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  • Correct usage(s) of const_cast<>

    - by ereOn
    Hi, As a common rule, it is very often considered a bad practice to use const_cast<>() in C++ code as it reveals (most of the time) a flaw in the design. While I totally agree with this, I however wonder what are the cases were using const_cast<>() is ok and the only solution. Could you guys please give me some examples you know/you encountered ? Thank you very much.

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  • Best password practices?

    - by sansenya
    for sensitive data, would it be better to have a somewhat long, but memorable password (and hence not totally random) or use a program like keepass to make a super long, random password with the highest possible entropy, and then just write down the password on a piece of paper kept in ones pocket. If that bang on the door comes, then swallow the paper. Which is a better security practice? I'm not in any way a criminal, i just am curious about topics concerning security. Thanks.

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  • Best Practice: What can be the hashCode() method implementation if custom field used in equals() method are null?

    - by goodspeed
    What is the best practice to return a value for hashCode() method if custom field used in equals are null ? I have a situation, where equals() override is implemented using custom fields. Usually it it is better to override hashCode() also using that custom fields used in equals(). But if all the custom fields used in equals() are null, then what would be the best implementation for hashCode()? Example: class Person { private String firstName; private String lastName; public String getFirstName() { return firstName; } public String getLastName() { return lastName; } @Override public boolean equals(Object object) { boolean result = false; if (object == null || object.getClass() != getClass()) { result = false; } else { Person person = (Person) object; if (this.firstName == person.getFirstName() && this.lastName == tiger.getLastName()) { result = true; } } return result; } @Override public int hashCode() { int hash = 3; if(this.firstName == null || this.lastName == null) { // <b>What is the best practice here, </b> // <b>is return super.hashCode() better ?</b> } hash = 7 * hash + this.firstName.hashCode(); hash = 7 * hash + this.lastName.hashCode(); return hash; } } is it required to check for null in hashCode() ? If yes, what should be returned if custom values are null ?

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  • Managing highly repetitive code and documentation in Java

    - by polygenelubricants
    Highly repetitive code is generally a bad thing, and there are design patterns that can help minimize this. However, sometimes it's simply inevitable due to the constraints of the language itself. Take the following example from java.util.Arrays: /** * Assigns the specified long value to each element of the specified * range of the specified array of longs. The range to be filled * extends from index <tt>fromIndex</tt>, inclusive, to index * <tt>toIndex</tt>, exclusive. (If <tt>fromIndex==toIndex</tt>, the * range to be filled is empty.) * * @param a the array to be filled * @param fromIndex the index of the first element (inclusive) to be * filled with the specified value * @param toIndex the index of the last element (exclusive) to be * filled with the specified value * @param val the value to be stored in all elements of the array * @throws IllegalArgumentException if <tt>fromIndex &gt; toIndex</tt> * @throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if <tt>fromIndex &lt; 0</tt> or * <tt>toIndex &gt; a.length</tt> */ public static void fill(long[] a, int fromIndex, int toIndex, long val) { rangeCheck(a.length, fromIndex, toIndex); for (int i=fromIndex; i<toIndex; i++) a[i] = val; } The above snippet appears in the source code 8 times, with very little variation in the documentation/method signature but exactly the same method body, one for each of the root array types int[], short[], char[], byte[], boolean[], double[], float[], and Object[]. I believe that unless one resorts to reflection (which is an entirely different subject in itself), this repetition is inevitable. I understand that as a utility class, such high concentration of repetitive Java code is highly atypical, but even with the best practice, repetition does happen! Refactoring doesn't always work because it's not always possible (the obvious case is when the repetition is in the documentation). Obviously maintaining this source code is a nightmare. A slight typo in the documentation, or a minor bug in the implementation, is multiplied by however many repetitions was made. In fact, the best example happens to involve this exact class: Google Research Blog - Extra, Extra - Read All About It: Nearly All Binary Searches and Mergesorts are Broken (by Joshua Bloch, Software Engineer) The bug is a surprisingly subtle one, occurring in what many thought to be just a simple and straightforward algorithm. // int mid =(low + high) / 2; // the bug int mid = (low + high) >>> 1; // the fix The above line appears 11 times in the source code! So my questions are: How are these kinds of repetitive Java code/documentation handled in practice? How are they developed, maintained, and tested? Do you start with "the original", and make it as mature as possible, and then copy and paste as necessary and hope you didn't make a mistake? And if you did make a mistake in the original, then just fix it everywhere, unless you're comfortable with deleting the copies and repeating the whole replication process? And you apply this same process for the testing code as well? Would Java benefit from some sort of limited-use source code preprocessing for this kind of thing? Perhaps Sun has their own preprocessor to help write, maintain, document and test these kind of repetitive library code? A comment requested another example, so I pulled this one from Google Collections: com.google.common.base.Predicates lines 276-310 (AndPredicate) vs lines 312-346 (OrPredicate). The source for these two classes are identical, except for: AndPredicate vs OrPredicate (each appears 5 times in its class) "And(" vs Or(" (in the respective toString() methods) #and vs #or (in the @see Javadoc comments) true vs false (in apply; ! can be rewritten out of the expression) -1 /* all bits on */ vs 0 /* all bits off */ in hashCode() &= vs |= in hashCode()

