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• Synergy - easy share of keyboard and mouse between multiple computers

  Did you ever have the urge to share one set of keyboard and mouse between multiple machines? If so, please read on... Using multiple machines Honestly, as a software craftsman it is my daily business to run multiple machines - either physical or virtual - to be able to solve my customers' requirements. Recent hardware equipment allows this very easily. For laptops it's a no-brainer to attach a second or even a third screen in order to extend your native display. This works quite handy and in my case I used to attached two additional screens - one via HD15 connector, the other via HDMI. But... as it's a laptop and therefore a mobile unit there are slight restrictions. Detaching and re-attaching all cables when changing locations is one of them but hardware limitations, too. After all, it's a laptop and not a workstation. I guess, that anyone working in IT (or ICT) has more than one machine at their workplace or their home office and at least I find it quite annoying to have multiple sets of keyboard and mouse conquering my remaining space on my desk. Despite the ugly looks of all those cables and whatsoever 'chaos of distraction' I prefer a more clean solution and working environment. This allows me to actually focus on my work and tasks to do rather than to worry about choosing the right combination of keyboard/mouse. My current workplace is a patch work of various pieces of hardware (approx. 2-3 years): DIY desktop on Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit, Core2 Duo (E7400, 2.8GHz), 4GB RAM, 2x 250GB HDD, nVidia GPU 512MB Dell Inspiron 1525 on Windows 8 64-bit, 4GB RAM, 200GB HDD HP Compaq 6720s on Windows Vista 32-bit, Core2 Duo (T5670, 1.8GHz), 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD Mac mini on Mac OS X 10.7, Core i5 (2.3 GHz), 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD I know... Not the latest and greatest but a decent combination to work with. New system(s) is/are already on the shopping list but I live in the 'wrong' country to buy computer hardware. So, the next trip abroad will provide me with some new stuff. Using multiple operating systems The list of hardware above already names different operating systems, and actually I have only one preference: Linux. But still my job as a software craftsman for Visual FoxPro and .NET development requires other OSes, too. Not a big deal, it's just like this. Additionally to those physical machines, there are a bunch of virtual machines around. Most of them running either Windows XP or Windows 7. Since years I have the practice that each development for one customer is isolated into its own virtual machine and environment. This keeps it clean and version-safe. But as you can easily imagine with that setup there are a couple of constraints referring to keyboard and mouse. Usually, those systems require their own pieces of hardware attached. As stated, I don't like clutter on my desk's surface, so a cross-platform solution has to come in here. In the past, I tried it with various applications, hardware or network protocols like X11, RDP, NX, TeamViewer, RAdmin, KVM switch, etc. but the problem in this case is that they either allow you to remotely connect to the other system or exclusively 'bind' your peripherals to the active system. Not optimal after all. Synergy to the rescue Quote from their website: "Synergy lets you easily share your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers on your desk, and it's Free and Open Source. Just move your mouse off the edge of one computer's screen on to another. You can even share all of your clipboards. All you need is a network connection. Synergy is cross-platform (works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux)." Yep, that's it! All I need for my setup here... Actually, I couldn't believe it myself that I didn't stumble over synergy earlier but 'Get over it' and there we go. And despite the fact that it is Open Source, no, it's also for free. Donations for the developers are very welcome and recently they introduced Synergy Premium. A possibility to buy so-called premium votes that can be used to put more weight / importance on specific issues or bugs that you would like the developers to look into. Installation and configuration Simply download the installation packages for your systems of choice, run the installer and enter some minor information about your network setup. I chose my desktop machine for the role of the Synergy server and configured my screen setup as follows: The screen setup allows you currently to build or connect up to 15 machines. The number of screens can be higher as those machine might have multiple screens physically attached. Synergy takes this into the overall calculations and simply works as expected. I tried it for fun with a second monitor each connected to both laptops to have a total number of 6 active screens. No flaws after all - stunning! All the other machines are configured as clients like so: Side note: The screenshot was taken on Windows 8 and pasted via clipboard into Gimp running on Ubuntu. Resume Synergy is now definitely in my box of tools for my daily work, and amongst the first pieces of software I install after the operating system. It just simplifies my life and cleans my desk. Never again without Synergy!Now, only waiting for an Android version to integrate my Galaxy Tab 10.1, too. ;-) Please, check out that superb product and enjoy sharing one keyboard, one mouse and one clipboard between your various machines and operating systems.

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• How do I dig myself out of this DEEP hole? [closed]

  - by user74847

  I may be a bit bias in the way i word this but any opinions and suggestions are welcome. I should start by saying i have a MSc in CS and a degree in new media +6 years expereince and im probably around a middleweight developer. I started a web development company with my friend from uni a year ago, there was a 4 month gap in the middle where i went miles away work on a big project. Ive since returned and picked up where we left off. A year on though i find im still staying up til 5am and getting up at 9 sometimes 2-3 days without sleep. While i was away i was working 9-5 and struggling to keep up with doing stuff for my clients 8 hours ahead, after work, so things stagnated. We currently have about 12 active projects, with one other part time developer and a full time freelancer who is dealing with one of our major projects. I am solely responsible for concurrently developing 2 big sites similar to gumtree in functionality, at the same time as about 5-6+ small WordPress based 5-10page sites. a lot of the content isnt in yet or the client is delaying so i chop and change project every other day which does my head in. Is it reasonable to expect myself to remember the intricate details of each project when i come back to it a week later? and remember the details of a task which hasnt been written down? my business partner seems to think so. or am i just forgetful? Im particularly bad at estimating timescales which doesnt help, added to that a lot of the technologies im am using are new to me (a magento site took weeks to theme rather than days and was full of bugs, even after 1000's of google searches and hours reading forums) im still trying to learn and find the best CMS for us to use and getting my head around the likes of Bootstrap and jquery, Cpanel / Linux (we just got a blank vps for me to set up with no experience) even installing an SSL certificate caused everyone's mail clients to go down which was more stress for me to sort out. I find the pressure of the workload and timescales and trying to learn this stuff so fast is beginning to turn me against my career path. The fact that i never seem to get anything done really winds up my business partner and iv come to associate him with the stress and pain of the whole situation especially when I get berated or a look that says "oh you retard" when I forget something. Even today i spent hours learning how a particular themeforest theme worked with wordpress and how i could twist it to work for our partiuclar needs, on the surface had done no work, that triggered a 30 minute tirade of anger and stress and questioning what i had done from my business partner. had i taken too long to work on that? shoudl i have done it in 2 hours instead of 6? i told him i would take 2 hours. i was wrong. I feel like im running myself into the ground. My sleeping pattern has got so bad that when im working im half asleep and making mistakes, my eyes are constantly purple underneath, i literally fall asleep at my desk, its affecting my social life too, ive not slept more than lightly for the last year and grind through impossible code puzzles in my half sleep wich keeps me awake, when im already exhausted. plus the work is rushed and buggy when it does get done so drags on into the next project. I also procrastinate quite badly, pacing the livingroom, looking out the window when Im alone for three days straight in the flat and start to get cabin fever which means i do even less work and the negative feedback loop continues. I get told im the only one with the problem when i say that i cant work from home any more, and examples of other freelancers get brought up. an office wouldnt bring any extra cash in to the company but im convinced having that moving more than 2 meters away from my bed to go to "work" would get me working, at the moment i feel guilty like i should be working 24-7. It is important that we do all this work to raise enough cash to get our business to the next level but every month still feels like a struggle to pay the rent (there is about £20K coming in by Jan) and i have to borrow money from friends often to buy food or get a taxi to a meeting, so it is vital the money keeps coming in. (im also 20 mins late for nearly all meetings but thats a different issue) have you experienced anything similar? how can i deal with the issues ive raised? is it realistic to develop 10 sites at once? how can i improve my relationship with my business partner? do you struggle to work at home? how do you deal with that? i think if i dont get my life on track by feb i will seriously consider giving it all up, but that seems like such a waste. any ideas!!? i need help! Thanks.

