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  • Multiple key/value pairs in HTTP POST where key is the same name

    - by randombits
    I'm working on an API that accepts data from remote clients, some of which where the key in an HTTP POST almost functions as an array. In english what this means is say I have a resource on my server called "class". A class in this sense, is the type a student sits in and a teacher educates in. When the user submits an HTTP POST to create a new class for their application, a lot of the key value pairs look like: student_name: Bob Smith student_name: Jane Smith student_name: Chris Smith What's the best way to handle this on both the client side (let's say the client is cURL or ActiveResource, whatever..) and what's a decent way of handling this on the server-side if my server is a Ruby on Rails app? Need a way to allow for multiple keys with the same name and without any namespace clashing or loss of data.

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  • MySQL - display rows of names and addresses grouped by name, where name occures more than once

    - by Stoob
    I have two tables, "name" and "address". I would like to list the last_name and joined address.street_address of all last_name in table "name" that occur more than once in table "name". The two tables are joined on the column "name_id". The desired output would appear like so: 213 | smith | 123 bluebird | 14 | smith | 456 first ave | 718 | smith | 12 san antonia st. | 244 | jones | 78 third ave # 45 | 98 | jones | 18177 toronto place | Note that if the last_name "abernathy" appears only once in table "name", then "abernathy" should not be included in the result. This is what I came up with so far: SELECT name.name_id, name.last_name, address.street_address, count(*) FROM `name` JOIN `address` ON name.name_id = address.name_id GROUP BY `last_name` HAVING count(*) > 1 However, this produces only one row per last name. I'd like all the last names listed. I know I am missing something simple. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

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  • Adding valut to Input field on click

    - by Wazdesign
    I have this structure on form, <input type="test" value="" id="username" /> <span class="input-value">John Smith</span> <a href="#" class="fill-input">Fill Input</a> when user click on the Fill Input , the data from span which has class input-value will be added to value, after clicking a tag the code should be look like this, <input type="test" value="john Smith" id="username" /> <span class="input-value">John Smith</span> <a href="#" class="fill-input">Fill Input</a> there are many forms element/input on the single page. thanks!

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  • Track/Display Array Index As Part Of Cout (C++)

    - by John Smith
    Hi, I have a command line C++ program that lets you enter basic information about a person (ID number, name, age, etc.) and I want to output to a console in the following manner: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Index ID # First Name Last Name Age ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 1234 John Smith 25 The person objects are stored in an array of Persons and I've overload the ostream (<<) operator to print out all of the fields like you see. The dashed lines and header come from a displayHdg() function. Anyhow, I have not been able to figure out how to get the proper index value for the array. Ideally, I'd like to generate the indices for each line, but all my attempts have failed. The array is looped through and each object printed in the main() function, and the ostream is overloaded in a person class, so I tried to use global variables as well as static variables, and all of those produce incorrect numbering (i.e. show 0, 1 the first time (for 2 objects), then change to 1, 2 on the next display). Any ideas?

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  • How to select only the first rows for each unique value of a column

    - by nuit9
    Let's say I have a table of customer addresses: CName | AddressLine ------------------------------- John Smith | 123 Nowheresville Jane Doe | 456 Evergreen Terrace John Smith | 999 Somewhereelse Joe Bloggs | 1 Second Ave In the table, one customer like John Smith can have multiple addresses. I need the select query for this table to return only first row found where there are duplicates in 'CName'. For this table it should return all rows except the 3rd (or 1st - any of those two addresses are okay but only one can be returned). Is there a keyword I can add to the SELECT query to filter based on whether the server has already seen the column value before?

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  • Limit user in sql plus to a single record in a table.

    - by BFK
    I have one employee table...this table has 5 coloumns (empname, empgsm, empsal, empaddr, empdep)...it has 10 records. i've created 10 users equivelent to the empnames coloumn in the table. When a user logs in with his empname aka username & password, he will be able to see only his record from the table. eg.Smith is an employee, a user called smith was created. when this user is in session, and types "Select * from Employee_table" he only gets the record that belongs to him, where empname is smith. how do i do this using privileges? thanks in advance

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  • Android- Using DexClassLoader to load apk file.

    - by Craig O Connor
    Hi guys, I've hit a bit of a wall. Any help would be appreciated. I have an app that I want to use DexClassLoader to load another apk file. Here is my code: DexClassLoader dLoader = new DexClassLoader("/sdcard/download/test.apk","/sdcard/download",null,ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader().getParent()); Class calledClass = dLoader.loadClass("com.test.classname"); Intent it=new Intent(this, calledClass); it.setClassName("com.test", "com.test.classname"); startActivity(it); Now I had already installed test.apk so when I ran the above code it worked fine and launched the application. However I want to be able to run this without test.apk being installed already (as that would defeat the entire point of the application) . So I uninstalled it and when I ran the my app again I get this error: android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: Unable to find explicit activity class {com.test/com.test.classname}; have you declared this activity in your AndroidManifest.xml. So I'm a bit stumped here. This activity is declared in the Manifest of the apk I am trying to run. I can't declare it in my applications Manifest. Any ideas? Thanks, Craig

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  • Problem parsing an atom feed using simplexml_load_file(), can't get an attribute.