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  • Correctly use dependency injection

    - by Rune
    Me and two other colleagues are trying to understand how to best design a program. For example, I have an interface ISoda and multiple classes that implement that interface like Coke, Pepsi, DrPepper, etc.... My colleague is saying that it's best to put these items into a database like a key/value pair. For example: Key | Name -------------------------------------- Coke | my.namespace.Coke, MyAssembly Pepsi | my.namespace.Pepsi, MyAssembly DrPepper | my.namespace.DrPepper, MyAssembly ... then have XML configuration files that map the input to the correct key, query the database for the key, then create the object. I don't have any specific reasons, but I just feel that this is a bad design, but I don't know what to say or how to correctly argue against it. My second colleague is suggesting that we micro-manage each of these classes. So basically the input would go through a switch statement, something similiar to this: ISoda soda; switch (input) { case "Coke": soda = new Coke(); break; case "Pepsi": soda = new Pepsi(); break; case "DrPepper": soda = new DrPepper(); break; } This seems a little better to me, but I still think there is a better way to do it. I've been reading up on IoC containers the last few days and it seems like a good solution. However, I'm still very new to dependency injection and IoC containers, so I don't know how to correctly argue for it. Or maybe I'm the wrong one and there's a better way to do it? If so, can someone suggest a better method? What kind of arguments can I bring to the table to convince my colleagues to try another method? What are the pros/cons? Why should we do it one way? Unfortunately, my colleagues are very resistant to change so I'm trying to figure out how I can convince them.

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  • Reading component parameters and setting defaults

    - by donut
    I'm pulling my hair on this because it should be simple, but can't get it to do the right thing. What's the best practice way of doing the following I've created a custom component that extends <s:Label> so now the Label has additional properties color2 color3 value which can be called like this and are used in the skin. <s:CustomLabel text="Some text" color2="0x939202" color3="0x999999" value="4.5" /> If I don't supply these parameters, I'd like some defaults to be set. So far I've had some success, but it doesn't work 100% of the time, which leads me to think that I'm not following best practices when setting those defaults. I do it now like this: [Bindable] private var myColor2:uint = 0x000000; [Bindable] private var myColor3:uint = 0x000000; [Bindable] private var myValue:Number = 10.0; then in the init function, I do a variation of this to set the default myValue = hostComponent.value; myValue = (hostComponent.value) ? hostComponent.value : 4.5; Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, depending on the type of variable I'm trying to set. I eventually decided to read them as Strings then convert them to the desired type, but it seems that this also works half the time.

