Search Results

Search found 18794 results on 752 pages for 'graphics design'.

Page 3/752 | < Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >

  • How to use only intel graphics and power off radeon?

    - by luizrogeriocn
    I've been using Linux for quite a while in everyday computing and programming. But now i got this new laptop with amazing battery life on windows which runs pretty cool even while gaming. But for some reason on Ubuntu I get like 1/3 battery life and it gets hot even while browsing the web. I have the proprietary drivers for radeon, but I'm thinking about upgrading from Ubuntu 12.04 to 14.04, and I would like to know how can I use only the Intel graphics and have radeon always turned off? Since I do not need the discrete graphics on Ubuntu and I'm pretty sure my problem is related to the radeon sucking up my battery and generating heat. My laptop technical specifications are: Dell latitude 3540 Intel core i7 4500U (with Intel hd4400 graphics ) Ati Radeon HD 8850m with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM 8 GB DDR3L @1600mhz Toshiba 256gb SSD Ubuntu 12.4.3 If you need any additional info, please tell me :)

    Read the article

  • Which are the best tools for Graphic Designing?

    - by Jen
    Hello, I want to take up Graphic Designing as my profession. I would be designing Logos, Icons, Stationery, Brochures, Handouts, Book Covers, etc. But I am thoroughly confused as to which tools are the best and which books/resources will help me learn these tools and graphic designing like a professional. I am ready to shell out money to purchase the resources. Please help me out! Thanks, Jen

    Read the article

  • How To Deal With Terrible Design Decisions

    - by splatto
    I'm a consultant at one company. There is another consultant who is a year older than me and has been here 3 months longer than I have, and a full time developer. The full-time developer is great. My concern is that I see the consultant making absolutely terrible design decisions. For example, M:M relationships are being stored in the database as a comma-delimited string rather than using a conjunction table to hold the relationships. For example, consider two tables, Car and Property: Car records: Camry Volvo Mercedes Property records: Spare Tire Satellite Radio Ipod Support Standard Rather than making a table CarProperties to represent this, he has made a "Property" attribute on the Car table whose data looks like "1,3,7,13,19,25," I hate how this decision and others are affecting the quality of my code. We have butted heads over this design three times in the past two months since I've been here. He asked me why my suggestion was better, and I responded that our database would be eliminating redundant data by converting to a higher normal form. I explained that this design flaw in particular is discussed and discouraged in entry level college programs, and he responded with a shot at me saying that these comma-separated-value database properties are taught when you do your masters (which neither of us have). Needless to say, he became very upset and demanded I apologize for criticizing his work, which I did in the interest of not wanting to be the consultant to create office drama. Our project manager is focused on delivering a product ASAP and is a very strong personality - Suggesting to him at this point that we spend some time to do this right will set him off. There is a strong likelihood that both of our contracts will be extended to work on a second project coming up. How will I be able to exert dominant influence over the design of the system and the data model to ensure that such terrible mistakes are not repeated in the next project? A glimpse at the dynamics: I can be a strong personality if I don't measure myself. The other consultant is not a strong personality, is a poor communicator, is quite stubborn and thinks he is better than everyone else. The project manager is an extremely strong personality who is focused on releasing tomorrow's product yesterday. The full-time developer is very laid back and easy going, a very effective communicator, but is someone who will accept bad design if it means not rocking the boat. Code reviews or anything else that takes "time" will be out of the question - there is no way our PM will be sold on such a thing by anybody.

    Read the article

  • Mac keeps switching to second graphics card

    - by 1.21 gigawatts
    I have a MacBook Pro and whenever I enter certain apps (video camera app or Photoshop for example, the graphics card switched. I didn't know this was going on at first; just that the screen kept changing colors as I opened or closed different software. Later someone told me that the software was causing the OSX to switch graphics cards. It's annoying. How do I keep one graphics card (the better one) enabled all the time? I don't care about power consumption because it is plugged in all the time (though I'm curious how much difference it makes). I just want one graphics card enabled.