    - by Craig Ward
    Hi, I am trying to create a social timeline. I pull in feeds form certain places so I have a timeline of thing I have done. The problem I am having is with Google reader Shared Items. I want to get the time at which I shared the item which is contained in <entry gr:crawl-timestamp-msec="1269088723811"> Trying to get the element using $date = $xml->entry[$i]->link->attributes()->gr:crawl-timestamp-msec; fails because of the : after gr which causes a PHP error. I could figure out how to get the element, so thought I would change the name using the code below but it throws the following error Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "<?xml version="1.0"?><feed xmlns:idx="urn:atom-extension:indexing" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns <?php $get_feed = file_get_contents('http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user/03120403612393553979/state/com.google/broadcast'); $old = "gr:crawl-timestamp-msec"; $new = "timestamp"; $xml_file = str_replace($old, $new, $get_feed); $xml = simplexml_load_file($xml_file); $i = 0; foreach ($xml->entry as $value) { $id = $xml->entry[$i]->id; $date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime($xml->entry[$i]->attributes()->timestamp )); $text = $xml->entry[$i]->title; $link = $xml->entry[$i]->link->attributes()->href; $source = "googleshared"; echo "date = $date<br />"; $sql="INSERT IGNORE INTO timeline (id,date,text,link, source) VALUES ('$id', '$date', '$text', '$link', '$source')"; mysql_query($sql); $i++; }` Could someone point me in the right direction please. Cheers Craig

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  • Need help with creating complex UITableView items (like the Settings app).

    - by Craig
    I hoping to create a custom Settings view, similar to the Settings application, but with more control over the UI and access to some settings (i need to lock some of the settings). Obvously, there are a variety of UI elements mixed in each row of application's UITableView. For example, the 'Airplane Mode' setting shows a UISwitch, while the 'Wi-Fi' setting has a text value adjacent to the disclosure symbol (''). Further complicating matters, is the grouping of these settings. I have some general questions about the approach I should take: Seems like i need to save the name of the setting, its current value, its grouping, and the type of UI element(s) needed to modify its value. i would like to make use [NSUserDefault standardUserDefaults], but not have these settings appear in the Settings application. I'm guessing that I will need to create my own settings-persistence class. is it better to build each one of these complex UI-element combinations in code or to create a series of custom views based on the UITableViewCell and load the appropriate one? i'm guessing the latter. some of the setting require that i load another view to select its value. assuming that the application is based on the Utility pattern, should the SettingsView manage the navigation stack, rather than having the app delegate do so? Thanks for your time and comments. Craig Buchanan

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  • Old desktop programmer wants to create S+S project

    - by Craig
    I have an idea for a product that I want to be web-based. But because I live in Brasil, the internet is not always available so there needs to be a desktop component that is available for when the internet is down. Also, I have been a SQL programmer, a desktop application programmer using dBase, VB and Pascal, and I have created simple websites using HTML and website creation tools, such as Frontpage. So from my research, I think I have the following options; PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python or .NET for the programming side. MySQL for the DB. And Apache, or possibly IIS, for the webserver. I will probably start with a local ISP provider for the cloud servce. But then maybe move to something more "robust" and universal in the future, ie. Amazon, or Azure, or something along that line. My question then is this. What would you recommend for something like this? I'm sure that I have not listed all of the possibilities, but the ones I have researched and thought of. Thanks everyone, Craig

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  • C: 8x8 -> 16 bit multiply precision guaranteed by integer promotions?

    - by craig-blome
    I'm trying to figure out if the C Standard (C90, though I'm working off Derek Jones' annotated C99 book) guarantees that I will not lose precision multiplying two unsigned 8-bit values and storing to a 16-bit result. An example statement is as follows: unsigned char foo; unsigned int foo_u16 = foo * 10; Our Keil 8051 compiler (v7.50 at present) will generate a MUL AB instruction which stores the MSB in the B register and the LSB in the accumulator. If I cast foo to a unsigned int first: unsigned int foo_u16 = (unsigned int)foo * 10; then the compiler correctly decides I want a unsigned int there and generates an expensive call to a 16x16 bit integer multiply routine. I would like to argue beyond reasonable doubt that this defensive measure is not necessary. As I read the integer promotions described in 6.3.1.1, the effect of the first line shall be as if foo and 10 were promoted to unsigned int, the multiplication performed, and the result stored as unsigned int in foo_u16. If the compiler knows an instruction that does 8x8-16 bit multiplications without loss of precision, so much the better; but the precision is guaranteed. Am I reading this correctly? Best regards, Craig Blome

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  • Null reading in stream images? Unable to start activity ComponentInfo

