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• What do you do when one thinks the code isn't complicated enough?

  - by Chris

  After six months of development on a project, our stakeholders have had a "gut check" and have decided that the path that we've been walking (a custom designed application framework and data access layer) is holding us (the developers) back from quickly developing the features they would like to see. After several days of debate management and the development team have decided to scrap the current incarnation and start over using ASP.net MVC, with Entity Framework as the bases of the a 'quick and dirty', lets just get it done project. In days following, our senior developer who has never worked with MVC or Entity Framework has finally gotten into a sample project and done some work. His take on ASP.net MVC, "this is not software engineering". So my question is this; what do you do, when one doesn't think the code is complicated enough?

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• Should Developers Perform All Tasks or Should They Specialize?

  - by Bob Horn

  Disclaimer: The intent of this question isn't to discern what is better for the individual developer, but for the system as a whole. I've worked in environments where small teams managed certain areas. For example, there would be a small team for every one of these functions: UI Framework code Business/application logic Database I've also worked on teams where the developers were responsible for all of these areas and more (QA, analsyt, etc...). My current environment promotes agile development (specifically scrum) and everyone has their hands in every area mentioned above. While there are pros and cons to each approach, I'd be curious to know if there are more pros and cons than I list below, and also what the generally feeling is about which approach is better. Devs Do It All Pros 1. Developers may be more well-rounded 2. Developers know more of the system Cons 1. Everyone has their hands in all areas, increasing the probability of creating less-than-optimal results in that area 2. It can take longer to do something with which you are unfamiliar (jack of all trades, master of none) Devs Specialize Pros 1. Developers can create policies and procedures for their area of expertise and more easily enforce them 2. Developers have more of a chance to become deeply knowledgeable about their specific area and make it the best it can be 3. Other developers don't cross boundaries and degrade another area Cons 1. As one colleague put it: "Why would you want to pigeon-hole yourself like that?" (Meaning some developers won't get a chance to work in certain areas.) It's easy to say how wonderful agile is, and that we should do it all, but I'm somewhat of a fan of having areas of expertise. Without that expertise, I've seen code degrade, database schemas become difficult to manage, hack UI code, etc... Let's face it, some people make careers out of doing just UI work, or just database work. It's not that easy to just fill in and do as good of a job as an expert in that area.

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• How can I make eclipse look like VS.NET 2010?

  - by Juan Manuel

  I am constantly switching between a project written in C# 4.0 and another one written in Java. I find it very difficult to read the code in Java, and I think it's because of its colors (or lack of them really) Is there any way to mimic the colors that VS.NET 2010 has inside eclipse? (even better would be to replace all its hotkeys for their equivalent in VS.NET, like ctrl+k for ctrl+f3, but I believe it would be utopic)

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• How to deal with a valuable person going in all directions?

  - by JVerstry

  I am working with someone producing user content to be included in a software application. He is not a coder, but rather an expert in his field, sharing the knowledge. His contribution, taken piece by piece is great, but he goes in all directions and has issues producing work sequentially. He works on 25 pieces of content at the same time, and as soon as he reads something 'interesting', he wants to rewrite some of his stuff to improve the quality of it. He does not converge naturally. He collects tons of informations, produces some valuable stuff, but in a completely unstructured way. We addressed this issue with him some time ago and in order to try to solve it, we created a document with the 100 items he had to fill. Problem is, it does not seem to work very well. How to deal with those people and collect information? I was thinking about a new technique: ask him to send his bits, out of order, little by little, as soon as they are ready, and keep a list of what remains to be done, and show him that list to give him direction. This situation is stressing the hell out of me. If his production was not good, I would not be trying so hard to make this work. If you have experience to share, it is welcome.

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• How to make a good portfolio for IT student (who loves programming) like me?

