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• Real world pitfalls of introducing F# into a large codebase and engineering team

  - by nganju

  I'm CTO of a software firm with a large existing codebase (all C#) and a sizable engineering team. I can see how certain parts of the code would be far easier to write in F#, resulting in faster development time, fewer bugs, easier parallel implementations, etc., basically overall productivity gains for my team. However, I can also see several productivity pitfalls of introducing F#, namely: 1) Everyone has to learn F#, and it's not as trivial as switching from, say, Java to C#. Team members that have not learned F# will be unable to work on F# parts of the codebase. 2) The pool of hireable F# programmers, as of now (Dec 2010) is non-existent. Search various software engineer resume databases for "F#", way less than 1% of resumes contain the keyword. 3) Community support as of now (Dec 2010) is less available. You can google almost any problem in C# and find someone that has already dealt with it, not so with F#. Third party tool support (NUnit, Resharper etc) is also sketchy. I realize that this is a bit Catch-22, i.e. if people like me don't use F# then the community and tools will never materialize, etc. But, I've got a company to run, and I can be cutting edge but not bleeding edge. Any other pitfalls I'm not considering? Or anyone care to rebut the pitfalls I've mentioned? I think this is an important discussion and would love to hear your counter-arguments in this public forum that may do a lot to increase F# adoption by industry. Thanks.

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• Turn-based tile game dynamic item/skill/command script files

  - by user1542

  I want to create a mechanism that could read text script, for example some kind of custom script such as ".skill" or ".item", which maybe contain some sort of simple script like .item Item.Name = "Strength Gauntlet"; Character.STR += 20; .. .skill Skill.Name = "Poison Attack"; Skill.Description = "Steal HP and inflict poison"; Player.HP += 200; Enemy.HP -= 200; Enemy.Status += Status.POISON; It may be different from this, but just want to give some idea of what I desire. However, I do not know how to dynamically parse these things and translate it into working script. For example, in battle scenerio, I should make my game read one of this ".skill" file and apply it to the current enemy, or the current player. How would I do this? Should I go for String parsing? It is like a script engine, but I prefer C# than creating new language, so how would I parse custom files into appropiate status commands? Another problem is, I have also created a command engine which would read String input and parse it into action such as "MOVE (1,2)" would move character to tile (1,2). Each command belong to separate class, and provide generic parsing method that should be implemented by hand. This is for the reason of custom number/type of arguments per each command. However, I think this is not well designed, because I desire it to automatically parse the parameters according to specify list of types. For example, MOVE command in "MOVE 1 2" would automatically parse the parameters into int, int and put it into X and Y. Now, this form can change, and we should be able to manually specify all type of formats. Any suggestion to this problem? Should I change from string parsing to some hardcode methods/classes?

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• Netcat I/O enhancements

  - by user13277689

  When Netcat integrated into OpenSolaris it was already clear that there will be couple of enhancements needed. The biggest set of the changes made after Solaris 11 Express was released brings various I/O enhancements to netcat shipped with Solaris 11. Also, since Solaris 11, the netcat package is installed by default in all distribution forms (live CD, text install, ...). Now, let's take a look at the new functionality: /usr/bin/netcat alternative program name (symlink) -b bufsize I/O buffer size -E use exclusive bind for the listening socket -e program program to execute -F no network close upon EOF on stdin -i timeout extension of timeout specification -L timeout linger on close timeout -l -p port addr previously not allowed usage -m byte_count Quit after receiving byte_count bytes -N file pattern for UDP scanning -I bufsize size of input socket buffer -O bufsize size of output socket buffer -R redir_spec port redirection addr/port[/{tcp,udp}] syntax of redir_spec -Z bypass zone boundaries -q timeout timeout after EOF on stdin Obviously, the Swiss army knife of networking tools just got a bit thicker. While by themselves the options are pretty self explanatory, their combination together with other options, context of use or boundary values of option arguments make it possible to construct small but powerful tools. For example: the port redirector allows to convert TCP stream to UDP datagrams. the buffer size specification makes it possible to send one byte TCP segments or to produce IP fragments easily. the socket linger option can be used to produce TCP RST segments by setting the timeout to 0 execute option makes it possible to simulate TCP/UDP servers or clients with shell/python/Perl/whatever script etc. If you find some other helpful ways use please share via comments. Manual page nc(1) contains more details, along with examples on how to use some of these new options.

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• Dependency injection: what belongs in the constructor?

