The tag has no wiki summary.

learn more… | top users | synonyms

4
votes
3answers
238 views

What is “short-circuiting” in C?

I have heard of the term "short-circuiting" being used in C. What does this mean and in what scenario would it be used?
3
votes
3answers
104 views

Representational Equality versus Value Equality

I am coding a system where I have objects which represent a set of resources. These resources are identifiable (they have an ID). There can only be one resource with the same ID, and so multiple ...
3
votes
1answer
125 views

What is meant by binary compatibility? What is its importance during serialization/deserialization in a language like Java that deals in byte code?

In computing what is meant by binary compatibility? I read about it in context of serialization/deserialization that this process of serialize/deserialize should be binary compatible. What does it ...
5
votes
1answer
237 views

How do people develop emulators?

I hope this is right area on Stack Exchange to ask this question. People out there have built emulators for every game console but I don't understand how they do it. I consider myself (and have the ...
0
votes
2answers
249 views

Learning new concepts is an infinite loop. How do I go about it? [duplicate]

Yes, practice, practice, practice. I know the drill people suggest that helps learning new programming concepts. But that's only theoretical. For me, even a line of code like this is new (Java) and ...
12
votes
5answers
313 views

Storing in-text metadata in a discrete data structure

I am developing an application which will need to store inline, intext metadata. What I mean by that is the following: let's say we have a long text, and we want to store some metadata connected with ...
11
votes
6answers
2k views

What *are* the programming concepts I should master to have a deep understanding of my craft (programming)? [closed]

In order of importance, if its possible to do so and it may not be, what are the most important foundations of knowing how to program. Algorithms, iteration, recursion, etc? Note that where I put ...
0
votes
2answers
268 views

How to learn to explain and differentiate types of design pattern concepts [closed]

What I have done Identified important patterns to learn Read the books Implemented the patterns using favorite programming language Identified pros/cons Practiced some design patterns in ...
5
votes
3answers
578 views

How do we differentiate between a computer and a calculator?

In this SO Question there is a comment by starblue that A computer without loops is a calculator Is this true? Is that the only difference? Is there a set of criteria to differentiate or has ...
0
votes
0answers
85 views

Isn't DynamoDB, RIAK, and others just Tuplespace?

Well, tuplespace, or more common objectspace, is defined in wikipedia as "a repository of tuples that can be accessed concurrently" or "can be thought of as a virtual repository, shared amongst ...
8
votes
3answers
283 views

Is there such a concept as “pseudo implementation” in software development?

I'm looking for a label to describe the practice of using human-based computation methods or other means of "faking" an algorithm for the sake of getting a product or demo off the ground quickly ...
6
votes
1answer
440 views

Are non Turing-complete languages considered programming languages at all?

Reading a recent question: Is it actually possible to have a 'useful' programming language that isn't Turing complete?, I've come to wonder if non Turing-complete programming languages are considered ...
0
votes
1answer
92 views

Map Library: Client-side or Server-side?

As I have already asked here, I have to implement a Multi-Platform Map application. Now I have Mapstraction as an option which uses Javascript to implement the desired functionality. My question is, ...
4
votes
4answers
439 views

How much is modern programming still tied to underyling digital logic? [closed]

First of all: I've got no academic background. I'm working primarily with Java and Spring and I'm also fond of web programming and relational databases. I hope I'm using the right terms and I hope ...
11
votes
5answers
736 views

What problems can arise from emulating concepts from another languages?

I've read many times on the web that if your language doesn't support some concept, for example, object orientation, or maybe function calls, and it's considered a good practice in this other context, ...
-4
votes
4answers
1k views

What's the difference between development and implementation?

I have a very broad question. I usually came across to the phrases Design & Development and Design & Implementation. Are there any difference between them ? If so what are they ?
3
votes
2answers
244 views

Explanation of satellite data from a programmers perspective

I have started reading Part 2 of Introduction to Algorithms and in the section The structure of the data the author/authors says in the context of sorting a sequence of numbers: In practice, the ...
-1
votes
1answer
218 views

What does value propagation mean?

This may be a stupid question but I am working on an algorithm which calculates intervals for variables in some given constraints. For example there is a function called propagateValues and its ...
9
votes
7answers
925 views

Programming knowledge vs. programming logic

Is there any difference between the two topics? I have seen companies asking for Good Programming knowledge some Good Programming logic. I have seen this in Job profiles for a developer – for e.g. ...
2
votes
2answers
239 views

Books or help on OO Analysis

I have this course where we learn about the domain model, use cases, contracts and eventually leap into class diagrams and sequence diagrams to define good software classes. I just had an exam and I ...
0
votes
2answers
229 views

arrays format (Javascript)

I have a list of users, with minions, something like this: User52: minion10 minion12 User32: minion13 minion11 I've been keeping in an array where the "location" is the ...
-1
votes
1answer
365 views

What is the difference between class level attributes, Class constants and singleton methods?

What the difference given they all exist 'once per class'. When should I use one over another, i.e. for what purpose? I use Ruby.
9
votes
6answers
2k views

What does Jamie Zawinski's Law mean?

I need a proper explaination of Jamie Zawinski's Law of Software Envelopment: Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones ...
0
votes
3answers
176 views

'dock' working in simple words

I would like to know the idea behind the working of 'docking' in applications. I have worked with applications where components from individual forms are docked on a single main form to provide the ...
2
votes
3answers
310 views

Programming without target platform? [closed]

I have a idea for a program and have began laying out the software design concept in a traditional SDLC model of charts and instructions for what I want all parts to achieve. A quick explanation of ...
10
votes
3answers
742 views

How to handle interview questions on programming style

As a C++-programmer in interviews I repeatedly found myself in situations were the interviewer wanted to probe my knowledge of good programming style. These typically were centered around basic ...
1
vote
3answers
213 views

How do I communicate concepts and design for a web application?

Iam not sure if this topic is ok to ask, but we are talking about this since years in our Developer-"Shop". How to write concepts for Web- Applications? We are using Zend Framework (MVC), OOP Based, ...
5
votes
3answers
2k views

NoSql databases - Decent tutorial/book that covers the concepts

Am looking for a good resource on learning the concepts behind NoSql databases. Most things I find are related to a specific technology (MongoDb, CouchDB etc) but I'm after all the concepts behind ...
4
votes
1answer
202 views

Inexpensive generation of hierarchical unique IDs

My application is building a hierarchical structure like this: root = { 'id': 'root', 'children': [ { 'name': 'root_foo', 'children': [] }, { 'id': 'root_foo2', 'children': [ { ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views

How do we call a concept when my acceptor loop is ran by some real application while all services are plugins for that application?

So say we have an app (server) that somehow attaches to itself plugins (services) in form of .dll or .so libraries. Is there any nice short name for such server behaviour model?
2
votes
2answers
355 views

Entity System - interaction between systems

I am studying the Entity System architecture philosophy. As I have read about it, a typical entity system has: 1) Entities - which are merely ID tags which have a number of components 2) Components ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views

Is there a difference between casting and converting types in imperative programming languages?

The question came up in a discussion at StackOverflow. Is there a clean distinction between the two concepts cast and convert (concerning the type of an object), or are these two words describing ...
0
votes
7answers
533 views

Are there any books that explain non-specific programming concepts? [closed]

I consider myself a beginner-moderately skilled programmer (dabbled in a number of languages now, settling on PHP for web development now) looking to better myself. I've spent a great deal of time on ...
5
votes
2answers
564 views

In C++, were SFINAE and metaprogramming intentional or just a byproduct of templates?

SFINAE and template metaprogramming can do wonderful things and many libraries also use them considerably. Historically both of these "magic concepts" were intentionally introduced/supported in C++ ? ...
19
votes
2answers
2k views

What are the London and Chicago schools of TDD?

I’ve been hearing about the London style vs. Chicago style (sometimes called Detroit style) of Test Driven Development (TDD). Workshop of Utah Extreme Programming User's Group: Interaction-style ...
4
votes
5answers
334 views

How valuable and rare is being able to create something from scratch?

I just found out the other day that the previous web company where I worked for 8 years will pretty much be shut down except for occasional updates and support of existing applications. I was ...
2
votes
2answers
339 views

Legal Applications of Metamorphic Code

Firstly, I would like to state that I already understand the 'vx' applications for Metamorphic code. I am not here to ask a question related to any of those topics as that would be inappropriate in ...
4
votes
2answers
188 views

How to protect a peer-to-peer network from inappropriate content?

I’m developing a simple peer-to-peer app in .Net which should enable users to share specific content (text and picture files). As I've learned with my last question, inappropriate content can ...
7
votes
10answers
944 views

Is Dogma Driven Development considered harmful? [closed]

I have been reflecting lately on the dogma that circulates in the world of software development. Ranging from "goto is evil" to "singleton is an anti-pattern" or "reflection is slow". No concept is ...
1
vote
2answers
161 views

Is it worth using tool agnostic concepts in a development team?

We waste a lot of time using tool specific terms when we are all really talking about the same things. The problem is that person1 is familiar with toolset1, person2 with toolset2 etc. So each uses a ...
6
votes
3answers
157 views

How would you go about looking for collaborators?

I seem to have a never ending stream of more-or-less original, more-or-less cool ideas for software/apps/stuff yet to be written on my mind. Sometimes, I decide to just start implementing my idea. ...
3
votes
2answers
225 views

How is IETF different from W3C?

I've been following these organizations (institutes, entities, whatever) for near 3 months now, and both of them claim that they're trying to make the Internet a better place. They're creating ...
1
vote
1answer
1k views

What are the 'hot' topics in computer science? [closed]

I'm about to start my AQA EPQ - which is a 5000 word essay and presentation on a topic of your choice; I was looking for topics in which to research and report on. I believe this question is often ...
11
votes
6answers
2k views

How to teach a script to detect sarcasm? [closed]

I'm currently building a fun script, that basically matches given phrases and gives a predefined response based on the match-points. You can ask it to retrieve some information based on live feeds, ...
11
votes
5answers
573 views

Dictionary of language concept terms?

Is there somewhere some kind of dictionary or book which explains all those modern terms of language concepts like (but not limited to) currying closure lambda function type deduction dynamic ...
5
votes
4answers
489 views

Why were concepts (generic programming) conceived when we already had classes and interfaces?

Also on stackoverflow.com: I understand that STL concepts had to exist, and that it would be silly to call them "classes" or "interfaces" when in fact they're only documented (human) concepts and ...
11
votes
11answers
656 views

Infinite Bitmap

I'd like to build a bitmap during runtime. The bitmap should be scalable on all sides and pixel access should be quiet efficient. Between and after the commands shown in the picture, Map.setPixel() ...
7
votes
8answers
519 views

Train for the job or train for the skill?

I'm in charge of hiring for a small java shop. We have a very limited hiring budget so we tend to pickup fresh grads cheap and spend time training them. I have found colleges and universities do quite ...
2
votes
5answers
564 views

How to automate a tasks system in a CMS software

I'm currently developing v2.0 of my personal cms. However, I'm stuck. I strongly feel that my old solution for "tasks" is not very dynamic and must be revisited. Currently I'm looking the whole ...
3
votes
3answers
768 views

How is the actor model used?

I have read a bit about the actor model, but don't really understand how to use actors in a real world situation – how to model a problem with them. Can someone please explain? A simple example or ...

1 2