  - by Viet

  I am currently a college student, and going to apply for an university in probably next month. Unlike art student who easily put on their works such as models, designs and so on on their portfolio; I am hitting a dead corner trying to find a "creative" way to showcase my work as a programmer. It would be normal if programmer shows his good project with source code and everything else. Well, it should be no problem with actual "good" projects, but all of my projects are crappy (can't help it because I am still student, and don't have much work experience) and I don't even know it's worth to show. Nonetheless, I have learned a lot in only 1 year since I started programming. I am now familiar with Java, PHP, Actionscript3, C#, Objective-C and on my way to learn Ruby. I plan to build a Flash portfolio using Actionscript with Ruby as backend to show what I have learnt. The problem is idea. How to show people that I learned a lot of useful thing? Otherwise I hit the dead end and LOL just show what I have on Github (but i certainly never want that...)

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• Auto save, filter applied screen shots

  - by DUKE

  Unlike Windows, it is very easy to take screen shots of selected area of the screen in Ubuntu. But I am researching how to have the following features when taking screen shots of the selected area: (1) The final output should be automatically saved to a location, for example on the desktop. (This feature is available in Mac OSX) (2) A filter (such as drop down shadow) should be automatically applied to the image. The above should happen as soon as the selection is done, without poping up any dialogs and expecting any inputs from the user.

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• How to determine the right amount of up front design?

  - by Gian

  Software developers occasionally are called upon to write fairly complex bits of software under tight deadlines. Often, it seems like the quickest thing to do is to simply start coding, and solve the problems as they arise. However, this approach can come back to bite you—often costing time or money in the long run! How do we determine the right amount of up front design work? If your work environment actively discourages you from thinking about things up front, how do you handle that? How can we manage risk if we eschew up-front thinking (by choice or under duress) and figure out the problems as they arise? Does the amount of up front design depend entirely on the size or complexity of the task, or is it based on something else?

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• "A good programmer can be as 10+ times more productive as a mediocre one"

  - by m3th0dman

  I had read an interview with a great programmer (it is not in English) and in it he said that "a great programmer can be as 100 times as good as a mediocre one" giving reason for why good programmers are very well paid and why programming companies give many facilities for their employees. The idea was that there is a very large demand for good programmers, because of the above reason and that's why companies pay very much to bring them. Do you agree with this statement? Do you know any objective facts that could support it? Edit: The question has nothing to do with experience; if you talk about one great programmer with 1 year experience then s/he should be 10 times more productive than a mediocre programmer with 1 year experience. I agree that from certain experience years onwards, things start to dissipate but that's not the purpose of the question.

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• International multi-OS keyboard layout for both coding and surfing?

  - by Nikolai Prokoschenko

  So yes, the problem has been raised in parts multiple times already. Still I'm looking for a keyboard layout that has the following features: Easy on fingers (Dvorak-like layouts welcome) Easy for coding Includes German characters (typing ä with AltGr-p is not ok). Works well with web-browsing (Ctrl-t and Ctrl-w on one hand, left one very much preferred, since that's where my ex-CapsLock, now Ctrl lies) Works well with default Emacs bindings Works on both Windows and Linux (at least easily installable) I've looked at Dvorak and Neo, they both have a "shortcut problem", i.e. web-browsing and most frequent Emacs combinations use both parts of the keyboard. Using right Ctrl is usually not an option, since it'll give me RSI much faster than keeping QWERTY/Z. Funnily enough, mirroring the default Neo layout would probably be enough for me. So, any ideas?

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• CIOs: Stop Mandating Training

  - by merrillaldrich

  I love to learn about new technology, and I especially love a long deep-dive technical session with a real expert or a well-crafted, inches thick technical book. Even if either one is expensive. Learning is probably my favorite thing to do. Yet I stand before you with an appeal: Stop “sending people to training.” Why would I say such a thing? Because failure is baked right into that very phrase: “sending people to training.” Death by Training Most of us in the IT world have probably experienced this...(read more)

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• In which fields does quality of the software product matter as much as the completion time?

  - by Nav

  Someone told me that if the software product meets clients expectations, it is good quality. But I've worked with Interaction Designers (the same kind of people who made Gmail's interface and usability so cool!), and I've loved working with them because even though they came up with hundreds of changes in requirements, and emphasised on many many subtle details, when the software was complete, I could look at the product and say WOW! The current place I work, the only thing that matters is completing the project on time. As long as it works and as long as the client says it's ok, nobody bothers to improve it. I'm not talking about gold-plating, but I believe that for a programmer to enjoy his (well, maybe her too ;) ) job, they should be able to proudly say that "Hey, I made that software" and that comes only when the product is of good quality. Apart from your opinions on this, I'd also like to know which fields (Eg. Aerospace, Finance etc.) could I find companies (or you could mention the company name) where the quality of a product is as important as completing the project on time?