    - by lasmith
    I have reviewed a lot of similar questions regarding not being able to launch an activity but they don't seem to quite match my problem. I am working on a simple black jack game but its force quitting. I suspect there is a problem with loading up the card png images I have. Stepping through the debugger it crashes right while in the resetGame() function. I'm sure I am doing something dumb. My Logcat: 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): FATAL EXCEPTION: main 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.smith.blackjack/com.smith.blackjack.Main}: java.lang.NullPointerException 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2059) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2084) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.app.ActivityThread.access$600(ActivityThread.java:130) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1195) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4745) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:786) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:553) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at com.smith.blackjack.DeckOfCards.<init>(DeckOfCards.java:17) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at com.smith.blackjack.Main.resetGame(Main.java:98) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at com.smith.blackjack.Main.onCreate(Main.java:67) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:5008) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1079) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2023) 10-15 20:21:43.309: E/AndroidRuntime(2863): ... 11 more My androidmanifest: <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.smith.blackjack" android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0" > <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="11" android:targetSdkVersion="15" /> <application android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher" android:label="@string/app_name" android:theme="@style/AppTheme" > <activity android:name=".Main" android:label="@string/title_activity_main" > <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" /> <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /> </intent-filter> </activity> </application> Here is my Main.java package com.smith.blackjack; import android.os.Bundle; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.res.AssetManager; import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable; import java.io.IOException; import java.io.InputStream; import android.util.Log; import android.view.View; import android.view.View.OnClickListener; import android.widget.Button; import android.widget.ImageView; public class Main extends Activity { private ImageView dealerCard0; private ImageView dealerCard1; private ImageView dealerCard2; private ImageView dealerCard3; private ImageView playerCard0; private ImageView playerCard1; private ImageView playerCard2; private ImageView playerCard3; private ImageView imgResult; private Button btnDeal; private Button btnDraw; private Button btnHold; private DeckOfCards deckOfCards; private int[] dealerValues; private int dealerSum; private int dealerCardNumber; private int[] playerValues; private int playerSum; private int playerCardNumber; private InputStream dealerHiddenCard; private Card dealerCard; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); dealerCard0 = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.dealerCard0); dealerCard1 = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.dealerCard1); dealerCard2 = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.dealerCard2); dealerCard3 = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.dealerCard3); playerCard0 = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.playerCard0); playerCard1 = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.playerCard1); playerCard2 = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.playerCard2); playerCard3 = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.playerCard3); imgResult = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.imgResult); btnDeal = (Button) findViewById(R.id.deal); btnDraw = (Button) findViewById(R.id.draw); btnHold = (Button) findViewById(R.id.hold); btnDeal.setOnClickListener(btnDealListener); btnDraw.setOnClickListener(btnDrawListener); btnHold.setOnClickListener(btnHoldListener); resetGame(); } private void resetGame(){ AssetManager assets = getAssets(); dealerValues = new int[4]; playerValues = new int[4]; dealerSum = 0; playerSum = 0; dealerCardNumber = 0; playerCardNumber = 0; for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) { dealerValues[i] = 0; playerValues[i] = 0; } try { InputStream stream = assets.open("cardback.png"); // stream = assets.open("cardback.png"); Drawable cardImage = Drawable.createFromStream(stream, null); dealerCard0.setImageDrawable(cardImage); dealerCard1.setImageDrawable(cardImage); dealerCard2.setImageDrawable(cardImage); dealerCard3.setImageDrawable(cardImage); playerCard0.setImageDrawable(cardImage); playerCard1.setImageDrawable(cardImage); playerCard2.setImageDrawable(cardImage); playerCard3.setImageDrawable(cardImage); imgResult.setImageDrawable(cardImage); deckOfCards = new DeckOfCards(); deckOfCards.shuffle(); assets.close(); } catch (IOException e){ Log.e("Reset Game", "Error Loading", e); } } public OnClickListener btnDealListener = new OnClickListener() { // @Override public void onClick(View v) { try { AssetManager assets = getAssets(); InputStream stream; // first player card Card newCard; newCard = deckOfCards.dealCard(); playerValues[playerCardNumber] = newCard.faceValue; playerCardNumber++; stream = assets.open(newCard.File); Drawable cardImage = Drawable.createFromStream(stream, newCard.File); playerCard0.setImageDrawable(cardImage); assets.close(); // second player card newCard = deckOfCards.dealCard(); playerValues[playerCardNumber] = newCard.faceValue; playerCardNumber++; stream = assets.open(newCard.File); cardImage = Drawable.createFromStream(stream, newCard.File); playerCard1.setImageDrawable(cardImage); assets.close(); // first dealer card hidden newCard = deckOfCards.dealCard(); dealerCard = newCard; dealerValues[dealerCardNumber] = newCard.faceValue; dealerCardNumber++; dealerHiddenCard = assets.open(newCard.File); stream = assets.open("cardback.png"); cardImage = Drawable.createFromStream(stream, "cardback"); dealerCard0.setImageDrawable(cardImage); assets.close(); // second dealer card open newCard = deckOfCards.dealCard(); dealerValues[dealerCardNumber] = newCard.faceValue; dealerCardNumber++; stream = assets.open(newCard.File); cardImage = Drawable.createFromStream(stream, newCard.File); dealerCard1.setImageDrawable(cardImage); assets.close(); } catch (IOException e){ Log.e("Deal", "Error Loading", e); } }; }; public OnClickListener btnDrawListener = new OnClickListener() { // @Override public void onClick(View v) { try { AssetManager assets = getAssets(); InputStream stream; // get next player card Card newCard; newCard = deckOfCards.dealCard(); playerValues[playerCardNumber] = newCard.faceValue; playerCardNumber++; stream = assets.open(newCard.File); Drawable cardImage = Drawable.createFromStream(stream, newCard.File); switch (playerCardNumber){ case 3: playerCard2.setImageDrawable(cardImage); case 4: playerCard3.setImageDrawable(cardImage); } assets.close(); } catch (IOException e){ Log.e("Draw", "Error Loading", e); } }; }; public OnClickListener btnHoldListener = new OnClickListener() { // @Override public void onClick(View v) { Drawable cardImage; // evaluate player hand playerSum = evaluate(playerValues); if (playerSum > 21){ // player losses } // flip over the dealer hidden card cardImage = Drawable.createFromStream(dealerHiddenCard, dealerCard.File); Card newCard; InputStream stream; AssetManager assets = getAssets(); for (int i=2; i<4; i++){ dealerSum = evaluate(dealerValues); if (dealerSum < 16 ) { newCard = deckOfCards.dealCard(); dealerValues[dealerCardNumber] = newCard.faceValue; dealerCardNumber++; try { stream = assets.open(newCard.File); cardImage = Drawable.createFromStream(stream, newCard.File); switch (dealerCardNumber){ case 3: dealerCard2.setImageDrawable(cardImage); case 4: dealerCard3.setImageDrawable(cardImage); } assets.close(); } catch (IOException e){ Log.e("Draw", "Error Loading", e); } if (dealerSum < playerSum) { // player wins } if (dealerSum > playerSum){ // dealer wins } if (dealerSum == playerSum){ // it is a draw } } } }; }; public int evaluate (int[]values) { int sumCards = 0; for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++){ sumCards += values[i]; } if (sumCards > 21) { for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++){ if (values[i] == 11) { values[i] = 1; sumCards -= 10; continue; } } } return sumCards; } } My DeckOfCards class: package com.smith.blackjack; import java.util.Random; public class DeckOfCards { private Card [] deck; private int currentCard; private static final int NUMBER_OF_CARDS = 52; private static final Random randomNumbers = new Random(); public DeckOfCards () { deck = new Card[NUMBER_OF_CARDS]; currentCard = 0 ; for(int count = 0; count < deck.length; count++) { deck[count].faceValue = count + 1; } } public void shuffle () { currentCard = 0; for (int first = 0; first < deck.length; first ++){ int second = randomNumbers.nextInt(NUMBER_OF_CARDS); int temp = deck[first].faceValue; deck[first].faceValue=deck[second].faceValue; deck[second].faceValue = temp; } } public Card dealCard(){ Card temp = new Card(); temp.faceValue = 0; temp.File = ""; if(currentCard < deck.length) { temp.faceValue = deck[currentCard].faceValue / 4; int suit = deck[currentCard].faceValue % 4; String suitString = ""; switch (suit){ case 0: suitString = "c"; case 1: suitString = "d"; case 2: suitString = "h"; case 3: suitString = "s"; } Integer face = temp.faceValue / 4 ; String faceString = face.toString(); temp.File = faceString + suitString + ".png"; switch (temp.faceValue){ case 11: temp.faceValue = 10; case 12: temp.faceValue = 10; case 13: temp.faceValue = 10; } return temp; } else return temp; } }

