What is ALT.NET?
Recently, Scott Hanselman blogged and podcasted about ALT.NET. What is it and how is it a new concept? What can I learn?...
concepts
What are the primary differences between TDD and BDD?
Test Driven Development has been the rage in the .NET community for the last few years. Recently, I have heard grumblings in the ALT.NET community about BDD. What is it? What makes it different from TDD?...
Best ways to teach a beginner to program?
Original Question I am currently engaged in teaching my brother to program. He is a total beginner, but very smart. (And he actually wants to learn). I've noticed that some of our sessions have gotten bogged down in minor details, and I don't feel I've been very organized. (But the answers to this post have helped a lot.) What can I ...
What defines "pythonian" or "pythonic"?
I want to begin to learn Python, and I've seen that phrase come up here before, but I don't know exactly what it means. I've read some websites on Python scripting, but I don't recall ever seeing that (but I could have just glanced over it). What exactly makes something "pythonian" or "pythonic"? ...
How to conditionally enable actions in C# ASP.NET website
Using a configuration file I want to enable myself to turn on and off things like (third party) logging and using a cache in a C# website. The solution should not be restricted to logging and caching in particular but more general, so I can use it for other things as well. I have a configuration xml file in which I can assert that loggi...
What's the best way to teach young kids some basic programming concepts?
I might be asking this question a bit early, since my kid isn't even born yet, but I want to be prepared. How should I start introducing basic programming concepts to my kid? I remember typing BASIC code into my Commodore 64 and trying to get that little turtle to move around the screen at school. But what are some more current begi...
Learning ASP.NET
As a programmer from the Java, C#, and PHP realm, how do you go about transitioning to learning the intricate details of something as big (convoluted?) as ASP.NET? What are the most important and key things one must understand to be successful with ASP.NET? I do not have a book as I like to do most of my research via online means but I ...
Is OOP & completely avoiding implementation inheritance possible?
I will choose Java as an example, most people know it, though every other OO language was working as well. Java, like many other languages, has interface inheritance and implementation inheritance. E.g. a Java class can inherit from another one and every method that has an implementation there (assuming the parent is not abstract) is in...
Ways to do "related searches" functionality
I've seen a few sites that list related searches when you perform a search, namely they suggest other search queries you may be interested in. I'm wondering the best way to model this in a medium-sized site (not enough traffic to rely on visitor stats to infer relationships). My initial thought is to store the top 10 results for each un...
Key concepts to learn in Assembly
I am a firm believer in the idea that one of the most important things you get from learning a new language is not how to use a new language, but the knowledge of concepts that you get from it. I am not asking how important or useful you think Assembly is, nor do I care if I never use it in any of my real projects. What I want to know ...
Basic programming/algorithmic concepts
I'm about to start (with fellow programmers) a programming & algorithms club in my high school. The language of choice is C++ - sorry about that, I can't change this. We can assume students have little to no experience in the aforementioned topics. What do you think are the most basic concepts I should focus on? I know that teaching so...
What exactly is the singleton class in ruby?
It seems as if I'm missing the point or misunderstanding the significance of the singleton class in Ruby. I've heard and read it in many ways—some more complicated than others—and left more confused as to what it is. Is it a class in and of itself? Is it the reason why all objects belong to "class?" The concept in play here is fuzzy. I'm...
What does scalability mean to you?
I posted a similar question on how scalable linq is. There were so many different views on what scalability actually meant in some recent conversations, so it has sparked me to ask this question as well. What does scalability mean to you? ...
How does a debugger work?
I keep wondering how does a debugger work? Particulary the one that can be 'attached' to already running executable. I understand that compiler translates code to machine language, but then how does debugger 'know' what it is being attached to? ...
Looking for books on Information Science, Information Retrieval
Here's what I have on my list so far. I'd like to know of others in the same vein, perhaps more technical, perhaps less Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion - Ableson, Leeden, and Lewis Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages - Wright Information Rules - Varian and Shapiro Web Dragons: Ins...
Covariance vs. contravariance
What are the concepts of covariance and contravariance? Given 2 classes, Animal and Elephant (which inherits from Animal), my understanding is that you get runtime errors in .NET if you try and put an Elephant into an array of Animal, which happens because Elephant is "bigger" (more specific) than Animal. But could you assign Animal to...
Where can I find clear examples of MVC?
I've read a couple of things about MVCs but I still don't understand when they should be used and when they shouldn't be used. I am looking for clear examples that say things like "if you're developing this then you should use MVC, like this" and "if you're developing this, you shouldn't use MVC." Most of the examples I've seen rely on c...
How would I approach building a results predictor for a Football Management sim ?
I'm looking for some food-for-thought on how games like Football Manager and Championship Manager achieve a fairly high level of realism when it comes to simulating realistic scorelines. I am conscious that some of these algorithms would probably fill shelves but I'm looking for a more lucid overview. Even some pseudocode which outlines...
How come MD5 hash values are not reversible?
Hey everyone, One concept I've always wondered about is the use of cryptographic hash functions and values. I understand that these functions can generate a hash value that is unique and virtually impossible to reverse, but here's what I've always wondered: If on my server, in PHP I produce: md5("stackoverflow.com") = "d0cc85b26f2ceb87...
Code Re-entrancy vs. Thread Safety
What is the difference between the concepts of "Code Re-entrancy" and "Thread Safety"? As per the link mentioned below, a piece of code can be either of them, both of them or neither of them. Reentrant and Thread safe code I was not able to understand the explaination clearly. Help would be appreciated. ...