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I am currently reading the recently published Being Geek by Michael "Rands" Lopp and I can't get enough of it.
Is there any other career guidance books aimed directly or indirectly at programmers that are worth reading?
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In chapter one of "The Pragmatic Programmer" the first learning goal is:
Learn at least one new language every year. Different languages solve the same problems in different ways. By learning several different approaches, you can help broaden your thinking and avoid getter struck in a rut. [...]
To achieve this over ... |
To put it another way... What is the most commonly held and frustrating misunderstanding about programming, you have encountered?
Which widespread and longstanding myths/misconceptions do you find hard for programmers to dispel/correct.
Please, explain why this is a myth.
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I work for a company that supports several languages: COBOL, VB6, C#, and Java. I use those languages for my primary work, but I often find myself coding some minor programs (e.g. scripts) in Python because I find it to be the best tool for that type of task.
For example: an analyst gives me a complex CSV file to popul... |
In fact this question is about cautions to be taken to enhance quality user experience and reduce avoidable support calls.
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Please, stay on technical issues, avoid behavior, cultural, career or political issues.
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If you've always loved unit testing, good for you! But for the unfortunate ones who weren't born with a liking for it, how have you managed to make this task more enjoyable ?
This is not a "what is the right way to unit test" question. I simply want to know little personal tricks that reduce the boredom (dare I say) o... |
As an example, say there's an interface that contains a table/grid of information that is periodically updated. The table is meant to represent an event that has happened, perhaps the date and time of a stock price change.
The actual frequency of these events could be dozens of events per second. This is obviously to... |
As programmers I think we are the most inclined to use new technologies and things that are not so mainstream.
I absolutely love OpenId's ability to log in with credentials you already have, but I always use a provider that I already use and that is the fastest to log in, like google. God knows I'd never used it if i h... |
What is the best practice, most commonly accepted naming conventions for private variables in C#?
private int myInteger;
private int MyInteger;
private int mMyInteger;
private int _myInteger;
private int _MyInteger;
Mysterious other option
Which do you use and why? (My company is fairly new to C# and I would like to... |
Possible Duplicate:
Really “wow” them in the interview
Let's say I appear for an interview. What questions could I expect and how do I prepare?
|
I'm posting this here since programmers write viruses, and AV software. They also have the best knowledge of heuristics and how AV systems work (cloaking etc).
The EICAR test file was used to functionally test an antivirus system. As it stands today almost every AV system will flag EICAR as being a "test" virus. For... |
People make mistakes, even in the real life... Which should we, geeky programmers, avoid?
|
I've been working in the enterprise space for the past 4½ years and have noticed that generally speaking, enterprises are not conducive environments for the test-first style of development. Projects are usually fixed-cost, fixed-timeline and waterfall style. Any unit testing, if done at all, usually comes after develop... |
See title, but I am asking from a technical perspective, not
Take my 40 year old virgin niece on a date or you're fired.
|
When writing or using an algorithm, should the Big Oh complexity be mentioned?
|
So I'm sure everyone has run into this person at one point or another, someone catches wind of your project or idea and initially shows some interest. You get to talking about some of your methods and usually around this time they interject stating how you should use method X instead, or just use library Y. But not as ... |
When should a project be released to alpha, beta and to the public?
Is it a good idea to extend the alpha and beta phases when it is needed?
When in a later phase (eg. beta), is it wise to go back to an early phase (eg. alpha) if it didn't work out?
|
What things tend to slow a developer down?
Please try to refrain from posting answers that:
are slow now but useful in the feature. (TDD, Refactoring, ...)
list a distraction.
|
What steps and measures can I take to prevent deep indentations in my code?
|
In an earlier question, I asked for career advice for new software engineers who did well before and during college. But what about people who weren't fortunate enough to go to MIT or Yale, for whatever reason? What if you went to what Joel Spolsky calls a JavaSchool?
What can/should JavaSchool alumni do to develop t... |
How can I track that I'm developing software more or less productive than the previous days?
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I've been asked this in a few interviews. And it always catches me off guard.My professional and academic background are already in the resumé, which the interviewer has obviously looked at. What more to tell him/her? Should I start with my hobbies? I like gardening, or looking at NSFW pictures on reddit in my free tim... |
Sometimes, one creates a exploratory prototype and forgets about structure in the directories...
