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  • What to do when the programming activity becomes a problem?

    - by gablin
    I once saw a program (can't remember which) where it talked about people "experiencing flow" when they are doing something they are passionate about. When "in flow", they tend to lose track of time and surrounding, concentrating only on their activity at hand. This happens a lot for me when I program; most particularly when I face a problem. I refuse to give up until it's solved. This usually leads to hours just rushing by and I forget to eat lunch, dinner gets pushed into far into the evening, and when I finally look at the clock, it's way into the wee-hours of the night and I will only get a few hours of sleep before having to rise early in the morning. (This is not to say that I'm in flow only when facing a problem - but I find it particularly hard to stop programming and step back when there's something I can't solve immediately.) I love programming, but I hate it when it disrupts my normal routines (most importantly eating and sleeping patterns). And sitting still for so many hours, staring a screen, is not healthy. Please, any ideas on how I can get my rampant programming activity under control?

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  • What are your programming idiosyncrasies?

    - by EpsilonVector
    I noticed that I have a peculiar habit of finishing every line with a space. It carries over from my prose writing where a paragraph can have multiple sentences and so it is very common to follow a period with a space, and I end up doing that automatically for every period (or when it comes to programming- semicolon). It started out as something automatic, but I'm so used to this by now that if I miss the space it actually bothers me and I end up returning to that line to input it. What are some of your programming idiosyncrasies?

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  • How do you remember where in your code you want to continue next time?

    - by bitbonk
    When you interrupt the work on some code (be it because you have to work on something else or go on vacation or simply because it is the end of the day), once you close that Visual Studio project, what is your preferred way to remember what you want to do next when you start working on that code again. Do you set a Visual Studio bookmark or do write down something like // TODO: continue here next time? Maybe you have a special tag like // NEXT:? Do you put a sticky note on your monitor? Do you use a cool tool or Visual Studio plugin I should know? Do you have any personal trick that helps you find the place in your code where you left off the last time you worked on your code?

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  • Of which bad practice is require calling functions in order a sign?

    - by stijn
    Sometimes I find myself writing comments on class methods like this: class A : public Base { public: /** * Sets variable; * should be called before ImplementsInterfaceMtehod(), * else has no effect. */ void SetSomeVariable( var_type value ); virtual void ImplementsInterfaceMethod(); } The callers of Base::ImplementsInterfaceMethod obviously do not know about the variable, and should not. But the users of A should set the variable if they want it to take effect. It is not required to set the variable (else it could be a parameter for the constructor), so I cannot throw exceptions in ImplementsInterfaceMethod if it is not set. Is this a sign of some typical bad practice? Is there a better way than writing a comment as shown to deal with this?

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  • The old "do as I say, not as I do" problem

    - by AaronBertrand
    Microsoft is often considered a leader, an innovator, a trend-setter. The same could be said for Apple, Google, and a host of other tech companies. And each of those has its set of critics as well, who think that the company is the opposite - or worse. Some people think it is a good idea to model their own code, architecture or applications after things that these companies have done, but this is not always the best approach. Humans work at these companies too, and everyone is prone to mistakes,...(read more)

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  • Why do most of us use 'i' as a loop counter variable?

    - by kprobst
    Has anyone thought about why so many of us repeat this same pattern using the same variable names? for (int i = 0; i < foo; i++) { // ... } It seems most code I've ever looked at uses i, j, k and so on as iteration variables. I suppose I picked that up from somewhere, but I wonder why this is so prevalent in software development. Is it something we all picked up from C or something like that? Just an itch I've had for a while in the back of my head.

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  • Jumping around to work on different features when you get stuck, is it a source of project failures?

    - by codecompleting
    On personal projects (or work), if one gets stuck on a problem, or waiting to figure out a solution to the problem, if you jump to another section of your code, don't you think it will be a good reason your application will be buggy or worse yet never get completed? Assuming you are not using git and code each feature to a specific branch, things can get out of hand since you have 3 different features you are working on, and you have unresolved issues in each. So when you get done to work, you get stressed out because you have these hanging issues and half-baked code lingering about. What's the best way to avoid this problem? (if you have it) I'm guessing using something like git and creating a branch per feature is the safest way to avoid this bad habit. Any other suggestions?

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  • Microsoft et le Stade Toulousain mettent de l'IT dans leurs vêtements, quelles applications imaginez-vous pour ces nouveaux habits ?

    Bientôt de l'IT jusque dans nos vêtements Robe tweeteuse, T-Shirt promotionnel pour club de Rugby : quelles applications imaginez-vous pour ces nouvelles générations d'habits ? En collaboration avec Gordon Fowler « The Printing Dress » est une création de deux designers expérimentées travaillant pour Microsoft Research, Asta Roseway et Sheridan Martin Petit. Réalisée à partir de papier de riz noir et blanc, la robe intègre des boutons rappelant les touches des anciennes machines à écrire, cousus sur le corsage de la robe. Un ordinateur portable, un projecteur et quatre cartes de circuits y sont également intégrés. Bien qu'étant encore un prototyp...

