The Whiteboard

12:00 AM

250 24
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Answer:

15685693751

Telastyn

12:29 AM

that's going to take some time since I remember the solutions.

Robert Harvey

Yeah, the recursive solution pretty much stalls on that large one. The iterative solution essentially runs in linear time (.05 seconds on HackerRank).

psr

Just memoize the recursive though.

Robert Harvey

There's still 15 billion combinations.

The iterative solution is essentially O(nm).

I don't know what the recursive solution's time complexity is.

psr

2:25 AM

Yep, in JavaScript memoizing takes about 10 minutes, and the table solution is basically immediate. Though you need a bigInt library to do that last one (which I didn't bother with).

HotelCalifornia

@WorldEngineer well good, because that's what I did ^ .^

enderland

2:51 AM

0

Q: MySQL 1064 error

I have checked every thing repeatedly, even checked similar problems in previously posted 1064 errors. This one seems different. Inspite all syntax being correct i am still getting an error in command prompt mysql> create table user unsigned auto_increment primary key not null ,username varchar<

HotelCalifornia

3:02 AM

I've been wondering: how is it that you put questions in chat like that?

Also, is a function for big O just a best fit of time data?

HotelCalifornia

3:38 AM

aha, this poor guy couldn't tell the difference between parentheses and angle brackets on the command line

deostroll

5:29 AM

I have a source control problem...or rather a versioning problem...say that I have been working on a program and made it to a state A - say version A. Version A was supposed to be tested...but since that got seemingly delayed I carried on development and so I've got version B -> C -> D. Post version D, A got tested...and there was a small bug in it...now what do I do?

Actually looking at correcting state A to fix that small bug...B, C, & D aren't really all that important...They aren't going to get tested. When I am going to make my next version E from D (assuming that I'd want to get E tested), I would want to basically "fix" all problems...

But for now I'd want a fix for version A, and not include (B,C, or, D) in it...so how to go about this?

I use TFS as my source control...

Also I want to have that fix for A in source control...

ratchet freak

7:47 AM

@HotelCalifornia just put (only) the link to the question in the box

Duga

8:04 AM

Your question is irrelevant to this topic.if you want to get a desire answer you need to ask your question on other topics like programmers.stackexchange.com — Kasra 1 min ago

@Kasra asking to decide between technologies is off-topic on programmers.SE. — ratchet freak 1 min ago

Duga

9:46 AM

Why did this question have to be locked? Would have been useful. Fwiw it would be off-topic on programmers. — Duncan 25 secs ago

Duga

10:58 AM

This sounds more like a question about algorithms. You may want to think about flagging it for migration to Programmers.SE. Or - this kind of question is studied in the CS area called Computational Geometry so you may want to look through the tagged questions in CS.SE. — Stephan Kolassa 1 min ago

Duga

11:56 AM

The close votes are because this question is considered too broad for SO. You might have more luck on programmers. — Rhys Jones 25 secs ago

evinda

12:46 PM

Hallo @amon :D

amon

@evinda Hi! You seem to be new to Programmers.SE, what brings you here?

evinda

I may have a question later :) @amon

amon

ok sure

Thomas Owens

Questions? Later? Nonsense. You have questions now. I know it. I sense it.

Stack Exchange

1:02 PM

The Codeless Code: Case 186: Nothing, Forever

posted on April 07, 2015

One cold Spring morning, the nun Yíwen encountered a certain monk standing in the middle of a bridge, his face stained with tears as he gazed into the abyss below. “What ails you, brother?” asked Yíwen, fearing for the young man’s well-being. “The futility of existence!” sobbed the monk. “What is the point of our labors, when their fruits spoil so quickly? Nothing is forever, least of all …

Thomas Owens

@StackExchange Qi's Commentary for the win on that one.

evinda

Suppose that we have a graph. Then we can apply topological sorting a lot of times and we could get several different lists as result.
How can we find algorithmically all the possible topological sortings?

@amon @ThomasOwens I posted my question

ratchet freak

Why do you need to?

evinda

1:17 PM

To find all the possible results algorithmically @ratchetfreak

Isn't it possible? @ratchetfreak

And something else... How can we check algorithmically if there is a path from a node u to a node v?