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• State of the (Commerce) Union: What the healthcare.gov hiccups teach us about the commerce customer experience

  - by Katrina Gosek

  Guest Post by Brenna Johnson, Oracle Commerce Product A lot has been said about the healthcare.gov debacle in the last week. Regardless of your feelings about the Affordable Care Act, there’s a hidden issue in this story that most of the American people don’t understand: delivering a great commerce customer experience (CX) is hard. It shouldn’t be, but it is. The reality of the government’s issues getting the healthcare site up and running smooth is something we in the online commerce community know too well.  If there’s one thing the botched launch of the site has taught us, it’s that regardless of the size of your budget or the power of an executive with a high-profile project, some of the biggest initiatives with the most attention (and the most at stake) don’t go as planned. It may even give you a moment of solace – we have the same issues! But why?  Organizations engage too many separate vendors with different technologies, running sections or pieces of a site to get live. When things go wrong, it takes time to identify the problem – and who or what is at the center of it. Unfortunately, this is a brittle way of setting up a site, making it susceptible to breaks, bugs, and scaling issues. But, it’s the reality of running a site with legacy technology constraints in today’s demanding, customer-centric market. This approach also means there’s also a lot of cooks in lots of different kitchens. You’ve got development and IT, the business and the marketing team, an external Systems Integrator to bring it all together, a digital agency or consultant, QA, product experts, 3rd party suppliers, and the list goes on. To complicate things, different business units are held responsible for different pieces of the site and managing different technologies. And again – due to legacy organizational structure and processes, this is all accepted as the normal State of the Union. Digital commerce has been commonplace for 15 years. Yet, getting a site live, maintained and performing requires orchestrating a cast of thousands (or at least, dozens), big dollars, and some finger-crossing. But it shouldn’t. The great thing about the advent of mobile commerce and the continued maturity of online commerce is that it’s forced organizations to think from the outside, in. Consumers – whether they’re shopping for shoes or a new healthcare plan – don’t care about what technology issues or processes you have behind the scenes. They just want it to work.  They want their experience to be easy, fast, and tailored to them and their needs – whatever they are. This doesn’t sound like a tall order to the American consumer – especially since they interact with sites that do work smoothly.  But the reality is that it takes scores of people, teams, check-ins, late nights, testing, and some good luck to get sites to run, and even more so at Black Friday (or October 1st) traffic levels.  The last thing on a customer’s mind is making excuses for why they can’t buy a product – just get it to work. So what is the government doing? My guess is working day and night to get the site performing  - and having to throw big money at the problem. In the meantime they’re sending frustrated online users to the call center, or even a location where a trained “navigator” can help them in-person to complete their selection. Sounds a lot like multichannel commerce (where broken communication between siloed touchpoints will only frustrate the consumer more). One thing we’ve learned is that consumers spend their time and money with brands they know and trust. When sites are easy to use and adapt to their needs, they tend to spend more, come back, and even become long-time loyalists. Achieving this may require moving internal mountains, but there’s too much at stake to ignore the sea change in how organizations are thinking about their customer. If the thought of re-thinking your internal teams, technologies, and processes sounds like a headache, think about the pain associated with losing valuable customers – and dollars. Regardless if you’re in B2B or B2C, it’s guaranteed that your competitors are making CX a priority. Those early to the game who have made CX a priority have already begun to outpace their competition. So as you’re planning for 2014, look to the news this week. Make sure the customer experience is a focus at your organization. Expectations are at record highs. Map your customer’s journey, and think from the outside, in. How easy is it for your customers to do business with you? If they interact with many touchpoints across your organization, are the call center, website, mobile environment, or brick and mortar location in sync? Do you have the technology in place to achieve this? It’s time to give the people what they want!

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• Using XA Transactions in Coherence-based Applications

  - by jpurdy

  While the costs of XA transactions are well known (e.g. increased data contention, higher latency, significant disk I/O for logging, availability challenges, etc.), in many cases they are the most attractive option for coordinating logical transactions across multiple resources. There are a few common approaches when integrating Coherence into applications via the use of an application server's transaction manager: Use of Coherence as a read-only cache, applying transactions to the underlying database (or any system of record) instead of the cache. Use of TransactionMap interface via the included resource adapter. Use of the new ACID transaction framework, introduced in Coherence 3.6.   Each of these may have significant drawbacks for certain workloads. Using Coherence as a read-only cache is the simplest option. In this approach, the application is responsible for managing both the database and the cache (either within the business logic or via application server hooks). This approach also tends to provide limited benefit for many workloads, particularly those workloads that either have queries (given the complexity of maintaining a fully cached data set in Coherence) or are not read-heavy (where the cost of managing the cache may outweigh the benefits of reading from it). All updates are made synchronously to the database, leaving it as both a source of latency as well as a potential bottleneck. This approach also prevents addressing "hot data" problems (when certain objects are updated by many concurrent transactions) since most database servers offer no facilities for explicitly controlling concurrent updates. Finally, this option tends to be a better fit for key-based access (rather than filter-based access such as queries) since this makes it easier to aggressively invalidate cache entries without worrying about when they will be reloaded. The advantage of this approach is that it allows strong data consistency as long as optimistic concurrency control is used to ensure that database updates are applied correctly regardless of whether the cache contains stale (or even dirty) data. Another benefit of this approach is that it avoids the limitations of Coherence's write-through caching implementation. TransactionMap is generally used when Coherence acts as system of record. TransactionMap is not generally compatible with write-through caching, so it will usually be either used to manage a standalone cache or when the cache is backed by a database via write-behind caching. TransactionMap has some restrictions that may limit its utility, the most significant being: The lock-based concurrency model is relatively inefficient and may introduce significant latency and contention. As an example, in a typical configuration, a transaction that updates 20 cache entries will require roughly 40ms just for lock management (assuming all locks are granted immediately, and excluding validation and writing which will require a similar amount of time). This may be partially mitigated by denormalizing (e.g. combining a parent object and its set of child objects into a single cache entry), at the cost of increasing false contention (e.g. transactions will conflict even when updating different child objects). If the client (application server JVM) fails during the commit phase, locks will be released immediately, and the transaction may be partially committed. In practice, this is usually not as bad as it may sound since the commit phase is usually very short (all locks having been previously acquired). Note that this vulnerability does not exist when a single NamedCache is used and all updates are confined to a single partition (generally implying the use of partition affinity). The unconventional TransactionMap API is cumbersome but manageable. Only a few methods are transactional, primarily get(), put() and remove(). The ACID transactions framework (accessed via the Connection class) provides atomicity guarantees by implementing the NamedCache interface, maintaining its own cache data and transaction logs inside a set of private partitioned caches. This feature may be used as either a local transactional resource or as logging XA resource. However, a lack of database integration precludes the use of this functionality for most applications. A side effect of this is that this feature has not seen significant adoption, meaning that any use of this is subject to the usual headaches associated with being an early adopter (greater chance of bugs and greater risk of hitting an unoptimized code path). As a result, for the moment, we generally recommend against using this feature. In summary, it is possible to use Coherence in XA-oriented applications, and several customers are doing this successfully, but it is not a core usage model for the product, so care should be taken before committing to this path. For most applications, the most robust solution is normally to use Coherence as a read-only cache of the underlying data resources, even if this prevents taking advantage of certain product features.

