Today's Question:  What does your personal desk look like?        GIVE A SHOUT

SEARCH KEYWORD -- Idiom

  A Programming Idiom You've Never Heard Of

Here are some sequences of events: Take the rake out of the shed, use it to pile up the leaves in the backyard, then put the rake back in the shed. Fly to Seattle, see the sights, then fly home. Put the key in the door, open it, then take the key out of the door. Wake-up your phone, check the time, then put it back to sleep. See the pattern? You do something, then do something else, then you undo the first thing. Or more accurately, the last step is the inverse of the first. Once you're aware ...

   Programming,Idiom,Strange     2012-01-04 08:12:25

  Scala, Patterns and The Perl Effect

He tried to understand that one concept for a couple of months before it made sense to him. Admittedly, partial functions are not intuitive for anyone who has been schooled in traditional programming, but still, looking at the problem he was trying to solve it seemed like James was required to expend too much effort relative to the simplicity of the problem (as he pointed out, now that he understands the concept it seems straightforward). He showed me the code, and it was basically a situa...

   Scala,Perl,Pattern,Partial function,Template     2011-12-21 09:25:41

  Esmerelda's Imagination

An actress acquaintance of mine—let's call her Esmerelda—once said, "I can't imagine being anything except an actress." To which the retort was given, "You can't be much of an actress then, can you?"I was reminded of this exchange when someone said to me about Go, "I can't imagine programming in a language that doesn't have generics." My retort, unspoken this time, was, "You can't be much of a programmer, then, can you?"This is not an essay about generics (which are a fine...

   Programmer,Go,Immagination,Complaint     2011-12-31 23:38:13

  Esmerelda's Imagination

An actress acquaintance of mine—let's call her Esmerelda—once said, "I can't imagine being anything except an actress." To which the retort was given, "You can't be much of an actress then, can you?"I was reminded of this exchange when someone said to me about Go, "I can't imagine programming in a language that doesn't have generics." My retort, unspoken this time, was, "You can't be much of a programmer, then, can you?"This is not an essay about generics (which are a fine...

   Programmer,Imagination,Lack     2012-02-08 10:31:09

  What's Wrong with the For Loop

Closures in Java are a hot topic of late. A few really smart people are drafting a proposal to add closures to a future version of the language. However, the proposed syntax and the linguistic addition are getting a lot of push back from many Java programmers. Today, Elliotte Rusty Harold posted his doubts about the merits of closures in Java. Specifically, he asks "Why Hate the for Loop?": I don’t know what it is some people have against for loops that they’re so eager to...

   For loop,Basic,Problem,Efficiency,Java     2012-02-24 05:06:15

  Python Performance Tips, Part 1

To read the Zen of Python, type import this in your Python interpreter. A sharp reader new to Python will notice the word “interpreter”, and realize that Python is another scripting language. “It must be slow!” No question about it: Python program does not run as fast or efficiently as compiled languages. Even Python advocates will tell you performance is the area that Python is not good for. However, YouTube has proven Python is capable of serving 40 million videos...

   Python,Performance,Efficiency,Tips     2012-02-14 10:50:22

  Yes, Virginia, Scala is hard

Let me first say that I am a Scala lover and have been a Scala champion for almost 5 years.  I've written books and articles on Scala.  I've worked with dozens of companies that have launched Scala and Lift projects.  I've code reviewed many dozens of Scala projects.I used to think that Scala was easy.  It was, and continues to be, a cure for some of the numerous problems with Java.  From the "stuff that's hard or impossible in Java is simple in Scala," Scala is a very e...

   Scala,OOP,FP,function programming,hard,idiom     2011-11-08 08:47:43

  Prototypes in JavaScript

Following on from his previous article, David Chisnall explores JavaScript as an example of prototype-based object orientation. In this article, he shows how it's possible to implement more complex object models on top of this simple abstraction.My previous article, Prototypes and Object Orientation, considered the differences between class-based and prototype-based object orientation. In this article, we'll look in a bit more detail at the workings of the JavaScript object model, since it'...

   JavaScript,Prototype,Object oriented,Obj     2011-09-02 11:44:12

  A re-introduction to JavaScript

Introduction Why a re-introduction? Because JavaScript has a reasonable claim to being the world's most misunderstood programming language. While often derided as a toy, beneath its deceptive simplicity lie some powerful language features. 2005 saw the launch of a number of high-profile JavaScript applications, showing that deeper knowledge of this technology is an important skill for any web developer. It's useful to start with an idea of the language's history. JavaScript was created in 1...

   JavaScript,Types,Array,Re-introduction,OOP     2012-02-09 05:38:08

  Understanding lvalues and rvalues in C and C++

The terms lvalue and rvalue are not something one runs into often in C/C++ programming, but when one does, it’s usually not immediately clear what they mean. The most common place to run into these terms are in compiler error & warning messages. For example, compiling the following with gcc: int foo() {return 2;} int main() { foo() = 2; return 0; } You get: test.c: In function 'main': test.c:8:5: error: lvalue required as left operand of assignment True, this code ...

   lvalue,rvalue,C++,locator value,elaboration     2011-12-15 07:51:38

RECENT