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  • Where to store selected language on multilingual site: session/cookies or url?

    - by tig
    I have a site that has all its content translated to multiple languages and has no accounts (to set prefered language there). I can detect preferred language using Accept-Language, ip or anything else. I have 3 ways to store user language selection: Detect language and store it in cookie/session and allow switching language (and also store it in cookie/session) Use detected language if there is no language specified in url, and show links to url with different language Use default site language and show links to other languages Storing langage in url can be of any type: different domain, subdomain, or somewhere in url I think about first case as it allows me to send one url to anyone and it will be presented to them in their preferred language. But another opinion is that different language means different data, so it must have different link.

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  • How to allow for modular development while still running in same JVM?

    - by Marcus
    Our current app runs in a single JVM. We are now splitting up the app into separate logical services where each service runs in its own JVM. The split is being done to allow a single service to be modified and deployed without impacting the entire system. This reduces the need to QA the entire system - just need to QA the interaction with the service being changed. For interservice communication we use a combination of REST, an MQ system bus, and database views. What I don't like about this: REST means we have to marshal data to/from XML DB views couple the systems together which defeats the whole concept of separate services MQ / system bus is added complexity There is inevitably some code duplication between services You have set up n JBoss server configurations, we have to do n number of deployments, n number of set up scripts, etc, etc. Is there a better way to structure an internal application to allow modular development and deployment while allowing the app to run in a single JVM (and achieving the associated benefits)?

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  • What are Code Smells? What is the best way to correct them?

    - by Rob Cooper
    OK, so I know what a code smell is, and the Wikipedia Article is pretty clear in its definition: In computer programming, code smell is any symptom in the source code of a computer program that indicates something may be wrong. It generally indicates that the code should be refactored or the overall design should be reexamined. The term appears to have been coined by Kent Beck on WardsWiki. Usage of the term increased after it was featured in Refactoring. Improving the Design of Existing Code. I know it also provides a list of common code smells. But I thought it would be great if we could get clear list of not only what code smells there are, but also how to correct them. Some Rules Now, this is going to be a little subjective in that there are differences to languages, programming style etc. So lets lay down some ground rules: ** ONE SMELL PER ANSWER PLEASE! & ADVISE ON HOW TO CORRECT! ** See this answer for a good display of what this thread should be! DO NOT downmod if a smell doesn't apply to your language or development methodology We are all different. DO NOT just quickly smash in as many as you can think of Think about the smells you want to list and get a good idea down on how to work around. DO downmod answers that just look rushed For example "dupe code - remove dupe code". Let's makes it useful (e.g. Duplicate Code - Refactor into separate methods or even classes, use these links for help on these common.. etc. etc.). DO upmod answers that you would add yourself If you wish to expand, then answer with your thoughts linking to the original answer (if it's detailed) or comment if its a minor point. DO format your answers! Help others to be able to read it, use code snippets, headings and markup to make key points stand out!

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  • Should java try blocks be scoped as tightly as possible?

    - by isme
    I've been told that there is some overhead in using the Java try-catch mechanism. So, while it is necessary to put methods that throw checked exception within a try block to handle the possible exception, it is good practice performance-wise to limit the size of the try block to contain only those operations that could throw exceptions. I'm not so sure that this is a sensible conclusion. Consider the two implementations below of a function that processes a specified text file. Even if it is true that the first one incurs some unnecessary overhead, I find it much easier to follow. It is less clear where exactly the exceptions come from just from looking at statements, but the comments clearly show which statements are responsible. The second one is much longer and complicated than the first. In particular, the nice line-reading idiom of the first has to be mangled to fit the readLine call into a try block. What is the best practice for handling exceptions in a funcion where multiple exceptions could be thrown in its definition? This one contains all the processing code within the try block: void processFile(File f) { try { // construction of FileReader can throw FileNotFoundException BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(f)); // call of readLine can throw IOException String line; while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) { process(line); } } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) { handle(ex); } catch (IOException ex) { handle(ex); } } This one contains only the methods that throw exceptions within try blocks: void processFile(File f) { FileReader reader; try { reader = new FileReader(f); } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) { handle(ex); return; } BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(reader); String line; while (true) { try { line = in.readLine(); } catch (IOException ex) { handle(ex); break; } if (line == null) { break; } process(line); } }

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  • What should I name my files with generic class definitions?

