Search Results

Search found 5183 results on 208 pages for 'programmer skills'.

Page 183/208 | < Previous Page | 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190  | Next Page >

• Git as mercurial client? Why no git-hg?

  - by aapeli

  This is a question that's been bothering me for a while. I've done my homework and checked stackoverflow and found at least these two topics about my question: Git for Mercurial like git-svn and Git interoperability with a Mercurial repository I've done some serious googling to solve this issue, but so far with no luck. I've also read the Git Internals book, and the Mercurial Definitive Behind the Scenes to try to figure this out. I'm still a bit puzzled why I haven't been able to find any suitable git-hg type of a tool. From my perspective hg-svn is one of the main features, why I've chosen to use git over mercurial also at work. It allows me to use a workflow I like, and nobody else needs to bother, if they don't care. I just don't see the point in using the intermediate hg repo to convert back and forth, as suggested in one of the chains. So anyway, from what I've read hg and git seem very similar in conceptual design. There are differences under the hood, but none of those should prevent creating a git client for hg. As it seems to me, remote tracking branches and octopus merges make git even more powerful than hg is. So, the real question, is there any real reason why git-hg does not exist (or at least is very hard to find)? Is there some animosity from git users (and developers) towards their hg counterparts that has caused the lack of the git-hg tool? Do any of you have any plans to develop something like this, and go public with it? I could volunteer (although with very feeble C-skills) to participate to get this done. I just don't possess the full knowledge to start this up myself. Could this be the tool to end all DVCS wars for good?

  Read the article

• Python/Sqlite program, write as browser app or desktop app?

  - by ChrisC

  I am in the planning stages of rewriting an Access db I wrote several years ago in a full fledged program. I have very slight experience coding, but not enough to call myself a programmer by far. I'll definitely be learning as I go, so I'd like to keep everything as simple as possible. I've decided on Python and SQLite for my program, but I need help on my next decision. Here is my situation 1) It'll be a desktop program, run locally on each machine, all Windows 2) I would really like a nice looking GUI with colors, nice screens, menus, lists, etc, 3) I'm thinking about using a browser interface because (a) from what I've read, browser apps can look really great, and (b) I understand there are lots of free tools to assist in setting up the GUI/GUI code with drag and drop tools, so that helps my "keep it simple" goal. 4) I want the program to be totally portable so it runs completely from one single folder on a user's PC, with no installation(s) needed for it to run (If I did it as a browser app, isn't there the possibility that a user's browser settings could affect or break the app. How likely is this?) For my situation, should I make it a desktop app or browser app?

  Read the article

• Analyzing Web Application Speed

  - by Amy

  I'm a bit confused because the logical/programmer brain in me says that if all things are constant, the speed of a function must be constant. I am working on a PHP web application with jqGrid as a front end for showing the data. I am testing on my personal computer, so network traffic does not apply. I make an HTTP request to a PHP function, it returns the data, and then jqGrid renders it. What has me befuddled is that sometimes, Firebug reports that this is taking 300-600 milliseconds sometimes, and sometimes, it's taking 3.68 seconds. I can run the request over and over again, with very radically different response times. The query is the same. The number of users on the system is the same. No network latency. Same code. I'm not running other applications on the computer while testing. I could understand query caching improving performance on subsequent requests, but the speed is just fluctuating wildly with no rhyme or reason. So, my question is, what else can cause such variability in the response time? How can I determine what's doing it? More importantly, is there any way to get things more consistent?

  Read the article

• How do I use a variable within an extended class public variable

  - by Gerry Humphrey

  Have a class that I am using, I am overriding variables in the class to change them to what values I need, but I also not sure if or how to handle an issue. I need to add a key that is generated to each of this URLs before the class calls them. I cannot modify the class file itself. use Theme/Ride class ETicket extends Ride { public $key='US20120303'; // Not in original class public $accessURL1 = 'http://domain.com/keycheck.php?key='.$key; public $accessURL2 = 'http://domain.com/keycheck.php?key='.$key; } I understand that you cannot use a variable in the setting of the public class variables. Just not sure what would be the way to actually do something like this in the proper format. My OOP skills are weak. I admit it. So if someone has a suggestion on where I could read up on it and get a clue, it would be appreciated as well. I guess I need OOP for Dummies. =/

  Read the article

• are projects with high developer turn over rate really a bad thing?

