear (); } }; int main (int argc, char **argv) { extern char *optarg; unsigned int minsup = 1; unsigned int minpat = 1; unsigned int maxpat = 0xffffffff; bool all = false; bool where = false; string delimiter = "/"; bool verbose = false; string type = "string"; int opt; while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "awvt:M:m:L:d:")) != -1) { switch(opt) { case 'a': all = true; break; case 'w': where = true; break; case 'v': verbose = true; break; case 'm': minsup = atoi (optarg); break; case 'M': minpat = atoi (optarg); break; case 'L': maxpat = atoi (optarg); break; case 't': type = string (optarg); break; case 'd': delimiter = string (optarg); break; default: cout << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " [-m minsup] [-M minpat] [-L maxpat] [-a] [-w] [-v] [-t type] [-d delimiter] < data .." << endl; return -1; } } if (type == "int") { PrefixSpan<unsigned int> prefixspan (minsup, minpat, maxpat, all, where, delimiter, verbose); prefixspan.read (cin); prefixspan.run (cout); }else if (type == "short") { PrefixSpan<unsigned short> prefixspan (minsup, minpat, maxpat, all, where, delimiter, verbose); prefixspan.read (cin); prefixspan.run (cout); } else if (type == "char") { PrefixSpan<unsigned char> prefixspan (minsup, minpat, maxpat, all, where, delimiter, verbose); prefixspan.read (cin); prefixspan.run (cout); } else if (type == "string") { PrefixSpan<string> prefixspan (minsup, minpat, maxpat, all, where, delimiter, verbose); prefixspan.read (cin); prefixspan.run (cout); } else { cerr << "Unknown Item Type: " << type << " : choose from [string|int|short|char]" << endl; return -1; } return 0; }

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  • HTG Reviews the CODE Keyboard: Old School Construction Meets Modern Amenities