Telastyn

1:36 PM

only if it's an acyclic graph, and even then, I expect it to be slow. Pathfinding is easier

ratchet freak

@evinda why do you need all the possible results

amon

@evinda It should be possible, but coming up with a correct and efficient algorithm might be tricky. My thoughts so far: Assume a graph G = ({a, b, c}, {a→b}). The valid toposorts are {[a, b, c], [a, c, b], [c, a, b]}. A breadth-first sort will start with the source nodes, i.e. the set {a, c}, and either of these may be used as the minimal element. Therefore, we have sort({a, b, c}) = {[a] ++ xs | xs ∈ sort({b, c})} ∪ {[c] ++ xs | xs ∈ sort(a, b)}, where ++ is list concatenation.

evinda

@amon So you mean that we call a breadth-first search, right and then? What do we do next?

ratchet freak

I ask because this looks like an XY problem, where you are looking for a solution in the wrong place.

durron597

in Stack Overflow 2015 Moderator Election Chat on Stack Overflow Chat, 2 mins ago, by Qantas 94 Heavy

Or you could create a sockpuppet and make that a moderator too :)

Duga

1:48 PM

@RhysJones - If it's too broad for SO then it's likely Too Broad for Programmers. This question would not be well received on Programmers. — GlenH7 37 secs ago

evinda

@amon @ratchetfreak I am looking for two topological sorts with a specific property. In order to find these 2, I have to find all the possible topological sorts in order to compare them.

durron597

My goal is to get the Steward CV badge with under 3100 rep

enderland

lol

Loko

Anyone else thinks: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/278628/… should be reopened?

enderland

2:06 PM

@Loko I wish I was able to actually program 8 hours a day....

Loko

@enderland That's insane

user41796

@Loko Nope, not at all. It's an opinion fest in the making

Jimmy Hoffa

eff breadth or depth first sort - sort on traversal lazily

enderland

@Loko I don't have a computer science/engineering background though, I think for me it would be beneficial to just CODE a bunch or go through coursework efffectively

Frankly I've considered that if my current gig doesn't work out, just quit and code for a few weeks/months while looking for a different dev position....

Jimmy Hoffa

@enderland that's a rough approach... @WorldEngineer and @Ampt both graduated and still haven't made it into the spot of coder... it's very hard to do, which I don't understand because so many people have the job but are terrible at it

you'd think it'd be easy to get code positions when you consider how bad many of the people paid to do it are- how did they get a job over others? Sure wasn't skill.

enderland

2:12 PM

Yeah, I know... I also know it's so much easier to get a job when you have a job, blah blah, etc

Jimmy Hoffa

yeah.. it seems to be the most common way people become QA- go after programming or maybe have a coding job or two, but end up without one for long enough and end up taking QA. Good friend of mine wanted to be a programmer, has his CS, very smart guy, been a network engineer for over a decade now because he couldn't get a coding spot.

Loko

@GlenH7 No idea if you read the actual question instead of just the title and his story but this question could just be stated as: "Is 8 hours a day full on programming normal? If so, how would I be able to get less stress when programming for this long?"

user41796

@enderland You don't want to be on the wrong side of that statement. I've known folk who have had to deal with that, and it is a lot more challenging that way.

enderland

@GlenH7 Yeah. I'm going to a local "tech" networking event tonight though, so we'll see what happens...

user41796

@Loko Read the whole question; read all of the answers. It's off-topic for the site.

Jimmy Hoffa

2:15 PM

the build engineer->SE route I took to cement my hold in the industry is one I can definitely recommend. No non-coding job has more input into what the devs actually do than the guy who fixes and maintains their builds and deployments.

enderland

It's infuriating for how many people have basically told me, "enderland is smart, love to have you on the team" and nothing

@JimmyHoffa my current team does build systems.. :P

Jimmy Hoffa

@enderland much better job than QA or tech-bench while you're trying to scrabble after a dev position too

@enderland I was a build engineer for 4 years, last 2 of which were about half-build half-outright-dev from convincing others I could help them in the actual code base

Robert Harvey

Is 100000 simultaneous users a real number, or just a guess? Man, if I had 100000 simultaneous potential customers that were evaluating a demo of my product simultaneously at any given moment, that would be a really good problem. It's much more likely that it's just a handful of users at any given moment, even if your product is very popular. — Robert Harvey 54 secs ago

durron597

@RobertHarvey Heck, StackOverflow only recently had it's first question hit 10000 votes

Loko

@GlenH7 questions like: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/110487/… and programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/154733/… should be closed as well then

@GlenH7 and this one: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/213708/…

ratchet freak

2:22 PM

@JimmyHoffa I graduated directly into a coder spot, though I'll admit nepotism was involved

user114359

@Loko I just got here but I would VTC all of those questions.

user114359

They are primarily opinion-based, some are career advice, and all of them are similar to the topic in this meta question:

user114359

6

Q: Why is "Is it possible to..." a poorly worded question?