  - by Adam Backstrom

  I'm evaluating my current PHP practices in an effort to write more testable code. Generally speaking, I'm fishing for opinions on what types of actions belong in the constructor. Should I limit things to dependency injection? If I do have some data to populate, should that happen via a factory rather than as constructor arguments? (Here, I'm thinking about my User class that takes a user ID and populates user data from the database during construction, which obviously needs to change in some way.) I've heard it said that "initialization" methods are bad, but I'm sure that depends on what exactly is being done during initialization. At the risk of getting too specific, I'll also piggyback a more detailed example onto my question. For a previous project, I built a FormField class (which handled field value setting, validation, and output as HTML) and a Model class to contain these fields and do a bit of magic to ease working with fields. FormField had some prebuilt subclasses, e.g. FormText (<input type="text">) and FormSelect (<select>). Model would be subclassed so that a specific implementation (say, a Widget) had its own fields, such as a name and date of manufacture: class Widget extends Model { public function __construct( $data = null ) { $this->name = new FormField('length=20&label=Name:'); $this->manufactured = new FormDate; parent::__construct( $data ); // set above fields using incoming array } } Now, this does violate some rules that I have read, such as "avoid new in the constructor," but to my eyes this does not seem untestable. These are properties of the object, not some black box data generator reading from an external source. Unit tests would progressively build up to any test of Widget-specific functionality, so I could be confident that the underlying FormFields were working correctly during the Widget test. In theory I could provide the Model with a FieldFactory() which could supply custom field objects, but I don't believe I would gain anything from this approach. Is this a poor assumption?

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• How to manage focus for a small set of simple widgets

  - by Christoph

  I'm developing a set of simple widgets for a small (128x128) display. For example I'd like to have a main screen with an overlay menu which I can use to toggle visibilty of main screen elements. Each option would be an icon with a box around it while it is selected. Button (left, up, right, down, enter) events should be given to the widget that has "focus". Focus is a simple thing to understand when using a GUI, but I'm having trouble implementing this. Can you suggest a simple concept for managing focus and input events? I have these simple ideas: Only one widget can have focus, so I need a single pointer to that widget. When this widget gets some kind of "cycle" input (as in "highlight the next item in this list"), the focus is given to a different widget. a widget must have a way of telling the application which widget the focus is given to next. if a widget cannot give a "next focus" hint, the application must be able to figure out where the focus should go. Widgets are currently structured like this: A widget can have a parent, which is passed to the constructor. Widgets are created statically, as I want to avoid dynamic memory allocation (I only have 16kB of RAM and I'd like to have control over that). widgets have siblings, implemented as an intrusive linked list (they have a next member). A parent has a pointer to the head of its list of children. Input events are arguments to the widgets buttonEvent methods which can accept or ignore that event. If it ignores the event, it can pass the event to its parent. My Questions: How can I manage focus for these widgets? Am I making this too complicated?

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• PHP file_put_contents File Locking

  - by hozza

  The Senario: You have a file with a string (average sentence worth) on each line. For arguments sake lets say this file is 1Mb in size (thousands of lines). You have a script that reads the file, changes some of the strings within the document (not just appending but also removing and modifying some lines) and then overwrites all the data with the new data. The Questions: Does 'the server' PHP, OS or httpd etc. already have systems in place to stop issues like this (reading/writing half way through a write)? i. If it does, please explain how it works and give examples or links to relevant documentation. ii. If not, are there things I can enable or set-up, such as locking a file until a write is completed and making all other reads and/or writes fail until the previous script has finished writing? My Assumptions and Other Information: The server in question is running PHP and Apache or Lighttpd. If the script is called by one user and is halfway through writing to the file and another user reads the file at that exact moment. The user who reads it will not get the full document, as it hasn't been written yet. (If this assumption is wrong please correct me) I'm only concerned with PHP writing and reading to a text file, and in particular, the functions "fopen"/"fwrite" and mainly "file_put_contents". I have looked at the "file_put_contents" documentation but have not found the level of detail or a good explanation of what the "LOCK_EX" flag is or does. The senario is an EXAMPLE of a worst case senario where I would assume these issues are more likely to occur, due to the large size of the file and the way the data is edited. I want to learn more about these issues and don't want or need answers or comments such as "use mysql" or "why are you doing that" because I'm not doing that, I just want to learn about file read/writing with PHP and don't seem to be looking in the right places/documentation and yes I understand PHP is not the perfect language for working with files in this way...