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  • GAE modeling relationship options

    - by Sway
    Hi there, I need to model the following situation and I can't seem to find a consistent example on how to do it "correctly" for the google app engine. Suppose I've got a simple situation like the following: [Company] 1 ----- M [Stare] A company has one to many stores. Each store has an address made up of a address line 1, city, state, country, postcode etc. Ok. Lets say we need to create say an "Audit". An Audit is for a company and can be across one to many stares. So something like: [Audit] 1 ------ 1 [Company] 1 ------ M [Store] Now we need to query all of the "audits" based on the Store "addresses" in order to send the "Auditors" to the right locations. There seem to be numerous articles like this one: http://code.google.com/appengine/articles/modeling.html Which give examples of creating a "ContactCompany" model class. However they also say that you should use this kind of relationship only when you "really need to" and with "care" for performance. I've also read - frequently - that you should denormalize as much as possible thereby moving all of the "query-able" data into the Audit class. So what would you suggest as the best way to solve this? I've seen that there is an Expando class but I'm not sure if that is the "best" option for this. Any help or thoughts on this would be totally appreciated. Thanks in advance, Matt

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  • Rails: Create method available in all views and all models

    - by smotchkkiss
    I'd like to define a method that is available in both my views and my models Say I have a view helper: def foo(s) "hello #{s}" end A view might use the helper like this: <div class="data"><%= foo(@user.name) %></div> However, this <div> will be updated with a repeating ajax call. I'm using a to_json call in a controller returns data like so: render :text => @item.to_json(:only => [...], :methods => [:foo]) This means, that I have to have foo defined in my Item model as well: class Item def foo "hello #{name}" end end It'd be nice if I could have a DRY method that could be shared in both my views and my models. Usage might look like this: Helper def say_hello(s) "hello #{s}" end User.rb model def foo say_hello(name) end Item.rb model def foo say_hello(label) end View <div class="data"><%= item.foo %></div> Controller def observe @items = item.find(...) render :text => @items.to_json(:only=>[...], :methods=>[:foo]) end IF I'M DUMB, please let me know. I don't know the best way to handle this, but I don't want to completely go against best-practices here. If you can think of a better way, I'm eager to learn!

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  • How to Manage CSS Explosion

    - by Jason
    I have been heavily relying on CSS for a website that I am working on (currently, everything is done as property values within each tag on the website and I'm trying to get away from that to make updates significantly easier). The problem I am running into, is I'm starting to get a bit of "CSS explosion" going on. It is becoming difficult for me to decide how to best organize and abstract data within the CSS file. For example: I am using a large number of div tags within the website (previously it was completely tables based). So I'm starting to get a lot of CSS that looks like this... div.title { background-color: Blue; color: White; text-align: center; } div.footer { /* Stuff Here */ } div.body { /* Stuff Here */ } etc. It's not too bad yet, but since I am learning here, I was wondering if recommendations could be made on how best to organize the various parts of a CSS file. What I don't want to get to is where I have a separate CSS attribute for every single thing on my website (which I have seen happen), and I always want the CSS file to be fairly intuitive. (P.S. I do realize this is a very generic, high-level question. My ultimate goal is to make it easy to use the CSS files and demonstrate their power to increase the speed of web development so other individuals that may work on this site in the future will also get into the practice of using them rather than hard-coding values everywhere.)

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  • How large a role does subjectiveness play in programming?