A lot of questions try to cast a net into sea of possible designs with the wording "is it possible to...". These questions often get closed for one reason or another. What steps should I take to try to ask a better question?

discussion closed-questions

enderland

@JimmyHoffa well the problem is I still don't have an offer to do that... :(

user114359

Asking "how should I..." is a big red flag to me. Maybe the question needs editing, maybe it needs closing. But rarely does a question like that work as-is.

Telastyn

2:25 PM

I think that question is borderline reopenable with some edits away from "My job is terrible! Am I right?"

Loko

@Snowman Ok I'm just saying. I was watching the questions before actually contributing to the website and I saw that those weren't closed so i would say the example I just pasted is in the exact same category

user114359

Some questions are off-topic because round about... 2012? or so, there were changes to the on/off-topic question types

user114359

Meaning, some old questions used to be on-topic but no longer are.

Robert Harvey

Another insane scaling:

Can you describe in a little more detail what a "website" is? I don't think it means the same thing to you as it does to us, and I dispute the notion that your user needs to see 1000 of them at once. — Robert Harvey 56 secs ago

user41796

The record a video question is about freelancing which has had a challenged past on the site. As it boils down to contract negotiation within development, it's on-topic.
The add a person to blame field also has it's own checkered past. And I put a VTC on it.
Overcoming problem solving is too broad, and my close vote expired some time ago.

Loko

2:27 PM

@Snowman Still misleading for beginners. The other questions should still be closed then

user41796

@Loko It's not "right" but posts that have converted to community wiki will sometimes be ignored with respect to being closed off.

user114359

@Loko if I did not use up all of my votes for the day, I just might have voted on them right now. I would read them in more detail first, and as @GlenH7 said some CW questions with a lot of content might be better off left open.

user55340

Flagged for migration:

user55340

1

Q: Having a production branch or using master?

I work on small team with other remote developers on a Rails application. We are starting to modify our git workflow. We have thought about a branching structure like below: (dev) -> (qa) -> (stag) -> (master) But some of the developers thought it might be less confusing for new developers who...

git

Telastyn

bleh, we close far too many things here.

I am editing that question to hopefully make it slightly more acceptable.

Loko

2:30 PM

@Telastyn Which one?

user114359

@MichaelT I feel like that question has already been asked here but I am too lazy to search for a dupe.

Robert Harvey

What purpose is served by closing highly-viewed, highly upvoted, arguably interesting questions?

Focus on questions like this one:

ratchet freak

@RobertHarvey showing newbies that questions like that are not acceptable for the site

Robert Harvey

-3

Q: Why are there just a few implementations of a Java EE container?

I see at the JCP that work on Java EE 8 is allready in progress, as Java EE 7 was released almost 1,5 year ago. However, as far as I know there are only three implementations of the Java EE 7 container up till now, the reference implementation GlassFish Open 4, one other free implementation WildF...

java java-ee

user55340

@Snowman quite possibly, but it's a dup here.

Robert Harvey

2:32 PM

@ratchetfreak That's an argument I've heard for a long time, and it's one that I've used myself over the years (especially on Stack Overflow), but what we really should be teaching people is to stop using old questions as justification for asking their newly-minted, crappy questions and read the Help Center.

user114359

@MichaelT that is what I said, I could swear someone asked it recently and gnat dug up yet another question and now we have a train of dupes

ratchet freak

@RobertHarvey it's common lurker strategy

Telastyn

@Loko - the one you linked.

Robert Harvey

It is. But it's also cherry-picking.

Loko

@RobertHarvey I disagree with that. People look at the highest upvoted questions and think:"Oh hey, that looks like my question but not completely." After their question is closed they dont understand it.

ratchet freak

2:34 PM

first hang around to devine the rules by other people's actions and then act within those rules

Loko

@Telastyn ok

enderland

Most people writing crap questions don't bother reading other questions first

Loko

If a question is highly upvoted, you would at least expect it to be on topic.

user41796

@Loko That's a bad assumption

Robert Harvey

@Loko It would be nice if that's how it actually worked. Ask @gnat about Hot Questions.

user114359

2:35 PM

@Loko not always. Sometimes what is on-topic changes as I mentioned before, sometimes an off-topic question is so good it avoids closure.

user41796

highly up voted merely indicates the question is popular. Not all popular questions are on-topic.

ratchet freak

@enderland or they see 1 or 2 questions and then ask their own mirroring what was in those questions

@Loko highly upvoted is very likely a bikeshed

user114359

Stack Overflow is littered with old questions with tens of thousands of views, hundreds of votes, very interesting answers.... and off-topic.