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, February 26, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, February 26, 2011Popular ReleasesDirectQ: Release 1.8.7 Beta 2: Beta 2 release to fix some early reported problems with the original 1.8.7 Beta.Chiave File Encryption: Chiave 0.9.2: Release Notes Application for file encryption and decryption using 512 Bit rijndael encyrption algorithm with simple to use UI. Its written in C# and compiled in .Net version 3.5. It incorporates features of Windows 7 like Jumplists, Taskbar progress and Aero Glass. Now with added support to Windows XP! Change Log from 0.9.1 to 0.9.2: ==================== Added: > Now it displays number of files added in the wizard to the Window Title bar. > Added support to Windows XP. > Minor UI tweaks. I...Claims Based Identity & Access Control Guide: Drop 1 - Claims Identity Guide V2: Highlights of drop #1 This is the first drop of the new "Claims Identity Guide" edition. In this release you will find: All previous samples updated and enhanced. All code upgraded to .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010. Extensive cleanup. Refactored Simulated Issuers: each solution now gets its own issuers. This results in much cleaner and simpler to understand code. Added Single Sign Out support. Added first sample using ACS ("ACS as a Federation Provider"). This sample extends the ori...HFR7 - Forum Hardware.fr pour Windows Phone 7: HFR7 - v1.1.1: NOUVELLES FONCTIONS : - Aucune. AMÉLIORATIONS : - La page "Catégories" est désormais intégrée au pivot "Bienvenue". - Apparition de boutons de changement de page en bas du sujet en consultation. - Les en-têtes sur les sujets sont désormais de la même couleur que la couleur d'accentuation de votre téléphone. BUGFIXES : - Les catégories s'affichent correctement. - Cliquer sur le bouton "drapeau" alors qu'on est dans la liste des topics d'une page n'amenait pas directement au dernier post non ...Simple Notify: Simple Notify Beta 2011-02-25: Feature: host the service with a single click in console Feature: host the service as a windows service Feature: notification cient application Feature: push client application Feature: push notifications from your powershell script Feature: C# wrapper libraries for your applicationsMono.Addins: Mono.Addins 0.6: The 0.6 release of Mono.Addins includes many improvements, bug fixes and new features: Add-in engine Add-in name and description can now be localized. There are new custom attributes for defining them, and can also be specified as xml elements in an add-in manifest instead of attributes. Support for custom add-in properties. It is now possible to specify arbitrary properties in add-ins, which can be queried at install time (using the Mono.Addins.Setup API) or at run-time. Custom extensio...patterns & practices: Project Silk: Project Silk Community Drop 3 - 25 Feb 2011: IntroductionWelcome to the third community drop of Project Silk. For this drop we are requesting feedback on overall application architecture, code review of the JavaScript Conductor and Widgets, and general direction of the application. Project Silk provides guidance and sample implementations that describe and illustrate recommended practices for building modern web applications using technologies such as HTML5, jQuery, CSS3 and Internet Explorer 9. This guidance is intended for experien...PhoneyTools: Initial Release (0.1): This is the 0.1 version for preview of the features.Minemapper: Minemapper v0.1.5: Now supports new Minecraft beta v1.3 map format, thanks to updated mcmap. Disabled biomes, until Minecraft Biome Extractor supports new format.Smartkernel: Smartkernel: ????，??????Coding4Fun Tools: Coding4Fun.Phone.Toolkit v1.2: New control, Toast Prompt! Removed progress bar since Silverlight Toolkit Feb 2010 has it.Umbraco CMS: Umbraco 4.7: Service release fixing 31 issues. A full changelog will be available with the final stable release of 4.7 Important when upgradingUpgrade as if it was a patch release (update /bin, /umbraco and /umbraco_client). For general upgrade information follow the guide found at http://our.umbraco.org/wiki/install-and-setup/upgrading-an-umbraco-installation 4.7 requires the .NET 4.0 framework Web.Config changes Update the web web.config to include the 4 changes found in (they're clearly marked in...HubbleDotNet - Open source full-text search engine: V1.1.0.0: Add Sqlite3 DBAdapter Add App Report when Query Cache is Collecting. Improve the performance of index through Synchronize. Add top 0 feature so that we can only get count of the result. Improve the score calculating algorithm of match. Let the score of the record that match all items large then others. Add MySql DBAdapter Improve performance for multi-fields sort . Using hash table to access the Payload data. The version before used bin search. Using heap sort instead of qui...Silverlight????[???]: silverlight????[???]2.0: ???????，?????，????????silverlight??????。