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• What are some concise and comprehensive introductory guide to unit testing for a self-taught programmer [closed]

  - by Superbest

  I don't have much formal training in programming and I have learned most things by looking up solutions on the internet to practical problems I have. There are some areas which I think would be valuable to learn, but which ended up both being difficult to learn and easy to avoid learning for a self-taught programmer. Unit testing is one of them. Specifically, I am interested in tests in and for C#/.NET applications using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools in Visual Studio 2010 and/or 2012, but I really want a good introduction to the principles so language and IDE shouldn't matter much. At this time I'm interested in relatively trivial tests for small or medium sized programs (development time of weeks or months and mostly just myself developing). I don't necessarily intend to do test-driven development (I am aware that some say unit testing alone is supposed to be for developing features in TDD, and not an assurance that there are no bugs in the software, but unit testing is often the only kind of testing for which I have resources). I have found this tutorial which I feel gave me a decent idea of what unit tests and TDD looks like, but in trying to apply these ideas to my own projects, I often get confused by questions I can't answer and don't know how to answer, such as: What parts of my application and what sorts of things aren't necessarily worth testing? How fine grained should my tests be? Should they test every method and property separately, or work with a larger scope? What is a good naming convention for test methods? (since apparently the name of the method is the only way I will be able to tell from a glance at the test results table what works in my program and what doesn't) Is it bad to have many asserts in one test method? Since apparently VS2012 reports only that "an Assert.IsTrue failed within method MyTestMethod", and if MyTestMethod has 10 Assert.IsTrue statements, it will be irritating to figure out why a test is failing. If a lot of the functionality deals with writing and reading data to/from the disk in a not-exactly trivial fashion, how do I test that? If I provide a bunch of files as input by placing them in the program's directory, do I have to copy those files to the test project's bin/Debug folder now? If my program works with a large body of data and execution takes minutes or more, should my tests have it do the whole use all of the real data, a subset of it, or simulated data? If latter, how do I decide on the subset or how to simulate? Closely related to the previous point, if a class is such that its main operation happens in a state that is arrived to by the program after some involved operations (say, a class makes calculations on data derived from a few thousands of lines of code analyzing some raw data) how do I test just that class without inevitably ending up testing that class and all the other code that brings it to that state along with it? In general, what kind of approach should I use for test initialization? (hopefully that is the correct term, I mean preparing classes for testing by filling them in with appropriate data) How do I deal with private members? Do I just suck it up and assume that "not public = shouldn't be tested"? I have seen people suggest using private accessors and reflection, but these feel like clumsy and unsuited for regular use. Are these even good ideas? Is there anything like design patterns concerning testing specifically? I guess the main themes in what I'd like to learn more about are, (1) what are the overarching principles that should be followed (or at least considered) in every testing effort and (2) what are popular rules of thumb for writing tests. For example, at one point I recall hearing from someone that if a method is longer than 200 lines, it should be refactored - not a universally correct rule, but it has been quite helpful since I'd otherwise happily put hundreds of lines in single methods and then wonder why my code is so hard to read. Similarly I've found ReSharpers suggestions on member naming style and other things to be quite helpful in keeping my codebases sane. I see many resources both online and in print that talk about testing in the context of large applications (years of work, 10s of people or more). However, because I've never worked on such large projects, this context is very unfamiliar to me and makes the material difficult to follow and relate to my real world problems. Speaking of software development in general, advice given with the assumptions of large projects isn't always straightforward to apply to my own, smaller endeavors. Summary So my question is: What are some resources to learn about unit testing, for a hobbyist, self-taught programmer without much formal training? Ideally, I'm looking for a short and simple "bible of unit testing" which I can commit to memory, and then apply systematically by repeatedly asking myself "is this test following the bible of testing closely enough?" and then amending discrepancies if it doesn't.

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• C++ strongly typed typedef

  - by Kian

  I've been trying to think of a way of declaring strongly typed typedefs, to catch a certain class of bugs in the compilation stage. It's often the case that I'll typedef an int into several types of ids, or a vector to position or velocity: typedef int EntityID; typedef int ModelID; typedef Vector3 Position; typedef Vector3 Velocity; This can make the intent of code more clear, but after a long night of coding one might make silly mistakes like comparing different kinds of ids, or adding a position to a velocity perhaps. EntityID eID; ModelID mID; if ( eID == mID ) // <- Compiler sees nothing wrong { /*bug*/ } Position p; Velocity v; Position newP = p + v; // bug, meant p + v*s but compiler sees nothing wrong Unfortunately, suggestions I've found for strongly typed typedefs include using boost, which at least for me isn't a possibility (I do have c++11 at least). So after a bit of thinking, I came upon this idea, and wanted to run it by someone. First, you declare the base type as a template. The template parameter isn't used for anything in the definition, however: template < typename T > class IDType { unsigned int m_id; public: IDType( unsigned int const& i_id ): m_id {i_id} {}; friend bool operator==<T>( IDType<T> const& i_lhs, IDType<T> const& i_rhs ); }; Friend functions actually need to be forward declared before the class definition, which requires a forward declaration of the template class. We then define all the members for the base type, just remembering that it's a template class. Finally, when we want to use it, we typedef it as: class EntityT; typedef IDType<EntityT> EntityID; class ModelT; typedef IDType<ModelT> ModelID; The types are now entirely separate. Functions that take an EntityID will throw a compiler error if you try to feed them a ModelID instead, for example. Aside from having to declare the base types as templates, with the issues that entails, it's also fairly compact. I was hoping anyone had comments or critiques about this idea? One issue that came to mind while writing this, in the case of positions and velocities for example, would be that I can't convert between types as freely as before. Where before multiplying a vector by a scalar would give another vector, so I could do: typedef float Time; typedef Vector3 Position; typedef Vector3 Velocity; Time t = 1.0f; Position p = { 0.0f }; Velocity v = { 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f }; Position newP = p + v*t; With my strongly typed typedef I'd have to tell the compiler that multypling a Velocity by a Time results in a Position. class TimeT; typedef Float<TimeT> Time; class PositionT; typedef Vector3<PositionT> Position; class VelocityT; typedef Vector3<VelocityT> Velocity; Time t = 1.0f; Position p = { 0.0f }; Velocity v = { 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f }; Position newP = p + v*t; // Compiler error To solve this, I think I'd have to specialize every conversion explicitly, which can be kind of a bother. On the other hand, this limitation can help prevent other kinds of errors (say, multiplying a Velocity by a Distance, perhaps, which wouldn't make sense in this domain). So I'm torn, and wondering if people have any opinions on my original issue, or my approach to solving it.

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• Facebook connect displaying invite friends dialog and closing on completion

