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In theory, it seems like a great solution for avoiding bugs, but why in practice we hear so little about it?
Why can't we see more support for it on Java or .net for example?
i have been searching around for this answer too. But it seems like its not popular among the programming world. Therefore theres not much people discussing about it.
I tried using it, however i find it a hassel to really think what contracts i should write while i am programming. However its good for debugging.
have you tried? whats your comments on it?
I am attempting to learn css attribute relationships. With my current knowledge, I would venture to say that there are only about 30 or so attributes that the majority of web pages are built around, but how you match them up is what gives one page a cleaner look, better functionality, and an overall better experience for the user. Currently I am getting feedback that the 'only' way to learn is by a combination of experience and looking at examples of implementation(s) on webpages that have the feature(s) I want, and trying to replicate. I think this is too time consuming, and not an effective tool for someone wanting to develop a solid approach to CSS. Is/are there tools that you have used similar to any of the below that help you understand the interaction of the attributes for basic manipulation of semantic markup?
Current tools that have GUIs to allow quick feedback of attribute/element manipulation:
JSFIDDLE : An online platform for viewing HTML, JS, CSS, and the result in one window, allowing for common shared code.
Button Maker : Dynamic CSS/HTML generation for a graphical button.
SourceTree : For understanding repository structure for Git,
Mercurial and SVN version control systems.
Eclipse : An IDE with 'desktop' organization of multiple implementations, code, and information panes.
CodingBat : An online console for learning Python or Java by 'snippet' coding and viewing results of different passed parameters.
Codeyear / CodeAcademy : An online IDE to allow for both 'snippet' coding and viewing CSS/HTML/JS/results in several structured learning paths.
Specifically, I would like to learn the relationships of postion based styles, such as fixed, float and such.
For me, the best way to learn: Think up of something you want to make. Make it. Go through the process of finding out what works and what doesn't. Figure out how to fix it. Fix it. Be amazed at how crappy the result is. Repeat.
You won't learn all the little tricks by looking at independent examples. You won't learn much by "looking at" anything. Do it. Once you have a basic grasp of what's going on, make something. Copy something. Time consuming? yes, sure... if you say so. Experience comes with time.
The thing with copying other people is that you don't know the process they went through. Why did they do something a certain way? Is it even right? Just because somebody put it online doesn't mean it's any good.
So specifically, what function do you want to implement? Google that, read all the different ways people do it. Find one that you like, implement it. Tweak it. If you don't understand, look into that.
I think there's a term for when you're trying to find something, you go from one (related) thing to another until you forget your original issue... That's bad when you need to be productive. It's perfectly fine here, where you just want to learn everything.
For some things, it's important to have structure. Once you learn the basics, I think having some sort of structure or system will just slow you down. I like to go at it and solve a problem, learning as I go. When I'm trying to figure something out, I have nothing but Notepad and Chrome with a lot of Google search results tabs open. You don't need all these GUI tools. Sure they might make your development go a little faster with their auto complete or error warnings, but what's your rush?
Don't spend so much time finding the perfect set of tools that you never get to the thing you were finding those tools for. Just do it.
I believe, I program good, at least my code produces results...
But I feel I have drawback... I hardly follow any naming conventions... neither for variables.. nor for methods... nor for classes... nor for tables, columns, SPs... Further to this, I hardly comment anything while programming...
I always think that, Let me first see the results and then I will come and correct the var names and other things later... (Thanks to visual studio's reflection here)... But the later does not come...
So, I need tips, to force myself to adopt to the practice of following naming conventions, and commenting...
Edit : I totally understand the ill effects of my practice, and I also know, that it is bad... My question is how do I force myself to follow the discipline...
Are you able to ask others for code reviews? Or even try pair programming? Both of those can really help you to do things you know you really should do.
Also, depending on your language/platform, there may well be lint-like tools you can run to check your code's health.
I hope you get to spend a few years working on code produced by someone else that has the same poor coding practices that you have. Only then will you truly understand how poor your code really is. Code that "works" is the bare minimum, writing code so that it is easy to to support, extend and maintain is where the genius of a good programmer is.
My gut tells me that your code is probably not as good as you think if you have no standards. You really just have to pick something, and stick to it. Being haphazard in coding style probably means you are haphazard in logic, which probably means you have a lot of bugs, and unexpected results in your code that will be hard to deduce later. Good luck.