    Read the article

  • What happens when you add a Graphics card to a i7 with build in graphics (e.g. HD 4000)

    - by Matt
    I'm thinking of upgrading my computer from an AMD Phenom II X4 955BE with a AMD Radeon HD 6800 Graphics card (not integrated) to using a Intel Core i7 3770. As I have no knowledge of integrated graphics, my question is, what happens to the computing power when not using the HD4000 integrated graphics of the CPU (does it mean the CPU will run faster then it would if I relied on it?) Also what is better the CPUs inbuilt HD4000 or my Radeon Graphics card? I am mostly interested in terms of content creation: Using Adobe After Effects, 3D Rendering etc. Not too bothered about gaming performance. I will be using the spare parts of this build and older systems to make a second computer for network renders so what will be the advantages of keeping the Radeon with the current system for that?

    Read the article

  • Refactoring in domain driven design

    - by Andrew Whitaker
    I've just started working on a project and we're using domain-driven design (as defined by Eric Evans in Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software. I believe that our project is certainly a candidate for this design pattern as Evans describes it in his book. I'm struggling with the idea of constantly refactoring. I know refactoring is a necessity in any project and will happen inevitably as the software changes. However, in my experience, refactoring occurs when the needs of the development team change, not as understanding of the domain changes ("refactoring to greater insight" as Evans calls it). I'm most concerned with breakthroughs in understanding of the domain model. I understand making small changes, but what if a large change in the model is necessary? What's an effective way of convincing yourself (and others) you should refactor after you obtain a clearer domain model? After all, refactoring to improve code organization or performance could be completely separate from how expressive in terms of the ubiquitous language code is. Sometimes it just seems like there's not enough time to refactor. Luckily, SCRUM lends it self to refactoring. The iterative nature of SCRUM makes it easy to build a small piece and change and it. But over time that piece will get larger and what if you have a breakthrough after that piece is so large that it will be too difficult to change? Has anyone worked on a project employing domain-driven design? If so, it would be great to get some insight on this one. I'd especially like to hear some success stories, since DDD seems very difficult to get right. Thanks!

    Read the article

  • A design pattern for data binding an object (with subclasses) to asp.net user control

    - by Rohith Nair
    I have an abstract class called Address and I am deriving three classes ; HomeAddress, Work Address, NextOfKin address. My idea is to bind this to a usercontrol and based on the type of Address it should bind properly to the ASP.NET user control. My idea is the user control doesn't know which address it is going to present and based on the type it will parse accordingly. How can I design such a setup, based on the fact that, the user control can take any type of address and bind accordingly. I know of one method like :- Declare class objects for all the three types (Home,Work,NextOfKin). Declare an enum to hold these types and based on the type of this enum passed to user control, instantiate the appropriate object based on setter injection. As a part of my generic design, I just created a class structure like this :- I know I am missing a lot of pieces in design. Can anybody give me an idea of how to approach this in proper way.

    Read the article

  • How to design database having multiple interrelated entities

    - by Sharath Chandra
    I am designing a new system which is more of a help system for core applications in banks or healthcare sector. Given the nature of the system this is not a heavy transaction oriented system but more of read intensive. Now within this application I have multiple entities which are related to each other. For e.g. Assume the following entities in the system User Training Regulations Now each of these entities have M:N Relationship with each other. Assuming the usage of a standard RDBMS, the design may involve many relationship tables each containing the relationships one other entity ("User_Training", "User_Regulations", "Training_Regulations"). This design is limiting since I have more than 3 entities in the system and maintaining the relationship graph is difficult this way. The most frequently used operation is "given an entity get me all the related entities" . I need to design the database where this operation is relatively inexpensive. What are the different recommendations for modelling this kind of database.

