Original Question: Should I Learn C? In the theme of the stackoverflow podcast, here's a fun question: should I learn C? I expect Jeff & Joel will have something to say on this. Some info on my background: Primarily a Java programmer on "enterprisy" systems. Favorite languages: python, scheme 7 years programming experience A very sm...
Most mathematicians agree that e ** (πi) + 1 = 0. However, most floating point implementations disagree. How well can we settle this dispute? I'm keen to hear about different languages and implementations, and various methods to make the result as close to zero as possible. Be creative! ...
SQLite is a flat-file database and MySQL is a normal database. That's great but I'm not sure which is faster where or better for what? What are the pros and cons of each option?...
The discussion of Dual vs. Quadcore is as old as the Quadcores itself and the answer is usually "it depends on your scenario". So here the scenario is a Web Server (Windows 2003 (not sure if x32 or x64), 4 GB RAM, IIS, ASP.net 3.0). My impression is that the CPU in a Webserver does not need to be THAT fast because requests are usually r...
Do you suffer from programmer’s block? If so, how do you kick-start your brain again? I’ve been working on a project since I returned from two weeks holiday, it’s a piece of cake to finish, but I’ve done everything except pull my finger out and finish the damn thing. ...
I'm looking to learn python and wasn't sure what IDE's are available, what is the best one, etc. As a way of making the question more general, lets try to establish a definitive list of the best IDE for all languages. Here's a start .NET: MS VS Java: Eclipse Ruby: ? Python: ? x86 Assembly: ? others.... ...
In my question Insert Update stored proc on SQL Server I explained an efficient way of doing an insert/update - perhaps THE most efficient. It's nothing amazing but it's a small algorithm that I came up with in a mini-Eureka moment. Although I had "invented" it by myself and secretly hoped that I was the first to do so I knew that it had...
Hi, I'm wondering how much of us are working on a product or service which benefits to people : - Creating a service that is usually a good for the society. (eg: Skype, Scientific Computing...) - Increasing productivity of activities that themselves are "good" (eg: SAP...) and those who are doing evil stuff taking brains and have them ...
When I started in programming I started with c++ and was doing recursion in my second semester in a data structures class. I don't even remember how we started it, I think it was linked lists, but its a concept that I picked up easily and can jump into quickly, even when I haven't written any recursive code in quite some time. What is t...
What do you think the future of GPU as a CPU initiatives like CUDA are? Do you think they are going to become mainstream and be the next adopted fad in the industry? Apple is building a new framework for using the GPU to do CPU tasks and there has been alot of success in the Nvidias CUDA project in the sciences. Would you suggest that a ...
Tried Scheme at one point, just built up half of a "math" and "string" library before getting bored... Similar experience with Java, but stopped early because I was appalled at the lack of operator overloading. When you try out a new language, is there a program/game/function/exercise/problem that you use to get into the hot meaty cent...
I am always looking for ways to improve my programming skills, and one of the most important of those is problems solving. This question addresses some techniques people use for problem solving, but not as much how they aquires the skill and improve on it. One answer Links to several books on the subject, which for me is one of the st...
Having worked with Classic ASP for about 2 years now by creating a few 100 simple web forms I can't see a good reason for switching to .net; however, I'm not that versed in .net so I'm sure I could be missing a few things. Some points that I often hear around work can be found here: http://www.packtpub.com/article/Classic-ASP (not that ...
Developers! Technologies change a lot, and change fast. What you do today may not be valuable tomorrow. There are a lot of technologies out there that you haven't master. Given that you have only so much free time, you won't have the time to master them anyway. So, the question is, how to remain employable in the face of constant techn...
You have a cool new idea on a revolutionary new internet site (e.g. one that makes ebay look obsolete or something that might make you surpass google). However how would you start to make it known in the net as the best idea is worthless as long as nobody knows it and uses it. What's your recommendation? Online Ads? Spaming blogs? But i...
We make infrastructure services (data retrieval and storage) and small smart client applications (fancy reporting mostly) for a commercial bank. Our team is large, 40 odd contractual employees that are C# .NET programmers. We support 50 odd applications and systems that we have developed. A few members of the team began making WPF, WF ...
What common comment tags do you find useful, and how do you use them? For instance, we standardize on: //TODO: blah blah //FIXME: blah blah //NOTE: blah blah We have an IDE plugin that is able to pick these up project wide as a reminder. Do you use any of these aide memoirs? How do you use them? Are they useful? Do you find there a...
The use of XSLT (XML Stylesheet Language Transform) has never seen the same popularity of many of the other languages that came out during the internet boom. While it is in use, and in some cases by large successful companies (i.e. Blizzard Entertainment), it has never seemed to reach mainstream. Why do you think this is? ...
I work in a team that was decent until about 3 months ago when a senior programmer, colleague of mine, was officially appointed "tech lead". He is a great programmer but he basically sucks at leading. We all respect him and think he would be great as an architect or something along that line but he needs a lot more of "something" to be ...
I am an engineer with c, c++ back ground. And am mostly interested to work in data structures and algorithms kind of work. So, obviously asked those kind of questions? Is there any best resource where can I found the best interview questions? Like to know sites/books: which discuss about general or HR kind of questions? which discuss ab...