All Questions
63,116
questions
8
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Should we be using functional and/or logic programming languages more?
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 ...
- 17.4k
16
votes
7
answers
2k
views
Pros and cons of working remotely / from home [closed]
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 ...
- 4,057
15
votes
8
answers
2k
views
How do you encourage your organization to move from Java to Scala? [closed]
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?
- 559
7
votes
8
answers
543
views
Should I change language to stop becoming stale? [closed]
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 ...
- 407
16
votes
10
answers
49k
views
What are the best monitors for programming? [closed]
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 ...
- 263
9
votes
2
answers
788
views
What top companies look for in an Interview? [closed]
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 ...
- 3,951
16
votes
6
answers
1k
views
"A", "an", and "the" in method and function names: What's your take? [closed]
I'm sure many of us have seen method names like this at one point or another:
UploadTheFileToTheServerPlease
CreateATemporaryFile
WriteTheRecordToTheDatabase
ResetTheSystemClock
That is, method ...
- 419
23
votes
8
answers
7k
views
Why would you hire in-house software developers instead of outsourcing them to develop a product for your company? [closed]
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 ...
- 3,052
18
votes
8
answers
2k
views
Does having a high "rep" on StackOverflow help you get a job? What other community sites do? [duplicate]
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 ...
- 6,038
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What are some easy-to-implement scaffolding systems? [closed]
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; ...
- 2,071
1
vote
3
answers
229
views
Should I bother with trying to come up with names for these? [closed]
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
...
- 6,303
18
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Do you write titles in code comments? [closed]
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):...
- 10.8k
23
votes
14
answers
1k
views
How do you overcome your own coding biases when handed legacy code? [closed]
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 ...
- 1,017
0
votes
1
answer
132
views
Is the jRails Project something I should use? [closed]
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 ...
- 175
20
votes
10
answers
20k
views
Best way to save application settings
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 ...
- 7,347
4
votes
6
answers
750
views
When is it right to edit the code written by a co-worker? [duplicate]
For which issues is it right to edit the code written by a co-worker? For which issues is it wrong?
- 8,259
20
votes
13
answers
3k
views
What to do if a co-worker is editing your code just to change the appearance?
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...
- 8,259
8
votes
8
answers
5k
views
Are Nassi-Shneiderman diagrams actually used? [closed]
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 ...
- 239
19
votes
1
answer
14k
views
How to set up Unit Testing in Visual Studio 2010? [closed]
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, ...
- 24k
57
votes
34
answers
20k
views
When would someone be considered a bad programmer? [closed]
How would you consider that a programmer is bad at what he or she is doing?
If possible... How should he/she improve?
27
votes
15
answers
2k
views
Is software testing actually done on professional projects?
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 ...
- 3,511
21
votes
10
answers
2k
views
How to tackle a boss who thinks everybody in this world is wrong except him? [closed]
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 ...
17
votes
9
answers
3k
views
How can I sell a legacy program rewrite to the business? [duplicate]
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 ...
- 546
23
votes
1
answer
5k
views
What is the development process like at Google? [closed]
What tools do they use? What processes? What rules do they have regarding code? How do they test their code?
- 7,682
12
votes
2
answers
519
views
What would be the best way to handle errors in parallel programs?
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 ...
- 2,576
2
votes
2
answers
290
views
Does anyone else feel that iterator syntax sugar is a must have in a modern language? [closed]
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 ...
- 6,303
14
votes
10
answers
2k
views
I code rarely. Is this a bad sign? [closed]
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 ...
- 3,249
4
votes
7
answers
330
views
How much credit do you take when you used plugins etc.? [closed]
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 ...
- 8,934
73
votes
15
answers
7k
views
I've stopped coding for fun, is this a bad sign? [closed]
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 ...
- 3,422
20
votes
11
answers
7k
views
How do you learn a new programming language? [duplicate]
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 ...
- 1,957
9
votes
4
answers
406
views
You've shipped, you get a rare seg fault. Pointer checking or let it go?
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 ...
- 1,373
56
votes
6
answers
94k
views
Most readable way to format long if conditions? [closed]
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,...
- 2,215
9
votes
8
answers
2k
views
Rigorous Definition of Syntactic Sugar? [closed]
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"...
- 17.3k
7
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Which programming languages don't use operator precedence besides Lisp-like languages? [closed]
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 ...
- 10.8k
15
votes
9
answers
2k
views
Does keeping a journal help in your job? [closed]
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 ...
- 1,303
40
votes
9
answers
53k
views
What's the difference between a "developer" and a "programmer"? [duplicate]
What's the difference in this terminology? Is one considered more professional than the other?
- 1,439
18
votes
3
answers
600
views
What is correct course of action when finding free software projects whose executables are spreading a virus
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 ...
- 573
74
votes
22
answers
17k
views
Job hopping, is it a problem? [closed]
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 ...
- 2,466
27
votes
11
answers
22k
views
What amount of time should be spent on bugs vs original development? [closed]
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 ...
- 273
198
votes
62
answers
124k
views
Why do programmers write closed source applications and then make them free? [closed]
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 ...
129
votes
13
answers
120k
views
What "version naming convention" do you use? [closed]
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 ...
- 2,071
22
votes
8
answers
48k
views
What do you put in the "Computer Skills" section of your resume? [duplicate]
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 ...
- 1,680
21
votes
8
answers
3k
views
Should I bother learning about small or niche languages? [closed]
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 ...
- 13.5k
25
votes
9
answers
12k
views
What decent web-frameworks exists for functional programming? [closed]
I would like to do some web programming using functional programming. What decent web-frameworks exists for functional programming languages?
- 14.9k
7
votes
2
answers
314
views
Do you apply a code of conduct on accepting jobs, projects or requirements?
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 ...
- 201
22
votes
7
answers
1k
views
How important are daily builds? [closed]
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 ...
- 7,682
42
votes
17
answers
15k
views
Daily standups- yea or nay? [closed]
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). ...
6
votes
3
answers
843
views
Why is free software good for programmers? [closed]
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?
- 483
13
votes
6
answers
507
views
What licence should I choose for my project?
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 ...
- 2,261
9
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Is MVC just the SEO of PHP programming?
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 ...
- 2,263