In order to write better code, is it worth to know deeply what the compiler does? Just how much would be enough? I'm not a bit scrubber, but I was thinking that knowing how the compiler operates would make me a better programmer. Am I wrong? If so, what resources would you recommend? ...
I really need any programming project idea to implement (any language) that fits as an educational project. I'm the leader of a small programming team in a community aiming at teaching, so I need to use this project as a way of teaching them different stuff about programming and different techniques. But I can't think of any project tha...
I'm just starting to read TAOCP Volume 1 and I'm having trouble understanding the style. Knuth mentions a computational method to be a quadruple (Q,I, Omega, f) -- but I am having trouble understanding what each of these is intended to be. I understand his first example, but don't understand his second I'm looking at page 8 of the thi...
I recently found (through a link in some blog post) a series of lectures from a 1986 MIT course on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. Although I only found it yesterday, I'm addicted to it. What's remarkable about these lectures in particular (I haven't finished watching the entire series) is the clarity with which comp...
Inspired by a recent TED talk, I want to write a small piece of educational software. The researcher created little miniature computers in the shape of blocks called "Siftables". [David Merril, inventor - with Siftables in the background.] There were many applications he used the blocks in but my favorite was when each block was a n...
Duplicate of: Does anyone know some good programming podcasts. What good technology podcasts are out there? I listen to .Net rocks and Hansel-minutes. I was wondering if there are any more good ones like that out there. ...
I'am aware there has been a generic question about a "best IDE in C++" but I would like to stress I'm a new to C++ and programming in general. This means I have the needs of a student: relatively easy and unbloated working environment things just work, focus on the code color coding to show the different language features (comments, e...
I'm building an educational game which, through it's modularity, allows for teaching students how to program. It's essentially a generic card game which can easily be modified. The backbone of the game is supposed to be totally uneditable (at least in theory), so I need to build a "Card" type that allows for an anonymous function as it...
Does anyone have or would like to share any recommendations for some great sites/online tutorials or primers on developing sites in MS Sharepoint? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks! ...
Background: I have been teaching a short course for 12-14 year olds interested in learning how to program video games. We have been using Alice now for 3 years. In this time we have used both Alice and Story Telling Alice. Question: When is the right time to move on from Alice (or Scratch if that is what you prefer) and move the stude...
I am looking for a really simple database implementation; basically one with no complex parsing SQL engine. What I am looking for is something demonstrating B+ trees and ACID storage (Suitable for educational purposes). What I have found up-till now form my current searches was hamster-db. I am looking for something even simpler with a s...
A group of us (.NET developers) are talking unit testing. Not any one framework (we've hit on MSpec, NUint, MSTest, RhinoMocks, TypeMock, etc) -- we're just talking generally. We see lots of syntax that forces a distinct unit test per scenario, but we don't see an avenue to re-using one unit test with various inputs or scenarios. Also...