development

Project retirement or archiving

What is the best way to retire a currently active project? I've been working on this one for a while now and I think its time to let go. Without going into too much detail, there are other projects and technologies that are way ahead now and I don't see much value in investing in it any further. What have you done to retire a project an...

Is it legal to reverse engineer binary file formats

Is it legal to add support for a 3rd party file format in my application by reverse engineer a unencrypted binary file format from another application, and reading the contents? ...

Test accounts and products in a production system

Is it worth designing a system to expect test accounts and products to be present and active in production, or should there be no contamination of production databases with test entities, even if your shipping crew knows not to ship any box addressed to "Test Customer"? I've implemented messaging protocols that have a test="True" attrib...

AD locks my account

I had developed an application in visual Studio 2005. whenever i run that application active directory locks domain my account. I really cant understand what am i doing wrong. ...

Source code search with Google Desktop

Is there a indexing plugin for GDS that allows for source code search? I see some for specific types (Java, C++, ...) and one for "any text". These are nice, but I would like one that allows for many/configurable extensions (HTML, CSS, JS, VB, C#, Java, Python, ...). A huge bonus would be to allow for syntax highlighting (http://pygme...

OS Development

I want to make my own operating system for the X86 architecture. What would be the best language to use? (Along with assem of course) What would the best compiler for the language be on a windows environment? Are there any good tutorials on this subject? Is it better to test it using an emulator or physical pc? ...

Is Java the best language for Mobile App Devlopment?

I was wondering what are the benefits of using anything else but Java for Mobile Application Development. ...

Auto-Hide taskbar not appearing when my application is maximized

My application draws all its own window borders and decorations. It works fine with Windows taskbars that are set to auto-hide, except when my application window is maximized. The taskbar won't "roll up". It will behave normally if I have the application not maximized, even when sized all the way to the bottom of the screen. It even w...

If your software development team is not following any design methodology, what is that called?

If your software development team is not following any design methodology, what is that called? ...

How to incorporate Interactive Ruby into my development process?

I am trying to find a better way to integrate IRB with my normal ruby devleopment. Currently I rarely use IRB with my code. I only use it to verify syntax or to try something small. I know I can load my own code into ruby as a require 'mycode' but this usually doesn't mesh with my programming style. Sometimes the variables I wan...

What is the difference between a framework and a library?

What is the difference between a framework and a library? I always thought of a library as a set of objects and functions that is focussed around solving a particular problem or around a specific area of application development (i.e. database access); a framework on the other hand is a collection of libraries centred around a particula...

Development PC: AMD vs Intel and 32-bit vs 64-bit

I am looking to purchase a new development PC. My budget is not more than $1,000 USD (including monitor). I am open to laptop (desktop replacement type) or the traditional desktop PC would do just fine. My primary development environment will be Microsoft, Visual Studio 2008 (and support of older Visual Studio 6 code as well). SQL Se...

Do you design/sketch/draw a development solution first and then develop it? If so how?

I work a lot with decision makers looking to use technology better in their businesses. I have found that a picture is worth a thousand words and prototyping a system in a diagram of some sorts always lends a lot to a discussion. I have used Visio, UML (somewhat), Mind Maps, Flow Charts and Mocked Up WinForms to start the vision for th...

What do you like/dislike about development user groups?

I run a non profit based .net user group called DevEvening (http://www.devevening.co.uk) and am always looking to improve it. I wondered what people liked and disliked about user groups and what could persuade people to attend who did not already? Since your using this site I guess you have some outside of work interest in developmen...

Best open-source, cross-platform, compiled, GUI alternative to Visual Basic?

Hi Guys I'm about to write a little GUI app that will sit in the system tray, doing a little FTP and ODBC. I'd like to develop in Linux, if possible. What would you recommend? Thanks a bunch! ...

Can you recommend books for getting started with Web Development on a Mac?

As a dyed in the wool Windows dev I surprised myself bought a Mac and I feel such a beginner again. I'm basically looking to get up to speed quickly and need advice on making the transition as an experienced windows dev to OSX. Can you recommend any development books specifically in the area of getting up and running using Apache, Pytho...

Home laptop for development+basic multimedia

I am looking to buy a decent laptop which I would mostly use for small personal development projects, watching movies and the occasional gaming (I don't need to play the latest and greatest games). I would prefer something with a 17' display though I am willing to consider good 15' laptops as well. Any ideas/suggestions ? I am currently...

How do you decide if a project should be web-based or desktop-based?

I'm having trouble deciding if I want a project of mine to be web-based (as in a web-app), desktop-based (a desktop application), or a desktop application that can sync or connect to the cloud. I don't know if anyone else would have an interest in this application, and it's only going to be for me, so I'm leaning toward desktop applicat...

Any experience developing for the SMART Board?

Our school system employs the SMART Boards in the classroom. I think they are pretty neat and saw that they've got a developer network. I was wondering if anyone had done any development for this product and if so could tell me about the experience. Are you still developing for it? I was considering trying my hand at writing some app...

Daily Build vs. Zero Defect

How do you go about doing a daily build and striving for a zero-defect environment? Does it mean I never get to go home until I've killed all the bugs in my new code? Or does it mean I just don't check my code back in until I've fully tested it, which leaves the code effectively branched for a much longer time? I'm working with a handfu...