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  • how to read in a list of custom configuration objects

    - by Johnny
    hi, I want to implement Craig Andera's custom XML configuration handler in a slightly different scenario. What I want to be able to do is to read in a list of arbitrary length of custom objects defined as: public class TextFileInfo { public string Name { get; set; } public string TextFilePath { get; set; } public string XmlFilePath { get; set; } } I managed to replicate Craig's solution for one custom object but what if I want several? Craig's deserialization code is: public class XmlSerializerSectionHandler : IConfigurationSectionHandler { public object Create(object parent, object configContext, XmlNode section) { XPathNavigator nav = section.CreateNavigator(); string typename = (string)nav.Evaluate("string(@type)"); Type t = Type.GetType(typename); XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(t); return ser.Deserialize(new XmlNodeReader(section)); } } I think I could do this if I could get Type t = Type.GetType("System.Collections.Generic.List<TextFileInfo>") to work but it throws Could not load type 'System.Collections.Generic.List<Test1.TextFileInfo>' from assembly 'Test1, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.

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  • How to run Repository Creation Utility (RCU) on 64-bit Linux

    - by Kevin Smith
    I was setting up WebCenter Content (WCC) on a new virtual box running 64-bit Linux and ran into a problem when I tried to run the Repository Creation Utility (RCU). I saw this error when trying to start RCU .../rcuHome/jdk/jre/bin/java: /lib/ld-linux.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory I think I remember running into this before and reading something about RCU only being supported on 32-bit Linux. I decided to try and see if I could get it to run on 64-bit Linux. I saw it was using it's own copy of java (.../rcuHome/jdk/jre/bin/java), so I decided to try and get it to use the 64-bit JRockit I had already installed. I edited the rcu script in rcuHome/bin and replaced JRE_DIR=$ORACLE_HOME/jdk/jre with JRE_DIR=/apps/java/jrockit-jdk1.6.0_29-R28.2.2-4.1.0 Sure enough that fixed it. I was able to run RCU and create the WCC schema.

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  • Stark Expo Needs You

    - by [email protected]
    Train to Become a Master Cloud Operative Can't wait until September to get your Oracle fix? Then come visit us at the Stark Expo now. Marvel Entertainment has turned itself into one of the hottest media companies of the digital age, and at the heart of Marvel's growth and transformation is Oracle technology. Now, this successful collaboration finds its way to the big screen, as Oracle joins forces with Marvel to launch a special showcase Website and movie trailer for the upcoming Iron Man 2. In Iron Man 2, Oracle is a proud sponsor of Stark Expo, a world-class tradeshow that depends on a cloud computing architecture to ensure that systems are free from overload. Starting today, visitors to the showcase Website are invited to become Master Cloud Operatives and keep Stark Expo up and running. Complete your training, test your troubleshooting skills in the Oracle Pavilion, and qualify to receive a free movie poster.

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  • Are SMART goals useful for programmers?

    - by Craig Schwarze
    Several organisations I know use SMART goals for their programmers. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. They are fairly common in large corporations. My own prior experience with SMART goals has not been all that positive. Have other programmers found them an effective way to measure performance? What are some examples of good SMART goals for programmers (if they exist).