    - by Bob
    I often read about the importance of readability and maintainability. Or, I read very strong opinions about which syntax features are bad or good. Or discussions about the values of certain paradigms, like OOP. Aside from that, this same question floats about in my mind whenever I read debates on SO or Meta about subjective questions. Or read questions about best practices and sometimes find myself or others disagreeing. What role does subjectiveness play within the programming realm? Sometimes I think it plays a large role. Software developers are engineers in a way, but also people. A large part of programming is dealing with code that's human readable. This is very different from Math or Physics or other disciplines with very exact and structured rules. Here the exact structure and rules are largely up in the air, changeable on a whim, and hence the amount of languages in existence. And one person may find one language very readable, and another person may find their own language the most comforting. The same with practices. One person may not like certain accepted practices. I myself find splitting classes into different files very unreadable, for instance. But, I can't say rules haven't helped in general. Certain practices have and do make life easier. And new languages have given rise to syntax and structure that make life easier. There's certainly been a progression towards code that is easier to read and maintain even given a largely diverse group of people. So maybe these things aren't as subjective as I thought. It reminds me, in a way, of UI design. Certainly it's subjective, but then there's an entire discipline involved in crafting good UI and it tends to work. Is there something non-subjective about the ideas behind maintainability, readability, and other best practices? Is there something tangible to grasp when one develops a new language or thinks of new practices?

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  • Extension methods for encapsulation and reusability

    - by tzaman
    In C++ programming, it's generally considered good practice to "prefer non-member non-friend functions" instead of instance methods. This has been recommended by Scott Meyers in this classic Dr. Dobbs article, and repeated by Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu in C++ Coding Standards (item 44); the general argument being that if a function can do its job solely by relying on the public interface exposed by the class, it actually increases encapsulation to have it be external. While this confuses the "packaging" of the class to some extent, the benefits are generally considered worth it. Now, ever since I've started programming in C#, I've had a feeling that here is the ultimate expression of the concept that they're trying to achieve with "non-member, non-friend functions that are part of a class interface". C# adds two crucial components to the mix - the first being interfaces, and the second extension methods: Interfaces allow a class to formally specify their public contract, the methods and properties that they're exposing to the world. Any other class can choose to implement the same interface and fulfill that same contract. Extension methods can be defined on an interface, providing any functionality that can be implemented via the interface to all implementers automatically. And best of all, because of the "instance syntax" sugar and IDE support, they can be called the same way as any other instance method, eliminating the cognitive overhead! So you get the encapsulation benefits of "non-member, non-friend" functions with the convenience of members. Seems like the best of both worlds to me; the .NET library itself providing a shining example in LINQ. However, everywhere I look I see people warning against extension method overuse; even the MSDN page itself states: In general, we recommend that you implement extension methods sparingly and only when you have to. So what's the verdict? Are extension methods the acme of encapsulation and code reuse, or am I just deluding myself?

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  • Project management: Implementing custom errors in VS compilation process

    - by David Lively
    Like many architects, I've developed coding standards through years of experience to which I expect my developers to adhere. This is especially a problem with the crowd that believes that three or four years of experience makes you a senior-level developer.Approaching this as a training and code review issue has generated limited success. So, I was thinking that it would be great to be able to add custom compile-time errors to the build process to more strictly enforce this and other guidelines. For instance, we use stored procedures for ALL database access, which provides procedure-level security, db encapsulation (table structure is hidden from the app), and other benefits. (Note: I am not interested in starting a debate about this.) Some developers prefer inline SQL or parametrized queries, and that's fine - on their own time and own projects. I'd like a way to add a compilation check that finds, say, anything that looks like string sql = "insert into some_table (col1,col2) values (@col1, @col2);" and generates an error or, in certain circumstances, a warning, with a message like Inline SQL and parametrized queries are not permitted. Or, if they use the var keyword var x = new MyClass(); Variable definitions must be explicitly typed. Do Visual Studio and MSBuild provide a way to add this functionality? I'm thinking that I could use a regular expression to find unacceptable code and generate the correct error, but I'm not sure what, from a performance standpoint, is the best way to to integrate this into the build process. We could add a pre- or post-build step to run a custom EXE, but how can I return line- and file-specifc errors? Also, I'd like this to run after compilation of each file, rather than post-link. Is a regex the best way to perform this type of pattern matching, or should I go crazy and run the code through a C# parser, which would allow node-level validation via the parse tree? I'd appreciate suggestions and tales of prior experience.