    Read the article

  • Graphics card not working but integrated graphics is working

    - by Dustin Martin
    I have a PCIe Geforce 6600 that I've been using in my PC for a couple years now without problems. Recently though I've not been using the PC and had it unplugged. When I when to use it again I accidentally plugged in the monitor to the VGA port for the integrated graphics instead of the 6600 card VGA port and began using it again (I'm currently running Windows 7). I then realized that I had the monitor plugged in wrong and switched the monitor to the 6600 port. Unfortunately I cannot get it to work. When the monitor is plugged in to the 6600 port the monitor will not display anything; not when booting up or in Windows (so I don’t believe the problem is Windows related). I've even tried booting a live CD for Ubuntu to see if that will recognize the card but no luck. Somehow it seems I need to "turn off" the integrated graphics and instruct the PC to use the 6600 card but I'm at a loss for how to do that. I looked high and low in the BIOS for a setting to do this but cannot find anything at all. I have a MSI motherboard and AMI Bios. Any ideas?

    Read the article

  • Requesting feedback on my OO design

    - by Prog
    I'm working on an application that creates music by itself. I'm seeking feedback for my OO design so far. This question will focus on one part of the program. The application produces Tune objects, that are the final musical products. Tune is an abstract class with an abstract method play. It has two subclasses: SimpleTune and StructuredTune. SimpleTune owns a Melody and a Progression (chord sequence). It's play implementation plays these two objects simultaneously. StructuredTune owns two Tune instances. It's own play plays the two Tunes one after the other according to a pattern (currently only ABAB). Melody is an abstract class with an abstract play method. It has two subclasses: SimpleMelody and StructuredMelody. SimpleMelody is composed of an array of notes. Invoking play on it plays these notes one after the other. StructuredMelody is composed of an array of Melody objects. Invoking play on it plays these Melodyies one after the other. I think you're starting to see the pattern. Progression is also an abstract class with a play method and two subclasses: SimpleProgression and StructuredProgression, each composed differently and played differently. SimpleProgression owns an array of chords and plays them sequentially. StructuredProgression owns an array of Progressions and it's play implementation plays them sequentially. Every class has a corresponding Generator class. Tune, Melody and Progression are matched with corresponding abstract TuneGenerator, MelodyGenerator and ProgressionGenerator classes, each with an abstract generate method. For example MelodyGenerator defines an abstract Melody generate method. Each of the generators has two subclasses, Simple and Structured. So for example MelodyGenerator has a subclasses SimpleMelodyGenerator, with an implementation of generate that returns a SimpleMelody. (It's important to note that the generate methods encapsulate complex algorithms. They are more than mere factory method. For example SimpleProgressionGenerator.generate() implements an algorithm to compose a series of Chord objects, which are used to instantiate the returned SimpleProgression). Every Structured generator uses another generator internally. It is a Simple generator be default, but in special cases may be a Structured generator. Parts of this design are meant to allow the end-user through the GUI to choose what kind of music is to be created. For example the user can choose between a "simple tune" (SimpleTuneGenerator) and a "full tune" (StructuredTuneGenerator). Other parts of the system aren't subject to direct user-control. What do you think of this design from an OOD perspective? What potential problems do you see with this design? Please share with me your criticism, I'm here to learn. Apart from this, a more specific question: the "every class has a corresponding Generator class" part feels very wrong. However I'm not sure how I could design this differently and achieve the same flexibility. Any ideas?

    Read the article

  • How do I configure an Intel HD Graphics 4000?

    - by derabbink
    First off, please note that last night I already posted this question to a launchpad mailing list, so this could be considered a cross post. However, I think this is a better place to ask the same question The question: How can I configure my Ubuntu 12.04, with upgraded kernel (3.6), to use the Intel HD Graphics 4000 adapter? (Intel HD 4000 is the standard of 3rd gen Intel Core i7 (Ivy Bridge) graphics adapter) Some output: $ glxinfo name of display: :0 X Error of failed request: BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation) Major opcode of failed request: 154 (GLX) Minor opcode of failed request: 19 (X_GLXQueryServerString) Serial number of failed request: 12 Current serial number in output stream: 12 $ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf this is probably the farthest from what it should be Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" DefaultDepth 24 EndSection Section "Module" Load "glx" EndSection $ lspci I only listed the line I think are relevant. If you want more info in order to help me, please comment :) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge Graphics Controller (rev 09) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Panther Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04) 16:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Whistler XT [AMD Radeon HD 6700M Series] 16:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Turks HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6000 Series]

    Read the article

  • New design patterns/design strategies

    - by steven
    I've studied and implemented design patterns for a few years now, and I'm wondering. What are some of the newer design patterns (since the GOF)? Also, what should one, similar to myself, study [in the way of software design] next? Note: I've been using TDD, and UML for some time now. I'm curious about the newer paradigm shifts, and or newer design patterns.