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  • Do you have any favorite ergonomic exercise or habit?

    - by melaos
    I've read somewhere that ergonomic problems accounts for 70% of injury... And i don't want to be one of those guys who think, ahh it's just a slight sore, and go on and discover that i have CTS and have to operate on my hands!!! So are the any good ergo habits that you follow religiously each day? Or some cool tools that would send any ergo issue to a cold hell and force it to stay there. So we can program hopefully until we're old and wicked.

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  • Procedures before checking in to source control?

    - by Mongus Pong
    I am starting to get a reputation at work as the "guy who breaks the builds". The problem is not that I am writing dodgy code, but when it comes to checking my fixes back into source control, it all goes wrong. I am regularly doing stupid things like : forgetting to add new files accidentally checking in code for a half fixed bug along with another bug fix forgetting to save the files in VS before checking them in I need to develop some habits / tools to stop this. What do you regularly do to ensure the code you check in is correct and is what needs to go in? Edit I forgot to mention that things can get pretty chaotic in this place. I quite often have two or three things that Im working on in the same code base at any one time. When I check in I will only really want to check in one of those things.

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  • How do you use stl's functions like for_each?

    - by thomas-gies
    I started using stl containers because they came in very handy when I needed functionality of a list, set and map and had nothing else available in my programming environment. I did not care much about the ideas behind it. STL documentations were only interesting up to the point where it came to functions, etc. Then I skipped reading and just used the containers. But yesterday, still being relaxed from my holidays, I just gave it a try and wanted to go a bit more the stl way. So I used the transform function (can I have a little bit of applause for me, thank you). From an academic point of view it really looked interesting and it worked. But the thing that boroughs me is that if you intensify the use of those functions, you need 10ks of helper classes for mostly everything you want to do in your code. The hole logic of the program is sliced in tiny pieces. This slicing is not the result of god coding habits. It's just a technical need. Something, that makes my life probably harder not easier. And I learned the hard way, that you should always choose the simplest approach that solves the problem at hand. And I can't see what, for example, the for_each function is doing for me that justifies the use of a helper class over several simple lines of code that sit inside a normal loop so that everybody can see what is going on. I would like to know, what you are thinking about my concerns? Did you see it like I do when you started working this way and have changed your mind when you got used to it? Are there benefits that I overlooked? Or do you just ignore this stuff as I did (and will go an doing it, probably). Thanks. PS: I know that there is a real for_each loop in boost. But I ignore it here since it is just a convenient way for my usual loops with iterators I guess.

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  • What should a hobbyist do to develop good programming skills after basics?

    - by thyrgle
    So I'll say right here that I'm no professional coder. I'm a hobbyist. And pretty much like other people I feel like I'm doing it wrong. Like this question A feeling that I'm not a good programmer if have began to feel like that. Now I know basically that they say you shouldn't worry and that your good even if you continuously doubt yourself. But, they are talking to him. I'm not like him (in the sense I'm more of a newbie)... I've been coding as a hobbyist for 3 years (3 hobbyist years mind you!) unlike his 10-11 years that he states. Also, the only thing I've probably read in-depth is Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days. And before I continue, just so your not confused about the various questions I've posted on (mostly) iPhone and OpenGL, I have poked and prodded at those two things for a few months each and finally sort of got a hang of both of them. But, from what I've noticed, is that I suck at making good code. For me its not even a debate of whether I'm doing it wrong or not: I can tell (from the various spaghetti code I create and other various discrepancies I, and others, can see and have noted in my code). What is a good way to get rid of these awful habits of mine and do it in a more correct, or if there is no "correct way" then I mean "typical", way?

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  • What real life bad habits has programming given you? [closed]

    - by Jacob T. Nielsen
    Programming has given me a lot of bad habits and it continues to give me more everyday. But I have also gotten some bad habits from the mindset that I have put myself in. There simply are some things that are deeply rooted in my nature, though some of them I wish I could get rid of. A few: Looking for polymorphism, inheritance and patterns in all of God's creations. Explaining the size of something in pixels and colors in hex code. Using code related abstract terms in everyday conversations. How have you been damaged?

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  • Where can a self-teacher learn general good programming habits and conventions?

    - by lucid
    A few mistakes and general childishness in early adulthood have left me in a situation where I work a menial job, with no possibility (in the near future) of attending school. I aspire to one day work in the programming field (gaming specifically), after proving myself on the indie end of things. I've gotten very confident in C++, java, and python, and I find I'm able to solve any problem I want either from previous experience, or from scouring the web for help. The solutions work, and with each attempt they become more readable, maintainable, and extensible. But this is because I'm learning from mistakes and bad programming and design habits I feel I might have avoided with actual schooling. General tips like: "if it's hard to read or getting long, or you're writing it twice, it should be in one or more functions." or "design all your classes before you start coding, so you don't have to rewrite classes later when you discover an unforeseen dependency" Is there a good book or website for learning general good programming practices and design habits? Also, naming and format conventions. I realize sometimes development houses have their own conventions, but things like "Classes in python usually have the first letter of each word capitalized". I'd like to be able to show some source code to a potential employer, and be prepared when for what's expected on a team. Is there some central database of naming and formatting conventions somewhere? Also, feel free to give any thoughts on whether or not the self-teach, garner some indie sales, use them as your resume' route is realistic