  - by John

  I've inherited a lot of web projects that experienced high developer turn over rates. Sometimes these web projects are a horrible patchwork of band aid solutions. Other times they can be somewhat maintainable mozaics of half-done features each built with a different architectural style. Everytime I inherit these projects, I wish the previous developers could explain to me why things got so bad. What puzzles me is the reaction of the owners (either a manager, a middle man company, or a client). They seem to think, "Well, if you leave, I'll just find another developer." Or they think, "Oh, it costs that much money to refactor the system? I know another developer who can do it at half the price. I'll hire him if I can't afford you." I'm guessing that the high developer turn over rate is related to the owner's mentality of "If you think it's a bad idea to build this, I'll just find another (possibly cheaper) developer to do what I want". For the owners, the approach seems to work because their business is thriving. Unfortunately, it's no fun for the developers that go AWOL 3-4 months after working with poor code, strict timelines, and little feedback. So my question is the following: Are the following symptoms of a project really such a bad thing for business? high developer turn over rate poorly built technology - often a patchwork of different and inappropriately used architectural styles owners without a clear roadmap for their web project, and they request features on a whim I've seen numerous businesses prosper while experiencing the symptoms above. So as a programmer, even though my instincts tell me the above points are terrible, I'm forced to take a step back and ask, "are things really that bad in the grand scheme of things?" If not, I will re-evaluate my approach to these projects.

  Read the article

• How do I send text to a UITextView?

  - by Lee

  I'm new to iphone development. I'm a VB programmer who is trying to convert a VB application to an ipad app. I need some help with sending text to a UITextView. I want to first have a UIPickerView and then once the user hits a UIButton, a UITextView appears and the text is then generated by my source code code, line by line. The code would constantly be concatenating strings to the text. It would sort of go like this-- 1) User makes selections with UIPickerView. 2) User then hits UIButton. 3) UIPickerView is replaced on the screen with a UITextView. 4) The code does stuff. 5) The code adds the 1st line of text into the UITextView. 6) The code does more stuff. 7) The code then adds the 2nd line of text into the UITextView, retaining the 1st line that was already there. Steps 6 and 7 are repeated until the code is done. Does anyone know of any examples of this that I could look at? I am mostly interested in finding something like a youtube video, a webpage that explains the code or even a good book that covers this particular topic. I am finding that the sample codes that Apple has on this site goes over my head. In fact, I could probably benefit from a good book. But, I am looking for one that I would already know covers this particular topic, since it is so essential to the app that I am trying to build.

  Read the article

• How do I store a string longer than 4000 characters in an Oracle Database using Java/JDBC?

  - by Ventrue

  I’m not sure how to use Java/JDBC to insert a very long string into an Oracle database. I have a String which is greater than 4000 characters, lets say it’s 6000. I want to take this string and store it in an Oracle database. The way to do this seems to be with the CLOB datatype. Okay, so I declared the column as description CLOB. Now, when it comes time to actually insert the data, I have a prepared statement pstmt. It looks like pstmt = conn.prepareStatement(“INSERT INTO Table VALUES(?)”). So I want to use the method pstmt.setClob(). However, I don’t know how to create a Clob object with my String in it; there’s no constructor (presumably because it can be potentially much larger than available memory). How do I put my String into a Clob? Keep in mind I’m not a very experienced programmer; please try to keep the explanations as simple as possible. Efficiency, good practices, etc. are not a concern here, I just want the absolute easiest solution. I’d like to avoid downloading other packages if it all possible; right now I’m just using JDK 1.4 and what is labelled “ojdbc14.jar”. I've looked around a bit but I haven't been able to follow any of the explanations I've found. If you have a solution that doesn’t use Clobs, I’d be open to that as well, but it has to be one column.

  Read the article

• how often should the entire suite of a system's unit tests be run?