  - by Dougnukem

  I'm trying to create a Facebook Connect application that displays a friend invite dialog within the page using Facebook's Javascript API (through a FBMLPopupDialog). The trouble is to display a friend invite dialog you use a multi-friend form which requires an action="url" attribute that represents the URL to redirect your page to when the user completes or skips the form. The problem is that I want to just close the FBMLPopupDialog (the same behavior as if the user just hit the 'X' button on the popup dialog). The best I can do is redirect the user back to the page they were on basically a reload but they lose all AJAX/Flash application state. I'm wondering if any Facebook Connect developers have run into this issue and have a good way to simply display a friend invite "lightbox" dialog within their website where they don't want to "refresh" or "redirect" when the user finishes. The facebook connect JS API provides a FB.Connect.inviteConnectUsers, which provides a nice dialog but only connects existing users of your application who also have a Facebook account and haven't connected. http://bugs.developers.facebook.com/show%5Fbug.cgi?id=4916 function fb_inviteFriends() { //Invite users log("Inviting users..."); FB.Connect.requireSession( function() { //Connect succes var uid = FB.Facebook.apiClient.get_session().uid; log('FB CONNECT SUCCESS: ' + uid); //Invite users log("Inviting users..."); //Update server with connected account updateAccountFacebookUID(); var fbml = fb_getInviteFBML() ; var dialog = new FB.UI. FBMLPopupDialog("Weblings Invite", fbml) ; //dialog.setFBMLContent(fbml); dialog.setContentWidth(650); dialog.setContentHeight(450); dialog.show(); }, //Connect cancelled function() { //User cancelled the connect log("FB Connect cancelled:"); } ); } function fb_getInviteFBML() { var uid = FB.Facebook.apiClient.get_session().uid; var fbml = ""; fbml = '<fb:fbml>\n' + '<fb:request-form\n'+ //Redirect back to this page ' action="'+ document.location +'"\n'+ ' method="POST"\n'+ ' invite="true"\n'+ ' type="Weblings Invite"\n' + ' content="I need your help to discover all the Weblings and save the Internet! WebWars: Weblings is a cool new game where we can collect fantastic creatures while surfing our favorite websites. Come find the missing Weblings with me!'+ //Callback the server with the appropriate Webwars Account URL ' <fb:req-choice url=\''+ WebwarsFB.WebwarsAccountServer +'/SplashPage.aspx?action=ref&reftype=Facebook' label=\'Check out WebWars: Weblings\' />"\n'+ '>\n'+ ' <fb:multi-friend-selector\n'+ ' rows="2"\n'+ ' cols="4"\n'+ ' bypass="Cancel"\n'+ ' showborder="false"\n'+ ' actiontext="Use this form to invite your friends to connect with WebWars: Weblings."/>\n'+ ' </fb:request-form>'+ ' </fb:fbml>'; return fbml; }

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• Why do many software projects fail today?

  - by TomTom

  As long as there are software projects, the world is wondering why they fail so often. I would like to know if there is a list or something equivalent which shows how many software projects fail today. Would be nice if there would be a comparison over the last 20 - 30 years. You can also add your top reason why a software project fails. Mine is "Requirements are poor or not even existing." which includes also "No (real) customer / user involved". EDIT: It is nearly impossible to clearly define the term "fail". Let's say that fail means: The project was more than 10% over budget and time. In my opinion the 10% + / - is a good range for an offer / tender. EDIT: Until now (Feb 11) it seems that most posters agree that a fail of the project is basically a failure of the project management (whatever fail means). But IMHO it comes out, that most developers are not happy with this situation. Perhaps because not the manager get penalized when a project was not successful, but the lazy, incompetent developer teams? When I read the posts I can also hear-out that there is a big "gap" between the developer side and the managment side. The expectations (perhaps also the requirements) seem to be so different, that a project cannot be successful in the end (over time / budget; users are not happy; not all first-prio features implemented; too many bugs because developers were forced to implement in too short timeframes ...) I',m asking myself: How can we improve it? Or do we have the possibility to improve it? Everybody seems to be unsatisfied with the way it goes now. Can we close the gap between these two worlds? Should we (the developers) go on strike and fight for "high quality reqiurements" and "realistic / iteration based time shedules"? EDIT: Ralph Westphal and Stefan Lieser have founded a new "community" called: Clean-Code-Developer. The aim of the group is to bring more professionalism into software engineering. Independently if a developer has a degree or tons of years of experience you can be part of this movement. Clean Code Developers live principles like SOLID every day. A professional developer is the biggest reviewer of his own work. And he has an internal value system which helps him to improve and become better. Check it out on: Clean Code Developer EDIT: Our company is doing at the moment a thing called "Application Development and Maintenance Benchmarking". This is a service offered by IBM to get a feedback from someone external on your software engineering process quality etc. When we get the results, I will tell you more about it.

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• Debugging Messaging Exception

  - by rizza

  We have a batch program that incorporates JavaMail 1.2 that sends emails. In our development environment, we haven't got the chance to encounter the above mentioned exception. But in the client's environment, they had experienced this a lot of times with the following error trace: javax.mail.MessagingException: 550 Requested action not taken: NUL characters are not allowed. at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.issueCommand (SMTPTransport.java: 879) at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.finishData (SMTPTransport.java: 820) at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.sendMessage (SMTPTransport.java: 322) ... I'm not sure if this is connected to my problem, http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4697158. But trying JavaMail 1.4.2, I see that the content transfer encoding of the email is still 7bit, so I'm not sure if using JavaMail 1.4.2 could solve the problem. Please take note that I could only do testing in our development environment that hasn't been able to replicate this. With the above exception, how would i know if this is from the sender or the receiver side? What debugging steps could you suggest? EDIT: Here is a DEBUG of the actual sending (masked some information): DEBUG: not loading system providers in &lt;java.home&gt;</a>/lib DEBUG: not loading optional custom providers file: /META-INF/javamail.providers DEBUG: successfully loaded default providers DEBUG: Tables of loaded providers DEBUG: Providers Listed By Class Name: {com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Sun Microsystems, Inc], com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPStore=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imap,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPStore,Sun Microsystems, Inc], com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store,Sun Microsystems, Inc]} DEBUG: Providers Listed By Protocol: {imap=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imap,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPStore,Sun Microsystems, Inc], pop3=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store,Sun Microsystems, Inc], smtp=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Sun Microsystems, Inc]} DEBUG: not loading optional address map file: /META-INF/javamail.address.map DEBUG: getProvider() returning javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Sun Microsystems, Inc] DEBUG SMTP: useEhlo true, useAuth false DEBUG: SMTPTransport trying to connect to host "nnn.nnn.n.nnn", port nn DEBUG SMTP RCVD: 220 xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx SMTP; Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:18:57 +0800 DEBUG: SMTPTransport connected to host "nnn.nnn.n.nnn", port: nn DEBUG SMTP SENT: EHLO xxxxxxxxx DEBUG SMTP RCVD: 250 xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx Hello DEBUG SMTP: use8bit false DEBUG SMTP SENT: MAIL FROM:<a href="newmsg.cgi?mbx=Main&[email protected]">&lt;[email protected]&gt;</a> DEBUG SMTP RCVD: 250 <a href="newmsg.cgi?mbx=Main&[email protected]">&lt;[email protected]&gt;</a>... Sender ok DEBUG SMTP SENT: RCPT TO:&lt;[email protected]&gt; DEBUG SMTP RCVD: 250 &lt;[email protected]&gt;... Recipient ok Verified Addresses &nbsp;&nbsp;[email protected] DEBUG SMTP SENT: DATA DEBUG SMTP RCVD: 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself DEBUG SMTP SENT: . DEBUG SMTP RCVD: 550 Requested action not taken: NUL characters are not allowed.

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• Why is code quality not popular?

  - by Peter Kofler

  I like my code being in order, i.e. properly formatted, readable, designed, tested, checked for bugs, etc. In fact I am fanatic about it. (Maybe even more than fanatic...) But in my experience actions helping code quality are hardly implemented. (By code quality I mean the quality of the code you produce day to day. The whole topic of software quality with development processes and such is much broader and not the scope of this question.) Code quality does not seem popular. Some examples from my experience include Probably every Java developer knows JUnit, almost all languages implement xUnit frameworks, but in all companies I know, only very few proper unit tests existed (if at all). I know that it's not always possible to write unit tests due to technical limitations or pressing deadlines, but in the cases I saw, unit testing would have been an option. If a developer wanted to write some tests for his/her new code, he/she could do so. My conclusion is that developers do not want to write tests. Static code analysis is often played around in small projects, but not really used to enforce coding conventions or find possible errors in enterprise projects. Usually even compiler warnings like potential null pointer access are ignored. Conference speakers and magazines would talk a lot about EJB3.1, OSGI, Cloud and other new technologies, but hardly about new testing technologies or tools, new static code analysis approaches (e.g. SAT solving), development processes helping to maintain higher quality, how some nasty beast of legacy code was brought under test, ... (I did not attend many conferences and it propably looks different for conferences on agile topics, as unit testing and CI and such has a higer value there.) So why is code quality so unpopular/considered boring? EDIT: Thank your for your answers. Most of them concern unit testing (and has been discussed in a related question). But there are lots of other things that can be used to keep code quality high (see related question). Even if you are not able to use unit tests, you could use a daily build, add some static code analysis to your IDE or development process, try pair programming or enforce reviews of critical code.