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    There’s nothing quite as satisfying as the smooth and crisp action of a well built keyboard. If you’re tired of  mushy keys and cheap feeling keyboards, a well-constructed mechanical keyboard is a welcome respite from the $10 keyboard that came with your computer. Read on as we put the CODE mechanical keyboard through the paces. What is the CODE Keyboard? The CODE keyboard is a collaboration between manufacturer WASD Keyboards and Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror (the guy behind the Stack Exchange network and Discourse forum software). Atwood’s focus was incorporating the best of traditional mechanical keyboards and the best of modern keyboard usability improvements. In his own words: The world is awash in terrible, crappy, no name how-cheap-can-we-make-it keyboards. There are a few dozen better mechanical keyboard options out there. I’ve owned and used at least six different expensive mechanical keyboards, but I wasn’t satisfied with any of them, either: they didn’t have backlighting, were ugly, had terrible design, or were missing basic functions like media keys. That’s why I originally contacted Weyman Kwong of WASD Keyboards way back in early 2012. I told him that the state of keyboards was unacceptable to me as a geek, and I proposed a partnership wherein I was willing to work with him to do whatever it takes to produce a truly great mechanical keyboard. Even the ardent skeptic who questions whether Atwood has indeed created a truly great mechanical keyboard certainly can’t argue with the position he starts from: there are so many agonizingly crappy keyboards out there. Even worse, in our opinion, is that unless you’re a typist of a certain vintage there’s a good chance you’ve never actually typed on a really nice keyboard. Those that didn’t start using computers until the mid-to-late 1990s most likely have always typed on modern mushy-key keyboards and never known the joy of typing on a really responsive and crisp mechanical keyboard. Is our preference for and love of mechanical keyboards shining through here? Good. We’re not even going to try and hide it. So where does the CODE keyboard stack up in pantheon of keyboards? Read on as we walk you through the simple setup and our experience using the CODE. Setting Up the CODE Keyboard Although the setup of the CODE keyboard is essentially plug and play, there are two distinct setup steps that you likely haven’t had to perform on a previous keyboard. Both highlight the degree of care put into the keyboard and the amount of customization available. Inside the box you’ll find the keyboard, a micro USB cable, a USB-to-PS2 adapter, and a tool which you may be unfamiliar with: a key puller. We’ll return to the key puller in a moment. Unlike the majority of keyboards on the market, the cord isn’t permanently affixed to the keyboard. What does this mean for you? Aside from the obvious need to plug it in yourself, it makes it dead simple to repair your own keyboard cord if it gets attacked by a pet, mangled in a mechanism on your desk, or otherwise damaged. It also makes it easy to take advantage of the cable routing channels in on the underside of the keyboard to  route your cable exactly where you want it. While we’re staring at the underside of the keyboard, check out those beefy rubber feet. By peripherals standards they’re huge (and there is six instead of the usual four). Once you plunk the keyboard down where you want it, it might as well be glued down the rubber feet work so well. After you’ve secured the cable and adjusted it to your liking, there is one more task  before plug the keyboard into the computer. On the bottom left-hand side of the keyboard, you’ll find a small recess in the plastic with some dip switches inside: The dip switches are there to switch hardware functions for various operating systems, keyboard layouts, and to enable/disable function keys. By toggling the dip switches you can change the keyboard from QWERTY mode to Dvorak mode and Colemak mode, the two most popular alternative keyboard configurations. You can also use the switches to enable Mac-functionality (for Command/Option keys). One of our favorite little toggles is the SW3 dip switch: you can disable the Caps Lock key; goodbye accidentally pressing Caps when you mean to press Shift. You can review the entire dip switch configuration chart here. The quick-start for Windows users is simple: double check that all the switches are in the off position (as seen in the photo above) and then simply toggle SW6 on to enable the media and backlighting function keys (this turns the menu key on the keyboard into a function key as typically found on laptop keyboards). After adjusting the dip switches to your liking, plug the keyboard into an open USB port on your computer (or into your PS/2 port using the included adapter). Design, Layout, and Backlighting The CODE keyboard comes in two flavors, a traditional 87-key layout (no number pad) and a traditional 104-key layout (number pad on the right hand side). We identify the layout as traditional because, despite some modern trapping and sneaky shortcuts, the actual form factor of the keyboard from the shape of the keys to the spacing and position is as classic as it comes. You won’t have to learn a new keyboard layout and spend weeks conditioning yourself to a smaller than normal backspace key or a PgUp/PgDn pair in an unconventional location. Just because the keyboard is very conventional in layout, however, doesn’t mean you’ll be missing modern amenities like media-control keys. The following additional functions are hidden in the F11, F12, Pause button, and the 2×6 grid formed by the Insert and Delete rows: keyboard illumination brightness, keyboard illumination on/off, mute, and then the typical play/pause, forward/backward, stop, and volume +/- in Insert and Delete rows, respectively. While we weren’t sure what we’d think of the function-key system at first (especially after retiring a Microsoft Sidewinder keyboard with a huge and easily accessible volume knob on it), it took less than a day for us to adapt to using the Fn key, located next to the right Ctrl key, to adjust our media playback on the fly. Keyboard backlighting is a largely hit-or-miss undertaking but the CODE keyboard nails it. Not only does it have pleasant and easily adjustable through-the-keys lighting but the key switches the keys themselves are attached to are mounted to a steel plate with white paint. Enough of the light reflects off the interior cavity of the keys and then diffuses across the white plate to provide nice even illumination in between the keys. Highlighting the steel plate beneath the keys brings us to the actual construction of the keyboard. It’s rock solid. The 87-key model, the one we tested, is 2.0 pounds. The 104-key is nearly a half pound heavier at 2.42 pounds. Between the steel plate, the extra-thick PCB board beneath the steel plate, and the thick ABS plastic housing, the keyboard has very solid feel to it. Combine that heft with the previously mentioned thick rubber feet and you have a tank-like keyboard that won’t budge a millimeter during normal use. Examining The Keys This is the section of the review the hardcore typists and keyboard ninjas have been waiting for. We’ve looked at the layout of the keyboard, we’ve looked at the general construction of it, but what about the actual keys? There are a wide variety of