What are good tips on dividing the programming files over (several levels of) directories?
|
Google sometimes come up with irrelevant links, not everything is available on SO, there are cases where the local documentation is also annoying to look through... Are there other efficient ways you use to search?
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Please, explain why and list which languages have the (mis)feature implemented As far you know.
Post what you consider a harmful feature, not what you dislike.
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I am referring to explaining to the non-programmer what programming is. I made sure to search for similar questions before creating this one, but the few ones I did find seemed to dodge the question, and I specifically would like to see some metaphors or analogies. I personally find it easier to explain something techn... |
How useful are infix operators in a programming language? Are they worth the extra complexity they provide? Can you provide any examples where infix operators are better suited to the problem that can't be handled by just overloading the normal operators?
|
In response to This Question, I ask: What are the best parts of your coding standard?
What are the best practices that help with code quality, reliability, maintainability, readability, etc.
Please include the language, the item from the standard, and the reason it improves your code.
|
We’re working on a .Net framework which ultimately amounts to a single DLL. We intend to charge for commercial use of the framework, but make it free for open source/non-commercial use. The rough plan at the moment is to administer this through some form of fairly simple licence which will be issued whether you’re us... |
This is a "Share the Knowledge" question. I am interested in learning from your successes and/or failures.
Information that might be helpful...
Background:
Context: Language, Application,
Environment, etc.
How was the bug identified ?
Who or what identified the bug ?
How complex was reproducing the bug ?
The Hunting... |
I have had a few that I am proud of and some of them were written by myself few years ago. It doesn't have to be necessarily buggy, just bad code.
|
Should curly braces be on their own line or not? What do you think about it?
if (you.hasAnswer()) {
you.postAnswer();
} else {
you.doSomething();
}
or should it be
if (you.hasAnswer())
{
you.postAnswer();
}
else
{
you.doSomething();
}
or even
if (you.hasAnswer())
you.postAnswer();
else
you.doS... |
Coding standards are common in any software development organization, but how important are they to follow? I can understand the need for some consistency, but when dealing with simple things like the position of braces, line length, etc., I'm not sure excessively strict standards contribute much to software developme... |
The Joel Test is a well known test for determining how good your team is. What do you think about the points? Do you disagree with any of them? Is there anything that you would add?
|
I have heard a lot of people mention Code Complete as a book worthwhile reading. Unfortunately, I am so busy that I don't have time to read it, so can anyone tell me what the key points of the book are?
|
There's around a zillion "PHP frameworks". And most of them bill themselves as following the MVC pattern. While it's welcome to overcome osCommerce coding style (processing logic heavily intermixed with SQL and HTML), there are certainly simpler and easier to follow approaches to get a maintainable application design.
... |
I originally thought of creative commons when while reading a book about wordpress (professional wordpress), I learned that I should also specify that the product is provided
... WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
and they recommend GNU ... |
When I say Free Software I mean it in the FSF terms. Free as in Free Speech, not as in Free Beer.
Why is it a good idea for programmers to use and write Free Software?
|
How valuable (or not) do you think daily stand-up meetings are?
If you're not familiar with it, this refers to a daily meeting that is part of Scrum adherents (and some other agile methodologies). The idea is that you hold a daily meeting, timeboxed to 15 minutes, and in which everyone must stand (to encourage people ... |
One of the criteria of the Joel Test is daily builds. The idea is that if the build is broken, whoever broke it is around to fix it up. If the build cannot be fixed, everyone will have to check out an old version and work on that. I can understand how this can be pretty bad on centralised version control where it is im... |
When writing software for yourself, your company or third parties, do you always consider certain principles, values, standards, or rules of behavior that guide the decisions, procedures and systems in a way that contributes to the welfare of its key stakeholders, and respects the rights of all constituents affected by... |
I would like to do some web programming using functional programming. What decent web-frameworks exists for functional programming languages?
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If you browse the code golf questions on StackExchange, you notice a ton of non-standard but real world (Eg not brain-f*ck) languages like F#, Scala, R, J and Clojure. Visiting their websites, some of the languages look interesting solving problems in whatever language your already using.
However there is coding in spa... |
Possible Duplicate:
At which point do you “know” a technology enough to list it on a resume
I'm having trouble selecting exactly what to put in the computer skills section of my resume. I feel the need to list a lot of languages and the IDEs I work with, and perhaps mention that I use Mercurial too. But this seems, ... |
Are different version naming conventions suited to different projects? What do you use and why?
