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SEARCH KEYWORD -- Reduction

  Reducing Code Nesting

"This guy’s code sucks!" It’s something we’ve all said or thought when we run into code we don’t like. Sometimes it’s because it’s buggy, sometimes it’s because it conforms to a style we don’t like, and sometimes it’s because it just feels wrong. Recently I found myself thinking this, and automatically jumping to the conclusion that the developer who wrote it was a novice. The code had a distinct property that I dislike: lots of ...

   Code nesting,Readability,Maintainability,Reduction     2012-01-02 08:13:46

  Net Neutrality is Dead - and Web Development Will Never Be The Same Again

Against the wishes of web users and tech businesses alike, the FCC has pushed through regulations to kill net neutrality. Here’s what that means for web developers. On December 14, 2017, the FCC voted in a 3-2 decision to roll back the Obama administration’s 2015 net neutrality rules. These policies, which demanded stronger oversight for broadband companies and internet service providers, ensured that all data on the web was treated equally. Most importantly, they prevented web traf...

       2019-05-02 21:55:53

  Functional Programming in C++

Probably everyone reading this has heard “functional programming” put forth as something that is supposed to bring benefits to software development, or even heard it touted as a silver bullet.  However, a trip to Wikipedia for some more information can be initially off-putting, with early references to lambda calculus and formal systems.  It isn’t immediately clear what that has to do with writing better software. My pragmatic summary:  A large fraction of th...

   C++,Functional programming     2012-04-28 06:16:37

  Why learning Haskell/Python makes you a worse programmer

I've found, contrary to what you sometimes read, that learning Python and Haskell has not improved my programming using other languages. Haskell in particular, being so different from imperative languages, is supposed to give new insights into programming that will help you even when you are not using the language. My current experience doesn't exactly tally with this, and here is why:Demotivation.I find I think in Python, and even in Haskell to some extent, even though I have used Has...

   Python,Programmer,Bad,Bad programmer,Haskell     2011-10-29 07:13:44

  Set Theory in C++11

Have you ever felt the need to perform set theoretic operations on types? Not really? Me neither, but I thought it’s a fun thing to try out. So, if you ever feel the need of using type sets, C++11 makes it quite easy to do so. Especially variadic templates allow for a much more condensed syntax compared to type list constructs formerly used. (Disclaimer: This is rather a proof of concept, but maybe somebody comes up with a useful scenario.) Let’s start by d...

   C++,set theory,Math     2012-03-11 13:15:55

  Performance is a Feature

We've always put a heavy emphasis on performance at Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange. Not just because we're performance wonks (guilty!), but because we think speed is a competitive advantage. There's plenty of experimental data proving that the slower your website loads and displays, the less people will use it. [Google found that] the page with 10 results took 0.4 seconds to generate. The page with 30 results took 0.9 seconds. Half a second delay caused a 20% drop in traffic. Half a seco...

   Website,Perfomance,Optimization     2011-07-02 01:52:12

  The trap of the performance sweet spot

This post is about JavaScript performance but I would like to start it by telling a story that might seem unrelated to JS. Please bear with me if you don’t like C.A story of a C programmer writing JavaScriptMr. C. is a C programmer as you can probably guess from his name. Today he was asked by his boss to write a very simple function: given an array of numbered 2d points calculate vector sum of all even numbered points... He opens his favorite text editor and quickly types somet...

   C,JavaScript,Sweet spot,Memory,Low level,Trap     2011-11-06 14:45:01

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