Search Results

Search found 14074 results on 563 pages for 'programmers'.

Page 14/563 | < Previous Page | 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21  | Next Page >

  • Estimating cost of labor for a controlled experiment

    - by Lorin Hochstein
    Let's say you are a software engineering researcher and you are designing a controlled experiment to compare two software technologies or techniques (e.g., TDD vs. non-TDD, Python vs. Go) with respect to some qualities of interest (e.g., quality of resulting code, programmer productivity). According to your study design, participants will work alone to implement a non-trivial software system. You estimate it should take about six months for a single programmer to complete the task. You also estimate via power analysis that you will need around sixty study participants to obtain statistically significant results, assuming the technologies actually do yield different outcomes. To maximize external validity, you want to use professional programmers as study participants. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to find professional programmers who can volunteer for several months to work full-time on implementing a software system. You decide to go the simplest route and contract with a large IT consulting firm to obtain access to programmers to participate in the study. What is a reasonable estimate of the cost range, per person-month, for the programming labor? Assume you are constrained to work with a U.S.-based firm, but it doesn't matter where in the U.S. the firm itself or the programmers or located. Note: I'm looking for a reasonable order-of-magnitude range suitable for back-of-the-envelope calculations so that when people say "Why doesn't somebody just do a study to measure X", I can say, "Because running that study properly would cost $Y", and have a reasonable argument for the value of $Y.

    Read the article

  • How to search for a tester?

    - by MainMa
    As a freelance developer, a few times I tried to find some testers to be able to let them test my software/web applications. If I try to find them, it's because most of the customers are not intended to hire external testers and don't see why this can benefit to them, so products are UI-untested and buggy. I tried lots of things. Discussion boards for IT people, specific websites for people who search for a job. Every time I clearly precise that I'm looking for product testers. I completely failed to find anybody for this job. I found instead two types of people: Non IT people who try to qualify as testers, but don't have enough skills for that, and don't really know what testing is and how to do it, Programmers, who are skilled as programmers, but not as testers, and who mostly don't understand neither what testing is about (or think it's the same thing as code review, or it consists in writing unit tests). Of course, they submit general programmers resumes, where they describe their high experience in Assembler and C++, but don't tell anything about anything related to the job of a tester. What I'm doing wrong? Isn't it called "tester"? Is there at least a tester job, different from general programming job? Is there any precise requirement to require from each candidate which can eliminate non IT people and general programmers?

    Read the article

  • What is the correlation between programming language and experience/skills of their users?

    - by Petr Pudlák
    I'm sure there is such a correlation, because experience and skill leads good programmers to picking languages that are better for them, in which they're more productive, and working in a language forms how programmers think and influences their methods and skills. Is there any research or some statistical data of this phenomenon? Perhaps this is not a purely academic question. For example, if someone is starting a new project, it could be worth considering a language (among other criteria of course) for which there is a higher chance of finding or attracting experienced programmers. Update: Please don't fixate on the last paragraph. It's not my intention to choose a language based on this criterion, and I know there are other far more important ones. My interested is mostly academic. It comes from the (subjective) observation and I wonder if someone has researched it a bit. Also, I'm talking about a correlation, not about a rule. Sure there are both great and terrible programmers in every language. Just that in general it seems to me there is a correlation.

    Read the article

  • Should BASIC continue to be recommended for non-programmers and beginners?

    - by Casey
    I just came across a new BASIC implementation for Google Android application called Simple. You can read about it here: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/07/programming-made-simple.html Clearly, a lot of time and effort has been recently put into enabling this functionality for Android. Should the software industry continue to encourage non-programmers into learning BASIC, or are modern languages like C#, Python, Ruby more appropriate at this time?

    Read the article

  • For what reasons do some programmers vehemently hate languages where whitespace matters (e.g. Python

    - by Maulrus
    C++ is my first language, and as such I'm used to whitespace being ignored. However, I've been toying around with Python, and I don't find it too hard to get used to the whitespace rules. It seems, however, that a lot of programmers on the Internet can't get past the whitespace rules. From what I've seen, peoples' C++ programs tend to be formatted very consistently with respect to whitespace (or else it's pretty hard to read), so why do some people have such a problem with whitespace-based languages like Python?

    Read the article

  • Why do programmers sometimes refer to "C++/STL" like it's a separate language?

