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• TDD - beginner problems and stumbling blocks

  - by Noufal Ibrahim

  While I've written unit tests for most of the code I've done, I only recently got my hands on a copy of TDD by example by Kent Beck. I have always regretted certain design decisions I made since they prevented the application from being 'testable'. I read through the book and while some of it looks alien, I felt that I could manage it and decided to try it out on my current project which is basically a client/server system where the two pieces communicate via. USB. One on the gadget and the other on the host. The application is in Python. I started off and very soon got entangled in a mess of rewrites and tiny tests which I later figured didn't really test anything. I threw away most of them and and now have a working application for which the tests have all coagulated into just 2. Based on my experiences, I have a few questions which I'd like to ask. I gained some information from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1146218/new-to-tdd-are-there-sample-applications-with-tests-to-show-how-to-do-tdd but have some specific questions which I'd like answers to/discussion on. Kent Beck uses a list which he adds to and strikes out from to guide the development process. How do you make such a list? I initially had a few items like "server should start up", "server should abort if channel is not available" etc. but they got mixed and finally now, it's just something like "client should be able to connect to server" (which subsumed server startup etc.). How do you handle rewrites? I initially selected a half duplex system based on named pipes so that I could develop the application logic on my own machine and then later add the USB communication part. It them moved to become a socket based thing and then moved from using raw sockets to using the Python SocketServer module. Each time things changed, I found that I had to rewrite considerable parts of the tests which was annoying. I'd figured that the tests would be a somewhat invariable guide during my development. They just felt like more code to handle. I needed a client and a server to communicate through the channel to test either side. I could mock one of the sides to test the other but then the whole channel wouldn't be tested and I worry that I'd miss that. This detracted from the whole red/green/refactor rhythm. Is this just lack of experience or am I doing something wrong? The "Fake it till you make it" left me with a lot of messy code that I later spent a lot of time to refactor and clean up. Is this the way things work? At the end of the session, I now have my client and server running with around 3 or 4 unit tests. It took me around a week to do it. I think I could have done it in a day if I were using the unit tests after code way. I fail to see the gain. I'm looking for comments and advice from people who have implemented large non trivial projects completely (or almost completely) using this methodology. It makes sense to me to follow the way after I have something already running and want to add a new feature but doing it from scratch seems to tiresome and not worth the effort. P.S. : Please let me know if this should be community wiki and I'll mark it like that. Update 0 : All the answers were equally helpful. I picked the one I did because it resonated with my experiences the most. Update 1: Practice Practice Practice!

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• What are some good ways to write PHP application with modules support?

  - by Gabriel

  Hi, I'm starting to write a application in php with one of my friends and was wondering, if you have any advice on how to implement module support into our application. Or is there a way how to automatically load modules written in php by a php application? Or should i just rely on __autoload function? And we are not using any kind of framework, for now at least.

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• Is there any reason to use C instead of C++ for embedded development?

  - by Piotr Czapla

  Question I have two compilers on my hardware C++ and C89 I'm thinking about using C++ with classes but without polymorphism (to avoid vtables). The main reasons I’d like to use C++ are: I prefer to use “inline” functions instead of macro definitions. I’d like to use namespaces as I prefixes clutter the code. I see C++ a bit type safer mainly because of templates, and verbose casting. I really like overloaded functions and constructors (used for automatic casting). Do you see any reason to stick with C89 when developing for very limited hardware (4kb of RAM)? Conclusion Thank you for your answers, they were really helpful! I though the subject through and I will stick with C mainly because: It is easier to predict actual code in C and this is really important if you have only 4kb of ram. My team consists of C developers mainly so advance features of C++ won't be frequently used. I've found a way to inline functions in my C compiler (C89). It is hard to accept one answer as you provided so many good answers. Unfortunately I can't create a wiki and accept it so I will choose one answer that made me think most.