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  • Checking for nil in view in Ruby on Rails

    - by seaneshbaugh
    I've been working with Rails for a while now and one thing I find myself constantly doing is checking to see if some attribute or object is nil in my view code before I display it. I'm starting to wonder if this is always the best idea. My rationale so far has been that since my application(s) rely on user input unexpected things can occur. If I've learned one thing from programming in general it's that users inputting things the programmer didn't think of is one of the biggest sources of run-time errors. By checking for nil values I'm hoping to sidestep that and have my views gracefully handle the problem. The thing is though I typically for various reasons have similar nil or invalid value checks in either my model or controller code. I wouldn't call it code duplication in the strictest sense, but it just doesn't seem very DRY. If I've already checked for nil objects in my controller is it okay if my view just assumes the object truly isn't nil? For attributes that can be nil that are displayed it makes sense to me to check every time, but for the objects themselves I'm not sure what is the best practice. Here's a simplified, but typical example of what I'm talking about: controller code def show @item = Item.find_by_id(params[:id]) @folders = Folder.find(:all, :order => 'display_order') if @item == nil or @item.folder == nil redirect_to(root_url) and return end end view code <% if @item != nil %> display the item's attributes here <% if @item.folder != nil %> <%= link_to @item.folder.name, folder_path(@item.folder) %> <% end %> <% else %> Oops! Looks like something went horribly wrong! <% end %> Is this a good idea or is it just silly?

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  • How to check for mip-map availability in OpenGL?

    - by Xavier Ho
    Recently I bumped into a problem where my OpenGL program would not render textures correctly on a 2-year-old Lenovo laptop with an nVidia Quadro 140 card. It runs OpenGL 2.1.2, and GLSL 1.20, but when I turned on mip-mapping, the whole screen is black, with no warnings or errors. This is my texture filter code: glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_GENERATE_MIPMAP, GL_TRUE); After 40 minutes of fiddling around, I found out mip-mapping was the problem. Turning it off fixed it: // glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR); // glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_GENERATE_MIPMAP, GL_TRUE); I get a lot of aliasing, but at least the program is visible and runs fine. Finally, two questions: What's the best or standard way to check if mip-mapping is available on a machine, aside from checking OpenGL versions? If mip-mapping is not available, what's the best work-around to avoid aliasing?

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  • Have you dealt with space hardening?

    - by Tim Post
    I am very eager to study best practices when it comes to space hardening. For instance, I've read (though I can't find the article any longer) that some core parts of the Mars rovers did not use dynamic memory allocation, in fact it was forbidden. I've also read that old fashioned core memory may be preferable in space. I was looking at some of the projects associated with the Google Lunar Challenge and wondering what it would feel like to get code on the moon, or even just into space. I know that space hardened boards offer some sanity in such a harsh environment, however I'm wondering (as a C programmer) how I would need to adjust my thinking and code if I was writing something that would run in space? I think the next few years might show more growth in private space companies, I'd really like to at least be somewhat knowledgeable regarding best practices. Can anyone recommend some books, offer links to papers on the topic or (gasp) even a simulator that shows you what happens to a program if radiation, cold or heat bombards a board that sustained damage to its insulation? I think the goal is keeping humans inside of a space craft (as far as fixing or swapping stuff) and avoiding missions to fix things. Furthermore, if the board maintains some critical system, early warnings seem paramount.

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  • How to implement a network protocol?