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• Current activity logger

  - by user72605

  Very inexperienced coder here: Does anyone know of an app (for iOS or Mac) that asks for my current activity every hour or so? I see tons of apps that let you log your activities, but none that use popups/notifications to actively ask you. I found a script that looks promising (source), but I'm having trouble implementing it so that it repeats every hour: #!/bin/bash echo What are you doing right now? read -e what echo `date` - $what >> timelog.txt Thanks!

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• How to avoid jumping to a solution when under pressure? [closed]

  - by GlenPeterson

  When under a particularly strict programming deadline (like an hour), if I panic at all, my tendency is to jump into coding without a real plan and hope I figure it out as I go along. Given enough time, this can work, but in an interview it's been pretty unsuccessful, if not downright counter-productive. I'm not always comfortable sitting there thinking while the clock ticks away. Is there a checklist or are there techniques to recognize when you understand the problem well enough to start coding? Maybe don't touch the keyboard for the first 5-10 minutes of the problem? At what point do you give up and code a brute-force solution with the hope of reasoning out a better solution later? When is it most productive to think and design more vs. code some experiments to and figure out the design later? Here is a list of techniques for taking a math test and another for taking an oral exam. Is there is a similar list of techniques for handling a programming problem under pressure? ANSWERS: I think this is a valid answer: How To Solve It. I found the link as an answer to Steps to solve or approach towards a solution. There were also some really good tips at Is thinking out loud during an interview really the best strategy?. A great and concise argument for TDD is the first answer to TDD Writing code vs Figuring out the answer to a problem?. My question may be a near-duplicate of that one.

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• How to stop gold-plating and just be content to release working developments

  - by Andy Bowskill

  The development team that I'm a member of has recently adapted to work according to Agile practices. This has personally highlighted the fact that I can't stop myself gold-plating code (and documentation) and I consequently exceed original estimates, when I could've delivered solutions that meet the requirements much earlier. I think my ethic is bordering on the obsessive in that I become too attached to my code and am rarely content to release before I've refactored and perfected it to the nth degree. I am happy that I have realised this but how can I change my attitude/mentality to be content with my progress and release on-time instead?

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• How do you maintain focus when a particular aspect of programming takes 10+ seconds to complete?

  - by Jer

  I have a very difficult time focusing on what I'm doing (programming-wise) when something (compilation, startup time, etc.) takes more than just a few seconds. Anecdotally it seems that threshold is about 10 seconds (and I recall reading about study that said the same thing, though I can't find it now). So what typically happens is I make a change and then run the program to test it. That takes about 30 seconds, so I start reading something else, and before I know it 20 minutes have passed, and then it takes (if I'm lucky!) another 10+ minutes to deal with the context switch to getting back into programming. It's not an exaggeration to say that some things that should take me minutes literally take hours to complete. I'm very curious about what other programmers do to combat this tendency (or if I'm unique and they don't have this tendency?). Suggestions of any type at all are welcome - anything from "sit on your hands after hitting the compile button", to mental tricks, to "if it takes 30 seconds to start up something to test a change, then something's wrong with your development process!"

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• How to cut the line between quality and time?

  - by m3th0dman

  On one hand, I have been taught by various software engineering books ([1] as example) that my job as a programmer is to make the best possible software: great design, flexibility, to be easily maintained etc. One the other hand although I realize that I actually write software for money and not for entertainment, although is very nice to write good code and plan ahead and refactor after writing and ... I wonder if it is always best for the business (after all we should be responsible). Is the business always benefiting from a best code? Maybe I'm over-engineering something, and it's not always useful? So how should I know when to stop in the process to achieving the best possible code? I am sure that experience is something that makes a difference here, but I believe this cannot be the only answer. [1] Uncle Bob's in Clean Code says at page 6 about the fact that: They [managers] may defend the schedule and requirements with passion; but that’s their job. It’s your job to defend the code with equal passion.