Loko

This one is even worse by the way: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/79041/… . This should be on Workplace.SE

enderland

@Loko ... or not

user114359

2:36 PM

Here is a perfect example, a true SO classic:

user114359

360

Q: What is the best comment in source code you have ever encountered?

What is the best comment in source code you have ever encountered?

comments

user41796

@enderland Too old to migrate, so sorry about that. ;-)

user114359

@Loko that question already has a close vote

Loko

@Snowman At least that one is closed

Robert Harvey

@Snowman Heh. 549 answers. Sure, people know how to productively spend their time.

user41796

2:38 PM

@RobertHarvey 31 of which are deleted...

Telastyn

@Loko - NO. That is programmer specific.

Robert Harvey

FWIW, most of those questions should probably be closed, just not deleted.

user55340

@RobertHarvey when we don't close them, you get users posing answers on them as if it was a forum.

Robert Harvey

Especially the "How do I apologize" one.

ratchet freak

@Telastyn but could be generalized to any job

Loko

2:39 PM

@ratchetfreak @Telastyn exactly...

@Telastyn Look at the answers.

user114359

That reminds me of another reason for some old off-topic questions existing: Workplace.SE did not exist back when a lot of the e.g. career and resume questions were posted on this site. If you ask them now and they are not programmer-specific, they belong on Workplace.SE.

user55340

Which is the worse experience- finding a closed question, or posting a forum response to have it down voted and deleted?

Telastyn

@ratchetfreak - I disagree. Breaking the build has few similarities to other jobs. If I'm an accountant, I can't prevent my other accountants from doing their jobs effectively via a simple mistake

Robert Harvey

OK, I added close votes to all of them.

ratchet freak

@Telastyn you can by corrupting the central spreadsheet

user114359

2:41 PM

9 hours until I get more CVs :-(

Loko

Anyway, nice discussion. I'm gonna go now.

Have a nice day everybody

Telastyn

three of our most popular/useful questions. I will happily vote to reopen all.

Robert Harvey

One of the most contentious questions ever asked on Stack Overflow was a question about what sort of algorithm should be used to pick the next person buying the daily croissants. Closed, reopened, closed, deleted, undeleted, reopened, locked, unlocked, closed.

Even the size of the croissant picture was argued about.

user41796

@RobertHarvey Such a lovely question too. :-)

user55340

... Reposted on two other sites.

user41796

2:43 PM

@MichaelT only in the name of Science!

user55340

You need to change that tag line. "In the name of engineering!"

user55340

I wonder if it could get reposted to the workplace and engineering...

user41796

With modification? Perhaps. But that would take away from the site comparison aspect

user55340

How to engineer a better croissant. See? It has engineering in the title - it's on topic.

user55340

Btw, interesting 30k proposal out there with locked question.

user55340

2:51 PM

@RobertHarvey I tend to build a list and then join with " and "

user55340

No 1=1 hack needed.

user55340

Though you are also talking to someone who has , null at the end of the field list so I don't get that error.

Ampt

@JimmyHoffa hire me then!

enderland

@Ampt didn't you turn down an offer to do dev work though?

;)

Ampt

DevOps

IT for Dev != Dev

Yeah it would let me code more... but the path out of IT is not an easy one

best avoid that black hole if you can, in my humble opinion

enderland

3:01 PM

Yeah. I've... been worried about that myself, assuming I even get this other offer :s

Jimmy Hoffa

@enderland yes, but have you applied for build engineer/CM jobs? Might think about it if things take too long

enderland

@JimmyHoffa Iv'e not looked outside my current company (yet) too significantly, we have a lot of scripting IT jobs but... bleh

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt agreed. This is why I encourage build engineer, nobody looks at it as IT, but the jobs are far easier to get than actual dev because frankly most people don't know much about builds

user55340

Build master is something to look into.

user55340

I personally like the tech area for build, source control and automation.

Jimmy Hoffa

3:03 PM

and devs are happy to have someone else do it because they don't want to deal with builds so they're much more lenient in choosing people

Robert Harvey

Key Master.

Ampt

Looking at jobs I think would be interesting - anyone know anything about SpaceX?

user55340

Falls into the tool smith role of the surgical team (MMM)

Robert Harvey

They make rockets.

Ampt

I mean their internal workings - how is it to work there

@RobertHarvey :P

Jimmy Hoffa

3:04 PM

@MichaelT yeah, funny; I went from tool smith role to language lawyer heh

user55340

It ain't rocket surgery.

Robert Harvey

Elon Musk has a cubicle, not an office. That should already tell you a lot.

Jimmy Hoffa

@RobertHarvey no it shouldn't. Stuff like that is always marketing hullabaloo

user55340

@Ampt R&D mission. Tork brains.