DBSourceTools: DBSourceTools_1.3.0.0: Release 1.3.0.0 Changed editors from FireEdit to ICSharpCode.TextEditor. Complete re-vamp of Intellisense ( further testing needed). Hightlight Field and Table Names in sql scripts. Added field dropdown on all tables and views in DBExplorer. Added data option for viewing data in Tables. Fixed comment / uncomment bug as reported by tareq. Included Synonyms in scripting engine ( nickt_ch ).IronPython: 2.7 Release Candidate 1: We are pleased to announce the first Release Candidate for IronPython 2.7. This release contains over two dozen bugs fixed in preparation for 2.7 Final. See the release notes for 60193 for details and what has already been fixed in the earlier 2.7 prereleases. - IronPython TeamCaliburn Micro: A Micro-Framework for WPF, Silverlight and WP7: Caliburn.Micro 1.0 RC: This is the official Release Candicate for Caliburn.Micro 1.0. The download contains the binaries, samples and VS templates. VS Templates The templates included are designed for situations where the Caliburn.Micro source needs to be embedded within a single project solution. This was targeted at government and other organizations that expressed specific requirements around using an open source project like this. NuGet This release does not have a corresponding NuGet package. The NuGet pack...Caliburn: A Client Framework for WPF and Silverlight: Caliburn 2.0 RC: This is the official Release Candidate for Caliburn 2.0. It contains all binaries, samples and generated code docs.Rawr: Rawr 4.0.20 Beta: Rawr is now web-based. The link to use Rawr4 is: http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.phpThis is the Cataclysm Beta Release. More details can be found at the following link http://rawr.codeplex.com/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=237262 As of the 4.0.16 release, you can now also begin using the new Downloadable WPF version of Rawr!This is a pre-alpha release of the WPF version, there are likely to be a lot of issues. If you have a problem, please follow the Posting Guidelines and put it into the Issue Trac...Windows Phone 7 Isolated Storage Explorer: WP7 Isolated Storage Explorer v1.0 Beta: Current release features:WPF desktop explorer client Visual Studio integrated tool window explorer client (Visual Studio 2010 Professional and above) Supported operations: Refresh (isolated storage information), Add Folder, Add Existing Item, Download File, Delete Folder, Delete File Explorer supports operations running on multiple remote applications at the same time Explorer detects application disconnect (1-2 second delay) Explorer confirms operation completed status Explorer d...New Projectsconvert digit to word upto thousand: convert digit to word upto thousandCustom XSLT with recursive loop in Biztalk 2009: Custom XSLT with recursive loop in Biztalk 2009ECO contrib: ECO ist a excellent framework for domain driven design developed by CapableObjects AB. Share your additional features in this contrib project.euler21: euler 21euler22: euler 22 problemflowless: Some workflow thingHFR7 - Forum Hardware.fr pour Windows Phone 7: HFR7 vous permet de surfer sur le forum de Hardware.fr via votre Windows Phone. Il est développé sous Silverlight (C#/XAML).ISP.NET: ISP.NET is a code level verification tool for MPI programs. It includes a Visual Studio 2010 extension that allows for push button verification of user programs that are written in C, C++ and C#. ISP checks for deadlocks, assertion violations, and other MPI program issues. IVY Frameworks: Ivy Frameworks is an architectural framework to create multi-tire application in a consistent way. We are creating specific application blocks. When completed it will help to create a software development pattern, to mass produce .Net applications in a software factory model. Jobeet: Just another Symfony Tutorial I'm following.Lurity: Project Codename "Lurity".Metro Toolkit: Metro ToolkitMySchoolManager: MySchoolManager es un programa de fines didácticos, de código fuente abierto y documentado en español, que simula un sistema de administración del personal de una escuela. NewRapp: Project at KTH in course DD2388NHibernateCMS: NHibernateCMSParametero - Yet Another Console Arguments Parsing Library: Parametero - Yet Another Console Arguments Parsing LibraryRasifiel's test: Test projectSilverlight Gantt Chart: Don't waste time creating your own Gantt Chart. We've already done it!SKWebSite: This is my first ASP.NET MVC3 projectTechChat: TechChat is a ASP.net AJAX based stylish chat room. It demonstrates the use of database and use of AJAX. It is developed in VB.netUDK Development Kit Addons: UDK Development Kit Addons makes it easier for UDK users to develop and debug UDK scripts. It's developed in C# with using Visual Studio Shell.UltraLight.mvvm Windows Phone 7 MVVM Framework: A lightweight (< 300 lines, < 25KB) framework for developing MVVM Silverlight applications with support for tombstoning on the Windows Phone 7.Website Panel: Website PanelxMS (eXtensible Management System): The xMS is a simple console that can be extended using plugins. Those plugins can be written by developers using a simple interface. It's a good starting for who want to develop a plugin based application.Xna Midi Project: A project that will allow midi functionality using only the compact framework for windows and Xbox solutions.