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• AutoIt scripts runs without error but I can't see archive? - UPDATE

  - by Scott

  #include <File.au3> #include <Zip.au3> #include <Array.au3> ; bad file extensions Local $extData="ade|adp|app|asa|ashx|asp|bas|bat|cdx|cer|chm|class|cmd|com|cpl|crt|csh|der|exe|fxp|gadget|hlp|hta|htr|htw|ida|idc|idq|ins|isp|its|jse|ksh|lnk|mad|maf|mag|mam|maq|mar|mas|mat|mau|mav|maw|mda|mdb|mde|mdt|mdw|mdz|msc|msh|msh1|msh1xml|msh2|msh2xml|mshxml|msi|msp|mst|ops|pcd|pif|prf|prg|printer|pst|reg|rem|scf|scr|sct|shb|shs|shtm|shtml|soap|stm|url|vb|vbe|vbs|ws|wsc|wsf|wsh" Local $extensions = StringSplit($extData, "|") ; What is the root directory? $rootDirectory = InputBox("Root Directory", "Please enter the root directory...") archiveDir($rootDirectory) Func archiveDir($dir) $goDirs = True $goFiles = True ; Get all the files under the current dir $allOfDir = _FileListToArray($dir) $tmax = UBound($allOfDir) For $t = 0 to $tmax - 1 Next Local $countDirs = 0 Local $countFiles = 0 $imax = UBound($allOfDir) For $i = 0 to $imax - 1 If StringInStr(FileGetAttrib($dir & "\" & $allOfDir[$i]),"D") Then $countDirs = $countDirs + 1 ElseIf StringInStr(($allOfDir[$i]),".") Then $countFiles = $countFiles + 1 EndIf Next If ($countDirs > 0) Then Local $allDirs[$countDirs] $goDirs = True Else $goDirs = False EndIf If ($countFiles > 0) Then Local $allFiles[$countFiles] $goFiles = True Else $goFiles = False EndIf $dirCount = 0 $fileCount = 0 For $i = 0 to $imax - 1 If (StringInStr(FileGetAttrib($dir & "\" & $allOfDir[$i]),"D")) And ($goDirs == True) Then $allDirs[$dirCount] = $allOfDir[$i] $dirCount = $dirCount + 1 ElseIf (StringInStr(($allOfDir[$i]),".")) And ($goFiles == True) Then $allFiles[$fileCount] = $allOfDir[$i] $fileCount = $fileCount + 1 EndIf Next ; Zip them if need be in current spot using 'ext_zip.zip' as file name, loop through each file ext. If ($goFiles == True) Then $fmax = UBound($allFiles) For $f = 0 to $fmax - 1 $currentExt = getExt($allFiles[$f]) $position = _ArraySearch($extensions, $currentExt) If @error Then MsgBox(0, "Not Found", "Not Found") Else $zip = _Zip_Create($dir & "\" & $currentExt & "_zip.zip") _Zip_AddFile($zip, $dir & "\" & $allFiles[$f]) EndIf Next EndIf ; Get all dirs under current DirCopy ; For each dir, recursive call from step 2 If ($goDirs == True) Then $dmax = UBound($allDirs) $rootDirectory = $rootDirectory & "\" For $d = 0 to $dmax - 1 archiveDir($rootDirectory & $allDirs[$d]) Next EndIf EndFunc Func getExt($filename) $pos = StringInStr($filename, ".") $retval = StringTrimLeft($filename, $pos - 1) Return $retval EndFunc Updated, fixed a lot of bugs. Still not working. Like I said I have a list of 'bad' file extensions, this script should go through a directory of files (and subdirectories), and zip up (in separate zip files for each bad extension), all files WITH those bad extensions in the directories it finds them. What is wrong???

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• Does weak typing offer any advantages?

  - by sub

  Don't confuse this with static vs. dynamic typing! You all know JavaScripts/PHPs infamous type systems: PHP example: echo "123abc"+2; // 125 - the reason for this is explained // in the PHP docs but still: This hurts echo "4"+1; // 5 - Oh please echo "ABC"*5; // 0 - WTF // That's too much, seriously now. // This here might be actually a use for weak typing, but no - // it has to output garbage. JavaScript example: // A good old JavaScript, maybe you'll do better? alert("4"+1); // 51 - Oh come on. alert("abc"*3); // NaN - What the... // Have your creators ever heard of the word "consistence"? Python example: # Python's type system is actually a mix # It spits errors on senseless things like the first example below AND # allows intelligent actions like the second example. >>> print("abc"+1) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#2>", line 1, in <module> print("abc"+1) TypeError: Can't convert 'int' object to str implicitly >>> print("abc"*5) abcabcabcabcabc Ruby example: puts 4+"1" // Type error - as supposed puts "abc"*4 // abcabcabcabc - makes sense After these examples it should be clear that PHP/JavaScript probably have the most inconsistent type systems out there. This is a fact and really not subjective. Now when having a closer look at the type systems of Ruby and Python it seems like they are having a much more intelligent and consistent type system. I think these examples weren't really necessary as we all know that PHP/JavaScript have a weak and Python/Ruby have a strong type system. I just wanted to mention why I'm asking this. Now I have two questions: When looking at those examples, what are the advantages of PHPs and JavaScripts type systems? I can only find downsides: They are inconsistent and I think we know that this is not good Types conversions are hardly controllable Bugs are more likely to happen and much harder to spot Do you prefer one of the both systems? Why? Personally I have worked with PHP, JavaScript and Python so far and must say that Pythons type system has really only advantages over PHPs and JavaScripts. Does anybody here not think so? Why then?

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• Inline-editing: onBlur prevents onClick from being triggered (jQuery)

  - by codethief

  Hello StackOverflow community! I'm currently working on my own jQuery plugin for inline-editing as those that already exist don't fit my needs. Anyway, I'd like to give the user the following (boolean) options concerning the way editing is supposed to work: submit_button reset_on_blur Let's say the user would like to have a submit button (submit_button = true) and wants the inline input element to be removed as soon as it loses focus (reset_on_blur = true). This leads to an onClick handler being registered for the button and an onBlur handler being registered for the input element. Every time the user clicks the button, however, the onBlur handler is also triggered and results in the edit mode being left, i.e. before the onClick event occurs. This makes submitting impossible. FYI, the HTML in edit mode looks like this: <td><input type="text" class="ie-input" value="Current value" /><div class="ie-content-backup" style="display: none;">Backup Value</div><input type="submit" class="ie-button-submit" value="Save" /></td> So, is there any way I could check in the onBlur handler if the focus was lost while activating the submit button, so that edit mode isn't left before the submit button's onClick event is triggered? I've also tried to register a $('body').click() handler to simulate blur and to be able to trace back which element has been clicked, but that didn't work either and resulted in rather strange bugs: $('html').click(function(e) { // body doesn't span over full page height, use html instead // Don't reset if the submit button, the input element itself or the element to be edited inline was clicked. if(!$(e.target).hasClass('ie-button-submit') && !$(e.target).hasClass('ie-input') && $(e.target).get(0) != element.get(0)) { cancel(element); } }); jEditable uses the following piece of code. I don't like this approach, though, because of the delay. Let alone I don't even understand why this works. ;) input.blur(function(e) { /* prevent canceling if submit was clicked */ t = setTimeout(function() { reset.apply(form, [settings, self]); }, 500); }); Thanks in advance!