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• Usage of Assert.Inconclusive

  - by Johannes Rudolph

  Hi, Im wondering how someone should use Assert.Inconclusive(). I'm using it if my Unit test would be about to fail for a reason other than what it is for. E.g. i have a method on a class that calculates the sum of an array of ints. On the same class there is also a method to calculate the average of the element. It is implemented by calling sum and dividing it by the length of the array. Writing a Unit test for Sum() is simple. However, when i write a test for Average() and Sum() fails, Average() is likely to fail also. The failure of Average is not explicit about the reason it failed, it failed for a reason other than what it should test for. That's why i would check if Sum() returns the correct result, otherwise i Assert.Inconclusive(). Is this to be considered good practice? What is Assert.Inconclusive intended for? Or should i rather solve the previous example by means of an Isolation Framework?

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• Is it good to subclass a class only to separate some functional parts?

  - by prostynick

  Suppose we have abstract class A (all examples in C#) public abstract class A { private Foo foo; public A() { } public void DoSomethingUsingFoo() { //stuff } public void DoSomethingElseUsingFoo() { //stuff } //a lot of other stuff... } But we are able to split it into two classes A and B: public abstract class A { public A() { } //a lot of stuff... } public abstract class B : A { private Foo foo; public B() : base() { } public void DoSomethingUsingFoo() { //stuff } public void DoSomethingElseUsingFoo() { //stuff } //nothing else or just some overrides of A stuff } That's good, but we are 99.99% sure, that no one will ever subclass A, because functionality in B is very important. Is it still good to have two separate classes only to split some code into two parts and to separate functional elements?

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• What real life good habits has programming given you?

  - by Luca

  Following this question, what real life good habits has programming given you?

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• Is it bad practice to use multi-dimensional arrays in C/C++?

  - by Maulrus

  Some programmers seem to violently hate them, while others seem to think they're fine. I know that anything that can be done to a multi-dimensional array can also be done to a regular array, so they're functionally equivalent. Is it bad practice to use multi-dimensional arrays, or does it not matter?

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• How do you deal with naming conventions for rails partials?

  - by DJTripleThreat

  For example, I might have an partial something like: <div> <%= f.label :some_field %><br/> <%= f.text_field :some_field %> </div> which works for edit AND new actions. I also will have one like: <div> <%=h some_field %> </div> for the show action. So you would think that all your partials go under one directory like shared or something. The problem that I see with this is that both of these would cause a conflict since they are essentially the same partial but for different actions so what I do is: <!-- for edit and new actions --> <%= render "shared_edit/some_partial" ... %> <!-- for show action --> <%= render "shared_show/some_partial" ... %> How do you handle this? Is a good idea or even possible to maybe combine all of these actions into one partial and render different parts by determining what the current action is?

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• Any reason not to always log stack traces?

  - by Chris Knight

  Encountered a frustrating problem in our application today which came down to an ArrayIndexOutOfBounds exception being thrown. The exception's type was just about all that was logged which is fairly useless (but, oh dear legacy app, we still love you, mostly). I've redeployed the application with a change which logs the stack trace on exception handling (and immediately found the root cause of the problem) and wondered why no one else did this before. Do you generally log the stack trace and is there any reason you wouldn't do this? Bonus points if you can explain (why, not how) the rationale behind having to jump hoops in java to get a string representation of a stack trace!

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• What is meant by "Code is spaghetti"?

  - by viswanathan

  I have seen in many forums and technical sites the expression "Code of our project is spaghetti" What is the meaning of this expression?

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• Code Design Process?

  - by user156814

  I am going to be working on a project, a web application. I was reading 37signals getting real pamphlet online (http://gettingreal.37signals.com/), and I understand the recommended process to build the entire website. Brainstorm, sketch, HTML, code. They touch on each process lightly, but they never really talk much about the coding process (all they say is to keep code lean). I've been reading about different ways to go about it (top to bottom, bottom to top) but I dont know much about each way. I even read somewhere that one should write tests for the code before they actually write the code??? WHAT? What coding process should one follow when building an application. if its necessary, I'm using PHP and a framework.