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• If you were the manager of a team of 25 developers, how would you motivate them?

  - by Pierre 303

  Imagine yourself hired by a new startup backed with few millions coming from venture capitalists. Your mission: organize the development of the next killer app. 25 developers is too much to take care of each individually, so what decision(s) you would make to motivate them? I will appreciate any answers from stock options to free cookies ;) Of course the trick here (unless you are really a manager of a such startup), is put yourself in the shoes of one of those programmers. EDIT: it's an imaginary context. The purpose of this story is to stimulate your wishes. I want to capture what motivates developers.

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• Assuming "clean code/architecture" is there a difference in "effort" between PHP or Java/J2EE web application development?

  - by PhD

  A client asked us to estimate effort when selecting PHP as the implementation language for his next web-based application. We spent about a week exploring PHP, prototyping, testing etc., We are quite new to this language - may have hacked around it in the past but, let's go with PHP-noobs but application development experts (for the lack of a better, less flattering word :) It seems, that if we write, clean maintainable code, follow separation of concerns, enterprise architecture patters (DAOs etc.) the 'effort' in creating an object-oriented PHP based web-application seems to be the same for a Java based one. Here's our equation for estimating the effort (development/delivery time): ConstructionEffort = f(analysis, design, coding, testing, review, deployment) We were specifically comparing effort estimates in creating an enterprise application with the following: PHP + CakePHP/CodeIgniter (should we have considered others?) Java + Spring + Restlet It's an end-to-end application: Client: Javascript/jQuery + HTML/CSS Middle tier/Business Logic - (Still evaluating PHP/Java) Database: MySQL The effort estimates of the 1st and 3rd tier are constant and relatively independent of the middle tier's technology. At a high level with an initial breakdown into user stories of the requested features as well as a high-level SWAG on the sheer number of classes/SLOC that would be required for PHP doesn't seem to differ by much from what is required of the same in Java. Is this correct? We are basing our initial estimates on the initial prototyping/coding we've done with PHP - we are currently disregarding fluency with the language as a factor, since that'll be an initial hurdle and not a long term impediment IMHO (we also have sufficient time to become quite fluent with PHP). I'm interested in knowing the programmers' perspective with respect to effort when creating similar applications with either of the languages to justify choosing one over the other. Are we missing something here? It seems we are going against popular belief of PHP being quicker to market (or we being very fluent with Java have our vision clouded). It doesn't seem to have any coding/programming effort saving from what we/ve played around with.

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• I've had some free time at work during maintenance releases, but all I do is surf the Internet.

  - by hal10001

  I'm really having trouble with this, since it is the perfect opportunity to learn something new, begin a personal project... essentially do just about anything, but all I do is surf the Internet. I find that I don't want to look at anything programming related, and I'm seriously wondering if I'm letting boredom get the best of me, I'm depressed, or experiencing burnout? Any suggestions for how to go about taking back this unproductive time would be greatly appreciated.

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• Chemical alternatives to caffeine / coffee for mental clarity and alertness? [on hold]

  - by einsteinx2

  Currently I drink about 2 cups of coffee or tea a day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon usually). However I'm very sensitive to stimulants and drinking caffeine regularly keeps my resting heart rate really high, causes occasional heart palpitations, and sometimes trouble sleeping. I've tried going without coffee, and while I can do it, I have trouble concentrating at work and even just enjoying my work. I'm borderline ADD (or possibly full on ADD, but haven't been checked). And I tend to lose focus easily if I don't have some coffee or tea in me. For health reasons, I'd like to cut it out completely, but when I do my work performance seriously suffers. I already work out (cardio and/or weight lifting) 5 - 6 days a week, and get an average of about 8 hours of sleep, but I still can't focus throughout the day without caffeine. Are there any over the counter chemical or supplement alternatives for mental clarity that you've used with success don't cause the additional unwanted physical side effects that come with regular stimulants like caffeine?

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• How to avoid "DO YOU HAZ TEH CODEZ" situations?