Robert Harvey

He works 60 to 80 hours per week, but it's all productive. It's fast-paced there.

enderland

3:05 PM

@MichaelT that's not a bad idea, especially since my current group does that

Robert Harvey

He believes corporate taxes are too high in California. He's right.

Jimmy Hoffa

he may have a cube but that doesn't change the fact that, dollars to doughnuts says he isn't busting ass like the plebs. Not saying he doesn't work hard or care about his mission but his place is far different from that of his employees.

Robert Harvey

It's meaningful in this context. He's very accessible, for one thing.

Jimmy Hoffa

Chances are he spends more of his work time out of the office than in it.

Robert Harvey

Some of it, yes.

Ampt

3:07 PM

They have a Software Engineering role in a sort of Tooling Capacity

I think that would be cool

enderland

@Ampt doooooooooooooo it!

Robert Harvey

By all accounts he works very hard, in all aspects of his job. He believes very deeply in what he does.

ratchet freak

by necessity there will be a few people doing mostly fund raising/lobbying investors

Jimmy Hoffa

@RobertHarvey still, you can't look at the head of a company to have any ideas about the company. Look at info about the working conditions/employees

user55340

@enderland I've seen build master jobs at SGI and Sun back in the day. Build and bugs was a team of 6 at netapp. Menards was even thinking about a dedicated build master job.

Jimmy Hoffa

3:09 PM

You know about steams moving-teams and googles benefits and environment etc, these are things you can count on meaning something to your day to day

enderland

@MichaelT I think I would enjoy that job, frankly, I enjoy helping other people do their jobs as well

Jimmy Hoffa

What you know of a chief generally has little to do with what your day to day would be like actually working somewhere.

Robert Harvey

What's it like to work at spacex?

Jimmy Hoffa

There's always a thermocline of truth. The only question is how thick it is.

it must be that way; leaders don't have time to know everything going on with everyone below them unless the companies like 30 people

Robert Harvey

tl;dr it's probably a startup meat grinder. But a lot of very smart people work there.

user55340

3:11 PM

@enderland it is a good area to be in. Tooling for devs is a necessary problem domain.

Jimmy Hoffa

Meat grinder wouldn't necessarily be a bad place for @Ampt

Ampt

@JimmyHoffa by your account, I'm already at one :P

Jimmy Hoffa

they can give you a head start. Just don't sell your soul- the folks who work in those places for too many years become totally out of touch

@Ampt often times consulting shops are...you just ended up in a strange spot for it. Though tell me, do you put in 60 hour work weeks? Do you have killer deadlines?

Ampt

Nope and nope.

well...

not 60, but more than 40. Just don't get paid for the extra...

it's pretty minimal though

Jimmy Hoffa

Then your consulting shop may not be a meat grinder. Doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware that it is a common thing in consulting shops

Robert Harvey

3:13 PM

> Everyone at SpaceX is incredibly smart. When new employees start working there, there's incredible pressure to perform and execute well. It's the equivalent of a smart person going to MIT. You may have been top of your class in your high school, but now you're probably average.

SpaceX's average employee age is about 30 (multiple sources). This makes it hard for older and more experienced employees to fit in, and there have been mentions of reverse age-bias both at work and in the hiring process.

user41796

@Ampt You at least get to bill it and bump your util rate though, right?

Ampt

@GlenH7 nope... what I bill to my bucket has to match what I directly bill to the client... the systems are synced

it's a bummer

user41796

Bummer then

Ampt

but then again I'm at my apt watching netflix doing a training while waiting on a meeting to start so...

it's give and take, but this is definitely not the gig that propels me into a career

enderland

bummer

Jimmy Hoffa

3:16 PM

@Ampt A meat grinder would; in miserable fashion but 2 years in a meat grinder is like hitting the gym every day, either you'll end up with strains and decide to do something else, or you'll come out well conditioned for what's to come.

user55340

Btw, @Ampt how was the marathon?

Ampt

@MichaelT ?

user55340

Two years ago iirc. Running a race or something.

Ampt

OH, it was just an 8K

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT no you're confused @MichaelT

that's all he meant

Ampt

3:18 PM

actually, funny thing, I had to pull out because there was a "New joiner weekend" with the company I'm currently working at

doing it again in... 2 weeks

I think I'll be OK

user55340

Ahh. Don't make me bitter there @JimmyHoffa

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT knew that would hit a chord with you :)

Ampt

Oh! Backstory time!

wait.. this isn't a netflix show...

user55340

Great Mac game company. Bought by ms. Halo was supposed to be a mac game.