    - by Tomas Lycken
    I'm writing a couple of classes that all have generic type arguments, but I need to overload the classes because I need a different number of arguments in different scenarios. Basically, I have public class MyGenericClass<T> { ... } public class MyGenericClass<T, K> { ... } public class MyGenericClass<T, K, L> { ... } // it could go on forever, but it won't... I want them all in the same namespace, but in one source file per class. What should I name the files? Is there a best practice?

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  • How should Application.Run() be called for the main presenter a MVP WinForms app?

    - by Mr Roys
    I'm learning to apply MVP to a simple WinForms app (only one form) in C# and encountered an issue while creating the main presenter in static void Main(). Is it a good idea to expose a View from the Presenter in order to supply it as a parameter to Application.Run()? Currently, I've implemented an approach which allows me to not expose the View as a property of Presenter: static void Main() { IView view = new View(); Model model = new Model(); Presenter presenter = new Presenter(view, model); presenter.Start(); Application.Run(); } The Start and Stop methods in Presenter: public void Start() { view.Start(); } public void Stop() { view.Stop(); } The Start and Stop methods in View (a Windows Form): public void Start() { this.Show(); } public void Stop() { // only way to close a message loop called // via Application.Run(); without a Form parameter Application.Exit(); } The Application.Exit() call seems like an inelegant way to close the Form (and the application). The other alternative would be to expose the View as a public property of the Presenter in order to call Application.Run() with a Form parameter. static void Main() { IView view = new View(); Model model = new Model(); Presenter presenter = new Presenter(view, model); Application.Run(presenter.View); } The Start and Stop methods in Presenter remain the same. An additional property is added to return the View as a Form: public void Start() { view.Start(); } public void Stop() { view.Stop(); } // New property to return view as a Form for Application.Run(Form form); public System.Windows.Form View { get { return view as Form(); } } The Start and Stop methods in View (a Windows Form) would then be written as below: public void Start() { this.Show(); } public void Stop() { this.Close(); } Could anyone suggest which is the better approach and why? Or there even better ways to resolve this issue?

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  • When to alter a function vs when to just write a new one...?

    - by Andrew Heath
    /is n00b Through the gift of knowledge and expertise encoded here, I am doing my best to avoid n00b mistakes as I learn the basics of programming. I use functions when I (think I) can in PHP, and keep them somewhat sorted in different includes. The n00b problem I'm running into now is situations where perhaps 4/5th of an existing function is relevant to a new need. Maybe there are a slightly different set of inputs, or an additional calculation or two in the series, or output needs a different format/structure... but the core of the function is still applicable. Is there a good rule of thumb regarding when one should bolt-on crap to an original function and when one should (literally) copy & paste most of it into a new function and tweak to fit the situation? On the one hand I feel bad duping code, on the other I feel bad cluttering up an existing function with stuff not always needed...

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  • Is there a difference here?

    - by HotHead
    Please consider following code: 1. uint16 a = 0x0001; if(a < 0x0002) { // do something } 2. uint16 a = 0x0001; if(a < uint16(0x0002)) { // do something } 3. uint16 a = 0x0001; if(a < static_cast<uint16>(0x0002)) { // do something } 4. uint16 a = 0x0001; uint16 b = 0x0002; if(a < b) { // do something } What compiler does in backgorund and what is the best (and correct) way to do above testing? p.s. sorry, but I couldn't find the better title :) Thank you in advance!

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  • Any difference in compiler behavior for each of these snippets?

    - by HotHead
    Please consider following code: 1. uint16 a = 0x0001; if(a < 0x0002) { // do something } 2. uint16 a = 0x0001; if(a < uint16(0x0002)) { // do something } 3. uint16 a = 0x0001; if(a < static_cast<uint16>(0x0002)) { // do something } 4. uint16 a = 0x0001; uint16 b = 0x0002; if(a < b) { // do something } What compiler does in backgorund and what is the best (and correct) way to do above testing? p.s. sorry, but I couldn't find the better title :) EDIT: values 0x0001 and 0x0002 are only example. There coudl be any 2 byte value instead. Thank you in advance!