  - by volothamp

  I have a strange situation at work, where a colleague of mine often asks me and other co-workers for working code. I would like to help him, but this constant request of trivial snippets interrupts my thoughts and sometimes makes it hard to concentrate. Plus, I have the impression (...) that this requests are generated by lack of competence, more than by laziness. In fact, he often asks things pretending to know the answer, since when I solve the problem he usually says things like "Sure", "Yes, that's what I thought", giving me the impression that my answer isn't worth it. How can I solve this embarrassing situation? Should I show more explicitly in front of other colleagues his lack of knowledge (by saying things like: "do it yourself if you can, please") or continue giving him what he wants? I think that he should aggregate all his answers in one, so that I can give him a portion of my time and he can work all by himself on his things. There is no hierarchy in the team, I must say we both have a similar seniority of five years, more or less. For the same reason I believe I cannot report to management, since trivial questions are often ignored. I discussed with other two members and they agree with me: in fact he often ask things cycling through colleagues.

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• How to deal with fellow programmer who likes to delegate task with lack any support from boss [closed]

  - by Rudy

  I have a problem with my fellow programmer. We are currently working together in a small project that need to be shipped every 2 weeks. She has a tendency to ask for help for every issues that she is facing. Whether it's a compile error, algorithm problem or even sync/merge issue that caused by herself. She does not even bother to check Google or try to find out by herself. I can be asked to help her for 5-10 times a day. Everyday her husband keeps calling (4-6 times a day), and most of the code that has been delivered by her are actually incorrect. Today she framed me for sending the wrong delivery product. She went home after lunch on the delivery day without telling PM and other team member on that day and her code she commited does not work at all. It's not even tested. I have no choice to roll back her code and cleaning her code just for sake to able to run the product. I have warned her about her defective codes for almost 3 iterations. She said when she was not around I should be able to test her module for her. I snapped and yelled that I am not her slave and directly reported to my boss. However, my boss is not a person that can manage and care about software quality. What is the most important thing to my boss is delivery of product, whether it tested or not. He can even asked us to deliver something that not even tested by QA to the client, on the next day. Most of our suggestion is not followed by him. He even asked me to apologize to her because I snapped. I am tired of the whole situation. This kind of thing keeps repeated. I do have saving to be able to survive for 6 months and the idea of resigning is keep haunting. There is nothing else that can be learned in my current job and I had been in a better environment than this. What should I do with the situation?

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• "A good programmer can be as 10+ times more productive than a mediocre one"

  - by m3th0dman

  I had read an interview with a great programmer (it is not in English) and in it he said that "a great programmer can be as 100 times as good as a mediocre one" giving reason for why good programmers are very well paid and why programming companies give many facilities for their employees. The idea was that there is a very large demand for good programmers, because of the above reason and that's why companies pay very much to bring them. Do you agree with this statement? Do you know any objective facts that could support it? Edit: The question has nothing to do with experience; if you talk about one great programmer with 1 year experience then s/he should be 10 times more productive than a mediocre programmer with 1 year experience. I agree that from certain experience years onwards, things start to dissipate but that's not the purpose of the question.

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• What do you do when the code isn't complicated enough?

  - by Chris

  After six months of development on a project, our stakeholders have had a "gut check" and have decided that the path that we've been walking (a custom designed application framework and data access layer) is holding us (the developers) back from quickly developing the features they would like to see. After several days of debate management and the development team have decided to scrap the current incarnation and start over using ASP.net MVC, with Entity Framework as the bases of the a 'quick and dirty', lets just get it done project. In days following, our senior developer who has never worked with MVC or Entity Framework has finally gotten into a sample project and done some work. His take on ASP.net MVC, "this is not software engineering". So my question is this; what do you do, when one doesn't think the code is complicated enough?

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• Is OOP becoming easier or harder?

  - by tunmise fasipe

  When the concepts of Object Oriented Programming were introduced to programmers years back it looks interesting and programming was cleaner. OOP was like this Stock stock = new Stock(); stock.addItem(item); stock.removeItem(item); That was easier to understand with self-descriptive name. But now OOP, with pattern like Data Transfer Objects (or Value Objects), Repository, Dependency Injection etc, has become more complex. To achieve the above you may have to create several classes (e.g. abstract, factory, DAO etc) and Implement several interfaces Note: I am not against best practices that makes Collaboration, Testing and Integration easier

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