Ampt

ooooh hahahhaha

silly mac user, games are for windows

Jimmy Hoffa

3:20 PM

Bungie was a mac developer for years and did great games...

user55340

polygon.com/2014/9/4/6107435/…

Jimmy Hoffa

only people who were doing anything decent for mac, but their games were truly very good

user55340

> In July 1999 at the Macworld conference in New York, Steve Jobs, then the interim CEO of Apple Computer, announced Halo: Combat Evolved. The game, Jobs said, would be released simultaneously on Mac and Windows PC early in the following year.

Jimmy Hoffa

which is why MS decided they'd be a great company to launch their first XBox and gobbled them up

nom nom nom

user55340

> Jobs then introduced Jason Jones, co-founder of developer Bungie, who told the crowd, "Everything you're about to see is being rendered in real time on a Macintosh, using OpenGL." IGN reported at the time that Halo was a "third-person action/adventure title."

Ampt

3:23 PM

@MichaelT NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

user55340

Btw, Aurelia in BtPS is fun.

user55340

Elemental nova sniper with Jacobs.

Jimmy Hoffa

What was that RTS they made? Myth? That was great fun, though I don't think I ever won a single game. I always have been and always will be absolutely terrible at RTS, but I remember rushing wights after people and thoroughly enjoying it.

user55340

Yep. Myth.

user55340

Had unit formations. Flanking.

enderland

3:27 PM

hrrm, seems likely I'll get that BA-ish position (cc @GlenH7)

ratchet freak

@MichaelT more than just select all troops and attack?

user41796

@enderland Congrats. A solid foothold is a good start.

user41796

May also expose you to opportunities to "help" code things up, which could lead to a natural progression over to the dev side.

enderland

@GlenH7 well I have a meeting called "talk offer" so I think it's good... don't want to get too optimistic given my life lol

user55340

Myth (series)

Myth is a series of real-time tactics video games for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. The games are: Myth: The Fallen Lords Myth II: Soulblighter Myth III: The Wolf Age Myth was developed by Bungie and published in 1997 by Eidos in Europe and Bungie in North America. Myth II was also developed by Bungie and self-published in North America in 1998. It was published by GT Interactive Software in Europe. As a result of Bungie's sale to Microsoft in 2000, the company lost the franchise rights to Take-Two Interactive. Myth III: The Wolf Age was developed by MumboJumbo and published by Take-Two in 2001...

Ampt

3:29 PM

wonder if intelliJ is hiring... haha

user41796

LOL. Yeah, that's definitely putting your cards on the table

user55340

@Ampt in eastern Europe and Russia.

Ampt

"I'll have you know, I have personally helped sell at least 5 copies of your program myself"

... that explains a lot actually

damn commies

Jimmy Hoffa

@ratchetfreak you would select your troops at the beginning of the game, there was no building, it was all troop management

Ampt

making tools for the every-man

Jimmy Hoffa

3:32 PM

you had a fixed number and would just move them and use terrain strategically

durron597

@Ampt In Soviet Russia, your program sells YOU!

ratchet freak

@JimmyHoffa setting up the concave for the other guy to run into

user55340

4:00 PM

... And a bump for that MSO question.

durron597

4:24 PM

@MichaelT Your question is not really what Tim Post is saying in his answer

I agree with you, personally, but it's different than what he says there.

user55340

@durron597 it's what shog is saying in his flow chart. It is what h&iq reviewers are expecting.

enderland

So definitely have the offer, actually have an offer letter (ZOMG ITS ACTUALLY REAL) for this

wouldn't be super focused on technical implementation work, which is my main reservation

Thomas Owens

@enderland What would you be doing, then?

user55340

@durron597 note that I grabbed that flow chart from shog's answer elsewhere.

enderland

@ThomasOwens I think somewhat ETL as well as interacting with customer stakeholders

user55340

4:32 PM

The bit that Tim missed in his answer is how to handle questions that are off topic.

user55340

Reading it more closely, I think my wording is a close match to Tim. And simpler.

user55340

The other part is making sure the reviewers are aware of the standards. Low rep users have low expectations.

user41796

@enderland requirements gathering and translation is a critical skill. I have yet to meet a really good senior developer who didn't have that skill.

enderland

@GlenH7 Yeah. I think it'd be good, as long as I'm ok not doing development/programming for a while

I think I'd enjoy the work, too?

user41796

Does company culture allow you to go back to the dev manager and ask "what things would you have liked to see more of within my interview so that I would have presented more strongly as a candidate?"

user41796

4:46 PM

If your long-long term route is more along the lines of management then the BA role will definitely help get you there.

enderland

@GlenH7 I think I basically had that convo, my problem was focusing on the "people" results rather than "technical" results - to a technical person those "people" results are a means to an end, and not necessarily the end itself....