Just remember the general coding guidelines you need to follow. And as you write the code write as per the guidelines with proper variable naming conventions for variables and methods and have function headers. Dont think whether your code will work or not, and code as per the guidelines.
Comments can be added later, but the naming conventions has to be followed even while doing a proof of concept.
Write your code with a confidence that its going to work.
Have your code reviewed by your peers, and also you can use Fxcop for static code findings.
Best of all, your code should work and should do what it's supposed to. It's what you get paid for.
However, if it is not readable, then it will fade into existence, because in time you will not remember what it does. To avoid this, refactor and document your code as soon as it works. As a rule of thumb, you should not be satisfied with your work before it is documented properly. For each method you write, this should not take too much time. But the longer you wait, the more time it will consume to figure out what your code was supposed to be doing.
I know the best way of all is to document before writing, but that won't work with cowboy coders. The other way around might be a good alternative, because readable and good documented code shows off a developer's skills.
This is a matter of coding discipline. If you want to prototype something and then throw the code away, this is acceptable. However, the instant you need to reuse or debug your code, you will regret having no comments and poor method/variable name choices.
While you are working with the code now, you know what it is doing. In a few months to a year, you will not remember everything so clearly. Then, you will likely regret not commenting your code and not choosing good names.
Consider, too, if someone else were to read your code, how easy would it be to understand?
Running something like StyleCop (if you're writing C#) can go some way towards this. It won't warn you about everything, but you can use it to make sure your methods have documentation comments etc.
However, as others have said coding discipline is something that has to come from within, not without.
If you want to change something about yourself, you need to motivate yourself to change it. That's one of the "rules of life."
This isn't really something Stack Overflow can help you with. I suppose that a good suggestion to build up some motivation is finding yourself a job as a developer and see how far your development habits lead you...
-Carlos Nunez
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For design websites is it better to do it your self by learning HTML/CSS or using web design programs? and why?
I've bounced back and forth between hand coding and Dreamweaver in my history as a web developer.
I originally started out hand coding HTML. This was back in the day when table layout was king, and editing nested tables became a real headache. Couple this with a lack of good tools for visualizing hidden elements and this quickly became a nightmare.
I started using Dreamweaver primarily to speed up my table design workflow. Soon, however, Dreamweaver's templating system became a godsent when I started producing static websites that had no server backend. Being able to update one template and have it propagate across the entire static site cut down my cross-page inconsistencies to nearly zero.
More recently, the whole web 2.0 push has got me, and almost everyone else, back into the hand coding game. I found Dreamweaver wasn't really suitable for the compliant designs, since it was heavily table-centric. I find that most of the HTML I write these days is so straightforward and simple there's little need for an editor. Additionally, all my development is now dynamic once again, so there's no need for a static html generating template system anymore.
Learn for yourself so you can figure out how to do things exactly how you want them to be done, and not have to rely on some sort of program to figure it out for you.
Like anything else in technology, learn the core concepts first, and then use a tool to automate the things you have mastered. By doing so, you will gain a better understanding of how everything works together, and you be able to easily tell when something goes wrong. In this way you will not be bound to any one design tool, and can use whatever works best because you understand the core concepts.
In the words of Richard Feynman,
"That which I cannot create, I do not
understand."
They really serve two purposes, and either one is "better" for it's purpose.
If you learn to do it by hand, you will:
Have more control over exactly what is happening
Have less extraneous code
Be able to maintain your code more easily
If you use a program, you will:
Be able to design visually
Possibly be able to design more quickly
Not have to learn to write CSS by hand
It really depends on what your goal is.
I prefer HTML/CSS by hand because you have the most control over the code. Most design programs will add additional markup that is not required. Even simple WYSIWYG JavaScript editors add extra markup. Although, not a huge difference in file size, the additional markup will add up over time. I would also argue that its easier to maintain code when you know what went into its creation.
Additionally, you'll learn a lot more by taking the time to do it by hand.
Personally, I always edit my HTML/CSS by hand using editors with auto-completion if I can, because that always makes life easier. You should definitely always learn a language as much as you can before you start relying on any program to generate code for you, because most of the time you end up fixing what they gave you.
I tend to do it all by hand.
Doesn't matter what IDE or
server-side language I'm using.
Mark up is markup. Being able to do
it rapidly by hand is valuable.
More often then not, you'll have to
edit some markup manually. By
writing it from scratch, you're
already very familiar with the structure of the markup.