Personally, I prefer a build number in hexadecimal (e.g 11BCF), this should be incremented very regularly. And then for customers a simple 3 digit version number, i.e. 1.1.3.
1.2.3 (11BCF) <- Build number, should correspond ... |
As an entrepreneur/programmer who makes a good living from writing and selling software, I'm dumbfounded as to why developers write applications and then put them up on the Internet for free. You've found yourself in one of the most lucrative fields in the world. A business with 99% profit margin, where you have no p... |
This question is a little abstract but I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
My question is what amount of time can one expect to devote to a software project's bugs in relation to the original development time. I realize there are a huge number of determining factors that go into but I was hoping for... |
How would you, as someone involved in the hiring process (manager,interviewer, etc) feel about a candidate that has changed jobs every 1-2 years?
updateThanks for all the input everybody, some really great responses, and good info in every post. I asked it because I'm currently at my 3 job in the last 5 years and I'm ... |
Today I found a GPLed project on SourceForge whose executables are spreading a virus. This fact has been pointed out several times in reviews of the project and the infected executable is still available for download. Apparently, older executables are not infected, so the project itself does not seem to be made with ma... |
What's the difference in this terminology? Is one considered more professional than the other?
|
Years ago, in my first real programming job, my boss encouraged me to keep a journal of my daily activities. I still do so, although no longer a paper and hand-written one.
Do you keep a journal, if so, what do you write in it, and how does it help you in your job? Or, does it just take time that is not ever recovere... |
And what do you think about operator precedence? Would be harder programming in a language where the operations are executed in sequential order?
Ex.:
2 + 3 * 4 == 20
2 + (3 * 4) == 14
OK, the Lisp family doesn't have precedence by definition. Let's gonna talk about procedural and object-oriented languages using this "... |
It seems like in language holy wars, people constantly denigrate any feature they don't find particularly useful as being "just syntactic sugar". The line between "real features" and "syntactic sugar" tends to get blurred in these debates. What do you believe is a reasonable and unambiguous definition of syntactic su... |
Long winding if conditions should be avoided if at all possible, yet sometimes we all end up writing them. Even if it's a very simple condition, the involved statements are sometimes simply very wordy, so the whole condition ends up being very lengthy. What's the most readable way to format those?
if (FoobarBaz::quxQuu... |
You've shipped, asserts are turned off, you receive a rare crash report indicating that a null pointer violation occurred in your code. In a development environment, the problem would have been caught by an assert.
All you have is a crash report, so reproducing the issue is near impossible. Following the backtrace do... |
I am C++ developer with some good experience on it. When I try to learn a new language ( have tried Java, C#, python, perl till now) I usually pickup a book and try to read it. But the problem with this is that these books typically start with some very basic programming concepts such as loops, operators etc and it sta... |
At some point in time, I just stopped coding for fun. I used to go to work, finish my assignments and then upon arriving home I'd go and write stuff on the side for fun. However, I now just go home and try to avoid the computer. I'd rather read the paper, watch TV, go out to the bar, etc.
Is this a bad sign? I mean... |
I often develop an application entirely myself. But did I really?
I feel strange about that claim and never know when that is true.
I mean I designed it, coded it, but I used XYZ plug-in. Can I still claim that I did it all myself even though I didn't create the plugin I used?
Consider this conversation?
ME: I designe... |
I am a computer science student and learning Java now a days.
I want to be a good developer/programmer.
I like reading books. I search on the internet for the related topics and study them. I refer to StackOverflow and other good programming websites daily but I code rarely. Is this a bad sign? If yes then what shoul... |
I work with C# professionally and I write code like this all the time.
private IEnumerable<Something> GetAlotOfSomething()
{
if (somethingA.IsReady)
yield return somethingA;
if (somethingB.IsReady)
yield return somethingB;
if (somethingC.IsReady)
yield return somethingC;
// .... |
With parallel algorithms knocking at the door, it might be a good time to think about error handling.
So at first there were error codes. Those sucked. It was free to ignore them, so you could fail late and produce hard-to-debug code.
Then came exceptions. Those were made impossible to ignore once they occur, and most ... |
What tools do they use? What processes? What rules do they have regarding code? How do they test their code?
|
We have a legacy classic ASP application that's been around since 2001. It badly needs to be re-written, but it's working fine from an end user perspective.