Robert Harvey

1

Q: Does Microsoft still have C++ container limitations when passing to DLLs?

Microsoft has had a fair amount of trouble in the past when passing STL containers like string and vector pointers and references to DLLs. See, for example, You may experience an access violation when you access an STL object through a pointer or reference in a different DLL or EXE. Question: Ar...

visual-studio microsoft dll stl

After questions and answers like this one, I'm mystified that people still think C++ is cross-platform.

user41796

@enderland makes sense. It's important feedback for the next round N months down the road.

enderland

@GlenH7 absolutely. made me think some about what I thought I was doing, since all my "success" was focused on people stuff and not technical stuff

user41796

For True Scotsmen, user satisfaction is just an after-effect. What did the code do?

evinda

4:52 PM

I found this program at page 6: http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/publications/trs/papers/61.pdf

Could you explain it to me?

user41796

@RobertHarvey C and C++ are not cross-platform. Rather, they are portable. Cross-platform implies "Write once, run anywhere." Which is a big fat fallacy. Portable means "Write once, compile on each target."

durron597

@MichaelT Oh I thought you made that.

user41796

But that said, Portability can be suspect due to differences between compilers and libraries on each platform.

user114359

C++ portability also assumes standards-compliant compilers on multiple platforms, and writing code correctly to account for areas where the standard says "implementation-defined"

user41796

Yes, very much so

Robert Harvey

4:59 PM

A C FFI always seems to just work. In fact, everything in C seems to just work, though it might take a long time and a lot of code to get there. C++ seems to require an inordinate amount of thought to do just about anything in it.

maple_shaft

Christ

almight

y

user41796

< grabs popcorn />

maple_shaft

What do you do when developers have f'ed up your source control repo so badly that you literally can't figure out what happened?!

user41796

restore from backup

maple_shaft

Git is apparently too complicated for these ingrates

like JC its like a Rubix cube of dysfunction in our history

this was a temporary SC server until we get the actual one in a few weeks

user41796

5:02 PM

Are they used to svn instead?

maple_shaft

@GlenH7 There is no backup

@GlenH7 I don't even think SVN will fix this. This one woman is like a tornado of destruction anytime she encounters a merge conflict

user41796

@maple_shaft Get a really good visualization tool, a fifth of scotch, and several glasses then? Time for a marathon clean-up?

maple_shaft

I then found out another guy wasnt developing on the right branch so he merged into another branch that he shouldnt have been using

user41796

@maple_shaft It's for this reason I still believe in locking files. #heresy

2

maple_shaft

Then because nobody trusted the merges AND DIDNT TELL ME ABOUT THEIR ISSUES, they decided to manually merge on one persons computer then blow away a month of my changes

user41796

5:05 PM

code stomping FTW!

maple_shaft

I can't look at the tree and figure out what they did

user41796

One of the nastiest disagreements I ever had at work was after my code was stomped.

enderland

I guess, no matter what happens, my next job cant be more frustrating than @maple_shaft's :)

user41796

Offending developer acted like it was no big deal

user41796

@maple_shaft Is all the merge history from this cock-up still present?

user41796

5:07 PM

So there may still be hope, if it's there

user114359

Last time I had to deal with a mess this bad I was overseeing 15+ offshore developers. I put my foot down on their necks and told them how we were going to use source control moving forward.

Robert Harvey

@maple_shaft THIS is why exclusive checkout exists.

user41796

And I asked if they were svn users because my understanding is that some of the mechanics between svn and git are opposites. And if you use git like you use svn then you'll have headaches

user114359

(not literally of course, I am in the U.S. and they were in Asia)

enderland

do you still have local versions of everything, or was the way you noticed by doing a pull?

user55340

5:11 PM

@durron597 nope. I didn't make that. I just borrowed it to show SE that they already knew the answer.

user55340

@maple_shaft no branching here. Svn. Traditionally only one dev working on a given app. Changing that slowly (branched for a project). Also getting some git in. Not much, but need it to pull framework from github.

user55340

When I get git, git svn ahoy!

user114359

I am positive this question is a duplicate, but I cannot find anything and I am out of close votes anyway. Just in case anyone else wants to look:

user114359

1

Q: Likes / Stars / Following - same or separate data structures?