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  • Transactional Messaging in the Windows Azure Service Bus

    - by Alan Smith
    Introduction I’m currently working on broadening the content in the Windows Azure Service Bus Developer Guide. One of the features I have been looking at over the past week is the support for transactional messaging. When using the direct programming model and the WCF interface some, but not all, messaging operations can participate in transactions. This allows developers to improve the reliability of messaging systems. There are some limitations in the transactional model, transactions can only include one top level messaging entity (such as a queue or topic, subscriptions are no top level entities), and transactions cannot include other systems, such as databases. As the transaction model is currently not well documented I have had to figure out how things work through experimentation, with some help from the development team to confirm any questions I had. Hopefully I’ve got the content mostly correct, I will update the content in the e-book if I find any errors or improvements that can be made (any feedback would be very welcome). I’ve not had a chance to look into the code for transactions and asynchronous operations, maybe that would make a nice challenge lab for my Windows Azure Service Bus course. Transactional Messaging Messaging entities in the Windows Azure Service Bus provide support for participation in transactions. This allows developers to perform several messaging operations within a transactional scope, and ensure that all the actions are committed or, if there is a failure, none of the actions are committed. There are a number of scenarios where the use of transactions can increase the reliability of messaging systems. Using TransactionScope In .NET the TransactionScope class can be used to perform a series of actions in a transaction. The using declaration is typically used de define the scope of the transaction. Any transactional operations that are contained within the scope can be committed by calling the Complete method. If the Complete method is not called, any transactional methods in the scope will not commit.   // Create a transactional scope. using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope()) {     // Do something.       // Do something else.       // Commit the transaction.     scope.Complete(); }     In order for methods to participate in the transaction, they must provide support for transactional operations. Database and message queue operations typically provide support for transactions. Transactions in Brokered Messaging Transaction support in Service Bus Brokered Messaging allows message operations to be performed within a transactional scope; however there are some limitations around what operations can be performed within the transaction. In the current release, only one top level messaging entity, such as a queue or topic can participate in a transaction, and the transaction cannot include any other transaction resource managers, making transactions spanning a messaging entity and a database not possible. When sending messages, the send operations can participate in a transaction allowing multiple messages to be sent within a transactional scope. This allows for “all or nothing” delivery of a series of messages to a single queue or topic. When receiving messages, messages that are received in the peek-lock receive mode can be completed, deadlettered or deferred within a transactional scope. In the current release the Abandon method will not participate in a transaction. The same restrictions of only one top level messaging entity applies here, so the Complete method can be called transitionally on messages received from the same queue, or messages received from one or more subscriptions in the same topic. Sending Multiple Messages in a Transaction A transactional scope can be used to send multiple messages to a queue or topic. This will ensure that all the messages will be enqueued or, if the transaction fails to commit, no messages will be enqueued.     An example of the code used to send 10 messages to a queue as a single transaction from a console application is shown below.   QueueClient queueClient = messagingFactory.CreateQueueClient(Queue1);   Console.Write("Sending");   // Create a transaction scope. using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope()) {     for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)     {         // Send a message         BrokeredMessage msg = new BrokeredMessage("Message: " + i);         queueClient.Send(msg);         Console.Write(".");     }     Console.WriteLine("Done!");     Console.WriteLine();       // Should we commit the transaction?     Console.WriteLine("Commit send 10 messages? (yes or no)");     string reply = Console.ReadLine();     if (reply.ToLower().Equals("yes"))     {         // Commit the transaction.         scope.Complete();     } } Console.WriteLine(); messagingFactory.Close();     The transaction scope is used to wrap the sending of 10 messages. Once the messages have been sent the user has the option to either commit the transaction or abandon the transaction. If the user enters “yes”, the Complete method is called on the scope, which will commit the transaction and result in the messages being enqueued. If the user enters anything other than “yes”, the transaction will not commit, and the messages will not be enqueued. Receiving Multiple Messages in a Transaction The receiving of multiple messages is another scenario where the use of transactions can improve reliability. When receiving a group of messages that are related together, maybe in the same message session, it is possible to receive the messages in the peek-lock receive mode, and then complete, defer, or deadletter the messages in one transaction. (In the current version of Service Bus, abandon is not transactional.)   The following code shows how this can be achieved. using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope()) {       while (true)     {         // Receive a message.         BrokeredMessage msg = q1Client.Receive(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));         if (msg != null)         {             // Wrote message body and complete message.             string text = msg.GetBody<string>();             Console.WriteLine("Received: " + text);             msg.Complete();         }         else         {             break;         }     }     Console.WriteLine();       // Should we commit?     Console.WriteLine("Commit receive? (yes or no)");     string reply = Console.ReadLine();     if (reply.ToLower().Equals("yes"))     {         // Commit the transaction.         scope.Complete();     }     Console.WriteLine(); }     Note that if there are a large number of messages to be received, there will be a chance that the transaction may time out before it can be committed. It is possible to specify a longer timeout when the transaction is created, but It may be better to receive and commit smaller amounts of messages within the transaction. It is also possible to complete, defer, or deadletter messages received from more than one subscription, as long as all the subscriptions are contained in the same topic. As subscriptions are not top level messaging entities this scenarios will work. The following code shows how this can be achieved. try {     using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope())     {         // Receive one message from each subscription.         BrokeredMessage msg1 = subscriptionClient1.Receive();         BrokeredMessage msg2 = subscriptionClient2.Receive();           // Complete the message receives.         msg1.Complete();         msg2.Complete();           Console.WriteLine("Msg1: " + msg1.GetBody<string>());         Console.WriteLine("Msg2: " + msg2.GetBody<string>());           // Commit the transaction.         scope.Complete();     } } catch (Exception ex) {     Console.WriteLine(ex.Message); }     Unsupported Scenarios The restriction of only one top level messaging entity being able to participate in a transaction makes some useful scenarios unsupported. As the Windows Azure Service Bus is under continuous development and new releases are expected to be frequent it is possible that this restriction may not be present in future releases. The first is the scenario where messages are to be routed to two different systems. The following code attempts to do this.   try {     // Create a transaction scope.     using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope())     {         BrokeredMessage msg1 = new BrokeredMessage("Message1");         BrokeredMessage msg2 = new BrokeredMessage("Message2");           // Send a message to Queue1         Console.WriteLine("Sending Message1");         queue1Client.Send(msg1);           // Send a message to Queue2         Console.WriteLine("Sending Message2");         queue2Client.Send(msg2);           // Commit the transaction.         Console.WriteLine("Committing transaction...");         scope.Complete();     } } catch (Exception ex) {     Console.WriteLine(ex.Message); }     The results of running the code are shown below. When attempting to send a message to the second queue the following exception is thrown: No active Transaction was found for ID '35ad2495-ee8a-4956-bbad-eb4fedf4a96e:1'. The Transaction may have timed out or attempted to span multiple top-level entities such as Queue or Topic. The server Transaction timeout is: 00:01:00..TrackingId:947b8c4b-7754-4044-b91b-4a959c3f9192_3_3,TimeStamp:3/29/2012 7:47:32 AM.   Another scenario where transactional support could be useful is when forwarding messages from one queue to another queue. This would also involve more than one top level messaging entity, and is therefore not supported.   Another scenario that developers may wish to implement is performing transactions across messaging entities and other transactional systems, such as an on-premise database. In the current release this is not supported.   Workarounds for Unsupported Scenarios There are some techniques that developers can use to work around the one top level entity limitation of transactions. When sending two messages to two systems, topics and subscriptions can be used. If the same message is to be sent to two destinations then the subscriptions would have the default subscriptions, and the client would only send one message. If two different messages are to be sent, then filters on the subscriptions can route the messages to the appropriate destination. The client can then send the two messages to the topic in the same transaction.   In scenarios where a message needs to be received and then forwarded to another system within the same transaction topics and subscriptions can also be used. A message can be received from a subscription, and then sent to a topic within the same transaction. As a topic is a top level messaging entity, and a subscription is not, this scenario will work.