  - by gerryLowry

  Generally, I'm still very much a unit testing neophyte. BTW, you may also see this question on other forums like xUnit.net, et cetera, because it's an important question to me. I apoligize in advance for my cross posting; your opinions are very important to me and not everyone in this forum belongs to the other forums too. I was looking at a large decade old legacy system which has had over 700 unit tests written recently (700 is just a small beginning). The tests happen to be written in MSTest but this question applies to all testing frameworks AFAIK. When I ran, via vs2008 "ALL TESTS", the final count was only seven tests. That's about 1% of the total tests that have been written to date. MORE INFORMATION: The ASP.NET MVC 2 RTM source code, including its unit tests, is available on CodePlex; those unit tests are also written in MSTest even though (an irrelevant fact) Brad Wilson later joined the ASP.NET MVC team as its Senior Programmer. All 2000 plus tests get run, not just a few. QUESTION: given that AFAIK the purpose of unit tests is to identify breakages in the SUT, am I correct in thinking that the "best practice" is to always, or at least very frequently, run all of the tests? Thank you. Regards, Gerry (Lowry)

  Read the article

• questions about using svn

  - by ajsie

  i have set up a svn repository in a remote ubuntu server using webdav (http://ip/svn). but i have some questions: should i create one svn repository for each project folder? so i should use "svnadmin create" 5 times for 5 projects? or should i import them to seperate folders in the svn repository? should i after i have created a svn repo, import one project folder into it with "svn import" and then DELETE my original local folder thus only having it in the svn repo in the remote ubuntu server? is this safe or should i still have a local copy for some reason (cause i wont work in that one)? i use netbeans to check out projects from svn repo, then i edit the files and commit the changes. but how should i do to update the live web server content (in /var/www)? should i in my ubuntu server use "svn checkout" and check it out to /var/www or should i use netbeans to check out to a local folder and then upload the files to /var/www with ftp or webdav (and which one of them should i use)? so i got a svn repo and lets say 4 programmers are working with it, checking out and commiting. how do i check what is happening in the repo, which one made which changes, and all the changes from day 1 to day 213? does netbeans/eclipse letting me see this kind of information or do i download another application for it? i should have one svn user for each programmer in the ubuntu server? is this accomplished by using "htpasswd" 4 times for 4 programmers? how do i couple all these users to same group so that i could modify file access specific for the svn group and all its members?

  Read the article

• ruby/datamapper: Refactor class methods to module

  - by DeSchleib

  Hello, i've the following code and tried the whole day to refactor the class methods to a sperate module to share the functionality with all of my model classes. Code (http://pastie.org/974847): class Merchant include DataMapper::Resource property :id, Serial [...] class << self @allowed_properties = [:id,:vendor_id, :identifier] alias_method :old_get, :get def get *args [...] end def first_or_create_or_update attr_hash [...] end end end I'd like to archive something like: class Merchant include DataMapper::Resource include MyClassFunctions [...] end module MyClassFunctions def get [...] def first_or_create_or_update[...] end => Merchant.allowed_properties = [:id] => Merchant.get( :id=> 1 ) But unfortunately, my ruby skills are to bad. I read a lot of stuff (e.g. here) and now i'm even more confused. I stumbled over the following two points: alias_method will fail, because it will dynamically defined in the DataMapper::Resource module. How to get a class method allowed_properties due including a module? What's the ruby way to go? Many thanks in advance.

  Read the article

• How do I tell if an action is a lambda expression?

  - by Keith

  I am using the EventAgregator pattern to subscribe and publish events. If a user subscribes to the event using a lambda expression, they must use a strong reference, not a weak reference, otherwise the expression can be garbage collected before the publish will execute. I wanted to add a simple check in the DelegateReference so that if a programmer passes in a lambda expression and is using a weak reference, that I throw an argument exception. This is to help "police" the code. Example: eventAggregator.GetEvent<RuleScheduler.JobExecutedEvent>().Subscribe ( e => resetEvent.Set(), ThreadOption.PublisherThread, false, // filter event, only interested in the job that this object started e => e.Value1.JobDetail.Name == jobName ); public DelegateReference(Delegate @delegate, bool keepReferenceAlive) { if (@delegate == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("delegate"); if (keepReferenceAlive) { this._delegate = @delegate; } else { //TODO: throw exception if target is a lambda expression _weakReference = new WeakReference(@delegate.Target); _method = @delegate.Method; _delegateType = @delegate.GetType(); } } any ideas? I thought I could check for @delegate.Method.IsStatic but I don't believe that works... (is every lambda expression a static?)