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• Track user through Google Universal Analytics

  - by raygo

  I want to track a user from my site, give an id to Google Analytics and later be able to see which pages that id visited and for how long did that id view the pages. I've tried custom variables with the classic analytics. I tried enabling the User-ID feature in the Universal Analytics. Neither of these have given me what I want yet. Is there any way to accomplish this with Universal Analytics? UPDATE This is a sample code with a user whose id is 2. I try to set the userid in different ways to see if at least in one way it shows. <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXX-1', 'domain.com', { 'userId': '2' }); ga('set', '&uid', '2'); // Set the user ID using signed-in user_id. var dimensionValue = '2'; ga('set', 'dimension1', dimensionValue); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script>

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• RPi and Java Embedded GPIO: Java code to blink more LEDs

  - by hinkmond

  Now, it's time to blink the other GPIO ports with the other LEDs connected to them. This is easy using Java Embedded, since the Java programming language is powerful and flexible. Embedded developers are not used to this, since the C programming language is more popular but less easy to develop in. We just need to use a dynamic Java String array to map to the pinouts of the GPIO port names from the previous diagram posted. This way we can address each "channel" with an index into that String array. static String[] GpioChannels = { "0", "1", "4", "17", "21", "22", "10", "9" }; With this new dynamic array, we can streamline the main() of this Java program to activate all the ports. /** * @param args the command line arguments */ public static void main(String[] args) { FileWriter[] commandChannels; try { /*** Init GPIO port for output ***/ // Open file handles to GPIO port unexport and export controls FileWriter unexportFile = new FileWriter("/sys/class/gpio/unexport"); FileWriter exportFile = new FileWriter("/sys/class/gpio/export"); for (String gpioChannel : GpioChannels) { System.out.println(gpioChannel); // Reset the port unexportFile.write(gpioChannel); unexportFile.flush(); // Set the port for use exportFile.write(gpioChannel); exportFile.flush(); // Open file handle to port input/output control FileWriter directionFile = new FileWriter("/sys/class/gpio/gpio" + gpioChannel + "/direction"); // Set port for output directionFile.write(GPIO_OUT); directionFile.flush(); } And, then simply add array code to where we blink the LED to make it blink all the LEDS on and off at once. /*** Send commands to GPIO port ***/ commandChannels = new FileWriter[GpioChannels.length]; for (int channum=0; channum It's easier than falling off a log... or at least easier than C programming. Hinkmond

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• What are the advantages of programming to under an OS as opposed to bare metal executive?

  - by gby

  Assume you are presented with an embedded system application to program, in C, on a multi-core environment (think a Cavium or Tilera) and need to choose between two environments: Code the application under Linux in SMP mode or code the application under a thin bare metal executive (something like a very minimal RTOS), perhaps with a single core running UP Linux that can serve control tasks. For the purpose of this question, assume that both environment provide the same level of performance guarantees in any measurable aspects of run time performance, including number of meaningful action per second, jitter, latency, real time considerations - the works. (and yes, I realize this is by far not a trivial assumption at all, bare with me). How would you justify going with a Linux SMP based solution rather then a bare metal thin executive solution? The question may seems silly. It certainly seems obvious to me - but I have to convince someone that does not think the same. Could you help make a list of arguments in favor of choosing a real SMP aware OS (Linux) vs. a bare metal executive assuming performance guarantees are NOT an issue? Many thanks

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• WouldISurviveANuke Assesses Your Distance From Nuclear War Strike Sites

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  WouldISurviveANuke is a morbid Google Maps mashup that plots out the effective radius of nuclear weapons on major metropolitan areas, your distance from them, and your chances of survival. Visit the site, plug in your zipcode, and set the parameters (how big of a nuclear weapon and how large the nearest target city needs to be) to find out if you’re in the blast radius. We plugged in a downtown address in Detroit, MI. The verdict? Neither we nor the cockroaches will be coming out alive. If you plug in a location far enough away from the direct blast radius you’ll also get a quality of life report that spells out the effects of a local nuclear strike. As far as startling anti-nuclear proliferation arguments go, WouldISurviveANuke is an effective and interactive demonstration. Hit up the link below to try it out. WouldISurviveANuke [via Y! Tech] How to Run Android Apps on Your Desktop the Easy Way HTG Explains: Do You Really Need to Defrag Your PC? Use Amazon’s Barcode Scanner to Easily Buy Anything from Your Phone

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• Disable pasting in a textbox using jQuery

  - by Michel Grootjans

  I had fun writing this one My current client asked me to allow users to paste text into textboxes/textareas, but that the pasted text should be cleaned from '<...>' tags. Here's what we came up with: $(":input").bind('paste', function(e) { var el = $(this); setTimeout(function() { var text = $(el).val(); $(el).val(text.replace(/<(.*?)>/gi, '')); }, 100); }) ; This is so simple, I'm amazed. The first part just binds a function to the paste operation applied to any input  declared on the page. $(":input").bind('paste', function(e) {...}); In the first line, I just capture the element. Then wait for 100ms setTimeout(function() {....}, 100); then get the actual value from the textbox, and replace it with a regular expression that basically means replace everything that looks like '<{0}>' with ''. gi at the end are regex arguments in javascript. /<(.*?)>/gi

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• Check parameters annotated with @Nonnull for null?

  - by David Harkness

  We've begun using FindBugs with and annotating our parameters with @Nonnull appropriately, and it works great to point out bugs early in the cycle. So far we have continued checking these arguments for null using Guava's checkNotNull, but I would prefer to check for null only at the edges--places where the value can come in without having been checked for null, e.g., a SOAP request. // service layer accessible from outside public Person createPerson(@CheckForNull String name) { return new Person(Preconditions.checkNotNull(name)); } ... // internal constructor accessed only by the service layer public Person(@Nonnull String name) { this.name = Preconditions.checkNotNull(name); // remove this check? } I understand that @Nonnull does not block null values itself. However, given that FindBugs will point out anywhere a value is transferred from an unmarked field to one marked @Nonnull, can't we depend on it to catch these cases (which it does) without having to check these values for null everywhere they get passed around in the system? Am I naive to want to trust the tool and avoid these verbose checks? Bottom line: While it seems safe to remove the second null check below, is it bad practice? This question is perhaps too similar to Should one check for null if he does not expect null, but I'm asking specifically in relation to the @Nonnull annotation.