    - by gotch4
    Here is a generic question. I'm not in search of the best answer, I'd just like you to express your favourite practices. I want to implement a network protocol in Java (but this is a rather general question, I faced the same issues in C++), this is not the first time, as I have done this before. But I think I am missing a good way to implement it. In fact usually it's all about exchanging text messages and some byte buffers between hosts, storing the status and wait until the next message comes. The problem is that I usually end up with a bunch of switch and more or less complex if statements that react to different statuses / messages. The whole thing usually gets complicated and hard to mantain. Not to mention that sometimes what comes out has some "blind spot", I mean statuses of the protocol that have not been covered and that behave in a unpredictable way. I tried to write down some state machine classes, that take care of checking start and end statuses for each action in more or less smart ways. This makes programming the protocol very complicated as I have to write lines and lines of code to cover every possible situation. What I'd like is something like a good pattern, or a best practice that is used in programming complex protocols, easy to mantain and to extend and very readable. What are your suggestions?

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  • How to design authentication in a thick client, to be fail safe?

    - by Jay
    Here's a use case: I have a desktop application (built using Eclipse RCP) which on start, pops open a dialog box with 'UserName' and 'Password' fields in it. Once the end user, inputs his UserName and Password, a server is contacted (a spring remote-servlet, with the client side being a spring httpclient: similar to the approaches here.), and authentication is performed on the server side. A few questions related to the above mentioned scenario: If said this authentication service were to go down, what would be the best way to handle further proceedings? Authentication is something that I cannot do away with. Would running the desktop client in a "limited" mode be a good idea? For instance, important features/menus/views will be disabled, rest of the application will be accessible? Should I have a back up authentication service running on a different machine, working as a backup? What are the general best-practices in this scenario? I remember reading about google gears and how it would let you edit and do stuff offline - should something like this be designed? Please let me know your design/architectural comments/suggestions. Appreciate your help.

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  • How might a C# programmer approach writing a solution in javascript?

    - by Ben McCormack
    UPDATE: Perhaps this wasn't clear from my original post, but I'm mainly interested in knowing a best practice for how to structure javascript code while building a solution, not simply learning how to use APIs (though that is certainly important). I need to add functionality to a web site and our team has decided to approach the solution using a web service that receives a call from a JSON-formatted AJAX request from within the web site. The web service has been created and works great. Now I have been tasked with writing the javascript/html side of the solution. If I were solving this problem in C#, I would create separate classes for formatting the request, handling the AJAX request/response, parsing the response, and finally inserting the response somehow into the DOM. I would build properties and methods appropriately into each class, doing my best to separate functionality and structure where appropriate. However, I have to solve this problem in javascript. Firstly, how could I approach my solution in javascript in the way I would approach it from C# as described above? Or more importantly, what's a better way to approach structuring code in javascript? Any advice or links to helpful material on the web would be greatly appreciated. NOTE: Though perhaps not immediately relevant to this question, it may be worth noting that we will be using jQuery in our solution.

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  • Why doesn't String's hashCode() cache 0?

    - by polygenelubricants
    I noticed in the Java 6 source code for String that hashCode only caches values other than 0. The difference in performance is exhibited by the following snippet: public class Main{ static void test(String s) { long start = System.currentTimeMillis(); for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) { s.hashCode(); } System.out.format("Took %d ms.%n", System.currentTimeMillis() - start); } public static void main(String[] args) { String z = "Allocator redistricts; strict allocator redistricts strictly."; test(z); test(z.toUpperCase()); } } Running this in ideone.com gives the following output: Took 1470 ms. Took 58 ms. So my questions are: Why doesn't String's hashCode() cache 0? What is the probability that a Java string hashes to 0? What's the best way to avoid the performance penalty of recomputing the hash value every time for strings that hash to 0? Is this the best-practice way of caching values? (i.e. cache all except one?) For your amusement, each line here is a string that hash to 0: pollinating sandboxes amusement & hemophilias schoolworks = perversive electrolysissweeteners.net constitutionalunstableness.net grinnerslaphappier.org BLEACHINGFEMININELY.NET WWW.BUMRACEGOERS.ORG WWW.RACCOONPRUDENTIALS.NET Microcomputers: the unredeemed lollipop... Incentively, my dear, I don't tessellate a derangement. A person who never yodelled an apology, never preened vocalizing transsexuals.