  Read the article

• Need some help with a MySQL subquery count

  - by Ferdy

  I'm running into my own limits of MySQL query skills, so I hope some SQL guru can help out on this one. The situation is as follow: I have images that can be tagged. As you might expect this is stored in three tables: Image Tag Tag_map (maps images to tags) I have a SQL query that calculates the related tags based on a tag id. The query basically checks what other tags were used for images for images using that tag. Example: Image1 tagged as "Bear" Image2 tagged as "Bear" and "Canada" If I throw "Bear" (or its tag id) at the query, it will return "Canada". This works fine. Here's the query: SELECT tag.name, tag.id, COUNT(tag_map.id) as cnt FROM tag_map,tag WHERE tag_map.tag_id = tag.id AND tag.id != '185' AND tag_map.image_id IN (SELECT tag_map.image_id FROM tag_map INNER JOIN tag ON tag_map.tag_id = tag.id WHERE tag.id = '185') GROUP BY tag_map.id LIMIT 0,100 The part I'm stuck with is the count. For each related tag returned, I want to know how many images are in that tag. Currently it always returns 1, even if there are for example 3. I've tried counting different columns all resulting in the same output, so I guess there is a flaw in my thinking.

  Read the article

• What does this structure actually do?

  - by LGTrader

  I found this structure code in a Julia Set example from a book on CUDA. I'm a newbie C programmer and cannot get my head around what it's doing, nor have I found the right thing to read on the web to clear it up. Here's the structure: struct cuComplex { float r; float i; cuComplex( float a, float b ) : r(a), i(b) {} float magnitude2( void ) { return r * r + i * i; } cuComplex operator*(const cuComplex& a) { return cuComplex(r*a.r - i*a.i, i*a.r + r*a.i); } cuComplex operator+(const cuComplex& a) { return cuComplex(r+a.r, i+a.i); } }; and it's called very simply like this: cuComplex c(-0.8, 0.156); cuComplex a(jx, jy); int i = 0; for (i=0; i<200; i++) { a = a * a + c; if (a.magnitude2() > 1000) return 0; } return 1; So, the code did what? Defined something of structure type 'cuComplex' giving the real and imaginary parts of a number. (-0.8 & 0.156) What is getting returned? (Or placed in the structure?) How do I work through the logic of the operator stuff in the struct to understand what is actually calculated and held there? I think that it's probably doing recursive calls back into the stucture float magnitude2 (void) { return return r * r + i * i; } probably calls the '*' operator for r and again for i, and then the results of those two operations call the '+' operator? Is this correct and what gets returned at each step? Just plain confused. Thanks!

  Read the article

• Toggling between instances of NiftyPlayer on a page - won't stop playing when hidden on IE

  - by Ashley

  Hi, i've got a page with links to MP3s, when the link is clicked I use javascript to show a small Flash player (NiftyPlayer) under the link. When a different link is clicked, the old player is hidden and the new player is revealed. The player auto-starts when the element is shown, and auto-stops when hidden - in Firefox. In IE it will only auto-start and NOT auto-stop. This is what I would like to solve. This is an example HTML with link and player <a href="Beat The Radar - Misunderstood What You Said.mp3" onclick="toggle_visibility('player662431');return false;" class="mp3caption">Misunderstood What You Said</a> <div id="player662431" class="playerhide"><embed src="http://www.xxx.com/shop/flash/player.swf?file=/mp3/Beat The Radar - Misunderstood What You Said.mp3&as=1" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" width="161" height="13" name="niftyPlayer662431" align="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed> Here is the javascript (i've got jquery installed to let me hide all the open players on this page apart from the new one) function toggle_visibility(id) { $('.playerhide').hide(); var e = document.getElementById(id); e.style.display = 'block'; } I think what I need to do is start the player manually with javascript (rather than using the autostart as=1 function in the URL string) There is some javascript that comes with NiftyPlayer to allow this EG niftyplayer('niftyPlayer1').play() there is also a stop method. I need some help with javascript - how do I add this call to play into my toggle_visibility function (it has the same unique ID number added to the name of the player as the ID of the div that's being shown, but I don't know how to pull this ID number out of one thing and put it in another) I also would like to be able to do niftyplayer('niftyPlayer1').stop() to stop the audio of the previously running player. Is it possible to store the current ID number somewhere and call it back when needed? Thanks for the help, i'm a PHP programmer who needs some support with Javascript - I know what I want to achieve, just don't know the commands to do it! Thanks

  Read the article

• what makes a Tomcat5.5 cannot be "aware" of new Java Web Applications?