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• Sucking Less Every Year?

  - by AdityaGameProgrammer

  Sucking Less Every Year -Jeff Atwood I had come across this insightful article.Quoting directly from the post I've often thought that sucking less every year is how humble programmers improve. You should be unhappy with code you wrote a year ago. If you aren't, that means either A) you haven't learned anything in a year, B) your code can't be improved, or C) you never revisit old code. All of these are the kiss of death for software developers. How often does this happen or not happen to you? How long before you see an actual improvement in your coding ? month, year? Do you ever revisit Your old code? How often does your old code plague you? or how often do you have to deal with your technical debt. It is definitely very painful to fix old bugs n dirty code that we may have done to quickly meet a deadline and those quick fixes ,some cases we may have to rewrite most of the application/code. No arguments about that. Some of the developers i had come across argued that they were already at the evolved stage where their coding doesn't need improvement or cant get improved anymore. Does this happen? If so how many years into coding on a particular language does one expect this to happen? Related: Ever look back at some of your old code and grimace in pain? Star Wars Moment in Code "Luke! I am your code!" "No! Impossible! It can't be!"

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• Misconceptions about purely functional languages?

  - by Giorgio

  I often encounter the following statements / arguments: Pure functional programming languages do not allow side effects (and are therefore of little use in practice because any useful program does have side effects, e.g. when it interacts with the external world). Pure functional programming languages do not allow to write a program that maintains state (which makes programming very awkward because in many application you do need state). I am not an expert in functional languages but here is what I have understood about these topics until now. Regarding point 1, you can interact with the environment in purely functional languages but you have to explicitly mark the code (functions) that introduces them (e.g. in Haskell by means of monadic types). Also, AFAIK computing by side effects (destructively updating data) should also be possible (using monadic types?) but is not the preferred way of working. Regarding point 2, AFAIK you can represent state by threading values through several computation steps (in Haskell, again, using monadic types) but I have no practical experience doing this and my understanding is rather vague. So, are the two statements above correct in any sense or are they just misconceptions about purely functional languages? If they are misconceptions, how did they come about? Could you write a (possibly small) code snippet illustrating the Haskell idiomatic way to (1) implement side effects and (2) implement a computation with state?

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• Tender vs. Requirements vs. Solution Design

  - by Tom Tom

  Conventionally, which of the above documents is deemed to hold the most weight when it comes to system acceptance? I recently had a conversation along these lines: It was argued that the initial requirements / tender documentation should be used to determine system acceptance. It was said that the solution design only serves to describe the way in which the system will solve the problem, not the problem it will solve. Furthermore, it was argued that if requirements are missed during solution design, the requirements should be referenced during system acceptance and that if any requirements were missed then the original tender should be referenced. Conversely, I suggested that - while requirements may be based on the original tender - they supersede it once agreed with the stakeholders. Furthermore, during solution design, analysis is performed to address and refine these initial requirements, translating them into a system capable of meeting the actual requirements. Once signed off by the relevant users, this solution design should absolutely represent the requirements (by virtue of the fact that it's designed upon them) but actually supersedes them as the basis for system acceptance. Is one of the above arguments more valid than the other?

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• How to visualize the design of a program in order to communicate it to others

  - by Joris Meys

  I am (re-)designing some packages for R, and I am currently working out the necessary functions, objects, both internal and for the interface with the user. I have documented the individual functions and objects. So I have the description of all the little parts. Now I need to give an overview of how the parts fit together. The scheme of the motor so to say. I've started with making some flowchart-like graphs in Visio, but that quickly became a clumsy and useless collection of boxes, arrrows and-what-not. So hence the question: Is there specific software you can use for vizualizing the design of your program If so, care to share some tips on how to do this most efficiently If not, how do other designers create the scheme of their programs and communicate that to others? Edit: I am NOT asking how to explain complex processes to somebody, nor asking how to illustrate programming logic. I am asking how to communicate the design of a program/package, i.e.: the objects (with key features and representation if possible) the related functions (with arguments and function if possible) the interrelation between the functions at the interface and the internal functions (I'm talking about an extension package for a scripting language, keep that in mind) So something like this : But better. This is (part of) the interrelations between functions in the old package that I'm now redesigning for obvious reasons :-) PS : I made that graph myself, using code extraction tools on the source and feeding the interrelation matrix to yEd Graph Editor.

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• Performing client-side OAuth authorized Twitter API calls versus server side, how much of a difference is there in terms of performance?