keyboard construction techniques but the vast majority of modern keyboards use a rubber-dome construction. The key is floated in a plastic frame over a rubber membrane that has a little rubber dome for each key. The press of the physical key compresses the rubber dome downwards and a little bit of conductive material on the inside of the dome’s apex connects with the circuit board. Despite the near ubiquity of the design, many people dislike it. The principal complaint is that dome keyboards require a complete compression to register a keystroke; keyboard designers and enthusiasts refer to this as “bottoming out”. In other words, the register the “b” key, you need to completely press that key down. As such it slows you down and requires additional pressure and movement that, over the course of tens of thousands of keystrokes, adds up to a whole lot of wasted time and fatigue. The CODE keyboard features key switches manufactured by Cherry, a company that has manufactured key switches since the 1960s. Specifically the CODE features Cherry MX Clear switches. These switches feature the same classic design of the other Cherry switches (such as the MX Blue and Brown switch lineups) but they are significantly quieter (yes this is a mechanical keyboard, but no, your neighbors won’t think you’re firing off a machine gun) as they lack the audible click found in most Cherry switches. This isn’t to say that they keyboard doesn’t have a nice audible key press sound when the key is fully depressed, but that the key mechanism isn’t doesn’t create a loud click sound when triggered. One of the great features of the Cherry MX clear is a tactile “bump” that indicates the key has been compressed enough to register the stroke. For touch typists the very subtle tactile feedback is a great indicator that you can move on to the next stroke and provides a welcome speed boost. Even if you’re not trying to break any word-per-minute records, that little bump when pressing the key is satisfying. The Cherry key switches, in addition to providing a much more pleasant typing experience, are also significantly more durable than dome-style key switch. Rubber dome switch membrane keyboards are typically rated for 5-10 million contacts whereas the Cherry mechanical switches are rated for 50 million contacts. You’d have to write the next War and Peace  and follow that up with A Tale of Two Cities: Zombie Edition, and then turn around and transcribe them both into a dozen different languages to even begin putting a tiny dent in the lifecycle of this keyboard. So what do the switches look like under the classicly styled keys? You can take a look yourself with the included key puller. Slide the loop between the keys and then gently beneath the key you wish to remove: Wiggle the key puller gently back and forth while exerting a gentle upward pressure to pop the key off; You can repeat the process for every key, if you ever find yourself needing to extract piles of cat hair, Cheeto dust, or other foreign objects from your keyboard. There it is, the naked switch, the source of that wonderful crisp action with the tactile bump on each keystroke. The last feature worthy of a mention is the N-key rollover functionality of the keyboard. This is a feature you simply won’t find on non-mechanical keyboards and even gaming keyboards typically only have any sort of key roller on the high-frequency keys like WASD. So what is N-key rollover and why do you care? On a typical mass-produced rubber-dome keyboard you cannot simultaneously press more than two keys as the third one doesn’t register. PS/2 keyboards allow for unlimited rollover (in other words you can’t out type the keyboard as all of your keystrokes, no matter how fast, will register); if you use the CODE keyboard with the PS/2 adapter you gain this ability. If you don’t use the PS/2 adapter and use the native USB, you still get 6-key rollover (and the CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT don’t count towards the 6) so realistically you still won’t be able to out type the computer as even the more finger twisting keyboard combos and high speed typing will still fall well within the 6-key rollover. The rollover absolutely doesn’t matter if you’re a slow hunt-and-peck typist, but if you’ve read this far into a keyboard review there’s a good chance that you’re a serious typist and that kind of quality construction and high-number key rollover is a fantastic feature.  The Good, The Bad, and the Verdict We’ve put the CODE keyboard through the paces, we’ve played games with it, typed articles with it, left lengthy comments on Reddit, and otherwise used and abused it like we would any other keyboard. The Good: The construction is rock solid. In an emergency, we’re confident we could use the keyboard as a blunt weapon (and then resume using it later in the day with no ill effect on the keyboard). The Cherry switches are an absolute pleasure to type on; the Clear variety found in the CODE keyboard offer a really nice middle-ground between the gun-shot clack of a louder mechanical switch and the quietness of a lesser-quality dome keyboard without sacrificing quality. Touch typists will love the subtle tactile bump feedback. Dip switch system makes it very easy for users on different systems and with different keyboard layout needs to switch between operating system and keyboard layouts. If you’re investing a chunk of change in a keyboard it’s nice to know you can take it with you to a different operating system or “upgrade” it to a new layout if you decide to take up Dvorak-style typing. The backlighting is perfect. You can adjust it from a barely-visible glow to a blazing light-up-the-room brightness. Whatever your intesity preference, the white-coated steel backplate does a great job diffusing the light between the keys. You can easily remove the keys for cleaning (or to rearrange the letters to support a new keyboard layout). The weight of the unit combined with the extra thick rubber feet keep it planted exactly where you place it on the desk. The Bad: While you’re getting your money’s worth, the $150 price tag is a shock when compared to the $20-60 price tags you find on lower-end keyboards. People used to large dedicated media keys independent of the traditional key layout (such as the large buttons and volume controls found on many modern keyboards) might be off put by the Fn-key style media controls on the CODE. The Verdict: The keyboard is clearly and heavily influenced by the needs of serious typists. Whether you’re a programmer, transcriptionist, or just somebody that wants to leave the lengthiest article comments the Internet has ever seen, the CODE keyboard offers a rock solid typing experience. Yes, $150 isn’t pocket change, but the quality of the CODE keyboard is so high and the typing experience is so enjoyable, you’re easily getting ten times the value you’d get out of purchasing a lesser keyboard. Even compared to other mechanical keyboards on the market, like the Das Keyboard, you’re still getting more for your money as other mechanical keyboards don’t come with the lovely-to-type-on Cherry MX Clear switches, back lighting, and hardware-based operating system keyboard layout switching. If it’s in your budget to upgrade your keyboard (especially if you’ve been slogging along with a low-end rubber-dome keyboard) there’s no good reason to not pickup a CODE keyboard. Key animation courtesy of Geekhack.org user Lethal Squirrel.       