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  • how to wrap a function that only takes individual elements to make it take a list

    - by stevejb
    Hello, Say I have a function handed to me that I cannot change and must use as is. This function takes several objects in the form of oldFunction( object1, object2, object3, ...) where ... are other arguments. I want to write a wrapper to take a list of objects. My idea was this. sjb.ListWrapper <- function(myList,...) { lLen <- length(myList) myStr <- "" for( i in 1:lLen) { myStr <- paste(myStr, "myList[[", i , "]],",sep="") } myCode <- paste("oldFunction(", myStr, "...)") eval({myCode}) } However, the issue is that I want to use this from Sweave and I need the output of oldFunction to be printed. What is the right way to do this? Thanks.

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  • How atomic *should* I make an Ajax form?

    - by b. e. hollenbeck
    I have some web forms that I'm bringing over with AJAX, and as I was dealing with the database on the back end, I thought that it might be easier to just handle each input on the form atomically with AJAX, saving the form in 'real time' as the user edits it. The forms are ~20 fields of administrative settings. Would this create massive overhead with the app, cause it to be error-prone, or is this a feasible idea? Of course, contingent operations (like a checkbox that then requires a text entry) would be held until the textbox gained and lost focus. Comments?

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  • Use database field maxlength as html layout input maxlength best practice. asp.net mvc

    - by Andrew Florko
    Hello everybody, There are string length limitations in database structure (email is declared as nvarchar[30] for instance) There are lots of html forms that has input textbox fields that should be limited in length for that reason. What is the best practice to synchronize database fields and html layout input fields length limitations ? Can it be done automatically (html layout input fields declared the same max length as database data they represent)? Thank you in advance.

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  • How often to run getWritableDatabase() and getReadableDatabase()?

    - by jawonlee
    I'm writing a Service, a Content Provider, and one or more apps. The Service writes new data to the Content Provider's SQLite database every 5 minutes or so plus at user input, and is intended to run pretty much forever in the background. The app, when running, will display data pulled from the Content Provider, and will be refreshed whenever the Service puts more data into the Content Provider's database. Given that the Service only inserts into the database once every five minutes, when is the right time to call SQLiteOpenHelper's getWritableDatabase() / getReadableDatabase()? Is it on the onCreate() of the Content Provider, or should I run it every time there is an insert() and close it at the end of insert()? The data being inserted every 5 minutes will contain multiple inserts.

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  • Best practice with respect to NPE and multiple expressions on single line

    - by JRL
    I'm wondering if it is an accepted practice or not to avoid multiple calls on the same line with respect to possible NPEs, and if so in what circumstances. For example: getThis().doThat(); vs Object o = getThis(); o.doThat(); The latter is more verbose, but if there is an NPE, you immediately know what is null. However, it also requires creating a name for the variable and more import statements. So my questions around this are: Is this problem something worth designing around? Is it better to go for the first or second possibility? Is the creation of a variable name something that would have an effect performance-wise? Is there a proposal to change the exception message to be able to determine what object is null in future versions of Java ?

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  • What can be improved in this PHP code?