  - by Michael Mao

  This is for uni homework, but I reckon it is more a generic problem to the Tomcat Server(version 5.5.27) on my uni. The problem is, I first did a skeleton Java Web Application (Just a simple Servlet and a welcome-file, nothing complicated, no lib included) using NetBeans 6.8 with the bundled Tomcat 6.0.20 (localhost:8084/WSD) Then, to test and prove it is "portable" and "auto-deploy-able", I cleaned and built a WSD.war file and dropped it onto my Xampp Tomcat (localhost:8080/WSD). The war extracted everything accordingly and I can see identical output from this Tomcat. So far, so good. However, after I tried to drop to war onto uni server, funny thing happens: uni server Even though I've changed the war permission to 755, it is simply not "responding". I then copied the extracted files to uni server, the MainServlet cannot be recognized from within its Context Path "/WSD", basically nothing works, expect the static index.jsp. I tried several times to stop and restart uni Tomcat, it doesn't help? I wonder what makes this happen? Is there anything I did wrong with my approach? To be frank I paid no attention to a server not under my control, and I am unfortunately not a real active day-to-day Java Programmer now. I understand the fundamentals of MVC, Servelets, JSPs, JavaBeans, but I really feel frustrated by this, as I cannot see why... Or, should I ask, a Java Web Application, after cleaned and built by NetBeans6.8, is self-contained and self-configured so ready to be deployed to any Java Web Container? I know, I can certainly program everything in plain old JSP, but this is soooo... unacceptable to myself... Update : I am now wondering if there is any free Tomcat Hosting so that I would like to see if my war file and/or my web app can go with them without any configuration at all?

  Read the article

• Interface for reading variable length files with header and footer.

  - by John S

  I could use some hints or tips for a decent interface for reading file of special characteristics. The files in question has a header (~120 bytes), a body (1 byte - 3gb) and a footer (4 bytes). The header contains information about the body and the footer is only a simple CRC32-value of the body. I use Java so my idea was to extend the "InputStream" class and add a constructor such as "public MyInStream( InputStream in)" where I immediately read the header and the direct the overridden read()'s the body. Problem is, I can't give the user of the class the CRC32-value until the whole body has been read. Because the file can be 3gb large, putting it all in memory is a be an idea. Reading it all in to a temporary file is going to be a performance hit if there are many small files. I don't know how large the file is because the InputStream doesn't have to be a file, it could be a socket. Looking at it again, maybe extending InputStream is a bad idea. Thank you for reading the confused thoughts of a tired programmer. :)

  Read the article

• Increment non unique field during SQL insert

  - by phill

  I'm not sure how to word this cause I am a little confused at the moment, so bare with me while I attempt to explain, I have a table with the following fields: OrderLineID, OrderID, OrderLine, and a few other unimportant ones. OrderLineID is the primary key and is always unique(which isn't a problem), OrderID is a foreign key that isn't unique(also not a problem), and OrderLine is a value that is not unique in the table, but should be unique for any OrderIDs that are the same...so if that didn't make sense, perhaps a picture OrderLineID, OrderID, OrderLine 1 1 1 2 1 2 3 1 3 4 2 1 5 2 2 For all OrderIDs there is a unique OrderLine. I am trying to create an insert statement that gets the max OrderLine value for a specific OrderId so I can increment it, but it's not working so well and I could use a little help. What I have right now is below, I build the sql statement in a program and replace OrderID # with an actual value. I am pretty sure the problem is with the nested select statement, and incrementing the result, but I can't find any examples that do this since my google skills are weak apparently.... INSERT INTO tblOrderLine (OrderID, OrderLine) VALUES (<OrderID #>, (SELECT MAX(OrderLine) FROM tblOrderLine WHERE orderID = <same OrderID #>)+1) any help would be nice.

  Read the article

• How to determine the size of a project (lines of code, function points, other)

  - by sixtyfootersdude

  How would you evaluate project size? Part A: Before you start a project. Part B: For a complete project. I am interested in comparing unrelated projects. Here are some options: 1) Lines of code. I know that this is not a good metric of productivity but is this a reasonable measure of project size? If I wanted to estimate how long it would take to recreate a project would this be a reasonable way to do it? How many lines of code should I estimate a day? 2) Function Points. Functions points are defined as the number of: inputs outputs inquires internal files external interfaces Anyone have a veiw point on whether this is a good measure? Is there a way to **actually do this? Does anyone have another solution? Hours taken seems like it could be a useful metric but not solely. If I ask you what is a "bigger program" and give you two programs how would you approach the question? I have seen several discussions of this on stackover flow but most discuss how to measure programmer productivity. I am more interested in project size.

