meta user
network profile
| bio | website | |
|---|---|---|
| location | United States | |
| age | 52 | |
| visits | member for | 2 years, 5 months |
| seen | Mar 13 '12 at 17:42 | |
| stats | profile views | 35 |
Application Engineer programming industrial robots
|
Nov 17 |
comment |
What is the history of why bytes are eight bits? Parity was very important when dealing with early memory. Even after moving to 8 bit data bytes, there were memory chips with 9 bits to allow for parity checking. |
|
Oct 31 |
comment |
Is “truthiness” a legitimate programming term? Actually the terms "bug" as a problem was used before modern computers. Edison used in a letter 1787. It was common terms for engineering problems back then. The Grace Hopper story as a bit of irony that the bug they found was really a bug. |
|
Oct 18 |
comment |
Are 9 to 5 programmers looked down upon? Actually many companies pay you to learn, but only if it will make you more productive. That learning may be on the job, informal training, or formal classes. Also many other career fields do spend time learning outside of 9-5. They take classes, read technical journals, and work over time. Admittedly programmers tend to take it to an extreme, but we are not the only ones. |
|
Oct 3 |
comment |
Does teaching programming make you a better programmer +1 for admitting when you don't know the answer. I see far too many instructors simply make something up on the spot rather then admit they don't know everything. I've also had some good instructors who would use as an opportunity, make the students find the answer, teaching how to look things up. That needs to be carefully done so you don't discourage people from asking questions. |
|
Sep 27 |
comment |
How exactly do we go from Binary/Hex to Assembly Instruction sets? Slomojo is right, Octal, base 8 used 3 bits, was used along with hex, base 16 used 4 bits. Octal had the advantage in that everyone knew what numbers 0 to 7 represented. People how did not use Hex were often mystified by the "digits" A to F. |
|
Jul 28 |
comment |
Why do people use programming books? Books are becoming digital media. Admittedly the current generation of dedicated e-book readers like the kindle don't do well with technical books, like programming books. Given how fast the hardware is advancing, I think in just a few years you will have much better e-book readers and much better e-books to go with them. Books on programming have always been a popular way to learn new languages and technologies. I don't see this changing and with new formats books will become an even better tools for learning. |
|
Jun 23 |
comment |
Logistics of code reuse (OOP) Documentation is the key. Even you will forget what you coded 6 months ago. If it is not documented, it might as well not exist. |
|
May 20 |
comment |
Under what conditions does it make sense to break code into many files, or merge them? Corollary to rule of thumb; sooner or later you always come back to the code. |
|
Feb 10 |
comment |
What tools are available to generate end user documentation? Screen captures do become outdated as code changes, but most people are visual learners. If you don't show them, they don't understand. |
|
Feb 4 |
comment |
Representing timezone list It is logical to sort by timezones, but most people will know if they are in the same timezone as a major city. |
|
Feb 3 |
comment |
Do you leverage the benefits of the open-closed principle? This is a data change, not a code change. The overtime rate should not have been hard coded. |
|
Feb 3 |
comment |
Why isn't software as reliable as a car? With software it is easier to keep adding more software, then it is to add more mechanical components. While both are "organically" grown, software is growing much faster. |
|
Feb 3 |
comment |
Why isn't software as reliable as a car? And the lines of source code in java or any other higher level languages translate in a far large amount of op codes that actually run on the CPU which in turn sends commands to dozens of support chips. You cannot even begin to compare the complexity of a modern software application to a relatively simple device like a car. |
|
Dec 21 |
comment |
Does knowing Latin or other logical languages contribute to being a better programmer? I know quite a few good French programmers as well. I am located in the USA, but I work for a Swiss company whose R&D department is in France. |
|
Dec 21 |
comment |
How to find a programming mentor? I a firm believer that there are no dumb questions. While there are many open source projects web site, sourceForge is still one of the most popular. |
|
May 14 |
comment |
I'm graduating with a Computer Science degree but I don't feel like I know how to program Any job looks better on a resume then a gap does. |
|
Jan 5 |
comment |
Should integer divide by zero halt execution? 1/ very very small number tends toward infinity, but 1/0 is meaningless. |