    - by Noctis Skytower
    This is a custom encryption library. I do not know much about PHP's standard library of functions and was wondering if the following code can be improved in any way. The implementation should yield the same results, the API should remain as it is, but ways to make is more PHP-ish would be greatly appreciated. Code <?php /*************************************** Create random major and minor SPICE key. ***************************************/ function crypt_major() { $all = range("\x00", "\xFF"); shuffle($all); $major_key = implode("", $all); return $major_key; } function crypt_minor() { $sample = array(); do { array_push($sample, 0, 1, 2, 3); } while (count($sample) != 256); shuffle($sample); $list = array(); for ($index = 0; $index < 64; $index++) { $b12 = $sample[$index * 4] << 6; $b34 = $sample[$index * 4 + 1] << 4; $b56 = $sample[$index * 4 + 2] << 2; $b78 = $sample[$index * 4 + 3]; array_push($list, $b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78); } $minor_key = implode("", array_map("chr", $list)); return $minor_key; } /*************************************** Create the SPICE key via the given name. ***************************************/ function named_major($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_major(); } function named_minor($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_minor(); } /*************************************** Check validity for major and minor keys. ***************************************/ function _check_major($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 256) { foreach (range("\x00", "\xFF") as $char) { if (substr_count($key, $char) == 0) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } function _check_minor($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 64) { $indexs = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($key)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($indexs, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } $dict = array_count_values($indexs); foreach (range(0, 3) as $index) { if ($dict[$index] != 64) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } /*************************************** Create encode maps for encode functions. ***************************************/ function _encode_map_1($major) { return array_map("ord", str_split($major)); } function _encode_map_2($minor) { $map_2 = array(array(), array(), array(), array()); $list = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($list, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { array_push($map_2[$list[$byte]], chr($byte)); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Create decode maps for decode functions. ***************************************/ function _decode_map_1($minor) { $map_1 = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($map_1, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } return $map_1; }function _decode_map_2($major) { $map_2 = array(); $temp = array_map("ord", str_split($major)); for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { $map_2[$temp[$byte]] = chr($byte); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Encrypt or decrypt the string with maps. ***************************************/ function _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; foreach (str_split($string) as $char) { $byte = $map_1[ord($char)]; foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { $cache .= $map_2[($byte >> $shift) & 3][mt_rand(0, 63)]; } } return $cache; } function _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($string); for ($iter = 0; $iter < strlen($string) / 4; $iter++) { $b12 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4])] << 6; $b34 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 1])] << 4; $b56 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 2])] << 2; $b78 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 3])]; $cache .= $map_2[$b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78]; } return $cache; } /*************************************** This is the public interface for coding. ***************************************/ function encode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string)) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _encode_map_1($major); $map_2 = _encode_map_2($minor); return _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } function decode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string) && strlen($string) % 4 == 0) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _decode_map_1($minor); $map_2 = _decode_map_2($major); return _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } ?> This is a sample showing how the code is being used. Hex editors may be of help with the input / output. Example <?php # get and process all of the form data @ $input = htmlspecialchars($_POST["input"]); @ $majorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorname"]); @ $minorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorname"]); @ $majorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorkey"]); @ $minorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorkey"]); @ $output = htmlspecialchars($_POST["output"]); # process the submissions by operation # CREATE @ $operation = $_POST["operation"]; if ($operation == "Create") { if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) == 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(crypt_major()); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) == 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(crypt_minor()); } if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) != 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(named_major($_POST["majorname"])); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) != 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(named_minor($_POST["minorname"])); } } # ENCRYPT or DECRYPT function is_hex($char) { if ($char == "0"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "1"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "2"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "3"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "4"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "5"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "6"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "7"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "8"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "9"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "a"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "b"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "c"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "d"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "e"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "f"): return TRUE; else: return FALSE; endif; } function hex2bin($str) { if (strlen($str) % 2 == 0): $string = strtolower($str); else: $string = strtolower("0" . $str); endif; $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($str); for ($index = 0; $index < count($temp) / 2; $index++) { $h1 = $temp[$index * 2]; if (is_hex($h1)) { $h2 = $temp[$index * 2 + 1]; if (is_hex($h2)) { $cache .= chr(hexdec($h1 . $h2)); } else { return FALSE; } } else { return FALSE; } } return $cache; } if ($operation == "Encrypt" || $operation == "Decrypt") { # CHECK FOR ANY ERROR $errors = array(); if (strlen($_POST["input"]) == 0) { $output = ""; } $binmajor = hex2bin($_POST["majorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["majorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a major key."); } elseif ($binmajor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_major($binmajor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key is corrupt."); } $binminor = hex2bin($_POST["minorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["minorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a minor key."); } elseif ($binminor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_minor($binminor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key is corrupt."); } if ($_POST["operation"] == "Decrypt") { $bininput = hex2bin(str_replace("\r", "", str_replace("\n", "", $_POST["input"]))); if ($bininput == FALSE) { if (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data must be in hex."); } } elseif (strlen($bininput) % 4 != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data is corrupt."); } } if (count($errors) != 0) { # ERRORS ARE FOUND $output = "ERROR:"; foreach ($errors as $error) { $output .= "\n" . $error; } } elseif (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { # CONTINUE WORKING if ($_POST["operation"] == "Encrypt") { # ENCRYPT $output = substr(chunk_split(bin2hex(encode_string($_POST["input"], $binmajor, $binminor)), 58), 0, -2); } else { # DECRYPT $output = htmlspecialchars(decode_string($bininput, $binmajor, $binminor)); } } } # echo the form with the values filled echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=input rows=25 cols=25>" . $input . "</TEXTAREA></P>\n"; echo "<P>Major Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorname value=\"" . $majorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorname value=\"" . $minorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Create name=operation>\n"; echo "</DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Major Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorkey value=\"" . $majorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorkey value=\"" . $minorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Encrypt name=operation> \n"; echo "<INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Decrypt name=operation> </DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Result:</P>\n"; echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=output rows=25 readOnly cols=25>" . $output . "</TEXTAREA></P></DIV></FORM>\n"; ?> What should be editted for better memory efficiency or faster execution?