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  • Your thoughts on Best Practices for Scientific Computing?

    - by John Smith
    A recent paper by Wilson et al (2014) pointed out 24 Best Practices for scientific programming. It's worth to have a look. I would like to hear opinions about these points from experienced programmers in scientific data analysis. Do you think these advices are helpful and practical? Or are they good only in an ideal world? Wilson G, Aruliah DA, Brown CT, Chue Hong NP, Davis M, Guy RT, Haddock SHD, Huff KD, Mitchell IM, Plumbley MD, Waugh B, White EP, Wilson P (2014) Best Practices for Scientific Computing. PLoS Biol 12:e1001745. http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001745 Box 1. Summary of Best Practices Write programs for people, not computers. (a) A program should not require its readers to hold more than a handful of facts in memory at once. (b) Make names consistent, distinctive, and meaningful. (c) Make code style and formatting consistent. Let the computer do the work. (a) Make the computer repeat tasks. (b) Save recent commands in a file for re-use. (c) Use a build tool to automate workflows. Make incremental changes. (a) Work in small steps with frequent feedback and course correction. (b) Use a version control system. (c) Put everything that has been created manually in version control. Don’t repeat yourself (or others). (a) Every piece of data must have a single authoritative representation in the system. (b) Modularize code rather than copying and pasting. (c) Re-use code instead of rewriting it. Plan for mistakes. (a) Add assertions to programs to check their operation. (b) Use an off-the-shelf unit testing library. (c) Turn bugs into test cases. (d) Use a symbolic debugger. Optimize software only after it works correctly. (a) Use a profiler to identify bottlenecks. (b) Write code in the highest-level language possible. Document design and purpose, not mechanics. (a) Document interfaces and reasons, not implementations. (b) Refactor code in preference to explaining how it works. (c) Embed the documentation for a piece of software in that software. Collaborate. (a) Use pre-merge code reviews. (b) Use pair programming when bringing someone new up to speed and when tackling particularly tricky problems. (c) Use an issue tracking tool. I'm relatively new to serious programming for scientific data analysis. When I tried to write code for pilot analyses of some of my data last year, I encountered tremendous amount of bugs both in my code and data. Bugs and errors had been around me all the time, but this time it was somewhat overwhelming. I managed to crunch the numbers at last, but I thought I couldn't put up with this mess any longer. Some actions must be taken. Without a sophisticated guide like the article above, I started to adopt "defensive style" of programming since then. A book titled "The Art of Readable Code" helped me a lot. I deployed meticulous input validations or assertions for every function, renamed a lot of variables and functions for better readability, and extracted many subroutines as reusable functions. Recently, I introduced Git and SourceTree for version control. At the moment, because my co-workers are much more reluctant about these issues, the collaboration practices (8a,b,c) have not been introduced. Actually, as the authors admitted, because all of these practices take some amount of time and effort to introduce, it may be generally hard to persuade your reluctant collaborators to comply them. I think I'm asking your opinions because I still suffer from many bugs despite all my effort on many of these practices. Bug fix may be, or should be, faster than before, but I couldn't really measure the improvement. Moreover, much of my time has been invested on defence, meaning that I haven't actually done much data analysis (offence) these days. Where is the point I should stop at in terms of productivity? I've already deployed: 1a,b,c, 2a, 3a,b,c, 4b,c, 5a,d, 6a,b, 7a,7b I'm about to have a go at: 5b,c Not yet: 2b,c, 4a, 7c, 8a,b,c (I could not really see the advantage of using GNU make (2c) for my purpose. Could anyone tell me how it helps my work with MATLAB?)

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  • What's In Storage?

    - by [email protected]
    Oracle Flies South for Storage Networking Event Storage Networking World (now simply called SNW) is the place you'll find the most-comprehensive education on storage, infrastructure, and the datacenter in the spring of 2010. It's also the place where you'll see Oracle. During the April 12-15 event in Orlando, Florida, the industry's premiere presentations on storage trends and best practices are combined with hands-on labs covering storage management and IP storage. You'll also have the opportunity to learn about Oracle's Sun storage solutions, from Flash and open storage to enterprise disk and tape. Plus, if you stop by booth 207 in the expo hall, you might walk away with a bookish prize: an Amazon Kindle, courtesy of Oracle. Proving, once again, that education can be quite rewarding.