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• Bottom button bar overlaps the last element of Listview!!

  - by elto

  I have a listview which is part of an Activity. I want user to have a choice for batch deleting the items in the listview, so when he chooses the corresponding option from the menu, every list item gets a checkbox next to it. When user clicks any checkbox, a button bar is to slide up from bottom (as in gmail app) and clicking delete button deletes the selected items, however clicking cancel button on the bar would uncheck all the checked items. This is my page layout.xml: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:background="@android:color/transparent" > <FrameLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" > <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/list_area" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1" > <ListView android:id="@+id/mylist" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:background="@android:color/transparent" android:drawSelectorOnTop="false" android:layout_weight="1" /> <TextView android:id="@+id/empty_list_message" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:textColor="#FFFFFF" android:layout_gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal" android:text="@string/msg_for_emptyschd" android:layout_margin="14dip" android:layout_weight="1" /> </LinearLayout> <RelativeLayout android:id="@+id/bottom_action_bar" android:orientation="horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:background="@drawable/schedule_bottom_actionbar_border" android:layout_marginBottom="2dip" android:layout_gravity="bottom" android:visibility="gone" > <Button android:id="@+id/delete_selecteditems_button" android:text="Deleted Selected" android:layout_width="140dip" android:layout_height="40dip" android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" android:layout_marginLeft="3dip" android:layout_marginTop="3dip" /> <Button android:id="@+id/cancel_button" android:text="Cancel" android:layout_width="140dip" android:layout_height="40dip" android:layout_alignParentRight="true" android:layout_marginRight="3dip" android:layout_marginTop="3dip" /> </RelativeLayout> </FrameLayout> </LinearLayout> so far, I have got everything working except that when the bottom bar becomes visible upon checkbox selection, it overlaps the last element of the list. All other list items can be scrolled up, but you cant scroll up the very last item of the list, therefore user can not select that item if he intends to. Here is the screenshot of the overlap. I have tried using the listview footer option, but that appends the bar to the end of the list instead of keeping it fixed at the bottom of the screen. Is there a way I could "raise" the listview enough so that the overlap wont happen?? BTW, I have already tried adding the bottom-margin to the listview itself, or the LinearLayout wrapping the listview right before making the button-bar visible, but it introduces other bugs like clicking one checkbox checks some another checkbox in listview.

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• TFS CM resource recommendations / some questions

  - by John

  I am working with a small development shop that consists of a group of 5 developers and 1 QA person. We are using TFS and need to get more sophisticated on how we use this tool. Currently the development team checks in their code each evening. A nightly build runs and pushes the output out on a network share. Our QA person uses this build for testing the next day. Sometimes the build off the trunk codebase has issues/bugs that hinder the QA process, and it hasn’t been a giant issue in the past, but we now want to get to a state where we have our QA person testing on a stable QA build. So I believe we need to create a branch (call it QA), and the developers will continue to develop off the trunk, but the QA person will use builds created from code in the QA branch. Seems simple enough, but we have started doing code reviews as well. So we have another desire in that only code that has been code reviewed can be promoted to the QA branch. Each developer works off a TFS item, and when they check in a changeset, they do it against a TFS item which creates a link between a checked in code file and a TFS item. Eventually the TFS item becomes complete and ready for code review. All code attached to the TFS item is reviewed. How can the versions of these files get promoted to the QA branch? In the QA branch, if a bug is found, we want to fix it in the QA branch and have the changes migrated back to the trunk. I believe TFS has a way to automatically do this doesn’t it? Long story short, we want to get to a build and CM environment that I believe is pretty standard, but we are unaware of how to make this happen with TFS. Given our situation above, can someone point out a book or website(s) that would address our specific needs? We would like to make this happen without having to get too deep in CM theory or TFS. I very much appreciate any and all suggestions! Thanks, John

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• Which management tools would you recommend for software development?

  - by Robert Schneider

  What would you generally recommend for software developement? Which combination do you use or would you recommend? I assume that tools are needed for Version control, issues/bugs/task, Release management, Requirement management. Tools for Test management and Project management should be accounted for as well, I guess. Did I forget anything? Maybe tools for Continous Integration. I'm not interested in a halfway combination of one ore two tools like a Subversion + Bugzilla (I know they are good but for a company they might not be sufficient). And also tools like make/ant shouldn't be taken into account. I'd like to know a combination that covers all what is important for professional software development. However, it could be a single tool of course if it covers all the management issues. What do you think would be a good combination? I assume a combination should be regardes as good if the tools itself are good but also if they have good integrations. Udate: Something like Ant is just a script not a management tool. Okay: we do already have Perforce. But this is somehow generic. We have different projects that uses C-, VS/.NET-, Python-, PHP and we will be starting new projects in Java. Plenty of languages and frameworks, though some are going to be legacy. So the tools should be generic. Obviously we don't want to use Bugzilla for one project and Jira for another. The management tools have to be generic. Further thoughts: Think of sourceforge: For each project they offer a version control system, an issue tracker, a wiki, ... totally independent of what the project is about. Those are some management tools that a project usually needs. I would say that most companies need such a set of tools. But I could imagine, if a company has several projects, they need further tools too: for Project management, Quality management, ... And I could imagine there are some recommendable combinations of tools. A not really apropiate comparison to this could be LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). A combination of software that has evolved since they work very well together, and are pretty useful for a lot of applications (or rather web sites). So maybe there are some recommendable management tool combinations that also fit toghether like LAMP. The integration is important. Thank you for the incredibly fast and helpful responses!!!

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• How can a test script inform R CMD check that it should emit a custom message?

  - by mariotomo

  I'm writing a R package (delftfews) here at office. we are using svUnit for unit testing. our process for describing new functionality: we define new unit tests, initially marked as DEACTIVATED; one block of tests at a time we activate them and implement the function described by the tests. almost all the time we have a small amount of DEACTIVATED tests, relative to functions that might be dropped or will be implemented. my problem/question is: can I alter the doSvUnit.R so that R CMD check pkg emits a NOTE (i.e. a custom message "NOTE" instead of "OK") in case there are DEACTIVATED tests? as of now, we see only that the active tests don't give error: . . * checking for unstated dependencies in tests ... OK * checking tests ... Running ‘doSvUnit.R’ OK * checking PDF version of manual ... OK which is all right if all tests succeed, but less all right if there are skipped tests and definitely wrong if there are failing tests. In this case, I'd actually like to see a NOTE or a WARNING like the following: . . * checking for unstated dependencies in tests ... OK * checking tests ... Running ‘doSvUnit.R’ NOTE 6 test(s) were skipped. WARNING 1 test(s) are failing. * checking PDF version of manual ... OK As of now, we have to open the doSvUnit.Rout to check the real test results. I contacted two of the maintainers at r-forge and CRAN and they pointed me to the sources of R, in particular the testing.R script. if I understand it correctly, to answer this question we need patching the tools package: scripts in the tests directory are called using a system call, output (stdout and stderr) go to one single file, there are two possible outcomes: ok or not ok, so I opened a change request on R, proposing something like bit-coding the return status, bit-0 for ERROR (as it is now), bit-1 for WARNING, bit-2 for NOTE. with my modification, it would be easy producing this output: . . * checking for unstated dependencies in tests ... OK * checking tests ... Running ‘doSvUnit.R’ NOTE - please check doSvUnit.Rout. WARNING - please check doSvUnit.Rout. * checking PDF version of manual ... OK Brian Ripley replied "There are however several packages with properly written unit tests that do signal as required. Please do take this discussion elsewhere: R-bugs is not the place to ask questions." and closed the change request. anybody has hints?

