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1500 questions
54
votes
3 answers
Visual Studio 2012 - Express vs Professional
I'm having trouble finding a feature comparison between Visual Studio 2012 Express Edition and the professional edition. I'm using the trial Professional version at the moment, but it'll run out soon, so I need to make a decision whether to purchase…
Dan
- 651
54
votes
6 answers
Pros and Cons of holding all the business logic in stored procedures in web application
In some organization I worked for web applications are developed basing all the business logic in Database stored procedures. For example, use html for view and servlet as controllers to divert the client request to appropriate Database stored…
droidsites
- 1,037
54
votes
7 answers
Is there something wrong with how we're doing version control?
I work with a team of programmers as the business analyst. We just released version 2.0 of our product and are working on the next version to be released in 3 months (it's an internal software product). Unfortunately version 2.0 has some issues…
Ryan
- 1,095
54
votes
6 answers
Open source code with no license... can I fork it?
Years ago somebody created a bunch of really awesome and popular scripts. But they were not updated for a long, now they no-longer work (target platform were updated, and some changes are needed).
He hasn't released it under any license. I want to…
Abhi Beckert
- 772
54
votes
5 answers
Where should you put constants and why?
In our mostly large applications, we usually have a only few locations for "constants":
One class for GUI and internal contstants (Tab Page titles, Group Box titles, calculation factors, enumerations)
One class for database tables and columns (this…
Tim Meyer
- 863
54
votes
9 answers
What is enterprise software, exactly?
I don't understand the difference between "normal" software and enterprise software. Even after reading these...
"Enterprise Software" on Wikipedia
"Enterprise Software Is Sexy Again" on Techcrunch
"The Great Enterprise Software Swindle" on…
treecoder
- 9,495
54
votes
9 answers
Why is it impossible to produce truly random numbers?
I was trying to solve a hobby problem that required generating a million random numbers. But I quickly realized, it is becoming difficult to make them unique. I picked up Algorithm Design Manual to read about random number generation.
It has the…
Vinoth Kumar C M
- 15,675
54
votes
3 answers
Why are exception specifications bad?
Back in school some 10+ years ago, they were teaching you to use exception specifiers. Since my background is as one of them Torvaldish C programmers who stubbornly avoids C++ unless forced to, I only end up in C++ sporadically, and when I do I…
user29079
54
votes
5 answers
How could the first C++ compiler be written in C++?
Stroustrup claims that Cfront, the first C++ compiler, was written in C++ (Stroustrup FAQ).
However, how is it even possible that the first C++ compiler be written in C++?
The code that makes up the compiler needs to be compiled too, and thus the…
Pacerier
- 5,053
53
votes
9 answers
How do I convince my teammates that we should not ignore compiler warnings?
I work on a huge project (more like a tangled up combination of dozens of mini projects that can't be easily separated due to poor dependency management, but that's a different discussion) in Java using eclipse. We've already turned off a number of…
user32020
53
votes
13 answers
Is it necessary to create a database with as few tables as possible
Should we create a database structure with a minimum number of tables?
Should it be designed in a way that everything stays in one place or is it okay to have more tables?
Will it in anyway affect anything?
I am asking this question because a…
Shaheer
- 889
53
votes
2 answers
What did Alan Kay mean by "assignment" in The Early History of Smalltalk?
I have been reading The Early History of Smalltalk and there are a few mentions of "assignment" which make me question my understanding of its meaning:
Though OOP came from many motivations, two were central. The large scale one was to find a…
Olivier Dagenais
- 633
53
votes
2 answers
Checklist for starting an open-source project
To start an open-source project is not just to throw up the source code on some public repository and then being happy with that. You should have technical (besides user) documentation, information on how to contribute etc.
If creating a checklist…
Anto
- 11,197
53
votes
10 answers
How should I test "Glue Functions" without testing that "the code I wrote is the code I wrote"?
I usually write my code in a test driven style. I write tests as specifications and then my code. It's great and useful.
I always try to ignore implementation when testing and only test behaviour. I don't care how it gets done, just that it got…
Derek C.
- 617
53
votes
7 answers
Is it a bad design for a programming language to allow spaces in identifiers?
Some (link 1, link 2) programming languages allow spaces in their identifiers (e.g. variables, procedures) but most of them don't and instead programmers usually use camel case, snake case and other ways to separate words in names.
To support spaces…
user7393973
- 501
- 1
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- 9