The reason I feel like a rewrite is necessary is that when we need to update it (which is admittedly not that often) then it takes forever to go through all the s... |
I mean seriously, how do you tackle a guy who even changes our variable names (even though they are reasonable) and sends back the code (after review) like 4 times? I know for sure I'm not that bad a developer!
So many times, he enforces his ideals, which are not even best practices in the industry! I point out to him ... |
I've been involved with many projects in several companies because I've been a developer for a long time and I'm a contractor.
I estimate that less than 20% of projects are methodically tested. With methodically tested I mean any testing beyond ad-hoc no plan testing.
I also estimate that less than 10% of projects are ... |
How would you consider that a programmer is bad at what he or she is doing?
If possible... How should he/she improve?
|
I'm doing my first big project and I don't have a lot of experience in a professional programming environment. While researching anything programming-related I often see references to Unit Testing, but I am still unclear as to how to set those up or even if it would be beneficial to me.
Can someone explain unit testin... |
I learned about them in a Structured Programming course, but never saw them used thereafter either at the analysis phase or for documentation purposes. Not even for highly structured languages like Pascal (Delphi).
Does any of you actually use Nassi-Shneiderman diagrams? If yes, what tools do you use to create/maintain... |
What should you do, if a co-worker is editing your code?
Without the purpose of adding functionality or fixing bugs, just to change how it looks...
|
For which issues is it right to edit the code written by a co-worker? For which issues is it wrong?
|
In Windows the default way is registry. This allow you to differentiate system-wide and per-user settings.
In Unix you should use text files in the /etc folder for system-wide settings (what's the convention for per-user settings?).
Many new programs (and especially those designed for being portable) use XML files.
Wh... |
The jRails project is a drop in replacement for the Prototype/scriptalicious helpers already a part of the Rails framework. Are your experiences with this project positive? Does it do what it says on the tin?
Is it still being maintained or is this a bad choice if I want to do jQuery with RoR?
|
As programmers, we often take incredible pride in our skills and hold very strong opinions about what is 'good' code and 'bad' code.
At any given point in our careers, we've probably had some legacy system dropped in our laps, and thought 'My god, this code sucks!' because it didn't fit into our notion of what good cod... |
I was browsing some old code that I wrote (first year in the university) and noticed that I used to write comment titles preceeding various parts of the code. Stuff like (this is from a Monopoly game):
/*Board initialization*/
...code...
/*Player initialization*/
...code...
/*Game logic starts here*/
/*Displaying cu... |
If you were to run across code like this in your travels would the short names bother you?
let setPropertyAssignment =
parser {
let! a = setIdentifierName
let! b = propertyName
let! c = openParenthesis
let! d = propertySetParameterList
let! e = closeParenthesis
let... |
Often when stating a new project I'll require a "quick 'n' dirty" content management solution.
Ideally something that can read my database schema and generated HTML forms.
Previously I've used; phpMyEdit and phpMyAdmin but they are lacking is key areas.
My wish list woulds be:
Database independent
Foreign key aware
Ha... |
Possible Duplicate:
Will high reputation in Stack Overflow help to get a good job?
Just curious, what Web2.0 websites do employers use (if any) to pre-screen potential employees?
Does any employer actually refer to a user's online "reputation" to get a job?
|
Why would you hire in-house over outsourcing in developing a product for your company? I can only think of a few but I'm not entirely sure if they're good enough reason.
This is actually for a debate that I'm going to have in class. I'm more inclined on the outsourcing part but unfortunately, I was asked to switch to t... |
I'm sure many of us have seen method names like this at one point or another:
UploadTheFileToTheServerPlease
CreateATemporaryFile
WriteTheRecordToTheDatabase
ResetTheSystemClock
That is, method names that are also grammatically-correct English sentences, and include extra words purely to make them read like prose. Pe... |
Basically I am looking for what is it that you goof up and you are out from the remaining process ?
Are elimination rounds a fair way to judge a person ? Anyone can have a bad hour :-(
Should you code the best possible or should you get the Algorithm right ? I generally first code a workable solution and then work on... |
From time to time I have tried some monitors. My main work is coding (work, phd, etc). At work I have an LG Flatron L246WH which I highly recommend. However at home I have an LG W2363V with which I feel pretty uncomfortable when coding. Fonts, subpixels or whatever mess with my minds when using smooth fonts.