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• Exposing a service to external systems - How should I design the contract?

  - by Larsi

  Hi! I know this question is been asked before here but still I'm not sure what to select. My service will be called from many 3 party system in the enterprise. I'm almost sure the information the service will collect (MyBigClassWithAllInfo) will change during the products lifetime. Is it still a good idea to expose objects? This is basically what my two alternatives: [ServiceContract] public interface ICollectStuffService { [OperationContract] SetDataResponseMsg SetData(SetDataRequestMsg dataRequestMsg); } // Alternative 1: Put all data inside a xml file [DataContract] public class SetDataRequestMsg { [DataMember] public string Body { get; set; } [DataMember] public string OtherPropertiesThatMightBeHandy { get; set; } // ?? } // Alternative 2: Expose the objects [DataContract] public class SetDataRequestMsg { [DataMember] public Header Header { get; set; } [DataMember] public MyBigClassWithAllInfo ExposedObject { get; set; } } public class SetDataResponseMsg { [DataMember] public ServiceError Error { get; set; } } The xml file would look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Message>   <Header>     <InfoAboutTheSender>...</InfoAboutTheSender>   </Header>   <StuffToCollectWithAllTheInfo>   <stuff1>...</stuff1> </StuffToCollectWithAllTheInfo> </Message> Any thought on how this service should be implemented? Thanks Larsi

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• Concept of WNDCLASSEX, good programming habits and WndProc for system classes

  - by luiscubal

  I understand that the Windows API uses "classes", relying to the WNDCLASS/WNDCLASSEX structures. I have successfully gone through windows API Hello World applications and understand that this class is used by our own windows, but also by Windows core controls, such as "EDIT", "BUTTON", etc. I also understand that it is somehow related to WndProc(it allows me to define a function for it) Although I can find documentation about this class, I can't find anything explaining the concept. So far, the only thing I found about it was this: A Window Class has NOTHING to do with C++ classes. Which really doesn't help(it tells me what it isn't but doesn't tellme what it is). In fact, this only confuses me more, since I'd be tempted to associate WNDCLASSEX to C++ classes and think that "WNDCLASSEX" represents a control type . So, my first question is What is it? In second place, I understand that one can define a WndProc in a class. However, a window can also get messages from the child controls(or windows, or whatever they are called in the Windows API). How can this be? Finally, when is it a good programming practise to define a new class? Per application(for the main frame), per frame, one per control I define(if I create my own progress bar class, for example)? I know Java/Swing, C#/Windows.Form, C/GTK+ and C++/wxWidgets, so I'll probably understand comparisons with these toolkits.

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• What is the MVC equivalent of this code:

  - by Ian Boyd

  Here's the easy pseudo-code: void TextBox1Changed() { //If the text isn't a number, color it red if (!IsValidNumber(TextBox1.Text) TextBox1.Color = Pink; else TextBox1.Color = WindowColor; } What's the MVC enterprisey version?

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• A better UPDATE method in LINQ to SQL

