The Whiteboard

Shahar

12:39 AM

yo yo yo

anyone knows a good library for efficiently loading images?

deostroll

6:42 AM

How to intelligently decide between opting for a load balanced setup, or, increasing the internet bandwidth?

ratchet freak

8:28 AM

@deostroll a load balanced setup is more complicated with propagating changes to the other servers, while increasing bandwidth only goes so far

deostroll

8:48 AM

What will a browser experience when it tries to request a content from server and the server's bandwidth has maxed out?

ratchet freak

connection timed out

or server not responding

skiwi

9:21 AM

hey, is anyone around for a little question about posting a question on Programmers?

I am having an issue while programming a TCG (trading card game) about the structure of my program/classes, would a question about that be on topic? The question is not a kind of "help me!" question, yet it does not apply to literally all programmers either.

Oded

If it is about the design of the program,/objects/abstractions is should be on-topic

skiwi

@Oded Okay thanks, I'll go ahead then

skiwi

9:35 AM

I posted it here:

0

Q: How to design the relation between a Game and a Player in a game?

I am currently attempting to make a Trading Card Game and I have got a whole array of features working already, yet I am stuck now at the portion where one player can attacker another player (more strictly: the monster cards of another player on the field). The game is designed primarely to be pl...

I found that using actual code over pseudo-code makes the question longer and more noisy as neccessary

bhuvin

11:13 AM

-1

Q: Design Suggestion on Project as given below

I am battling with too many thoughts to design a Project code Architecture. Technology: Microsoft.NET- MONO. Project Details: This is having a UI layer which has not much but Simplistic UI. I am using GTK# for this. Now, Apart from the UI layer, there are Multiple Code modules doing Database...

design design-patterns async mono asynchronous-programming

Stack Exchange

1:22 PM

The Codeless Code: Case 145: Five Years

posted on May 18, 2014

The new abbot of the Spider Clan happened upon the old monk Shinpuru weeding his garden. Said the abbot, “You have been content to remain a humble developer all your life. Many times you have been offered the post of abbot, yet each time you declined. Now the few hairs clinging to your head are pale and thin. Have you no ambition? As we ask the applicants: where do you see yourself in five…

Noein

2:07 PM

Is this on-topic? "What proglangs should I try learning even if I won't use?" Because they have some interesting concepts, because they promote some good practices that are usable with other languages, or because they're fun and useful at the same time.

user41796

@Noein Nope

user41796

primarily opinion based

user41796

and it's a reflection of "what language should I learn next" which is also off-topic

ratchet freak

and the hidden question "what concepts should I try to learn" is also off topic

user41796

@MichaelT - props for putting the bounty counter in place. I used it to scope this question and I'll hopefully snag the bounty.

user41796

2:13 PM

@bhuvin You need to figure out what you're trying to do before you start worrying about threading and synchronicity. Your real problem is you're worrying about the wrong things at this point.

Thomas Owens

2:41 PM

Damn. I had to write a simple converter from degrees to DMS and back and I think I'm getting burnt by floating point arithmetic. I provide a decimal degrees value of -52.1345, get an output in DMS of -52.0 degrees 8.0 minutes 4.2000000000098225 seconds, then convert back to decimal degrees and get -51.8655. That's...not cool.

But the error seems too big to be floating point.

user41796

Floating point - the bane of many ....

Thomas Owens

I can accept some error further down the line. I think I may just need to display units in their original form and say that conversion causes too many issues.

ratchet freak

that's a addition subtraction problem

Thomas Owens

@ratchetfreak You mean the floating point error is being compounded by the addition?

ratchet freak

52.1345-51.8655=2*1345

you need to sign(deg)*(fabs(deg)+min+sec)

Thomas Owens

2:45 PM

Oh. Crap.

ratchet freak

simple errors made by the experienced

Thomas Owens

Wow. I should have caught that one. I mean, I wrote the test cases to expose it.

I just didn't understand the reason for the failure.

Especially since I've experienced this error before.

ratchet freak

an error that big is never just the cause of floating point unless you subtract 2 even larger numbers

Thomas Owens

Very much fixed. Thanks @ratchetfreak.

I almost want to throw a wikipedia article link into the code as a comment above this line, but I don't see an article for "addition subtraction problem"

user41796

@ThomasOwens You could always create one...

Thomas Owens

2:51 PM

I would have to understand the mathematics behind it better to explain it. I'm sure it's pretty easy if I think about it, though.

I just don't have the time at work. Maybe some weekend.

ratchet freak

just say "extract the sign to operate on magnitude"

if(deg>=0) return deg+min/60.0+sec/3600.0;
else return deg-min/60.0-sec/3600.0;

Thomas Owens

return Math.signum(dms[0])
* (Math.abs(dms[0]) + (dms[1] / 60.0) + (dms[2] / 3600.0));

And throw an IllegalArgumentException if the length of dms is not 3. I could also check that dms[1] and dms[2] are positive, but I'm not exposing this outside for now.

ratchet freak

or call it undefined behavior and call halt :)

Thomas Owens

I'm actually not sure what would happen if you did it. The concept is bogus to begin with, but I think it works conceptually.

user55340

@Noein the 'opinion based' though, its not a bad thing to ask in chat... Personally, I'm poking at golang, clojure, and scala (though not too hard).

ratchet freak

3:04 PM

@ThomasOwens don't forget the cornercase dmsToDeg(new double[]{-0.0,30.0,0.0})==-0.5

and signum returns the argument when it is 0.0 or -0.0

user55340

This one got kicked out of /review - just needs a 5th vote: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/13945/…

user41796

Already VTC'd

user55340

@GlenH7 Yep - here's the review: programmers.stackexchange.com/review/close/63040

Thomas Owens

@ratchetfreak Hmm. -0 is the same as 0 for the purposes of multiplication, right? That is, -0 * n = 0?

ratchet freak

yep

just add a branch that checks for 0 in the deg slot and extract the sign manually

user55340

3:11 PM

Signed zero

Signed zero is zero with an associated sign. In ordinary arithmetic, the number 0 does not have a sign, so that −0, +0 and 0 are identical. However, in computing, some number representations allow for the existence of two zeros, often denoted by −0 (negative zero) and +0 (positive zero), regarded as equal by the numerical comparison operations but with possible different behaviors in particular operations. This occurs in the sign and magnitude and ones' complement signed number representations for integers, and in most floating-point number representations. The number 0 is usually encoded ...