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  • Asynchronous SQL Operations

    - by Paul Hatcherian
    I've got a problem I'm not sure how best to solve. I have an application which updates a database in response to ad hoc requests. One request in particular is quite common. The request is an update that by itself is quite simple, but has some complex preconditions. For this request the business layer first requests a set of data from the data layer. The business logic layer evaluated the data from the database and parameters from the request, from this the action to be performed is determined, and the request's response message(s) are created. The business layer now executes the actual update command that is the purpose of the request. This last step is the problem, this command is dependent on the state of the database, which might have changed since the business logic ran. Locking down the data read in this operation across several round-trips to the database doesn't seem like a good idea either. Is there a 'best-practice' way to accomplish something like this? Thanks!

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  • Prefer extension methods for encapsulation and reusability?

    - by tzaman
    edit4: wikified, since this seems to have morphed more into a discussion than a specific question. In C++ programming, it's generally considered good practice to "prefer non-member non-friend functions" instead of instance methods. This has been recommended by Scott Meyers in this classic Dr. Dobbs article, and repeated by Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu in C++ Coding Standards (item 44); the general argument being that if a function can do its job solely by relying on the public interface exposed by the class, it actually increases encapsulation to have it be external. While this confuses the "packaging" of the class to some extent, the benefits are generally considered worth it. Now, ever since I've started programming in C#, I've had a feeling that here is the ultimate expression of the concept that they're trying to achieve with "non-member, non-friend functions that are part of a class interface". C# adds two crucial components to the mix - the first being interfaces, and the second extension methods: Interfaces allow a class to formally specify their public contract, the methods and properties that they're exposing to the world. Any other class can choose to implement the same interface and fulfill that same contract. Extension methods can be defined on an interface, providing any functionality that can be implemented via the interface to all implementers automatically. And best of all, because of the "instance syntax" sugar and IDE support, they can be called the same way as any other instance method, eliminating the cognitive overhead! So you get the encapsulation benefits of "non-member, non-friend" functions with the convenience of members. Seems like the best of both worlds to me; the .NET library itself providing a shining example in LINQ. However, everywhere I look I see people warning against extension method overuse; even the MSDN page itself states: In general, we recommend that you implement extension methods sparingly and only when you have to. (edit: Even in the current .NET library, I can see places where it would've been useful to have extensions instead of instance methods - for example, all of the utility functions of List<T> (Sort, BinarySearch, FindIndex, etc.) would be incredibly useful if they were lifted up to IList<T> - getting free bonus functionality like that adds a lot more benefit to implementing the interface.) So what's the verdict? Are extension methods the acme of encapsulation and code reuse, or am I just deluding myself? (edit2: In response to Tomas - while C# did start out with Java's (overly, imo) OO mentality, it seems to be embracing more multi-paradigm programming with every new release; the main thrust of this question is whether using extension methods to drive a style change (towards more generic / functional C#) is useful or worthwhile..) edit3: overridable extension methods The only real problem identified so far with this approach, is that you can't specialize extension methods if you need to. I've been thinking about the issue, and I think I've come up with a solution. Suppose I have an interface MyInterface, which I want to extend - I define my extension methods in a MyExtension static class, and pair it with another interface, call it MyExtensionOverrider. MyExtension methods are defined according to this pattern: public static int MyMethod(this MyInterface obj, int arg, bool attemptCast=true) { if (attemptCast && obj is MyExtensionOverrider) { return ((MyExtensionOverrider)obj).MyMethod(arg); } // regular implementation here } The override interface mirrors all of the methods defined in MyExtension, except without the this or attemptCast parameters: public interface MyExtensionOverrider { int MyMethod(int arg); string MyOtherMethod(); } Now, any class can implement the interface and get the default extension functionality: public class MyClass : MyInterface { ... } Anyone that wants to override it with specific implementations can additionally implement the override interface: public class MySpecializedClass : MyInterface, MyExtensionOverrider { public int MyMethod(int arg) { //specialized implementation for one method } public string MyOtherMethod() { // fallback to default for others MyExtension.MyOtherMethod(this, attemptCast: false); } } And there we go: extension methods provided on an interface, with the option of complete extensibility if needed. Fully general too, the interface itself doesn't need to know about the extension / override, and multiple extension / override pairs can be implemented without interfering with each other. I can see three problems with this approach - It's a little bit fragile - the extension methods and override interface have to be kept synchronized manually. It's a little bit ugly - implementing the override interface involves boilerplate for every function you don't want to specialize. It's a little bit slow - there's an extra bool comparison and cast attempt added to the mainline of every method. Still, all those notwithstanding, I think this is the best we can get until there's language support for interface functions. Thoughts?