  - by Terence Ponce

  I'm working on a Twitter application in Ruby on Rails. One of the biggest arguments that I have with other people on the project is the method of calling the Twitter API. Before, everything was done on the server: OAuth login, updating the user's Twitter data, and retrieving tweets. Retrieving tweets was the heaviest thing to do since we don't store the tweets in our database, so viewing the tweets means that we have to call the API every time. One of the people in the project suggested that we call the tweets through Javascript instead to lessen the load on the server. We used GET search, which, correct me if I'm wrong, will be removed when v1.0 becomes completely deprecated, but that really isn't a concern now. When the Twitter API has migrated completely to v1.1 (again, correct me if I'm wrong), every calls to the API must be authenticated, so we have to authenticate our Javascript requests to the API. As said here: We don't support or recommend performing OAuth directly through Javascript -- it's insecure and puts your application at risk. The only acceptable way to perform it is if you kept all keys and secrets server-side, computed the OAuth signatures and parameters server side, then issued the request client-side from the server-generated OAuth values. If we do exactly what Twitter suggests, the only difference between this and doing everything server-side is that our server won't have to contact the Twitter API anymore every time the user wants to view tweets. Here's how I would picture what's happening every time the user makes a request: If we do it through Javascript, it would be harder on my part because I would have to create the signatures manually for every request, but I will gladly do it if the boost in performance is worth all the trouble. Doing it through Ruby on Rails would be very easy since the Twitter gem does most of the grunt work already, so I'm really encouraging the other people in the project to agree with me. Is the difference in performance trivial or is it significant enough to switch to Javascript?

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• Inheritance vs composition in this example

  - by Gerenuk

  I'm wondering about the differences between inheritance and composition examined with concrete code relevant arguments. In particular my example was Inheritance: class Do: def do(self): self.doA() self.doB() def doA(self): pass def doB(self): pass class MyDo(Do): def doA(self): print("A") def doB(self): print("B") x=MyDo() vs Composition: class Do: def __init__(self, a, b): self.a=a self.b=b def do(self): self.a.do() self.b.do() x=Do(DoA(), DoB()) (Note for composition I'm missing code so it's not actually shorter) Can you name particular advantages of one or the other? I'm think of: composition is useful if you plan to reuse DoA() in another context inheritance seems easier; no additional references/variables/initialization method doA can access internal variable (be it a good or bad thing :) ) inheritance groups logic A and B together; even though you could equally introduce a grouped delegate object inheritance provides a preset class for the users; with composition you'd have to encapsule the initialization in a factory so that the user does have to assemble the logic and the skeleton ... Basically I'd like to examine the implications of inheritance vs composition. I heard often composition is prefered, but I'd like to understand that by example. Of course I can always start with one and refactor later to the other.

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• I don't understand the definition of side effects

  - by Chris Okyen

  I don't understand the wikipedia article on Side Effects: In computer science, a function or expression is said to have a side effect if, in addition to returning a value, it also 1.) Modifies some state or 2.) Has an observable interaction with calling functions or the outside world. I know an example of the first thing that causes a function or expression to have side effects - modifying a state Function and Expression modifying a state : 1.) foo(int X) { return x = x % x; } a = a + 1; What does 2.) - Has an observable interaction with calling functions or the outside world," mean? - Please give an example. The article continues on to say, "For example, a function might modify a global or static variable, modify one of its arguments, raise an exception, write data to a display or file, read data, or call other side-effecting functions...." Are all these examples, examples of 1.) - Modifiying some state , or are they also part of 2.) - Has an observable interaction with calling functions or the outside world?

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• Empty interface to combine multiple interfaces

  - by user1109519

  Suppose you have two interfaces: interface Readable { public void read(); } interface Writable { public void write(); } In some cases the implementing objects can only support one of these but in a lot of cases the implementations will support both interfaces. The people who use the interfaces will have to do something like: // can't write to it without explicit casting Readable myObject = new MyObject(); // can't read from it without explicit casting Writable myObject = new MyObject(); // tight coupling to actual implementation MyObject myObject = new MyObject(); None of these options is terribly convenient, even more so when considering that you want this as a method parameter. One solution would be to declare a wrapping interface: interface TheWholeShabam extends Readable, Writable {} But this has one specific problem: all implementations that support both Readable and Writable have to implement TheWholeShabam if they want to be compatible with people using the interface. Even though it offers nothing apart from the guaranteed presence of both interfaces. Is there a clean solution to this problem or should I go for the wrapper interface? UPDATE It is in fact often necessary to have an object that is both readable and writable so simply seperating the concerns in the arguments is not always a clean solution. UPDATE2 (extracted as answer so it's easier to comment on) UPDATE3 Please beware that the primary usecase for this is not streams (although they too must be supported). Streams make a very specific distinction between input and output and there is a clear separation of responsibilities. Rather, think of something like a bytebuffer where you need one object you can write to and read from, one object that has a very specific state attached to it. These objects exist because they are very useful for some things like asynchronous I/O, encodings,...