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  • Why should I use a container div in HTML?

    - by lara.robertson
    I am currently learning html/css, and have noticed a common technique is to place a generic container div in the root of the body tag: <html> <head> ... </head> <body> <div id="container"> ... </div> </body> </html> Is there a valid reason for doing this? Why can't the css just reference the body tag?

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  • Checking for nil in view in Ruby on Rails

    - by seaneshbaugh
    I've been working with Rails for a while now and one thing I find myself constantly doing is checking to see if some attribute or object is nil in my view code before I display it. I'm starting to wonder if this is always the best idea. My rationale so far has been that since my application(s) rely on user input unexpected things can occur. If I've learned one thing from programming in general it's that users inputting things the programmer didn't think of is one of the biggest sources of run-time errors. By checking for nil values I'm hoping to sidestep that and have my views gracefully handle the problem. The thing is though I typically for various reasons have similar nil or invalid value checks in either my model or controller code. I wouldn't call it code duplication in the strictest sense, but it just doesn't seem very DRY. If I've already checked for nil objects in my controller is it okay if my view just assumes the object truly isn't nil? For attributes that can be nil that are displayed it makes sense to me to check every time, but for the objects themselves I'm not sure what is the best practice. Here's a simplified, but typical example of what I'm talking about: controller code def show @item = Item.find_by_id(params[:id]) @folders = Folder.find(:all, :order => 'display_order') if @item == nil or @item.folder == nil redirect_to(root_url) and return end end view code <% if @item != nil %> display the item's attributes here <% if @item.folder != nil %> <%= link_to @item.folder.name, folder_path(@item.folder) %> <% end %> <% else %> Oops! Looks like something went horribly wrong! <% end %> Is this a good idea or is it just silly?

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  • Using an image file vs data URI in the CSS

    - by fudgey
    I'm trying to decide the best way to include an image that is required for a script I've written. I discovered this site and it made me think about trying this method to include the image as a data URI since it was so small - it's a 1x1 pixel 50% opacity png file (used for a background) - it ends up at 2,792 bytes as an image versus 3,746 bytes as text in the CSS. So would this be considered good practice, or would it just clutter up the CSS unnecessarily?

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  • C# using the "this" keyword in this situation?