  - by Refracted Paladin

  The below is a typical, for me, Update method in L2S. I am still fairly new to a lot of this(L2S & business app development) but this just FEELs wrong. Like there MUST be a smarter way of doing this. Unfortunately, I am having trouble visualizing it and am hoping someone can provide an example or point me in the right direction. To take a stab in the dark, would I have a Person Object that has all these fields as Properties? Then what, though? Is that redundant since L2S already mapped my Person Table to a Class? Is this just 'how it goes', that you eventually end up passing 30 parameters(or MORE) to an UPDATE statement at some point? For reference, this is a business app using C#, WinForms, .Net 3.5, and L2S over SQL 2005 Standard. Here is a typical Update Call for me. This is in a file(BLLConnect.cs) with other CRUD methods. Connect is the name of the DB that holds tblPerson When a user clicks save() this is what is eventually called with all of these fields having, potentially, been updated-- public static void UpdatePerson(int personID, string userID, string titleID, string firstName, string middleName, string lastName, string suffixID, string ssn, char gender, DateTime? birthDate, DateTime? deathDate, string driversLicenseNumber, string driversLicenseStateID, string primaryRaceID, string secondaryRaceID, bool hispanicOrigin, bool citizenFlag, bool veteranFlag, short ? residencyCountyID, short? responsibilityCountyID, string emailAddress, string maritalStatusID) { using (var context = ConnectDataContext.Create()) { var personToUpdate = (from person in context.tblPersons where person.PersonID == personID select person).Single(); personToUpdate.TitleID = titleID; personToUpdate.FirstName = firstName; personToUpdate.MiddleName = middleName; personToUpdate.LastName = lastName; personToUpdate.SuffixID = suffixID; personToUpdate.SSN = ssn; personToUpdate.Gender = gender; personToUpdate.BirthDate = birthDate; personToUpdate.DeathDate = deathDate; personToUpdate.DriversLicenseNumber = driversLicenseNumber; personToUpdate.DriversLicenseStateID = driversLicenseStateID; personToUpdate.PrimaryRaceID = primaryRaceID; personToUpdate.SecondaryRaceID = secondaryRaceID; personToUpdate.HispanicOriginFlag = hispanicOrigin; personToUpdate.CitizenFlag = citizenFlag; personToUpdate.VeteranFlag = veteranFlag; personToUpdate.ResidencyCountyID = residencyCountyID; personToUpdate.ResponsibilityCountyID = responsibilityCountyID; personToUpdate.EmailAddress = emailAddress; personToUpdate.MaritalStatusID = maritalStatusID; personToUpdate.UpdateUserID = userID; personToUpdate.UpdateDateTime = DateTime.Now; context.SubmitChanges(); } }

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• Is there a naming convention for a method that should set the properties of the passed object.

  - by Genady Sergeev

  Hello, I am writing a method that will set the properties of an object passed as a parameter. The method accepts one parameter of type interface and the return type of the method is the same interface. I was wondering if there is some kind of a naming convention for such methods. I was thinking of something like: FillInInterfaceTypeData or InitInterfaceTypeData but both sound clumsy to me. How do you think?

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• Combine hash values in C#

  - by Chris

  I'm creating a generic object collection class and need to implement a Hash function. I can obviously (and easily!) get the hash values for each object but was looking for the 'correct' way to combine them to avoid any issues. Does just adding, xoring or any basic operation harm the quality of the hash or am I going to have to do something like getting the objects as bytes, combining them and then hashing that? Cheers in advance

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• Name for build option (for "make install") specifying where to install web application

  - by Jakub Narebski

  I want to provide 'install' target for Makefile for web application. I'd like to be able to install it, for example like described below: $ make install \ xxxdir=/var/www/cgi-bin (similarly to how one would use 'bindir' for ordinary programs, and 'mandir' / 'infodir' for documentation). Is there any standard (similar to autotools 'bindir', 'sharedir', etc.) for the name of 'xxxdir' variable in above example? How do you think should such build configuration variable be named?

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• Rank Source Control Options-VSS vs CVS vs none vs your own hell

  - by Roman A. Taycher

  It seems like a lot of people here and on many programmer wikis/blogs/ect. elsewhere really dislike VSS. A lot of people also have a serious dislike for cvs. In many places I have heard a lot of differing opinions on whether or not using VSS or cvs is better or worse then using no source control, please rate the worst and explain why!!!!! you rated them this way. Feel free to throw in your own horrible system in the rankings. If you feel it depends on the circumstances try to explain the some of the different scenarios which lead to different rankings. (note:I see a lot of discussion of what is better but little of what is worse.) second note: while both answers are nice I'm looking less for good replacements and more for a comparison of which is worse and more importantly why!

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• Exposing APIs - third party or homegrown?

