language-agnostic

Design question: Should the client both create the session and the socket?

I have three classes: Client Session Socket Both Session & Socket depeand on the Client to create both objects. A Session depeands on a Socket and no sockets are created without a session. Should the Client have a function that creates a Session pubically and a Socket privately? Doesn't it violate the law of demeter? EDIT: Current ...

Logic to mirror byte value around 128

Hey, I have a need to mirror a byte's value around the centre of 128. So, example outputs of this function include: In 0 Out 255 In 255 Out 0 In 128 Out 128 In 127 Out 129 In 30 Out 225 In 225 Out 30 I'm driving myself nuts with this, I'm sure I'll kick myself when I read the answers. Cheers ...

Is it viable and necessary to encrypt bytes?

We have a requirement from customer that if someone gets access to the database, all data that includes personal information should be encrypted, so that when they do select calls, they shouldn't be able to see anything in clear text. Now this isn't any problem for Strings, but what about bytearrays? (that can potentially be quite huge (...

Programming Concepts That Were "Automated" By Modern Languages

Weird question but here it is. What are the programming concepts that were "automated" by modern languages? What I mean are the concepts you had to manually do before. Here is an example: I have just read that in C, you manually do garbage collection; with "modern" languages however, the compiler/interpreter/language itself takes care of...

Is learning Dependency Injection worth it for someone that usually only does small projects(5-20k lines)?

I just usually do applications for myself as a hobby. It looks like DI frameworks have a big momentum in the community, so I thought maybe I should learn it to improve my coding skills. From what I understand, it seems to be geared more towards big projects. Is it still a good idea to use it for example in a 5k lines project? Thanks ...

Determining when or when not to escape output

I have a page, where I have approximately 90 items I need to output. Most of them are object properties (I am using ORM so these objects map to my database tables). But the question is, do I have to encode each of those 90 outputs by applying functions to each (in my case, the htmlspecialchars)? Wouldn't that add a bit of an overhead (ca...

Helper Casting Functions -- Is it a code smell?

I recently began to start using functions to make casting easier on my fingers for one instance I had something like this ((Dictionary<string,string>)value).Add(foo); and converted it to a tiny little helper function so I can do this ToDictionary(value).Add(foo); Is this a code smell? Also, what about simpler examples? For example...

Programming Exercises for Learning Purposes?

Possible Duplicate: What are your programming exercises? Are there any programming exercises that apply to any language? Before I got my first job, I thought I knew C# pretty well, then I was thrown right into the deep end, and now I know I have a good command over the language. I would like to apply the same method to other ...

Is it (width, height) or (height, width)?

Is there a convention for the order of (height, width) in function arguments or when displaying dimensions? ...

Finding what makes strings unique in a list, can you improve on brute force?

Suppose I have a list of strings where each string is exactly 4 characters long and unique within the list. For each of these strings I want to identify the position of the characters within the string that make the string unique. So for a list of three strings abcd abcc bbcb For the first string I want to identify the character ...

Arguments against Create or Update

Recently someone stated that they thought all Creates should be CreateOrUpdates. Instinctively i thought bad, but now I am trying to find out if I have any grounds. Situation interface IService{ void Create(Object a); void Update(Object a); } or interface IService{ void CreateOrUpdate(Object a); } My first...

How, in general, can web framework support REST style?

I would like to know, what are the ways a web framework may be suitable for designing a RESTful app, in general. One goal is for example to provide http request routing, so they are automatically sent to appropriate controllers. From architectural point of view, web framework based on MVC pattern are more suitable for REST. What other ...

Should we avoid to use Object as the input parameter/ output value of a method?

Take Java syntax as an example, though the question itself is language independent. If the following snippet takes an object MyAbstractEmailTemplate as input argument in the method setTemplate, the class MyGateway will then become tightly-coupled with the object MyAbstractEmailTemplate, which lessens the re-usability of the class MyGatew...

Does Anyone Still Prefer N-Tier Architecture After Having *Shipped* an MVC Application?

Other SO threads have asked people if they prefer N-Tier or MVC architecture. I'm not looking to continue that debate on this thread. I'm looking for something more specific. My Question: Does Anyone Still Prefer N-Tier Architecture After Having Shipped an MVC Application? Reason for My Question: Before I shipped an MVC web ap...

Is there anything wrong with taking immediate actions in constructors?

I have classes like this one: class SomeObject { public function __construct($param1, $param2) { $this->process($param1, $param2); } ... } So I can instantly "call" it as some sort of global function just like new SomeObject($arg1, $arg2); which has the benefits of staying concise, being easy to understand,...

Algorithm for converting hierarchical flat data (w/ ParentID) into sorted flat list w/ indentation levels

I have the following structure: MyClass { guid ID guid ParentID string Name } I'd like to create an array which contains the elements in the order they should be displayed in a hierarchy (e.g. according to their "left" values), as well as a hash which maps the guid to the indentation level. For example: ID Name ParentI...

Are there any context-sensitive code search tools?

I have been getting very frustrated recently in dealing with a massive bulk of legacy code which I am trying to get familiar with. Say I try to search for a particular function call, I get loads of results that turn out to be completely irrelevant; some of them are easy to spot, eg a comment saying // Fixed functionality in foo() so d...

How do you refer to the currently logged user in your code?

In other words - what would be a good name for a variable that references the currently logged user? I've come up with a few: logged_user visitor me I'm not convinced either of them is good enough though. ...

Rush Hour - Solving the game

Rush Hour if you're not familiar with it, the game consists of a collection of cars of varying sizes, set either horizontally or vertically, on a NxM grid that has a single exit. Each car can move forward/backward in the directions it's set in, as long as another car is not blocking it. You can never change the direction of a car. There ...

Questions to ask a client before beginning a website

I am aware of this question which deals with the technical aspects of website construction, but I was unable to find any place with suggestions on knowledge you must obtain from a client before undergoing a project. As someone who freelances on the side, I think this could be incredibly useful. What important questions must one ask the ...