    Read the article

  • Disable of discrete/native graphics on MacBook Retina when using apps like VMware, VLC, etc

    - by badkitteh
    I got a MacBook Pro Retina a few months ago and I'm really happy with it. However, since I do a lot of work in different environments/OSes, I make heavy use of VMware to have them with me when I'm on the road. The MBPr has a great battery life - as long as integrated graphics are being used. Unfortunately as soon as I launch VMware, the MacBook switches to discrete graphics and battery life is effectively halved. I noticed that after installing gfxCardStatus, and now I'm wondering if there is a way to force the integrated graphics being used all of the time, so I can enjoy maximum battery life. Thanks.

    Read the article

  • Design Pattern Advice for Bluetooth App for Android

    - by Aimee Jones
    I’m looking for some advice on which patterns would apply to some of my work. I’m planning on doing a project as part of my college work and I need a bit of help. My main project is to make a basic Android bluetooth tracking system where the fixed locations of bluetooth dongles are mapped onto a map of a building. So my android app will regularly scan for nearby dongles and triangulate its location based on signal strength. The dongles location would be saved to a database along with their mac addresses to differentiate between them. The android phones location will then be sent to a server. This information will be used to show the phone’s location on a map of the building, or map of a route taken, on a website. My side project is to choose a suitable design pattern that could be implemented in this main project. I’m still a bit new to design patterns and am finding it hard to get my head around ones that may be suitable. I’ve heard maybe some that are aimed at web applications for the server side of things may be appropriate. My research so far is leading me to the following: Navigation Strategy Pattern Observer Pattern Command Pattern News Design Pattern Any advice would be a great help! Thanks

    Read the article

  • Authorization design-pattern / practice?

    - by Lawtonfogle
    On one end, you have users. On the other end, you have activities. I was wondering if there is a best practice to relate the two. The simplest way I can think of is to have every activity have a role, and assign every user every role they need. The problem is that this gets really messy in practice as soon as you go beyond a trivial system. A way I recently designed was to have users who have roles, and roles have privileges, and activities require some combinations of privileges. For the trivial case, this is more complex, but I think it will scale better. But after I implemented it, I felt like it was overkill for the system I had. Another option would be to have users, who have roles, and activities require you to have a certain role to perform with many activities sharing roles. A more complex variant of this would given activities many possible roles, which you only needed one of. And an even more complex variant would be to allow logical statements of role ownership to use an activity (i.e. Must have A and (B exclusive or C) and must not have D). I could continue to list more, but I think this already gives a picture. And many of these have trade offs. But in software design, there are oftentimes solutions, while perhaps not perfect in every possible case, are clearly top of the pack to an extent it isn't even considered opinion based (i.e. how to store passwords, plain text is worse, hashing better, hashing and salt even better, despite the increased complexity of each level) (i.e. 2, Smart UI designs for applications are bad, even if it is subjective as to what the best design is). So, is there a best practice for authorization design that is not purely opinion based/subjective?