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  • Example: Controlling randomizer using code contracts

    - by DigiMortal
    One cool addition to Visual Studio 2010 is support for code contracts. Code contracts make sure that all conditions under what method is supposed to run correctly are met. Those who are familiar with unit tests will find code contracts easy to use. In this posting I will show you simple example about static contract checking (example solution is included). To try out code contracts you need at least Visual Studio 2010 Standard Edition. Also you need code contracts package. You can download package from DevLabs Code Contracts page. NB! Speakers, you can use the example solution in your presentations as long as you mention me and this blog in your sessions. Solution has readme.txt file that gives you steps to go through when presenting solution in sessions. This blog posting is companion posting for Visual Studio solution referred below. As an example let’s look at the following class. public class Randomizer {     public static int GetRandomFromRange(int min, int max)     {         var rnd = new Random();         return rnd.Next(min, max);     }       public static int GetRandomFromRangeContracted(int min, int max)     {         Contract.Requires(min < max, "Min must be less than max");           var rnd = new Random();         return rnd.Next(min, max);     } } GetRandomFromRange() method returns results without any checking. GetRandomFromRangeContracted() uses one code contract that makes sure that minimum value is less than maximum value. Now let’s run the following code. class Program {     static void Main(string[] args)     {         var random1 = Randomizer.GetRandomFromRange(0, 9);         Console.WriteLine("Random 1: " + random1);           var random2 = Randomizer.GetRandomFromRange(1, 1);         Console.WriteLine("Random 2: " + random2);           var random3 = Randomizer.GetRandomFromRangeContracted(5, 5);         Console.WriteLine("Random 3: " + random3);           Console.WriteLine(" ");         Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit ...");         Console.ReadKey();     } } As we have not turned on support for code contracts the code runs without any problems and we get no warnings by Visual Studio that something is wrong. Now let’s turn on static checking for code contracts. As you can see then code still compiles without any errors but Visual Studio warns you about possible problems with contracts. Click on image to see it at original size.  When we open Error list and run our application we get the following output to errors list. Note that these messages are not shown immediately. There is little delay between application starting and appearance of these messages. So wait couple of seconds before going out of your mind. Click on image to see it at original size.  If you look at these warnings you can see that warnings show you illegal calls and also contracts against what they are going. Third warning points to GetRandomFromRange() method and shows that there should be also problem that can be detected by contract. Download Code Contracts example VS2010 solution | 30KB

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  • input / output error, drives randomly refusing to read / write

    - by ILMV
    I have an issue with one of our servers running Ubuntu 10.04, it is running BackupPC and collects backups from various machines / servers around the building. On the 8th minute (12:08, 12:18, 12:28 etc) the backups are transferred to an external hard drive, we have three and rotate one drive for another everyday. The problem we are having is we are randomly experiencing input / output errors, when this happens you cannot read / write to the drive, it hasn't unmounted so I can cd to the mount point /media/backup1. The drives are not faulty as it's happening on all of them, so I'm at a loss as to what the problem could be, here is an example of the many errors we get: gzip: stdout: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 47: /media/backup1/Tue/offline.log: Input/output error ls: cannot access /media/backup1/Tue/incr_1083_host1.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error ls: cannot access /media/backup1/Tue/incr_1088_host1.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error ls: cannot access /media/backup1/Tue/incr_1089_host1.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error ls: cannot access /media/backup1/Tue/incr_1090_host1.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 39: /media/backup1/Tue/offline.log: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 44: /media/backup1/Tue/offline.log: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 45: /media/backup1/Tue/incr_1090_host1.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 47: /media/backup1/Tue/offline.log: Input/output error ls: cannot access /media/backup1/Tue/incr_591_tech2.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 44: /media/backup1/Tue/offline.log: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 45: /media/backup1/Tue/incr_591_tech2.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 47: /media/backup1/Tue/offline.log: Input/output error ls: cannot access /media/backup1/Tue/incr_592_tech3.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error ls: cannot access /media/backup1/Tue/incr_593_tech3.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 44: /media/backup1/Tue/offline.log: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 45: /media/backup1/Tue/incr_593_tech3.something.co.uk.tar.gz: Input/output error /var/lib/backuppc/backuppc_offline: line 47: /media/backup1/Tue/offline.log: Input/output error EDIT » Resolved So it turns out Quamis was right, even though I didn't think it was possible it was actually a problem with the drive. You see we have three drives all formatted to ext2, on two of them we were getting I/O errors frequently, I cam back to Quamis' answer and discovered the fsck command, so ran it against the problems drives: fsck /dev/sdb1 This found and fixed a load of problems on the drive, most probably caused by power outages / unsafe removal of drives etc, as the drives are in the xt2 format they aren't journalled and thus aren't protected against such issues. Drives are now working beautifully, thanks all! :D

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