I am building a social network, which will have standard features of 'likes' (upvotes) for posts, 'following' between users and 'stars' for favorite posts. These might reasonably expand in the future for similar functionality. I am mostly using NoSQL (namely, MongoDB docs) but would appreciate ...

database-design nosql data-modeling

durron597

5:33 PM

@Snowman there u go

Robert Harvey

I think you are trying to accommodate too much up front. While I am a proponent of think before you leap (especially about stuff you can foresee), you need to limit yourself to keep from over analysing. Turn YAGNI to your advantage. I'd start with either your first or second design and restructure it as needed as you progress. You may have to do conversions of already collected data, but conversions are unavoidable during the lifetime of software anyway. Just ensure that you collect all data you may want later on, but don't worry too much yet about where to put it. — Marjan Venema Oct 26 '13 at 9:06

LOLWUT?

user114359

Where do you keep the data in the meantime? Juggle it in the air?

Robert Harvey

Does anyone do design anymore, or is it all done by the seat of your pants?

user41796

@RobertHarvey Too often, it's seat of the pants

Robert Harvey

It's pretty scary when your fundamental structural design is now considered YAGNI.

durron597

5:38 PM

@Snowman In his back pocket, ldo

user114359

And two people upvoted that comment

user114359

Stupidity must be contagious.

Robert Harvey

NoSQL: "Just put everything in a big key/value store. Yeah, that'll work."

NoSQL == "I don't know SQL."

durron597

Well, it is a two year old comment at this time. Plenty of time to receive random upvotes.

user114359

One hash table to rule them all.

durron597

5:39 PM

Feel free to actually vtc-dupe that one if you have any left, @RobertHarvey and @GlenH7

user41796

Needz. moah. close. votez!

durron597

29

Q: Refund close votes for questions deleted on the same day

When a question is deleted the same vote-day as it was closed, refund the close votes cast on the question. There are three situations where this comes up: Question has a close vote or two, a comment tells the OP that this is off topic (or about issues with the question) and the OP self delete...

feature-request vote-to-close deleted-questions

Robert Harvey

Oh, yeah. vtc-duped.

user41796

@durron597 Already up voted. In the meantime, I'll keep hoping they'll do something with the 30k privileges to bump those limits.

Robert Harvey

The only legitimate concern about refunding close votes is that it gives disproportionate weight to the close cabals, a phenomenon that users already complain about.

user41796

5:47 PM

@RobertHarvey I ~~resent~~ resemble that remark.

Robert Harvey

Here on Programmers, there isn't sufficient motivation within the normal user community to police the site, so a close cabal is pretty much unavoidable unless we constantly ping @ThomasOwens.

enderland

@RobertHarvey workplace has that problem too

without an active chat channel...

durron597

@RobertHarvey Only refunded if they are deleted within the same day...

Robert Harvey

Stack Overflow has plenty of motivated people, but is overwhelmed by the sheer number of casual users who have no interest in curating content. That's why there are automated mechanisms over there to filter out the worst of the worst content, and why I strongly support a binding close/reopen vote for users who have demonstrated that they can use it properly.

durron597

in Stack Overflow 2015 Moderator Election Chat on Stack Overflow Chat, 21 hours ago, by durron597

The only privilege I wish I had but don't is a Java gold badge

Ampt

5:54 PM

@GlenH7 It's for this reason I still believe in Git. #praisethemergetool

HotelCalifornia

-2

A: MySQL 1064 error

According to the MySQL reference site, you should be using ( and ) instead of < and >. Please note that on the Windows command line, parentheses look very similar to angle brackets. So, for reference:

why is that off-topic? it's just asking about syntax

kind of

Robert Harvey

Syntax is off-topic here, unless it's part of a language design question.

HotelCalifornia

oh, good to know

Robert Harvey

Syntax is implementation. Implementation is Stack Overflow.

user41796

@Ampt Nothing like a hammer to the face for when someone is messing with a file they shouldn't. :-)

durron597

5:56 PM

@maple_shaft This is why you need good unit tests. To improve the trust of things like merges

HotelCalifornia

TIL the actual difference between programmers SE and SO SE

user41796

@HotelCalifornia The downvotes are an after-effect of how the automatic question deletion works

HotelCalifornia

yeah I figured that much

user41796

A closed question with an accepted answer won't be automatically deleted off unless the answer has a negative score

Robert Harvey

@HotelCalifornia Stack Overflow is when you're sitting in front of your IDE coding. Programmers is when you're standing in front of your whiteboard designing.

user41796

5:57 PM

So your answer attracted down votes in order to allow the question to get deleted off after the 9 day window passes. Once it deletes, you should get your rep back from the down votes but will loss the accepted answer rep.

user41796

9 day window or one more 20k user anchors it with a 3rd VTD

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