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  • Best SSD tweaks for Windows 7

    - by Nick Berardi
    I have seen many articles about tweaking an SSD, but many of them seem outdated, or too broad (read all Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 general tweaks). And I know that Windows 7 has been specifically tweaked for SSD by the Windows team, so I don't want to do something that was written for Windows XP in mind and end up circumventing something the Windows team has specifically designed in to Windows 7. So my question is what are the best SSD tweaks for Windows 7 that you have found to get the performance out of your drive? I hope to make a comprehensive list in the answers below so there won't be so much disinformation in the forums about what to do and what not to do. Here are a few that I see posted up on the forums alot, and some questions to get the discussion started: Disabling Superfetch. Yes or No Disabling Page File or limiting it to a really small size such as 500 MB. Disabling Indexing. Yes or No Disabling Defragmenting. Yes or No What are your thoughts do you have any that have worked for you? When providing an answer please do your best to back it up with a reason and possibly some documentation from MSDN, TechNet, or another credible source.

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  • Audio server with best API?

    - by Wintermute
    I'm a web dev, working in a small studio with a couple of other devs and some crayon-munchers (or, "designers"). Like all the best and trendiest creative studios, we have tunes. Our tunes consists of a set of speakers that whoever wants to can plug into their machine, and DJ their little socks off via iTunes, Spotify, VLC or whatever their music player of choice happens to be. Obviously, this lacks finesse. What we WANT is this: a single, dedicated machine running some sort of audio player (ideally Win-based, but a Linux flavour isn't impossible), that exposes an API. We (ie: me and the other devs) want to write a web-based client onto it, that'll let us remotely do all sorts of funky stuff like generating on-the-fly genre-based playlists, and voting for tracks, and making tea. My question - and please forgive me if this isn't the place for such a question, I was going to ask on Stackoverflow but that didn't seem right either - is this: what's the best player to start with? What can do all of this? I know VLC can function as a streaming server, but know nothing of any API it may have. I'd rather chop my pinky off than use iTunes, but if it does what we want, then... Anyhow, thanks for reading. All comments and suggestions gratefully received.

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  • Puppet: variable overriding best practices

    - by rvs
    I'm wondering what are best practices for overriding variables in puppet. I'd like to have all my nodes (which located in different places, some of them are qa, some live) with same classes. Now I have something like this: class base_linux { <...> # something which requires $env and $relayhost variables } class linux_live { $relayhost="1.1.1.1" $env = "prod" include base_linux } class linux_qa { $relayhost="2.2.2.2" # override relayhost include base_linux } class linux_trunk { $env = "trunk" # override env inlude linux_qa } node "trunk01" { include linux_trunk include <something else> } node "trunk02" { $relayhost = "3.3.3.3" # override relayhost include linux_trunk include <something else> } node "prod01" { include linux_prod } So, I'd like to have some defaults in base_linux, which can be overrided by linux_qa/linux_live, which can be overrided in higher level classes and node definition. Of course, it does not work (and not expected to work). It does not work with class inheritance as well. Probably, I'll be able to archive using global scope variables, but it does not seems like a good idea to me. What is the best way to solve this problem?

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