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• Can simple javascript inheritance be simplified even further?

  - by Will

  John Resig (of jQuery fame) provides a concise and elegant way to allow simple JavaScript inheritance. It was so short and sweet, in fact, that it inspired me to try and simplify it even further (see code below). I've modified his original function such that it still passes all his tests and has the potential advantage of: readability (50% less code) simplicity (you don't have to be a ninja to understand it) performance (no extra wrappers around super/base method calls) consistency with C#'s base keyword Because this seems almost too good to be true, I want to make sure my logic doesn't have any fundamental flaws/holes/bugs, or if anyone has additional suggestions to improve or refute the code (perhaps even John Resig could chime in here!). Does anyone see anything wrong with my approach (below) vs. John Resig's original approach? if (!window.Class) { window.Class = function() {}; window.Class.extend = function(members) { var prototype = new this(); for (var i in members) prototype[i] = members[i]; prototype.base = this.prototype; function object() { if (object.caller == null && this.initialize) this.initialize.apply(this, arguments); } object.constructor = object; object.prototype = prototype; object.extend = arguments.callee; return object; }; } And the tests (below) are nearly identical to the original ones except for the syntax around base/super method calls (for the reason enumerated above): var Person = Class.extend( { initialize: function(isDancing) { this.dancing = isDancing; }, dance: function() { return this.dancing; } }); var Ninja = Person.extend( { initialize: function() { this.base.initialize(false); }, dance: function() { return this.base.dance(); }, swingSword: function() { return true; } }); var p = new Person(true); alert("true? " + p.dance()); // => true var n = new Ninja(); alert("false? " + n.dance()); // => false alert("true? " + n.swingSword()); // => true alert("true? " + (p instanceof Person && p instanceof Class && n instanceof Ninja && n instanceof Person && n instanceof Class));

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• What facets have I missed for creating a 3 person guerilla dev team?

  - by Penguinix

  Sorry for the Windows developers out there, this solution is for Macs only. This set of applications accounts for: Usability Testing, Screen Capture (Video and Still), Version Control, Task Lists, Bug Tracking, a Developer IDE, a Web Server, A Blog, Shared Doc Editing on the Web, Team and individual Chat, Email, Databases and Continuous Integration. This does assume your team members provide their own machines, and one person has a spare old computer to be the Source Repository and Web Server. All for under $200 bucks. Usability Silverback Licenses = 3 x $49.95 "Spontaneous, unobtrusive usability testing software for designers and developers." Source Control Server and Clients (multiple options) Subversion = Free Subversion is an open source version control system. Versions (Currently in Beta) = Free Versions provides a pleasant work with Subversion on your Mac. Diffly = Free "Diffly is a tool for exploring Subversion working copies. It shows all files with changes and, clicking on a file, shows a highlighted view of the changes for that file. When you are ready to commit Diffly makes it easy to select the files you want to check-in and assemble a useful commit message." Bug/Feature/Defect Tracking (multiple options) Bugzilla = Free Bugzilla is a "Defect Tracking System" or "Bug-Tracking System". Defect Tracking Systems allow individual or groups of developers to keep track of outstanding bugs in their product effectively. Most commercial defect-tracking software vendors charge enormous licensing fees. Trac = Free Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. Database Server & Clients MySQL = Free CocoaMySQL = Free Web Server Apache = Free Development and Build Tools XCode = Free CruiseControl = Free CruiseControl is a framework for a continuous build process. It includes, but is not limited to, plugins for email notification, Ant, and various source control tools. A web interface is provided to view the details of the current and previous builds. Collaboration Tools Writeboard = Free Ta-da List = Free Campfire Chat for 4 users = Free WordPress = Free "WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time." Gmail = Free "Gmail is a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient, and useful." Screen Capture (Video / Still) Jing = Free "The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere." Lots of great responses: TeamCity [Yo|||] Skype [Eric DeLabar] FogBugz [chakrit] IChatAV and Screen Sharing (built-in to OS) [amrox] Google Docs [amrox]

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• Unlocking a mutex from a different thread (C++)

  - by dan

  I'm using the C++ boost::thread library, which in my case means I'm using pthreads. Officially, a mutex must be unlocked from the same thread which locks it, and I want the effect of being able to lock in one thread and then unlock in another. There are many ways to accomplish this. One possibility would be to write a new mutex class which allows this behavior. For example: class inter_thread_mutex{ bool locked; boost::mutex mx; boost::condition_variable cv; public: void lock(){ boost::unique_lock<boost::mutex> lck(mx); while(locked) cv.wait(lck); locked=true; } void unlock(){ { boost::lock_guard<boost::mutex> lck(mx); if(!locked) error(); locked=false; } cv.notify_one(); } // bool try_lock(); void error(); etc. } I should point out that the above code doesn't guarantee FIFO access, since if one thread calls lock() while another calls unlock(), this first thread may acquire the lock ahead of other threads which are waiting. (Come to think of it, the boost::thread documentation doesn't appear to make any explicit scheduling guarantees for either mutexes or condition variables). But let's just ignore that (and any other bugs) for now. My question is, if I decide to go this route, would I be able to use such a mutex as a model for the boost Lockable concept. For example, would anything go wrong if I use a boost::unique_lock< inter_thread_mutex for RAII-style access, and then pass this lock to boost::condition_variable_any.wait(), etc. On one hand I don't see why not. On the other hand, "I don't see why not" is usually a very bad way of determining whether something will work. The reason I ask is that if it turns out that I have to write wrapper classes for RAII locks and condition variables and whatever else, then I'd rather just find some other way to achieve the same effect.

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• Problem compiling c++ in CodeGear

  - by Carlos

  I have written a C++ program for a University assignment. I used Netbeans 6.8 running on my Mac and the code runs smoothly, no warnings, errors or problems/bugs. However when compiling and running on a Windows computer using CodeGear RAD Studio 2009 (C++ Builder) am getting several errors. [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(51): E2094 'operator<<' not implemented in type 'ostream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(62): E2093 'operator==' not implemented in type 'string' for arguments of the same type [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(67): E2093 'operator==' not implemented in type 'string' for arguments of the same type [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(112): E2093 'operator==' not implemented in type 'string' for arguments of the same type [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(121): E2094 'operator<<' not implemented in type 'ostream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(130): E2093 'operator==' not implemented in type 'string' for arguments of the same type [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(133): E2094 'operator<<' not implemented in type 'ostream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(139): E2094 'operator<<' not implemented in type 'ostream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(153): E2094 'operator<<' not implemented in type 'fstream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(199): E2094 'operator>>' not implemented in type 'fstream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(219): E2094 'operator>>' not implemented in type 'istream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(231): E2094 'operator>>' not implemented in type 'istream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(240): E2094 'operator>>' not implemented in type 'istream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(262): E2094 'operator>>' not implemented in type 'istream' for arguments of type 'string' [BCC32 Error] main.cpp(264): E2094 'operator>>' not implemented in type 'istream' for arguments of type 'string' These are the header files am using #include <iostream> #include <fstream> #include <cmath> #include <stdio> #include <windows> //I added this one just to check and still does not work (I didnt have it on Netbeans/Mac) using namespace std; Any ideas what is producing the errors and how can I fix it?