Currently,... |
I'm an ASP.Net/C# programmer using SQL Server as a back end.
I am the Technical Director of the company, I'm extremely happy in everything I do and consider the languages and system we use to be perfect for what we do.
In the back of my mind though I know that over time programmers can become stale. I remember as a wee... |
Has anybody's organization started the migration from Java to Scala? If yes, how do you do that? What can I do to encourage my colleagues to do the same?
|
I have never had the opportunity to work from home on certain days, but I would definitely like to try it if I can. What are the pros and cons?
I'll list a few that I can think of.
Pros:
You don't need to do any work. (That's a JOKE)
You can be a lot more productive. No commute, relaxed, no meetings, no interruptio... |
I've programmed a bit of Haskell and Prolog as part of a couple of uni courses, but that's about it. And I've never seen it been used in industry (not that I've had much of working experience to begin with but I've never seen an ad where you are required to know them).
So should we be using functional and/or logic prog... |
How much should programmers help testers in designing tests?
I don't think they should help at all. My worry is that if they help testers in designing tests for their own code, they'll 'infect' the testers with their own prejudices and blind spots about that code.
I feel that the requirements should be sufficient ... |
While hacking on some static analysis tool, I realized I could make the task at hand (irrelevant for this question) much easier by saving the source files on-the-fly, while they were being edited.
This seemed weird at first, but being a lazy cat I actually did it, and it turns out I find this pretty useful :
no nee... |
I have had the question posed at my work that, since we are planning to eventually move to Sharepoint 2010 for most of our Development, and since Sharepoint 2010 supports asp.net web parts, should we start moving all of our new development to be exclusively asp.net web parts?
It was also asked how prism factors into al... |
I have several projects coming up soon for public release, both commercial and open source. The projects are all downloadable, not web apps. I've worked on them alone and would like to get feedback during a beta period, but I don't currently have a large audience (though the markets are large). What are the best ways t... |
Considering the fact that you don't have to get involved in setting up/buying a server or even buying a domain, do you think that fact alone is enough to choose one over the other?
I don't necessarily want to work on Google App Engine, I just find it convenient when it comes to hosting/environment/etc. and wondering if... |
I see a few developers that like to use virtual machines for web development. Are there others that do this? If there are, why do you do it? Are there any pros / cons to developing on a VM rather than in a non virtualised environment?
I would think things are slower in a VM.
|
We have an offshore development crew who has a bad habit of installing nonsense software on corporate desktops (which has nothing to do with their job function) and so are considering removing their local administrator rights.
Is Local Administrator, or local Power User a requirement with VS2010? How do you run withou... |
You know who they are. They are the rock stars of programming:
They code 10X
faster.
Their code just works.
They not only know their primary
language inside and out, but they
also know how it works under the
hood.
They know the answer to most any
question before you ask it.
A few of them invented the programming
pri... |
There is a school of thought in linguistics that problem solving is very much tied to the syntax, semantics, grammar, and flexibility of one's own native spoken language.
Working with various international development teams, I can clearly see a mental culture (if you will) in the codebase. Programming language aside, ... |
I'm tired of how luggish my developments PC is. It's Core2 Duo, 2GB RAM, Seagate ST3500320AS HDD - not the top model, but quite a decent one.
Typically I open several copies of Visual Studio 2008, lots of tabs in Firefox, Outlook, MSDN, plus the programs I debug are quite huge, plus whatever Windows thinks it can't liv... |
I want to know about Which language is best for long term career and How?
Which language should I choose among Java and .NET Platform or Should I choose Oracle like DBMS Language (SQL/PLSQL)? I am confused?
Detailed answer would be appreciated.
|
It seems to me that rapid-development web platforms are going to radically change the world of web applications.
It has been five years since Rails 1.0 was released for Ruby, and since that time we have seen Grails for Groovy, Django for Python, and Roo for Java.
But to my knowledge (which is probably limited, being a ... |
Have you ever reached a point at your job when you just know it's time to move on?
When do you move to the point that you're willing to let go of the demons you know for the ones you don't know?
What was your deciding factor final straw so to speak when you finally faced the decision to find a new job?
|
Code needs to be written to file, on way or another. While all programmers should strive to write no more code than necessary, this "small" portion needs to be written nevertheless.
What tips do you have for improving the code writing effort? Usage of IDEs? Different keyboards or character layouts? Minimal usage of mou... |
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