  Read the article

• Wrappers of primitive types in arraylist vs arrays

  - by ismail marmoush

  Hi, In "Core java 1" I've read CAUTION: An ArrayList is far less efficient than an int[] array because each value is separately wrapped inside an object. You would only want to use this construct for small collections when programmer convenience is more important than efficiency. But in my software I've already used Arraylist instead of normal arrays due to some requirements, though "The software is supposed to have high performance and after I've read the quoted text I started to panic!" one thing I can change is changing double variables to Double so as to prevent auto boxing and I don't know if that is worth it or not, in next sample algorithm public void multiply(final double val) { final int rows = getSize1(); final int cols = getSize2(); for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++) { for (int j = 0; j < cols; j++) { this.get(i).set(j, this.get(i).get(j) * val); } } } My question is does changing double to Double makes a difference ? or that's a micro optimizing that won't affect anything ? keep in mind I might be using large matrices.2nd Should I consider redesigning the whole program again ?

  Read the article

• Help with SQL Query

  - by djfrear

  With regards to the following statement: Select * From explorer.booking_record booking_record_ Inner Join explorer.client client_ On booking_record_.labelno = client_.labelno Inner Join explorer.tour_hotel tour_hotel_ On tour_hotel_.tourcode = booking_record_.tourrefcode Inner Join explorer.hotelrecord hotelrecord_ On tour_hotel_.hotelcode = hotelrecord_.hotelref Where booking_record_.bookingdate Not Like '0000-00-00' And booking_record_.tourdeparturedate Not Like '0000-00-00' And hotelrecord_.hotelgroup = "LPL" And Year(booking_record_.tourdeparturedate) Between Year(AddDate(Now(), Interval -5 Year)) And Year(Now()) My MySQL skills are certainly not up to scratch, the actual result set I wish to find is "a customer who has been to 5 or more LPL hotels in the past 5 years". So far I havent got as far as dealing with the count as I'm getting a huge number of results with some 250+ per customer. I assume this is to do with the way I'm joining tables. Schema wise the booking_record table contains a tour reference code, which links to tour_hotel which then contains a hotelcode which links to hotelrecord. This hotelrecord table contains the hotelgroup. The client table is joined to the booking_record via a booking reference and a client may have many bookings. If anyone could suggest a way for me to do this I'd be very grateful and hopefully learn enough to do it myself next time! I've been scratching my head over this one for a few hours now! Customers may have many bookings within booking_record Daniel.

  Read the article

• How can I tackle 'profoundly found elsewhere' syndrome (inverse of NIH)?

  - by Alistair Knock

  How can I encourage colleagues to embrace small-scale innovation within our team(s), in order to get things done quicker and to encourage skills development? (the term 'profoundly found elsewhere' comes from Wikipedia, although it is scarcely used anywhere else apart from a reference to Proctor & Gamble) I've worked in both environments where there is a strong opposition to software which hasn't been developed in-house (usually because there's a large community of developers), and more recently (with far fewer central developers) where off-the-shelf products are far more favoured for the usual reasons: maintenance, total cost over product lifecycle, risk management and so on. I think the off the shelf argument works in the majority of cases for the majority of users, even though as a developer the product never quite does what I'd like it to do. However, in some cases there are clear gaps where the market isn't able to provide specifically what we would need, or at least it isn't able to without charging astronomical consultancy rates for a bespoke solution. These can be small web applications which provide a short-term solution to a particular need in one specific department, or could be larger developments that have the potential to serve a wider audience, both across the organisation and into external markets. The problem is that while development of these applications would be incredibly cheap in terms of developer hours, and delivered very quickly without the need for glacial consultation, the proposal usually falls flat because of risk: 'Who'll maintain the project tracker that hasn't had any maintenance for the past 7 years while you're on holiday for 2 weeks?' 'What if one of our systems changes and the connector breaks?' 'How can you guarantee it's secure/better/faster/cheaper/holier than Company X's?' With one developer behind these little projects, the answers are invariably: 'Nobody, but...' 'It will break, just like any other application would...' 'I, uh...' How can I better answer these questions and encourage people to take a little risk in order to stimulate creativity and fast-paced, short-lifecycle development instead of using that 6 months to consult about what tender process we might use?

  Read the article

• Technology Plan - Which tools should I use?