    Read the article

  • Clean MVC design when there is viewer latency

    - by Tony Suffolk 66
    It isn't clear if this question has already been answered, so apologies in advance if this is a duplicate : I am implementing a game and trying to design around a clean MVC pattern - so my Control plane will implement the rules of the game (but not how the game is displayed), and the View plane implements how the game is displayed, and user iteraction - i.e. what game items or controls the user has activated. The challenge that I have is this : In my game the Control Plane can move game items more or less instaneously (The decision about what item to place where - and some of the initial consequences of that placement are reasonably trivial to calculate), but I want to design the Control Plane so that the View plane can display these movements either instaneously or using movement animations. The other complication is that player interaction must be locked out while those game items are moving (similar to chess - you can't attack an opposing piece as it moves past one of your pieces) So do I : Implement all the logic in the Control Plane asynchronously - and separate the descision making from the actions - so the Control plane decides piece 'A' needs to move to a given place - tells the view plane, and but does not implement the move in data until the view plane informs the control plane that the move/animation is complete. A lot of interlock points between the two layers. Implement all the control plane logic in one place - decisions and movement (keeping track of what moved where), and pass all the movements in one go to the View plane to do with what it will. Control Plane is almost fire and forget here. A hybrid of 1 & 2 - The control plane implements all the moves in a temporary data store - but maintains a second store which reflects what is actually visible to the viewer, based on calls and feedback from the View plane. All 3 are relatively easy to implement (target language is python), but having never done a clean MVC pattern with view latency before - I am not sure which design is best

    Read the article

  • Is it possible to extract textures or sprites from compiled game files?

    - by Brian Reindel
    For instance, every map in Portal has what appear to be sprites over a texture indicating the obstacles you'll face (see screenshot). Are these resources compiled into the source as byte code, or is it possible to extract them from installation files? Obviously I understand copyright implications, and I am only interested in using it for a recreational project. Instead of recreating them, I wonder if they can be extracted.

    Read the article

  • Why doesn't Unity 3D work on my HD3000 integrated graphics?

    - by Zatsugami
    So I got my new laptop recently. HP Envy 15 with switchable graphics card. I'm using both windows and ubuntu, but for ubuntu I need just Intel HD3000 for better battery live. I've installed fglrx-updates and fglrx-amdcccle-updates. The drivers seems to work for my ATI card. The problem is, Intel HD3000 does not support Unity 3D. Why? My older Intel GMA 4500 did this. lspci -nn | grep VGA 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0126] (rev 09) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Whistler [AMD Radeon HD 6600M Series] [1002:6741] (rev ff)

    Read the article

  • HP Pavilion 15 with AMD dual graphics - Ubuntu live environment not starting

    - by creepus
    I've had this laptop for about a day now and have decided to try Ubuntu on it and determine if I want to install it. I created a USB, it booted (Secure Boot was on, I tried with Secure Boot off to no effect), and then the problem occurred. The screen turned off for a second, turned back on to a black screen, shut off again and turned back on with a dialogue box telling me that the system had to use low-graphics mode. I clicked OK, selected low-graphics mode from the menu and clicked OK. The screen switched to the boot messages and did not go any further than this. Ctrl+Alt+DEL started rebooting the laptop though. I tried booting again, but this time I edited the boot options in GRUB to add nomodeset. This time, the laptop only booted to a black screen. Ctrl+Alt+F2 took me to a prompt, I tried startx from there, but X didn't start, complaining that it wanted kernel mode setting back. I can not seem to find any option to disable one graphics chip or the other in the UEFI setup menus. Laptop : HP Pavilion 15-E004AU. The CPU : AMD A6-4400M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics The graphics chip : AMD Radeon HD 7520G + 8670M Dual Graphics. The Ubuntu version : 13.10, 64 bit. Thanks. EDIT: I tried 12.04.3 LTS, it managed to bring the desktop up. There are severe graphics glitches after about two minutes though.

    Read the article

  • Impossible quandrary involving UCK, graphics card, and Nvidia drivers

    - by InkBlend
    I have a computer that I want to install Ubuntu on. It is an older gaming computer with a Nvidia graphics card. When I attempt to boot any unmodified Linux distribution onto it, I get a "Boot error" message, which I assume is because the computer uses a discrete graphics card, which the Linux kernel does not have support for. Ordinarily, that would not be a problem, as I would just plug the monitor into the VGA port built in to the motherboard. However, this particular model of motherboard does not have an on-board graphics connector, so I am stuck with using the graphics card connection. That further would not be a problem; all I would have to do would be to use UCK to create a customized Ubuntu image that included the graphics drivers. Except for the fact that the Nvidia Linux drivers must be installed on a computer with a Nvidia graphics card present. So while using UCK, the driver installer fails with a message stating that there is no Nvidia graphics card present. How do I get Ubuntu on my desktop computer?