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  • How to Encourage More Frequent Commits to SVN

    - by Yaakov Ellis
    A group of developers that I am working with switched from VSS to SVN about half a year ago. The transition from CheckOut-CheckIn to Update-Commit has been hard on a number of users. Now that they are no longer forced to check in their files when they are done (or more accurately, now that no one else can see that they have the file checked out and tell them to check back in in order to release the lock on the file), it has happened on more than one occasion that users have forgotten to Commit their changes until long after they were completed. Although most users are good about Committing their changes, the issue is serious enough that the decision might be made to force users to get locks on all files in SVN before editing. I would rather not see this happen, but I am at a loss over how to improve the situation in another way. So can anyone suggest ways to do any of the following: Track what files users have edited but have not yet Committed changes for Encourage users to be more consistent with Committing changes when they are done Help finish off the user education necessary to get people used to the new version control paradigm Out-of-the-box solutions welcome (ie: desktop program that reminds users to commit if they have not done so in a given interval, automatically get stats of user Commit rates and send warning emails if frequency drops below a certain threshold, etc).

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  • How to find the right balance between "quick & dirty" and "nice & general" code?

    - by Frank
    This is not a direct programming question, but a little help from the programming community would be appreciated. I am suffering from an overgeneralization disease. I can't stop spending valuable time with making my code most general and abstract. I could also call it the toolkit/library disease. I tend to turn every programming task into a general problem and try to "write a toolkit", that would work for many similar problems. I know it's a good thing in general, if there is enough time, but sometimes I should be writing a quick prototype and just can't seem to write the quick and dirty code that just works for the special case. I often get excited about an idea that makes the code more general and user-configurable and understimate the time it takes to actually implement it that way. Does anyone else have this experience? How can I force myself to find the right balance between "quick hack" and "nice solution"?

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  • Onshore work methods V Offshore Supplier work methods - how to strike a balance?

    - by LadyCoconut
    Any advice on the best way to strike a balance between the work methods of an offshore supplier and the work methods of a new onshore team? We have an offshore supplier with about 2 years who have their own working practices and methods. I was bought in as the first onshore developer for my company with the view to vetting the code that comes in and putting together some best practices. Now from what I've seen there are lots of holes in their process (e.g. estimation, planning, code reviews, coding standards from about 10 years ago, no concept of mocking, refactoring etc). I need to be seen as a problem solver and not a problem creator but also I need to try and be somewhat forceful of what they are doing needs improving and at the end of the day they are a supplier. I would appreciate any advice. Thanks.

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  • How do you keep track of your thought process ?

    - by Johnny Blaze
    I find it very hard to answer question like : "why did you implemented it this way?" or "what's the reason of using that instead of that?" usually because the implementation is the result of a long thought process and trials and errors. By the time i'm finished i can't recall every specific details. I wanted to know if you have some tips to keep track of your thought process and answer those question easily.

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  • Pomodoro technique & other ways to increase personal productivity

    - by Jayson
    I recently came across the Pomodoro Technique as a way to increase productivity, get in the zone, and in general feel a sense of accomplishment at setting some short programming goals and achieving them. So far I have enjoyed it and the sense of accomplishment I get after seeing a bunch of short goals add up at the end of the day to a lot of work done on a programming project. What other ideas, similar or not, add a little variety to achieving goals, personal productivity, get in the programming zone, and so forth? What ideas or techniques are expressed formally, such as those in the Pomodoro paper, rather than trite maxims?

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  • CSS: Explicitly declaring position, padding, margin, and overflow for every item?

    - by DavidR
    I've been working for a guy whose been teaching me css. I made a website based on his designs which I'm pretty proud of, but he got back to me saying that I need to explicitly declare the padding, margin, position, and overflow (specifically every item should have "overflow:hidden") on every item. Is there any basis to this at all? Is there anything I can use to refute this? I thought that declaring something like div,span,h1,[...] {padding:0;margin:0;postion:static;overflow:hidden} would take care of everything due to the cascade.

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  • Do Distributed Version Control Systems promote poor backup habits?

    - by John
    In a DVCS, each developer has an entire repository on their workstation, to which they can commit all their changes. Then they can merge their repo with someone else's, or clone it, or whatever (as I understand it, I'm not a DVCS user). To me that flags a side-effect, of being more vulnerable to forgetting to backup. In a traditional centralised system, both you as a developer and the people in charge know that if you commit something, it's held on a central server which can have decent backup solutions in place. But using a DVCS, it seems you only have to push your work to a server when you feel like sharing it. It's all very well you have the repo locally so you can work on your feature branch for a month without bothering anyone, but it means (I think) that checking in your code to the repo is not enough, you have to remember to do regular pushes to a backed-up server. It also means, doesn't it, that a team lead can't see all those nice SVN commit emails to keep a rough idea what's going on in the code-base? Is any of this a real issue?

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