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• help me "dry" out this .net XML serialization code

  - by Sarah Vessels

  I have a base collection class and a child collection class, each of which are serializable. In a test, I discovered that simply having the child class's ReadXml method call base.ReadXml resulted in an InvalidCastException later on. First, here's the class structure: Base Class // Collection of Row objects [Serializable] [XmlRoot("Rows")] public class Rows : IList<Row>, ICollection<Row>, IEnumerable<Row>, IEquatable<Rows>, IXmlSerializable { public Collection<Row> Collection { get; protected set; } public void ReadXml(XmlReader reader) { reader.ReadToFollowing(XmlNodeName); do { using (XmlReader rowReader = reader.ReadSubtree()) { var row = new Row(); row.ReadXml(rowReader); Collection.Add(row); } } while (reader.ReadToNextSibling(XmlNodeName)); } } Derived Class // Acts as a collection of SpecificRow objects, which inherit from Row. Uses the same // Collection<Row> that Rows defines which is fine since SpecificRow : Row. [Serializable] [XmlRoot("MySpecificRowList")] public class SpecificRows : Rows, IXmlSerializable { public new void ReadXml(XmlReader reader) { // Trying to just do base.ReadXml(reader) causes a cast exception later reader.ReadToFollowing(XmlNodeName); do { using (XmlReader rowReader = reader.ReadSubtree()) { var row = new SpecificRow(); row.ReadXml(rowReader); Collection.Add(row); } } while (reader.ReadToNextSibling(XmlNodeName)); } public new Row this[int index] { // The cast in this getter is what causes InvalidCastException if I try // to call base.ReadXml from this class's ReadXml get { return (Row)Collection[index]; } set { Collection[index] = value; } } } And here's the code that causes a runtime InvalidCastException if I do not use the version of ReadXml shown in SpecificRows above (i.e., I get the exception if I just call base.ReadXml from within SpecificRows.ReadXml): TextReader reader = new StringReader(serializedResultStr); SpecificRows deserializedResults = (SpecificRows)xs.Deserialize(reader); SpecificRow = deserializedResults[0]; // this throws InvalidCastException So, the code above all compiles and runs exception-free, but it bugs me that Rows.ReadXml and SpecificRows.ReadXml are essentially the same code. The value of XmlNodeName and the new Row()/new SpecificRow() are the differences. How would you suggest I extract out all the common functionality of both versions of ReadXml? Would it be silly to create some generic class just for one method? Sorry for the lengthy code samples, I just wanted to provide the reason I can't simply call base.ReadXml from within SpecificRows.

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• Design Technique: How to design a complex system for processing orders, products and units.

  - by Shyam

  Hi, Programming is fun: I learned that by trying out simple challenges, reading up some books and following some tutorials. I am able to grasp the concepts of writing with OO (I do so in Ruby), and write a bit of code myself. What bugs me though is that I feel re-inventing the wheel: I haven't followed an education or found a book (a free one that is) that explains me the why's instead of the how's, and I've learned from the A-team that it is the plan that makes it come together. So, armed with my nuby Ruby skills, I decided I wanted to program a virtual store. I figured out the following: My virtual Store will have: Products and Services Inventories Orders and Shipping Customers Now this isn't complex at all. With the help of some cool tools (CMapTools), I drew out some concepts, but quickly enough (thanks to my inferior experience in designing), my design started to bite me. My very first product-line were virtual "laptops". So, I created a class (Ruby): class Product attr_accessor :name, :price def initialize(name, price) @name = name @price = price end end which can be instantiated by doing (IRb) x = Product.new("Banana Pro", 250) Since I want my virtual customers to be able to purchase more than one product, or various types, I figured out I needed some kind of "Order" mechanism. class Order def initialize(order_no) @order_no = order_no @line_items = [] end def add_product(myproduct) @line_items << myproduct end def show_order() puts @order_no @line_items.each do |x| puts x.name.to_s + "\t" + x.price.to_s end end end that can be instantiated by doing (IRb) z = Order.new(1234) z.add_product(x) z.show_order Splendid, I have now a very simple ordering system that allows me to add products to an order. But, here comes my real question. What if I have three models of my product (economy, business, showoff)? Or have my products be composed out of separate units (bigger screen, nicer keyboard, different OS)? Surely I could make them three separate products, or add complexity to my product class, but I am looking for are best practices to design a flexible product object that can be used in the real world, to facilitate a complex system. My apologies if my grammar and my spelling are with error, as english is not my first language and I took the time to check as far I could understand and translate properly! Thank you for your answers, comments and feedback!

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• PInvokeStackImbalance C# call to unmanaged C++ function

  - by user287498

  After switching to VS2010, the managed debug assistant is displaying an error about an unbalanced stack from a call to an unmanaged C++ function from a C# application. The usuals suspects don't seem to be causing the issue. Is there something else I should check? The VS2008 built C++ dll and C# application never had a problem, no weird or mysterious bugs - yeah, I know that doesn't mean much. Here are the things that were checked: The dll name is correct. The entry point name is correct and has been verified with depends.exe - the code has to use the mangled name and it does. The calling convention is correct. The sizes and types all seem to be correct. The character set is correct. There doesn't seem to be any issues after ignoring the error and there isn't an issue when running outside the debugger. C#: [DllImport("Correct.dll", EntryPoint = "SuperSpecialOpenFileFunc", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true)] public static extern short SuperSpecialOpenFileFunc(ref SuperSpecialStruct stuff); [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack = 1, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)] public struct SuperSpecialStruct { public int field1; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 256)] public string field2; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 20)] public string field3; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 10)] public string field4; public ushort field5; public ushort field6; public ushort field7; public short field8; public short field9; public uint field10; public short field11; }; C++: short SuperSpecialOpenFileFunc(SuperSpecialStruct * stuff); struct SuperSpecialStruct { int field1; char field2[256]; char field3[20]; char field4[10]; unsigned short field5; unsigned short field6; unsigned short field7; short field8; short field9; unsigned int field10; short field11; }; Here is the error: Managed Debugging Assistant 'PInvokeStackImbalance' has detected a problem in 'Managed application path'. Additional Information: A call to PInvoke function 'SuperSpecialOpenFileFunc' has unbalanced the stack. This is likely because the managed PInvoke signature does not match the unmanaged target signature. Check that the calling convention and parameters of the PInvoke signature match the target unmanaged signature.

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• c++ class member functions selected by traits

  - by Jive Dadson

  I am reluctant to say I can't figure this out, but I can't figure this out. I've googled and searched stackoverflow, and come up empty. The abstract, and possibly overly vague form of the question is, how can I use the traits-pattern to instantiate non-virtual member functions? The question came up while modernizing a set of multivariate function optimizers that I wrote more than 10 years ago. The optimizers all operate by selecting a straight-line path through the parameter space away from the current best point (the "update"), then finding a better point on that line (the "line search"), then testing for the "done" condition, and if not done, iterating. There are different methods for doing the update, the line-search, and conceivably for the done test, and other things. Mix and match. Different update formulae require different state-variable data. For example, the LMQN update requires a vector, and the BFGS update requires a matrix. If evaluating gradients is cheap, the line-search should do so. If not, it should use function evaluations only. Some methods require more accurate line-searches than others. Those are just some examples. The original version instatiates several of the combinations by means of virtual functions. Some traits are selected by setting mode bits. Yuck. It would be trivial to define the traits with #define's and the member functions with #ifdef's and macros. But that's so twenty years ago. It bugs me that I cannot figure out a whiz-bang modern way. If there were only one trait that varied, I could use the curiously recurring template pattern. But I see no way to extend that to arbitrary combinations of traits. I tried doing it using boost::enable_if, etc.. The specialized state info was easy. I managed to get the functions done, but only by resorting to non-friend external functions that have the this-pointer as a parameter. I never even figured out how to make the functions friends, much less member functions. Perhaps tag-dispatch is the key. I haven't gotten very deeply into that. Surely it's possible, right? If so, what is best practice?

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