    - by BillyONeal
    This may seem a trivial question, but it's one that's bothered me a lot lately. Why do some programmers refer to "C++/STL" like it's a different language? The STL is part of the C++ standard library -- and therefore is part of the language, "C++". It's not a separate component, and it does not live alone in the scope of things C++. Yet some continually act like it's a different language altogether. Why?

    Read the article

  • How much time do PHP/Python/Ruby *programmers* spend on CSS?

    - by gavin
    Not sure about you guys, but I detest working in CSS. Not that it is a bad language/markup, don't get me wrong. I just hate spending hours figuring out how to get 5 pixels to show on every browser, and getting fonts to look like a PSD counterpart. So a question (or two) for programmers out there. How much time (%) do you spend on web markup? Do you tend to do this type of tweaking, or do your designers?

    Read the article

  • Should the Joel Test be essential for every software company? [closed]

    - by Mahbubur R Aaman
    Joel Test has 12 steps for better code. They are: Do you use source control? Can you make a build in one step? Do you make daily builds? Do you have a bug database? Do you fix bugs before writing new code? Do you have an up-to-date schedule? Do you have a spec? Do programmers have quiet working conditions? Do you use the best tools money can buy? Do you have testers? Do new candidates write code during their interview? Do you do hallway usability testing? Should these steps mandatory for every software companies? While recruiting programmers, then programmers should ask the company, as they follow joel steps?

    Read the article

  • Is the slow performance of programming languages a bad thing?

    - by Emanuil
    Here's how I see it. There's machine code and it's all that the computers needs in order to run something. The computers don't care about programming languages. It doesn't matter to them if the machine code comes from Perl, Python or PHP. Programming languages exist to serve programmers. Some programming languages run slower than others but that's not necessarily because there is something wrong with them. In many cases it's just because they do more things that otherwise programmers would have to do and by doing these things, they do better what they are supposed to do - serve programmers. So is the slower performance (at runtime) of a programming language really a bad thing?

    Read the article

  • Can you be a web and desktop developer at the same time?

    - by Charmop
    In my environment, I found web programmers, desktop programmers and both web and desktop programmers. About myself I started my career with desktop development using C and then Java, did couple of simple level projects. Then at the final graduating year, my project was a web one, so I turned to web development until this moment. But, when I meet people having chosen to be web or software developers from the beginning, I figure out that they have more knowledge/experience than I have. So I get kind of regret why didn't I specialize my self from the first day? The question is: Is it a good habit to work at two, more or less, different fields: web and desktop? Or we must specialize ourselves?

    Read the article

  • Should a programmer take writing lessons to enhance code expressiveness?

    - by Jose Faeti
    Given that programmers are authors and write code to express abstract thoughts and concepts, and good code should be read by other programmers without difficulties and misunderstandings, should a programmer take writing lessons to write better code? Abstracting concepts and real world problems/entities is an important part of writing good code, and a good mastery of the language used for coding should allow the programmer to express his thoughts more easily, or in a better way. Besides, when trying to write or rewrite some code to make it better, much time can be spent in deciding the names for functions, variables or data structures. I think this could also help to avoid writing code with more than one meaning, often cause of misunderstanding between different programmers. Code should always express clearly its function unambiguously.

    Read the article

  • How can programming ability be used to help people in poverty?

    - by Matthew
    As a student studying Computer Science in college, I often hear from friends working on various humanitarian projects, and I want to do something myself. But it seems that programmers don't have as many obvious avenues to help out as, say, doctors or teachers. What are some ways in which programmers can put their talent to use for people in poverty. Disclaimer: I am not saying that programmers have some obligation to do this, merely that I want to. I apologize if this question is too subjective for this site--I am marking it community wiki just in case (edit: I can't figure out how to mark this as community wiki. Can someone help me out?).

    Read the article

  • Is slower performance, of programming languages, really, a bad thing?

    - by Emanuil
    Here's how I see it. There's machine code and it's all that computers needs in order to run something. Computers don't care about programming languages. It doesn't matter to them whether the machine code comes from Perl, Python or PHP. Programming languages don't serve computers. They serve programmers. Some programming languages run slower than others but that's not necessarily because there is something wrong with them. In many cases, it's because they do more things that programmers would otherwise have to do (i.e. memory management) and by doing these things, they are better in what they are supposed to do - serve programmers. So, is slower performance, of programming languages, really, a bad thing?

    Read the article

  • Why are slower programming languages considered worse than faster ones?