  - by Armadillo

  Hi, Soon, I'll start my own software company. My primary product/solution will be a Billing/Invoice Software. In a near future, I pretend to expand this first module to an ERP. My app should be able to run as a stand-alone application and as a Web-based application (so there will be, probably two GUI for the same Database). My problem, now, is to choose the right tools; I'm talking about what programming language(s) should I use, what kind of database should I choose, and stuff like that. I'm primarily a VB6 programmer, so probably I'll choose the .net framework (vb/c#). But I'm seriously thinking about Java. Java has 2 "pros" that I really like: write once, run anywhere and it is free (I think...). I've been thinking about RIAs too, but I just don't have any substantial feedback about them... Then, I'll need a report tool. Crystal Reports? HTML based Reports? Other? Databases: I'm not sure if I should use SQL-Server Express or PostgreSQL (or other). I'd be happy to hear any comments and advices Thanks

  Read the article

• SQL string manipulation to return multiple rows

  - by Andy Jacobs

  I'm an experienced programmer, but relatively new to SQL. We're using Oracle 10 and 11. I have a system in place using SQL that combines actual rows with virtual rows (e.g. "SELECT 1 from DUAL") doing unions and intersects as needed, which all seems to work. My problem is that I need to combine this system which is expecting rows of data, with new data that will have the data in (let's say for simplification) comma delimited strings. So I think what I need is a way to convert a string like: "5,6,7,8" into 4 rows with one column each, with "5" in the first row, "6" in the second, etc. In other languages, I'd do a "Split" with comma as the delimiter. Of course, the data won't always have 4 entries. There's a second question, but I'll ask it separately. But I suspect it will simplify things, if possible, if the solution to the above could be used as a table in another SQL statement (i.e., to work with my existing system). Thanks for any help.

  Read the article

• AI navigation around a 2d map - Avoiding obstacles.

  - by Curt Walker

  Hey there, I know my question seems pretty vague but I can't think of a better way to put it so I'll start off by explaining what I'm trying to do. I'm currently working on a project whereby I've been given a map and I'm coding a 'Critter' that should be able to navigate it's way around the map, the critter has various other functions but are not relevant to the current question. The whole program and solution is being written in C#. I can control the speed of the critter, and retrieve it's current location on the map by returning it's current X and Y position, I can also set it's direction when it collides with the terrain that blocks it. The only problem I have is that I can't think of a way to intelligently navigate my way around the map, so far I've been basing it around what direction the critter is facing when it collides with the terrain, and this is in no way a good way of moving around the map! I'm not a games programmer, and this is for a software assignment, so I have no clue on AI techniques. All I am after is a push in the right direction on how I could go about getting this critter to find it's way around any map given to me. Here's an image of the map and critters to give you an idea of what i'm talking about. Here's a link to an image of what the maps and critters look like. Map and Critter image I'm in no way looking for anyone to give me a full solution, just a push in the general direction on map navigation. Thanks in advance!

  Read the article

• The Implications of Modern Day Software Development Abstractions

  - by Andreas Grech

  I am currently doing a dissertation about the implications or dangers that today's software development practices or teachings may have on the long term effects of programming. Just to make it clear: I am not attacking the use abstractions in programming. Every programmer knows that abstractions are the bases for modularity. What I want to investigate with this dissertation are the positive and negative effects abstractions can have in software development. As regards the positive, I am sure that I can find many sources that can confirm this. But what about the negative effects of abstractions? Do you have any stories to share that talk about when certain abstractions failed on you? The main concern is that many programmers today are programming against abstractions without having the faintest idea of what the abstraction is doing under-the-covers. This may very well lead to bugs and bad design. So, in you're opinion, how important is it that programmers actually know what is going below the abstractions? Taking a simple example from Joel's Back to Basics, C's strcat: void strcat( char* dest, char* src ) { while (*dest) dest++; while (*dest++ = *src++); } The above function hosts the issue that if you are doing string concatenation, the function is always starting from the beginning of the dest pointer to find the null terminator character, whereas if you write the function as follows, you will return a pointer to where the concatenated string is, which in turn allows you to pass this new pointer to the concatenation function as the *dest parameter: char* mystrcat( char* dest, char* src ) { while (*dest) dest++; while (*dest++ = *src++); return --dest; } Now this is obviously a very simple as regards abstractions, but it is the same concept I shall be investigating. Finally, what do you think about the issue that schools are preferring to teach Java instead of C and Lisp ? Can you please give your opinions and your says as regards this subject? Thank you for your time and I appreciate every comment.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190  | Next Page >