You don't have to spend any time
orienting yourself to the
designer-generated markup.
Although not necessarily a rule,
those who live in the designer I've
found to be less sharp in their
markup and code craftsmanship.
I prefer the by hand approach. That way you know exactly what you're getting. Plus I haven't found an editor that produces HTML/CSS that doesn't need some tweaking especially if you are targeting multiple browsers.
Doing it by hand. Using design programs tends to insert a lot of extra markup you don't really need, which will just complicate your ability to learn.
If you do it by hand you at least know what was inserted where, and why. Plus there are a lot of good websites out there that can walk you through the basics.
IMO you will still learn using web design programs like Dreamweaver, since you have to look at the source and make it fit your exact desires,and its quicker. But doing it by hand will give you the more you write the more you learn type of thing that I agree with 100%
This is a bit vague.
I think that "better" (qualitatively) depends greatly on (1) the competency of the designer, and (2) the sophistication of the application.
Regarding "better" (as in "advisable"): using an application can be a crutch that may fail to save you in all cases. Knowing how to "raw code" html and css is valuable in understanding the limitations of the application and working around those limitations. For that reason alone I suggest knowing how to do it by hand and then keep a sharp eye on the output generated by the application, should you choose to use one.
The absolute best is when you understand what you are doing - you can only do this by coding by hand.
If you don't know HTML or CSS and you use a WYSIWYG editor then how can you be sure everything is right? You can't!
If you have a good understanding of HTML and CSS why would you use a WYSIWYG editor? They make things harder because you can't see the code and extra tags and rules get inserted without you knowing.
Coding by hand is always the best.
Why should you know about xhtml/css ?
Here is some reasons:
Respect semantics meaning
DOM compliant (you know the javascript mess)
Easier to maintain
Search Engine Optimization
You still think it takes a longer time to design/integrate a website ?
Think of use vi, eclipse, quanta, and probably some others...
By hand is the obvious answer, because your website/application will be, well, better. (And also because, if you use JavaScript, it's good to traverse through the DOM of a document you've written yourself, versus a generated one that you have to examine beforehand.) But that's mostly only because the visual tools that exist today really suck (I'm thinking of Dreamweaver). It's definitely possible to create a good visual editing (WYSIWYG) program that actually generates good HTML/CSS/JavaScript, but nothing even close has come up yet, so right now hand-coding is much, much better.
I'm not going to read the responses, so its quite possible someone has already said this, but oh well.
First and foremost, you should always write out your HTML / CSS by hand. The reason for this is that no matter how advanced an HTML editor is, it will never be as good as it could / should be. For "good" html / css, you will actually end up writing your page in a different order than what you see.
For example, a page that is displayed like:
________________
|logo |
|----menu------|
|..............|
|...content....|
|..............|
|....footer....|
----------------
"should" actually flow as follows:
<h1>title of site</h1>
<div id="content">.....</div>
<ul id="menu">....</ul>
<div id="footer">...</div>
which an HTML editor would simply throw a hissy fit if you did it through the nice pretty gui. What may be advantageous is to use Web Expression 2 or Visual Studio for its intellisense. It may help speed up (or maybe slow down) your learning curb.
I really recommend Transcending CSS Design if you are already familiar with HTML / CSS. Otherwise grab a CSS book first even over an HTML book. Styling through CSS will teach you proper semantic HTML (or should,anyway).
I like to code by hand because i can keep my code clean and tidy that way. HTML is not very hard anyway.
If you decide to code by hand you will need an editor that supports syntax highlight, and you will need to validate your code as often as possible to avoid errors (this is good practice anyway). This extension for Firefox will ease your work a lot: users.skynet.be/mgueury/mozilla/
I want a clean way of creating game object such as NPCs, bullets and power-ups, reducing the amount of inter-dependence on specific classes. I believe this is what the factory pattern is used for?
I would love to see a good implementation from a real game.
I'm not an expert on design patterns, and never use them if I don't understand them. I don't want to use a design pattern for the sake of it - I just want to understand if this pattern is the right way to solve this problem.
It looks you are trying to find the problem to the solution.
On this particulary question it is nog really possible to give a good implemention because it deponds on how your game objects are stored, what they represent.
You should not try to look for how to implement a specific pattern to a problem, but to find the right sollution to your problem, and that might be a design pattern.
After some more googling I Actually found a pretty good example:
http://cheezeworld.com/object-creation-game-factory/
thanks all