    - by Emanuil
    Here's how I see it. There's machine code and it's all that the computers needs in order to run something. The computers don't care about programming languages. It doesn't matter to them if the machine code comes from Perl, Python or PHP. Programming languages exist to serve programmers. Some programming languages run slower then others but that's not because there is something wrong with them. It's often because they do more things that otherwise programmers would do and by doing these things, they do better what they are supposed to do - serve programmers. So why are slower programming languages considered worse than faster ones?

    Read the article

  • The cost of Programmer Team Clustering

    - by MarkPearl
    I recently was involved in a conversation about the productivity of programmers and the seemingly wide range in abilities that different programmers have in this industry. Some of the comments made were reiterated a few days later when I came across a chapter in Code Complete (v2) where it says "In programming specifically, many studies have shown order-of-magnitude differences in the quality of the programs written, the sizes of the programs written, and the productivity of programmers". In line with this is another comment presented by Code Complete when discussing teams - "Good programmers tend to cluster, as do bad programmers". This is something I can personally relate to. I have come across some really good and bad programmers and 99% of the time it turns out the team they work in is the same - really good or really bad. When I have found a mismatch, it hasn't stayed that way for long - the person has moved on, or the team has ejected the individual. Keeping this in mind I would like to comment on the risks an organization faces when forcing teams to remain together regardless of the mix. When you have the situation where someone is not willing to be part of the team but still wants to get a pay check at the end of each month, it presents some interesting challenges and hard decisions to make. First of all, when this occurs you need to give them an opportunity to change - for someone to change, they need to know what the problem is and what is expected. It is unreasonable to expect someone to change but have not indicated what they need to change and the consequences of not changing. If after a reasonable time of an individual being aware of the problem and not making an effort to improve you need to do two things... Follow through with the consequences of not changing. Consider the impact that this behaviour will have on the rest of the team. What is the cost of not following through with the consequences? If there is no follow through, it is often an indication to the individual that they can continue their behaviour. Why should they change if you don't care enough to keep your end of the agreement? In many ways I think it is very similar to the "Broken Windows" principles – if you allow the windows to break and don’t fix them, more will get broken. What is the cost of keeping them on? When keeping a disruptive influence in a team you risk loosing the good in the team. As Code Complete says, good and bad programmers tend to cluster - they have a tendency to keep this balance - if you are not going to help keep the balance they will. The cost of not removing a disruptive influence is that the good in the team will eventually help you maintain the clustering themselves by leaving.

    Read the article

  • Tools to test softwares against any attacks for programmers ?

    - by berkay
    in these days, i'm interested in software security. As i'm reading papers i see that there are many attacks and researchers are trying to invent new methods for softwares to get more secure systems. this question can be a general including all types of attacks.There are many experienced programmers in SO, i just want to learn what are using to check your code against these attacks ? Is there any tools you use or you don't care ? For example i heard about,static,dynamic code analysis, fuzz testing. SQL injection attacks Cross Site Scripting Bufferoverflow attacks Logic errors Any kind of Malwares Covert Channels ... ... thanks

    Read the article

  • Is there a HIPAA certification that would be helpful to programmers?

    - by Aequitarum Custos
    I work at a Medical Billing company that's software handles many facets of the centers practice, including patients, treatments, etc. To be frank, the only thing I know about HIPAA is security is paramount. I was wondering if there were any training courses with an earned certification proving knowledge/experience that I could use to increase my worth to the company, and give them a selling point (we have HIPAA certified employees). I did a Google search and found this site, but it does not appear legitimate, and I'm trying to avoid any of those fake certification/degree sites. Does anyone know of any recognized and legitimate (preferably government sponsored) HIPAA certifications useful to programmers? If state is a factor, I live in Oklahoma.

    Read the article

  • How to hide Thinking at Work so that the Non-Programmers don't suspect Slacking?

    - by stesch
    Better programmers than me can write in essays about walking around with a coffee mug and call it programming. And it's perfectly accepted at a place that knows the business. Or see what Gregory House (TV show "House M.D.") does when he is thinking. But what about the other places where you are the only programmer? If you don't stare at boring stuff on the monitor for 8 hours straight, co-workers suspect you being a slacker. Yes, not the managers who see the output. Only the co-workers who see the process and can't relate to this kind of work. Yesterday I had to explain to a trainee of some other profession that software development is like flying. The explanation from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I don't think she bought it.

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21  | Next Page >