    - by Alex
    Hi, I've completed a OOP course assignment where I design and code a Complex Number class. For extra credit, I can do the following: Add two complex numbers. The function will take one complex number object as a parameter and return a complex number object. When adding two complex numbers, the real part of the calling object is added to the real part of the complex number object passed as a parameter, and the imaginary part of the calling object is added to the imaginary part of the complex number object passed as a parameter. Subtract two complex numbers. The function will take one complex number object as a parameter and return a complex number object. When subtracting two complex numbers, the real part of the complex number object passed as a parameter is subtracted from the real part of the calling object, and the imaginary part of the complex number object passed as a parameter is subtracted from the imaginary part of the calling object. I have coded this up, and I used the this keyword to denote the current instance of the class, the code for my add method is below, and my subtract method looks similar: public ComplexNumber Add(ComplexNumber c) { double realPartAdder = c.GetRealPart(); double complexPartAdder = c.GetComplexPart(); double realPartCaller = this.GetRealPart(); double complexPartCaller = this.GetComplexPart(); double finalRealPart = realPartCaller + realPartAdder; double finalComplexPart = complexPartCaller + complexPartAdder; ComplexNumber summedComplex = new ComplexNumber(finalRealPart, finalComplexPart); return summedComplex; } My question is: Did I do this correctly and with good style? (using the this keyword)?

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  • TDD - beginner problems and stumbling blocks

    - by Noufal Ibrahim
    While I've written unit tests for most of the code I've done, I only recently got my hands on a copy of TDD by example by Kent Beck. I have always regretted certain design decisions I made since they prevented the application from being 'testable'. I read through the book and while some of it looks alien, I felt that I could manage it and decided to try it out on my current project which is basically a client/server system where the two pieces communicate via. USB. One on the gadget and the other on the host. The application is in Python. I started off and very soon got entangled in a mess of rewrites and tiny tests which I later figured didn't really test anything. I threw away most of them and and now have a working application for which the tests have all coagulated into just 2. Based on my experiences, I have a few questions which I'd like to ask. I gained some information from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1146218/new-to-tdd-are-there-sample-applications-with-tests-to-show-how-to-do-tdd but have some specific questions which I'd like answers to/discussion on. Kent Beck uses a list which he adds to and strikes out from to guide the development process. How do you make such a list? I initially had a few items like "server should start up", "server should abort if channel is not available" etc. but they got mixed and finally now, it's just something like "client should be able to connect to server" (which subsumed server startup etc.). How do you handle rewrites? I initially selected a half duplex system based on named pipes so that I could develop the application logic on my own machine and then later add the USB communication part. It them moved to become a socket based thing and then moved from using raw sockets to using the Python SocketServer module. Each time things changed, I found that I had to rewrite considerable parts of the tests which was annoying. I'd figured that the tests would be a somewhat invariable guide during my development. They just felt like more code to handle. I needed a client and a server to communicate through the channel to test either side. I could mock one of the sides to test the other but then the whole channel wouldn't be tested and I worry that I'd miss that. This detracted from the whole red/green/refactor rhythm. Is this just lack of experience or am I doing something wrong? The "Fake it till you make it" left me with a lot of messy code that I later spent a lot of time to refactor and clean up. Is this the way things work? At the end of the session, I now have my client and server running with around 3 or 4 unit tests. It took me around a week to do it. I think I could have done it in a day if I were using the unit tests after code way. I fail to see the gain. I'm looking for comments and advice from people who have implemented large non trivial projects completely (or almost completely) using this methodology. It makes sense to me to follow the way after I have something already running and want to add a new feature but doing it from scratch seems to tiresome and not worth the effort. P.S. : Please let me know if this should be community wiki and I'll mark it like that. Update 0 : All the answers were equally helpful. I picked the one I did because it resonated with my experiences the most. Update 1: Practice Practice Practice!

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  • What policies are standard for programmers?

    - by Shehket's Apprentice
    My office is about has proposed implementing some extremely strict (I would consider them draconian) policies regarding programmers, and our access due to security concerns (note, we have never had a security breach). While I can theoretically get used to them, I'd like to ask about what is considered good security policy for programmers, specifically in the area of access policies, and what is too much? Any answers to this question are greatly appreciated as they directly relate to my ability to write code, and I can't find anything so far on Google. Edit: Most of the security policies that concern me are about access to my machine and to the code. According to these proposed policies, I'd need management approval to access either, which means that I'd be forced to get management to unlock my computer anytime I leave my desk as my computer is always locked when I'm not at my desk.

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