    Read the article

  • Weird graphics behaviour while playing games

    - by Ayush Khemka
    When I play any high-end game like NFS Most Wanted or FIFA 12, I get these weird things on my graphics. While playing NFS, my car has various transparent diamonds all over its body, and while playing FIFA I get these weird black lines all over the field. My PC specs are :- AMD Athlon II X2 ASUS M4A785D-M PRO 500GB Seagate HDD 2GB DDR2 Transcend RAM 1033Mhz ATI Radeon HD4350 512MB graphics card Tell me if I need to provide anything else. Please help me. Thanks.

    Read the article

  • Design Book–Dimensional or No Dimensional, that is..the question

    - by drsql
    So, it is right there in the title of the book “Relational Database Design” etc (the title is kinda long :)  But as I consider what to cover and, conversely, what not to cover, dimensional design inevitably pops up. So I am considering including it in the book. One thing I try to do is to cover topics to a level where you can start using it immediately, and I am not sure that I could get a deep enough coverage of the subject to do that. I don’t really feel like it has to be the definitive source...(read more)

    Read the article

  • Is this proper OO design for C++?

    - by user121917
    I recently took a software processes course and this is my first time attempting OO design on my own. I am trying to follow OO design principles and C++ conventions. I attempted and gave up on MVC for this application, but I am trying to "decouple" my classes such that they can be easily unit-tested and so that I can easily change the GUI library used and/or the target OS. At this time, I have finished designing classes but have not yet started implementing methods. The function of the software is to log all packets sent and received, and display them on the screen (like WireShark, but for one local process only). The software accomplishes this by hooking the send() and recv() functions in winsock32.dll, or some other pair of analogous functions depending on what the intended Target is. The hooks add packets to SendPacketList/RecvPacketList. The GuiLogic class starts a thread which checks for new packets. When new packets are found, it utilizes the PacketFilter class to determine the formatting for the new packet, and then sends it to MainWindow, a native win32 window (with intent to later port to Qt).1 Full size image of UML class diagram Here are my classes in skeleton/header form (this is my actual code): class PacketModel { protected: std::vector<byte> data; int id; public: PacketModel(); PacketModel(byte* data, unsigned int size); PacketModel(int id, byte* data, unsigned int size); int GetLen(); bool IsValid(); //len >= sizeof(opcode_t) opcode_t GetOpcode(); byte* GetData(); //returns &(data[0]) bool GetData(byte* outdata, int maxlen); void SetData(byte* pdata, int len); int GetId(); void SetId(int id); bool ParseData(char* instr); bool StringRepr(char* outstr); byte& operator[] (const int index); }; class SendPacket : public PacketModel { protected: byte* returnAddy; public: byte* GetReturnAddy(); void SetReturnAddy(byte* addy); }; class RecvPacket : public PacketModel { protected: byte* callAddy; public: byte* GetCallAddy(); void SetCallAddy(byte* addy); }; //problem: packets may be added to list at any time by any number of threads //solution: critical section associated with each packet list class Synch { public: void Enter(); void Leave(); }; template<class PacketType> class PacketList { private: static const int MAX_STORED_PACKETS = 1000; public: static const int DEFAULT_SHOWN_PACKETS = 100; private: vector<PacketType> list; Synch synch; //wrapper for critical section public: void AddPacket(PacketType* packet); PacketType* GetPacket(int id); int TotalPackets(); }; class SendPacketList : PacketList<SendPacket> { }; class RecvPacketList : PacketList<RecvPacket> { }; class Target //one socket { bool Send(SendPacket* packet); bool Inject(RecvPacket* packet); bool InitSendHook(SendPacketList* sendList); bool InitRecvHook(RecvPacketList* recvList); }; class FilterModel { private: opcode_t opcode; int colorID; bool bFilter; char name[41]; }; class FilterFile { private: FilterModel filter; public: void Save(); void Load(); FilterModel* GetFilter(opcode_t opcode); }; class PacketFilter { private: FilterFile filters; public: bool IsFiltered(opcode_t opcode); bool GetName(opcode_t opcode, char* namestr); //return false if name does not exist COLORREF GetColor(opcode_t opcode); //return default color if no custom color }; class GuiLogic { private: SendPacketList sendList; RecvPacketList recvList; PacketFilter packetFilter; void GetPacketRepr(PacketModel* packet); void ReadNew(); void AddToWindow(); public: void Refresh(); //called from thread void GetPacketInfo(int id); //called from MainWindow }; I'm looking for a general review of my OO design, use of UML, and use of C++ features. I especially just want to know if I'm doing anything considerably wrong. From what I've read, design review is on-topic for this site (and off-topic for the Code Review site). Any sort of feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this.

