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  JavaScript as a First Language

At Khan Academy we've been investigating teaching Computer Science to students in some new and interesting ways. The most interesting aspect of which is that we're likely going to be teaching them JavaScript as their first language. We're in a very unique position as we're primarily aiming to teach students who've been through our previous math and science-centric curriculum. Because of this we can create some rather compelling exercises and projects that never would've been feasible other...

   JavaScript,Learning,First language,Inheritence,Prototype     2011-12-23 07:53:45

  Interview Programming Problems Done Right

Introduction Why 37signals Doesn't Hire Programmers Based on Brainteasers and my comment on HN generated a lot of responses, so much so that I'm writing this post to properly explain the essence of a good (IMHO) interview programming problem. Pascal's Triangle Pascal's Triangle is a shortcut for getting coefficients most often used binomial probability. The root element is 1. Every other element is the sum of the one or two above it (diagonally left and diagonally right). There are severa...

   Interview,Programming problem,Pascal,Triangle     2012-01-06 09:46:43

  Why I love Common Lisp and hate Java

“Common what?” is a common reply I get when I mention Common Lisp. Perhaps rightly so, since Common Lisp is not all that common these days. Developed in the sixties, it is one of the oldest programming languages out there. In its heydays it was used mostly for Artificial Intelligence research at MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon and the like, and therefore has a lingering association with AI. People not in AI shy away from Lisp. Common Lisp is a powerful and versatile program...

   Lisp,Java,Comparison,Common Lisp     2012-01-30 05:48:16

  5 Ways to Boost MySQL Scalability

There are a lot of scalability challenges we see with clients over and over. The list could easily include 20, 50 or even 100 items, but we shortened it down to the biggest five issues we see.1. Tune those queriesBy far the biggest bang for your buck is query optimization. Queries can be functionally correct and meet business requirements without being stress tested for high traffic and high load. This is why we often see clients with growing pains, and scalability challenges as their site becom...

   MySQL,Scalability,Methods,Implementation,Practice     2011-10-18 02:57:27

  Coder or Clown?

That’s the challenge. Sit down with someone you’ve never met and try to work out if they are a coder or a clown. I don’t mean to insult anyone, of course, and I’m the first to acknowledge the years of training and effort that goes into being a professional clown. But some coders, oh boy. Like the time I interviewed a recent graduate. I’ll call her Ada. Full of sympathy for the novice programmer I started with a gentle warm-up, a soft-ball question to break the ...

   Coder,Clown,State,Profile,Category     2011-08-28 23:04:46

  Glass Button in Photoshop

These days glass buttons seem to be very popular. You can find glass buttons in Windows Vista and all around the Web. Other popular buttons are metallic and plastic buttons. All these buttons have one thing in common: They are all shiny. Some people call these kinds of buttons Web 2.0 buttons. Here I cover the creation of two different glass buttons in Adobe Photoshop CS3. Both glass buttons utilize the same principles. Once you have completed this tutorial you should be able to apply ...

   PhotoShop,Glass button,Rounded button,Design     2011-10-10 13:55:46

  How NOT to teach a computer language

For the past year or so my wife has been taking online classes to get a computer science degree. For most of her classes she’s done great, she’s been flying through HTML and SQL, even up to the point where she can handle multilevel joins and optimizing through indexes. That was until she hit her vb.net class. I had no idea why she was having problems with a language has easy as vb.net so I started helping her out and find out why she was having so many problems. I’ve also ad...

   Programming,Teach,Book,Grade,Method,Computer     2011-11-06 14:52:13

  Simple Animation in the HTML5 Canvas Element

HTML5 is generating all kinds of buzz these days. Some of the buzz is about HTML5 being a replacement for Adobe’s Flash. I don’t think it’s there yet but it’s certainly on the way to changing the way content is presented on the web. This is a description of a very simple animation in an HTML5 canvas element. It is coded for readability and not for optimized operation. We’ll add a canvas element to a web page and then use javascript to draw on it. We will...

   HTML5,Canvas,Animation,Sample code     2011-07-01 10:20:08

  7 ways to start learning how to code right now for free

Learning to code is one of the most powerful and satisfying things you can ever do. If you’re a designer, learning to code can help you understand what you’re creating for, and if you’re looking to build a startup from scratch, being a technical founder can make things exponentially easier for you. No matter why you want learn, the only thing you really need is curiosity. But if you’re just starting out as a novice and don’t know where to begin,...

   Learn programming,Efficient way,Experiment,iPad     2012-02-03 08:11:21

  Understanding PGO in GoLang 1.20

Background The Go 1.20 version was officially released in February 2023, it introduced the PGO(Profile Guided Optimization) mechanism. The basic principle of PGO can be divided into the following two steps: First, profiling is performed on the program to collect data about the program's runtime and generate a profiling file. When compiling the program, enable the PGO option, and the compiler will optimize the program's performance based on the content in the .pgo file. When compiling a program...

   GO 1.20,PGO,GOLANG     2023-02-28 04:27:46

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