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• How to create a copy of an instance without having access to private variables

  - by Jamie

  Im having a bit of a problem. Let me show you the code first: public class Direction { private CircularList xSpeed, zSpeed; private int[] dirSquare = {-1, 0, 1, 0}; public Direction(int xSpeed, int zSpeed){ this.xSpeed = new CircularList(dirSquare, xSpeed); this.zSpeed = new CircularList(dirSquare, zSpeed); } public Direction(Point dirs){ this(dirs.x, dirs.y); } public void shiftLeft(){ xSpeed.shiftLeft(); zSpeed.shiftRight(); } public void shiftRight(){ xSpeed.shiftRight(); zSpeed.shiftLeft(); } public int getXSpeed(){ return this.xSpeed.currentValue(); } public int getZSpeed(){ return this.zSpeed.currentValue(); } } Now lets say i have an instance of Direction: Direction dir = new Direction(0, 0); As you can see in the code of Direction, the arguments fed to the constructor, are passed directly to some other class. One cannot be sure if they stay the same because methods shiftRight() and shiftLeft could have been called, which changes thos numbers. My question is, how do i create a completely new instance of Direction, that is basically copy(not by reference) of dir? The only way i see it, is to create public methods in both CircularList(i can post the code of this class, but its not relevant) and Direction that return the variables needed to create a copy of the instance, but this solution seems really dirty since those numbers are not supposed to be touched after beeing fed to the constructor, and therefore they are private.

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• How to Deal with an out of touch "Project manager"

  - by Joe

  This "manager" is 70+ yrs old and a math genius. We were tasked with creating a web application. He loves SQL and stored procedures. He first created this in MS access. For the web app I had to take his DB migrate to SQL server. His first thought was to have a master stored procedure with a WAITFOR Handling requests from users. I eventually talked him out of that and use asp.net mvc. Then eventually use the asp.net membership. Now the web app is a mostly handles requests from the pages that is passed to stored procedures. It is all stored procedure driven. The business logic as well. Now we are having an one open DB connection per user logged in plus 1. I use linq to sql to check 2 tables and return the values thats it period. So 25 users is a load. He complains why my code is bad cause his test driver stored procedure simulates over 100 users with no issue. What are the best arguments for not having the business logic not all in stored procedures?? How should I deal with this?? I am giving an abbreviated story of course. He is a genius part owner of the company all the other owners trust him because he is a genius. and quoting -"He gets things done. old school".

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• Why is Desktop Unity using the global application menu?

  - by Kazade

  It was announced in another question that the desktop version of Unity will keep the global menu by default. Here are the facts: The global menu was introduced into UNE to save vertical screen space because at Netbook resolutions the vertical space is limited. On a modern desktop with a high resolution, there is ample vertical space making this unnecessary On the announcement of UNE global menus, Mark Shuttleworth himself said the following: "There are outstanding questions about the usability of a panel-hosted menu on much larger screens, where the window and the menu could be very far apart." The benefits of a global menu don't seem to carry across to a high-resolution desktop and instead seem to bring draw backs (increased mouse travel, large distance between the menu and its associated window). The other worrying factor is that applications seem to be moving away from having a menu bar, and instead of innovating on this and defining new guidelines for moving away from the menu, we are giving it prime place right at the top of the desktop. If applications continue moving away from the desktop we will have an inconsistent experience concerning where to locate application related options/tools depending on which app you are using (e.g. Chrome). Finally, the current global menu bar implementation doesn't work for all apps, and doesn't even work for all apps in the default install. This means that the default desktop implementation will be inconsistent. So, there are a bunch of reasons why moving to a global menu is a bad idea, so we need some pretty convincing arguments for why it is a good idea. What are the reasons for the global menu implementation in the desktop version of Unity?

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• In MVC , DAO should be called from Controller or Model

  - by tito

  I have seen various arguments against the DAO being called from the Controller class directly and also the DAO from the Model class.Infact I personally feel that if we are following the MVC pattern , the controller should not coupled with the DAO , but the Model class should invoke the DAO from within and controller should invoke the model class.Why because , we can decouple the model class apart from a webapplication and expose the functionalities for various ways like for a REST service to use our model class. If we write the DAO invocation in the controller , it would not be possible for a REST service to reuse the functionality right ? I have summarized both the approaches below. Approach #1 public class CustomerController extends HttpServlet { proctected void doPost(....) { Customer customer = new Customer("xxxxx","23",1); new CustomerDAO().save(customer); } } Approach #2 public class CustomerController extends HttpServlet { proctected void doPost(....) { Customer customer = new Customer("xxxxx","23",1); customer.save(customer); } } public class Customer { ........... private void save(Customer customer){ new CustomerDAO().save(customer); } } Note- Here is what a definition of Model is : Model: The model manages the behavior and data of the application domain, responds to requests for information about its state (usually from the view), and responds to instructions to change state (usually from the controller). In event-driven systems, the model notifies observers (usually views) when the information changes so that they can react. I would need an expert opinion on this because I find many using #1 or #2 , So which one is it ?

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