    Read the article

  • Design Pattern for Complex Data Modeling

    - by Aaron Hayman
    I'm developing a program that has a SQL database as a backing store. As a very broad description, the program itself allows a user to generate records in any number of user-defined tables and make connections between them. As for specs: Any record generated must be able to be connected to any other record in any other user table (excluding itself...the record, not the table). These "connections" are directional, and the list of connections a record has is user ordered. Moreover, a record must "know" of connections made from it to others as well as connections made to it from others. The connections are kind of the point of this program, so there is a strong possibility that the number of connections made is very high, especially if the user is using the software as intended. A record's field can also include aggregate information from it's connections (like obtaining average, sum, etc) that must be updated on change from another record it's connected to. To conserve memory, only relevant information must be loaded at any one time (can't load the entire database in memory at load and go from there). I cannot assume the backing store is local. Right now it is, but eventually this program will include syncing to a remote db. Neither the user tables, connections or records are known at design time as they are user generated. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to design the backing store and the object model to best fit these specs. In my first design attempt on this, I had one object managing all a table's records and connections. I attempted this first because it kept the memory footprint smaller (records and connections were simple dicts), but maintaining aggregate and link information between tables became....onerous (ie...a huge spaghettified mess). Tracing dependencies using this method almost became impossible. Instead, I've settled on a distributed graph model where each record and connection is 'aware' of what's around it by managing it own data and connections to other records. Doing this increases my memory footprint but also let me create a faulting system so connections/records aren't loaded into memory until they're needed. It's also much easier to code: trace dependencies, eliminate cycling recursive updates, etc. My biggest problem is storing/loading the connections. I'm not happy with any of my current solutions/ideas so I wanted to ask and see if anybody else has any ideas of how this should be structured. Connections are fairly simple. They contain: fromRecordID, fromTableID, fromRecordOrder, toRecordID, toTableID, toRecordOrder. Here's what I've come up with so far: Store all the connections in one big table. If I do this, either I load all connections at once (one big db call) or make a call every time a user table is loaded. The big issue here: the size of the connections table has the potential to be huge, and I'm afraid it would slow things down. Store in separate tables all the outgoing connections for each user table. This is probably the worst idea I've had. Now my connections are 'spread out' over multiple tables (one for each user table), which means I have to make a separate DB called to each table (or make a huge join) just to find all the incoming connections for a particular user table. I've avoided making "one big ass table", but I'm not sure the cost is worth it. Store in separate tables all outgoing AND incoming connections for each user table (using a flag to distinguish between incoming vs outgoing). This is the idea I'm leaning towards, but it will essentially double the total DB storage for all the connections (as each connection will be stored in two tables). It also means I have to make sure connection information is kept in sync in both places. This is obviously not ideal but it does mean that when I load a user table, I only need to load one 'connection' table and have all the information I need. This also presents a separate problem, that of connection object creation. Since each user table has a list of all connections, there are two opportunities for a connection object to be made. However, connections objects (designed to facilitate communication between records) should only be created once. This means I'll have to devise a common caching/factory object to make sure only one connection object is made per connection. Does anybody have any ideas of a better way to do this? Once I've committed to a particular design pattern I'm pretty much stuck with it, so I want to make sure I've come up with the best one possible.

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >