All Questions
62,256
questions
17
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Can I do anything to improve performance in VS 2010? [closed]
I'm using VS 2010 since we're developing an app in .Net 4 and the performance is driving me crazy. It's mostly bad when I don't view the IDE for a while (such as when I get pulled away for a help desk ...
- 23.9k
4
votes
4
answers
355
views
What security practices should you be aware of when writing software? [closed]
What different types of security do there exist? Why and when should they be implemented?
Example: SQL Injection Prevention
- 8,259
14
votes
8
answers
879
views
How much effort should we spend to programming for multiple cores?
Processors are getting more and more cores these days, which leaves me wondering...
Should we, programmers, adapt to this behaviour and spent more effort on programming for multiple cores?
To what ...
- 8,259
34
votes
28
answers
19k
views
What's the worst programming book you've ever read? [closed]
What's the worst programming-related or technical book you've ever read? This can be any book which one way or another can be connected to programming, as long as it's not fiction.
- 17.2k
12
votes
8
answers
1k
views
How do you decide what to work on in your own time? [closed]
I've got an itch and it needs to be scratched. I've got nothing to program these days. Normally I'd just pick my flavour of the month technology and fiddle with it, but I want to make something and ...
- 28.2k
7
votes
6
answers
3k
views
What unit test frameworks exist for Java?
I've used TestNG and JUnit. What other frameworks are out there? What makes them special and/or different from the rest?
- 2,036
16
votes
2
answers
470
views
How to recognize a bad client before you start to work for him? [closed]
I'm sure that many of you have encountered a bad client. I'm also sure you took some measures to prevent such encounters in the future. What is the most influential characteristic of a client that ...
- 163
18
votes
20
answers
2k
views
What are the most impressive tricks an IDE could pull off with the code? [closed]
Modern IDEs have a lot of tricks up their sleeves to help with code writing, refactoring, searching. All those are very helpful, but rarely any of them looks like a real "magic" and makes me think "...
- 2,097
21
votes
16
answers
7k
views
Are programmers who read programming-related books still rare? [closed]
Both in Code Complete by Steve McConnell and The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt & David Thomas, they allege that most programmers don't read programming-related books as a habit, or at least ...
- 17.2k
10
votes
10
answers
943
views
What's the worst technology decision you have ever seen? [closed]
This includes architecture decisions, platform choices or any situation where a such a bad choice led to negative consequences.
- 431
17
votes
4
answers
3k
views
How can I maintain my technical skills after becoming a project manager?
As I advance in my career, I have found that I do less technical work and more project management work. I joke that I am getting dumber every day. Each time I go back to doing technical work it ...
- 281
4
votes
3
answers
81
views
Getting a coherent view of the state of the data
Here is a theoretical problem. It could apply to many systems. Let's assume RESTful Web services for example. You want to find out something but as it happens you can't get it in a single query. ...
- 193
11
votes
12
answers
8k
views
Should you Create Class Diagrams before or after implementation?
The way I see it if you create one before you get the advantage of:
Planning ahead
Overview of the project
but you lose:
Time (doing work you'll probably end up repeating when writing code)
On the ...
- 2,038
5
votes
3
answers
527
views
Should a developer adhere to the class diagrams produced during system design?
The class diagram is modeled on the system requirements, and it is important to create solutions based on those requirements. If I have said class diagram should I strictly adhere to it? What about ...
- 2,038
15
votes
2
answers
664
views
Have You Ever Had To Code "Badly" For Your Team? [duplicate]
I've been on the constant road of learning new concepts in OOP, Software Design, Architecture, etc. But there are times when you are in a team where those concepts are foreign to them and they don't ...
- 2,038
21
votes
8
answers
1k
views
How are open-source projects able to sustain themselves?
I always had this question in mind but couldn't find a proper place to ask. There are some really nice and great open source free software available on the net. How do these products sustain ...
- 1,937
5
votes
5
answers
294
views
How to get out of supporting deadend sales pitches?
As part of being a programmer, you often are asked to provide estimates/ make slideware / do technical demos for Sales teams to present to end-clients. Sometimes we go along for the 'technical' ...
- 1,407
24
votes
17
answers
943
views
How do I evaluate if writing a book, article, or presenting at conference is worth it? [closed]
I'm trying to understand how I should evaluate writing a book, article, or conference presentation.
Writing a book is a lot of work. Same for writing an article in a magazine or presenting in a ...
- 778
32
votes
4
answers
12k
views
What counts as an IDE?
Recently reading the question What languages do you use without an IDE? One question asked in a few answers was "is Notepad++ and IDE?"
One answers to the original question said "None, I use vim...", ...
- 3,368
19
votes
14
answers
4k
views
What are the benefits of using database abstraction by ORM? [closed]
I'm starting to use the ORM recommended by the framework I choose, and though I like the idea of the added layer of abstraction the ORM provides, I'm starting to realize what this really means. It ...
- 778
9
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Why do so many programmers absolutely hate object prevalence layers?
Prevalence is a simple technique to provide ACID properties to an in-memory object model based on binary serialization and write-ahead logging. It works like this:
Start with a snapshot. Serialize ...
- 879
4
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What is the best setup for distributing a PHP application?
What is a recommended setup in terms of source control, builds, testing, bug tracking, and deployment for a downloadable PHP application (a la Wordpress, phpBB, Magento, etc.)? As a developer working ...
- 4,079
12
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Have you tried programming via Collaborative Text Editing? [duplicate]
Lately I've been experimenting with using a collaborative text editor (or plugin such as NppNetNote for Notepad++) for two or more partners to edit source code. I've been met with unexpected success, ...
- 20.3k
5
votes
5
answers
659
views
Language-agnostic libs every programmer should consider learning? [closed]
Assuming the language provides it, what are some things to do or libraries to use that every programmer should know?
My list would be
Regular Expressions
Named Pipes
standard IO (std in/out/error)
...
user2528
12
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How to deal with programming projects that fail?
It's not uncommon for projects to fail.
As a programmer, how do you deal with projects that fail?
Some definitions of failure:
Misses deadline.
Code and functionality does not do what it's supposed ...
- 9,301
144
votes
31
answers
145k
views
How do you dive into large code bases?
What tools and techniques do you use for exploring and learning an unknown code base?
I am thinking of tools like grep, ctags, unit-tests, functional test, class-diagram generators, call graphs, ...
11
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Project Proposal templates/requirements [closed]
When drafting a project proposal, do you use any standard template?
What features/information should be included? What is nice to have included? What sort of boiler plate information should I shove ...
- 3,458
322
votes
25
answers
74k
views
When is a BIG Rewrite the answer?
Just read the question about the Big Rewrites and I remembered a question that I've been wanting answered myself.
I have a horrible project passed down to me, written in old Java, using Struts 1.0, ...
60
votes
13
answers
11k
views
Have you ever been involved in a BIG Rewrite? [closed]
Joel Spolsky said in one of his famous posts:
The single worst strategic mistake
that any software company can make:
rewrite the code from scratch.
Chad Fowler wrote:
You’ve seen the ...
- 3,545
45
votes
11
answers
4k
views
What are the arguments against or for putting application logic in the database layer? [closed]
Most software developers want to keep application logic in the application layer, and it probably feels natural for us to keep it here. Database developers seem to want to put application logic in the ...
- 2,185
11
votes
5
answers
14k
views
Windows Service or Windows Task Scheduler?
I am planning to create a utility, which will query the database and store some information (on another table in the database). Its a multi-threaded utility and require to run for every 5 or 10 ...
- 405
31
votes
11
answers
1k
views
Has programming for a living ruined your ability to enjoy technology? [closed]
To quote Arthur C. Clarke:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Used to be I looked on technology with wonder and amazement. I wanted to take it apart, understand ...
- 488
9
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Is mod_security a good thing?
I've recently been frequented by erroneous error messages from mod_security. Its filter sets cover outdated PHP exploits, and I have to rewrite my stuff because Wordpress&Co had bugs years ago.
...
- 2,233
5
votes
2
answers
162
views
How do you ensure your product meets basic usability guidelines? [closed]
There are some really common usability errors in everyday software we used; errors that result from the ways the particular programmer has learned without learning of all the other ways there are.
...
- 4,469
32
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Can fixed scope + fixed deadline + fixed price contract ever be made to work with "agile"?
Some projects we run internally using are Scrum, while still being "fixed everything" to the customer. We're experiencing mixed success on our part (the customer likes the visibility of the burndown ...
- 1,829
13
votes
4
answers
1k
views
What are some good practices when trying to teach declarative programming to imperative programmers?
I offered to do a little bit training in F# at my company and they seemed to show some interest. They are generally VB6 and C# programmers who don't follow programming with too much passion. That ...
- 6,295
36
votes
8
answers
3k
views
Is Linq having a mind-numbing effect on .NET programmers?
A lot of us started seeing this phenomenon with jQuery about a year ago when people started asking how to do absolutely insane things like retrieve the query string with jQuery. The difference ...
- 43.8k
14
votes
10
answers
885
views
What programming/software sub-cultures exist? What defines them? Which do you belong to? [closed]
To the outside world, programmers, computer scientists, software engineers, and developers may all seem alike, but that's far from the case for the people who create software for a living. Any single ...
- 4,616
15
votes
33
answers
43k
views
What are the most popular IDEs per language? [closed]
This has nothing to do with having a favourite editor or anything like that. I was just wondering, per language, what are the most popular Integrated Development Environments? Maybe a top 2-3 if there ...
19
votes
5
answers
1k
views
How do you efficiently keep your tests working as you redesign?
A well-tested codebase has a number of benefits, but testing certain aspects of the system results in a codebase that is resistant to some types of change.
An example is testing for specific output--...
- 5,742
54
votes
11
answers
28k
views
Why are /// comment blocks important?
Someone once said we should prefix all our methods with the /// <summary> comment blocks (C#) but did not explain why.
I started to use them and found they annoyed me quite a bit, so stopped ...
- 23.9k
40
votes
8
answers
13k
views
How do you keep your unit tests working when refactoring?
In another question, it was revealed that one of the pains with TDD is keeping the testing suite in sync with the codebase during and after refactoring.
Now, I'm a big fan of refactoring. I'm not ...
- 5,742
92
votes
11
answers
84k
views
Is static universally "evil" for unit testing and if so why does Resharper recommend it? [closed]
I have found that there are only 3 ways to unit test (mock/stub) dependencies that are static in C#.NET:
Moles
TypeMock
JustMock
Given that two of these are not free and one has not hit release 1.0, ...
- 4,018
38
votes
8
answers
5k
views
Working as the sole programmer at a non-tech company [closed]
I work as the back-end developer, front-end developer, systems admin, help desk and all-around 'guy who knows computers' at a small marketing company of about 15 people.
I was wondering if others ...
- 1,007
39
votes
8
answers
69k
views
Are there tools to determine code similarity? [closed]
I'm not talking about a diff tool. I'm really looking to see if a project contains code that may have been "refactored" from another project. It would be likely that function names, variable names ...
siljoy
9
votes
6
answers
628
views
Quicksort and don't bother?
Especially when writing 'standard' (non-HPC) applications, do you consider what sorting algorithm to pick, or just settle with quicksort (which is what most libraries just call sort)? To some extent ...
- 1,210
21
votes
8
answers
3k
views
What are some ways to be more productive with Emacs? [closed]
I've used Emacs quite a bit, and I'm comfortable with the most basic commands/shortcuts, but I know Emacs has a lot more to offer than what I'm using. What are some of the lesser known features of ...
- 8,501
23
votes
14
answers
2k
views
Is the abundance of frameworks dumbing down programmers? [closed]
With all of the frameworks available these days, ORMs, dependency injection (DI), Inversion of control (IoC), etc., I find that many programmers are losing or don't have the problem solving skills ...
- 3,746
36
votes
23
answers
14k
views
Is a university education worth it for a good programmer? [closed]
I've been doing design and programming for about as long as I can remember. If there's a programming problem, I can figure it out. (Though admittedly Stack Overflow has allowed me to skip the figuring ...
3
votes
1
answer
645
views
What is the best toolset for developing an enterprise application for SMBs?
Need a Free, Fast(development and runtime) and Reliable(transactions and locking) tool set for creating an enterprise application for SMBs.
I'm thinking of an application framework + UI framework + ...
- 39