  - by amelvin

  Parts of the project I'm currently working on (I can't give details) will be exposed as an API at some point over the next few months and I was wondering whether anyone could recommend a third party API 'provider' (possibly Mashery or SO advertiser Webservius). And I mean recommend in the 'I've used these people and they are good' sense because although I can google for an answer to this question it is more difficult to get truly unbiased opinions. As an addendum is there much mileage in creating a bespoke API solution and has anyone had any joy going down that road? Thanks in anticipation.

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• How should Application.Run() be called for the main presenter a MVP WinForms app?

  - by Mr Roys

  I'm learning to apply MVP to a simple WinForms app (only one form) in C# and encountered an issue while creating the main presenter in static void Main(). Is it a good idea to expose a View from the Presenter in order to supply it as a parameter to Application.Run()? Currently, I've implemented an approach which allows me to not expose the View as a property of Presenter: static void Main() { IView view = new View(); Model model = new Model(); Presenter presenter = new Presenter(view, model); presenter.Start(); Application.Run(); } The Start and Stop methods in Presenter: public void Start() { view.Start(); } public void Stop() { view.Stop(); } The Start and Stop methods in View (a Windows Form): public void Start() { this.Show(); } public void Stop() { // only way to close a message loop called // via Application.Run(); without a Form parameter Application.Exit(); } The Application.Exit() call seems like an inelegant way to close the Form (and the application). The other alternative would be to expose the View as a public property of the Presenter in order to call Application.Run() with a Form parameter. static void Main() { IView view = new View(); Model model = new Model(); Presenter presenter = new Presenter(view, model); Application.Run(presenter.View); } The Start and Stop methods in Presenter remain the same. An additional property is added to return the View as a Form: public void Start() { view.Start(); } public void Stop() { view.Stop(); } // New property to return view as a Form for Application.Run(Form form); public System.Windows.Form View { get { return view as Form(); } } The Start and Stop methods in View (a Windows Form) would then be written as below: public void Start() { this.Show(); } public void Stop() { this.Close(); } Could anyone suggest which is the better approach and why? Or there even better ways to resolve this issue?

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• What policies are standard for programmers?

  - by Shehket's Apprentice

  My office is about has proposed implementing some extremely strict (I would consider them draconian) policies regarding programmers, and our access due to security concerns (note, we have never had a security breach). While I can theoretically get used to them, I'd like to ask about what is considered good security policy for programmers, specifically in the area of access policies, and what is too much? Any answers to this question are greatly appreciated as they directly relate to my ability to write code, and I can't find anything so far on Google. Edit: Most of the security policies that concern me are about access to my machine and to the code. According to these proposed policies, I'd need management approval to access either, which means that I'd be forced to get management to unlock my computer anytime I leave my desk as my computer is always locked when I'm not at my desk.

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• How do I know if I'm being truly clever and not just "clever"?

  - by Covar

  If there's one thing I've learned from programming is that there are clever solutions to problems, and then there are "clever" solutions to problems. One is an intelligent solution to a difficult problem that results in improved efficiency and a better way to to do something and the other will wind up on The Daily WTF, and result in headaches and pain for anyone else involved. My question is how do you distinguish between one and the other? How do you figure out if you've over thought the solution? How do you stop yourself from throwing away truly clever solutions, thinking they were "clever"?

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• Should a function have only one return statement?

  - by David

  Are there good reasons why it's a better practice to have only one return statement in a function? Or is it okay to return from a function as soon as it is logically correct to do so, meaning there may be many return statements in the function?

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• call my web services from other app with javascript?

  - by Dejan.S

  Hi. I got .asmx a web service on my app. I need to call a method from an other app to get statistics from my app. I need it to return XML. the call to the webmethod is done with javascript soap. There is a default hellow world webmethod and calling that work but it seem that when i try to call a method where i need to pass parameters and it need to execute code it wont work and just return my error message. any ideas on what can be wrong. am I using the wrong web method?

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