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  • Is Agile the new micromanagement?

    - by Smith James
    Hi, This question has been cooking in my head for a while so I wanted to ask those who are following agile/scrum practices in their development environments. My company has finally ventured into incorporating agile practices and has started out with a team of 4 developers in an agile group on a trial basis. It has been 4 months with 3 iterations and they continue to do it without going fully agile for the rest of us. This is due to the fact that management's trust to meet business requirements with a quite a bit of ad hoc type request from high above. Recently, I talked to the developers who are part of this initiative; they tell me that it's not fun. They are not allowed to talk to other developers by their Scrum master and are not allowed to take any phone calls in the work area (which maybe fine to an extent). For example, if I want to talk to my friend for kicks who is in the agile team, I am not allowed without the approval of the Scrum master; who is sitting right next to the agile team. The idea of all this or the agile is to provide a complete vacuum for agile developers from any interruptions and to have them put in good 6+ productive hours. Well, guys, I am no agile guru but what I have read Yahoo agile rollout document and similar for other organizations, it gives me a feeling that agile is not cheap. It require resources and budget to instill agile into the teams and correct issue as they arrive to put them back on track. For starters, it requires training for developers and coaching for managers and etc, etc... The current Scrum master was a manager who took a couple days agile training class paid by the management is now leading this agile team. I have also heard in the meeting that agile manifesto doesn't dictate that agile is not set in stones and is customized differently for each company. Well, it all sounds good and reason. In conclusion, I always thought the agile was supposed to bring harmony in the development teams which results in happy developers. However, I am getting a very opposite feeling when talking to the developers in the agile team. They are unhappy that they cannot talk anything but work, sitting quietly all day just working, and they feel it's just another way for management to make them work more. Tell me please, if this is one of the examples of good practices used for the purpose of selfish advantage for more dollars? Or maybe, it's just us the developers like me and this agile team feels that they don't like to work in an environment where they only breathe work because they are at work. Thanks. Edit: It's a company in healthcare domain that has offices across US, but we're in Texas. It definitely feels like a cowboy style agile which makes me really not wanting to go for agile at all, esp at my current company. All of it has to do with the management being completely cheap. Cutting out expensive coffee for cheaper version, emphasis on savings and being productive while staying as lean as possible. My feeling is that someone in the management behind the door threw out this idea, that agile makes you produce more so we can show our bosses we're producing more with the same headcount. Or, maybe, it will allow us to reduce headcount if that's the case. EDITED: They are having their 5 min daily meeting. But not allowed to chat or talk with someone outside of their team. All focus is on work.

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  • Stopping by the Store

    - by [email protected]
    Registrants Get Online Savings on Oracle Products Have you heard about the Oracle Store? It's the one-stop online shop for buying Oracle software and support at significant savings. Better yet, when you register for Oracle OpenWorld 2010 by April 30, you can get an additional 10% off your next purchase. The 10% discount applies to a one-time "click and buy" checkout, so load up as many items as you can. To get started, you'll need to visit the Oracle OpenWorld registration page to get more information about the promotion, including the promo code and link. It's another great way to turn your early bird registration into a long-term gain for your organization.

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  • CQRS &ndash; Questions and Concerns

    - by Dylan Smith
    I’ve been doing a lot of learning on CQRS and Event Sourcing over the last little while and I have a number of questions that I haven’t been able to answer. 1. What is the benefit of CQRS when compared to a typical DDD architecture that uses Event Sourcing and properly captures intent and behavior via verb-based commands? (other than Scalability) 2. When using CQRS what do you do with complex query-based logic? I’m going to elaborate on #1 in this blog post and I’ll do a follow-up post on #2. I watched through Greg Young’s video on the business benefits of CQRS + Event Sourcing and first let me say that I thought it was an excellent presentation that really drives home a lot of the benefits to this approach to architecture (I watched it twice in a row I enjoyed it so much!). But it didn’t answer some of my questions fully (I wish I had been there to ask these of Greg in person!). So let me pick apart some of the points he makes and how they relate to my first question above. I’m completely sold on the idea of event sourcing and have a clear understanding of the benefits that it brings to the table, so I’m not going to question that. But you can use event sourcing without going to a CQRS architecture, so my main question is around the benefits of CQRS + Event Sourcing vs Event Sourcing + Typical DDD architecture Architecture with Event Sourcing + Commands on Left, CQRS on Right Greg talks about how the stereotypical architecture doesn’t support DDD, but is that only because his diagram shows DTO’s coming up from the client. If we use the same diagram but allow the client to send commands doesn’t that remove a lot of the arguments that Greg makes against the stereotypical architecture? We can now introduce verbs into the system. We can capture intent now (storing it still requires event sourcing, but you can implement event sourcing without doing CQRS) We can create a rich domain model (as opposed to an anemic domain model) Scalability is obviously a benefit that CQRS brings to the table, but like Greg says, very few of the systems we create truly need significant scalability Greg talks about the ability to scale your development efforts. He says CQRS allows you to split the system into 3 parts (Client, Domain/Commands, Reads) and assign 3 teams of developers to work on them in parallel; letting you scale your development efforts by 3x with nearly linear gains. But in the stereotypical architecture don’t you already have 2 separate modules that you can split your dev efforts between: The client that sends commands/queries and receives DTO’s, and the Domain which accepts commands/queries, and generates events/DTO’s. If this is true it’s not really a 3x scaling you achieve with CQRS but merely a 1.5x scaling which while great doesn’t sound nearly as dramatic (“I can do it with 10 devs in 12 months – let me hire 5 more and we can have it done in 8 months”). Making the Query side “stupid simple” such that you can assign junior developers (or even outsource it) sounds like a valid benefit, but I have some concerns over what you do with complex query-based logic/behavior. I’m going to go into more detail on this in a follow-up blog post shortly. He also seemed to focus on how “stupid-simple” it is doing queries against the de-normalized data store, but I imagine there is still significant complexity in the event handlers that interpret the events and apply them to the de-normalized tables. It sounds like Greg suggests that because we’re doing CQRS that allows us to apply Event Sourcing when we otherwise wouldn’t be able to (~33:30 in the video). I don’t believe this is true. I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to apply Event Sourcing without separating out the Commands and Queries. The queries would just operate against the domain model instead of the database. But you’d still get the benefits of Event Sourcing. Without CQRS the queries would only be able to operate against the current state rather than the event history, but even in CQRS the domain behaviors can only operate against the current state and I don’t see that being a big limiting factor. If some query needs to operate against something that is not captured by the current state you would just have to update the domain model to capture that information (no different than if that statement were made about a Command under CQRS). Some of the benefits I do see being applicable are that your domain model might end up being simpler/smaller since it only needs to represent the state needed to process commands and not worry about the reads (like the Deactivate Inventory Item and associated comment example that Greg provides). And also commands that can be handled in a Transaction Script style manner by the command handler simply generating events and not touching the domain model. It also makes it easier for your senior developers to focus on the command behavior and ignore the queries, which is usually going to be a better use of their time. And of course scalability. If anybody out there has any thoughts on this and can help educate me further, please either leave a comment or feel free to get in touch with me via email:

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  • Michael Stephenson joins CloudCasts

    - by Alan Smith
    Mike Stephenson has recorded a couple of webcasts focusing on build and test in BizTalk Server 2009. These are part of the “BizTalk Light & Easy” series of webcasts created by some of the BizTalk Server MVPs. Testing BizTalk Applications Implementing an Automated Build Process with BizTalk Server 2009

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  • Is Agile the new micromanagement?

    - by Smith James
    This question has been cooking in my head for a while so I wanted to ask those who are following agile/scrum practices in their development environments. My company has finally ventured into incorporating agile practices and has started out with a team of 4 developers in an agile group on a trial basis. It has been 4 months with 3 iterations and they continue to do it without going fully agile for the rest of us. This is due to the fact that management's trust to meet business requirements with a quite a bit of ad hoc type request from high above. Recently, I talked to the developers who are part of this initiative; they tell me that it's not fun. They are not allowed to talk to other developers by their Scrum master and are not allowed to take any phone calls in the work area (which maybe fine to an extent). For example, if I want to talk to my friend for kicks who is in the agile team, I am not allowed without the approval of the Scrum master; who is sitting right next to the agile team. The idea of all this or the agile is to provide a complete vacuum for agile developers from any interruptions and to have them put in good 6+ productive hours. Well, guys, I am no agile guru but what I have read Yahoo agile rollout document and similar for other organizations, it gives me a feeling that agile is not cheap. It require resources and budget to instill agile into the teams and correct issue as they arrive to put them back on track. For starters, it requires training for developers and coaching for managers and etc, etc... The current Scrum master was a manager who took a couple days agile training class paid by the management is now leading this agile team. I have also heard in the meeting that agile manifesto doesn't dictate that agile is not set in stones and is customized differently for each company. Well, it all sounds good and reason. In conclusion, I always thought the agile was supposed to bring harmony in the development teams which results in happy developers. However, I am getting a very opposite feeling when talking to the developers in the agile team. They are unhappy that they cannot talk anything but work, sitting quietly all day just working, and they feel it's just another way for management to make them work more. Tell me please, if this is one of the examples of good practices used for the purpose of selfish advantage for more dollars? Or maybe, it's just us the developers like me and this agile team feels that they don't like to work in an environment where they only breathe work because they are at work. Thanks. Edit: It's a company in healthcare domain that has offices across US. It definitely feels like a cowboy style agile which makes me really not wanting to go for agile at all, esp at my current company. All of it has to do with the management being completely cheap. Cutting out expensive coffee for cheaper version, emphasis on savings and being productive while staying as lean as possible. My feeling is that someone in the management behind the door threw out this idea, that agile makes you produce more so we can show our bosses we're producing more with the same headcount. Or, maybe, it will allow us to reduce headcount if that's the case. EDITED: They are having their 5 min daily meeting. But not allowed to chat or talk with someone outside of their team. All focus is on work.

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  • Collision detection with multiple polygons simultaneously

    - by Craig Innes
    I've written a collision system which detects/resolves collisions between a rectangular player and a convex polygon world using the Separating Axis Theorem. This scheme works fine when the player is colliding with a single polygon, but when I try to create a level made up of combinations of these shapes, the player gets "stuck" between shapes when trying to move from one polygon to the other. The reason for this seems to be that collisions are detected after the player has been pushed through the shape by its movement or gravity. When the system resolves the collision, it resolves them in an order that doesn't make sense (for example, when the player is moving from one flat rectangle to another, gravity pushes them below the ground, but the collision with the left hand side of the second block is resolved before the collision with the top of the block, meaning the player is pushed back left before being pushed back up). Other similar posts have resolved this problem by having a strict rule on which axes to resolve first. For example, always resolve the collision on the y axis, then if the object is still colliding with things, resolve on the x axis. This solution only works in the case of a completely axis oriented box world, and doesn't solve the problem if the player is stuck moving along a series of angled shapes or sliding down a wall. Does any one have any ideas of how I could alter my collision system to prevent these situations from happening?

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