Thomas Owens

Fortunately, 0.0 == -0.0.

So the case handling is easy.

Otherwise, I'd have to explain how Java works to people. Which means understanding that aspect of the language in more detail.

ratchet freak

yeah but you still want to get -0.5 degrees don't you

Thomas Owens

Yeah. I just need to worry about cases where dms[0] == 0.0 or -0.0.

If it is, don't apply the signum to it.

ratchet freak

good thing there is the Double.compare that does account for negative and positive 0

Thomas Owens

And I just added the test cases for 0 degrees and -0 degrees with values in the minutes and seconds field. Looks good.

user55340

3:16 PM

( Double.compare(double, double) )

ratchet freak

3:31 PM

Math.signum(Double.compare(0.0, dms[0]))*(Math.abs(dms[0]) + (dms[1] / 60.0) + (dms[2] / 3600.0));

or no that doesn't account for dms[0]==+0.0

now if only there was a value between -0 and 0 so we could compare it against that...

user41796

@ratchetfreak That would be smack in the middle of fuzzy logic...

user55340

7

A: Easy close review queue filtering interface

This feature was implemented and went out in build rev 2014.5.16.2252 on meta and 2014.5.16.1610 on sites. Currently it's enabled only on stackoverflow. Note, that we have a big threshold (50) for how many outstanding reviews there must be with a tag or close reason in order for it to show ...

ratchet freak

I got it (Math.signum(Double.compare(0.0, dms[0])+Double.compare(-0.0, dms[0])))

enderland

@MichaelT that is a good change

user55340

@enderland Now you can make use of that 3k rep on SO in the queues with less pain!

enderland

3:50 PM

be nice if it had a way to show low-volume tags better

Jimmy Hoffa

@enderland you just put [ tag: tagname ] infront of it

@enderland see: low-volume

I'm helping.

0

Q: What are the disadvantages of Hadoop streaming + Python

We are looking to move over to Hadoop as means of better parallelizing some of our processes. Currently our code base is in Python, and I believe we could use Hadoop streaming to interface with all of our python code. The alternative is that we rewrite everything in a JVM compatible language, l...

python scala hadoop

I don't see this needing closure?

I highlighted the Q so it's clear - I almost close voted to until I saw the Q at the end. It seems like an ok Q to me, no?

Maybe gorilla vs. shark...

user55340

It really needs that "what do you already know" bit...

user41796

@JimmyHoffa too broad.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT Iduno, I think someone who knows hadoop and python should be able to say what problems you run into with it that JVM wouldn't hit (if any)

but you're right, it is pretty broad...

meh, I'll let the community decide I guess, I'm not close voting though

user41796

@JimmyHoffa And we don't know what they already know. So there is a high risk of receiving a valid answer that the OP already knew.

user55340

4:05 PM

(similar to...)

user55340

Note that the question already states "Some of my ideas were: controlling amount of code done with svn, strict deadlines, everyday reporting.. But nothing seems perfect to me. It creates even more work from my side." - so this was already considered and discounted. — MichaelT 50 mins ago

user55340

From:

user55340

-2

A: How to control work of programmers (outsourcers)

Make It Mandatory. At the end of each day, require the teams to send you a daily scrum in the form of an email or other, answering the following questions: 1. What did I do today? 2. What am I going to do tomorrow? 3. What do I need from Team Leader, so I can do my job tomorrow?

user55340

@ratchetfreak Isn't 0 half way between -0 and +0?

ratchet freak

@MichaelT but it's not represented in the IEEE floating point format

user55340

4:07 PM

(I'm just pushing your bits... floating point is fun!)

user55340

on SO I had an answer where I overrode indexOf in an ArrayList to make it so that you could find a Double that was close enough.

enderland

so this is something you guys might be amused by, a large portion fo my project has basically been cancelled - there is an official solution (IE corporate supported) coming Jan1 timeframe and politics basically are saying that our tool is not worth fully implementing for the intereim period

kinda feels like, "your program is too good -we don't want people to have to downgrade when the official supported solution is implemented"

ratchet freak

you mean 6 months of not having the tool

enderland

yeah we're doing a stopgap "partial implementation" thing I guess

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 Part of me thinks the answer won't be that large so it won't have to worry about what the asker already knows, but maybe it would be large, Hadoop isn't a big thing so I don't see it being that big of a deal, it's just a simple little library

3

Q: Learn to share equipment? Or change my practices?

I work at a mid-sized company (150ish employees, ~10 size engineering team), and most of my projects involve interfacing with lab equipment (oscilloscopes, optical spectrum analyzers, etc) for the purpose of semi-automated test applications. I have run into a few different scenarios where I am u...

programming-practices testing hardware test-automation

I actually think there is a good answer to this question that I lack the experience to hold but @RobertHarvey or others here might be able to aid: Back when programmers dealt with mainframes and in olden times where you had to schedule time on your device just to get some work done - surely there were techniques and practices people came up with to work efficiently as possible with a reduced equipment supply like that. I wonder if anybody can speak to the things that people did for productivity

Robert Harvey

4:17 PM

Simulators.

user55340

@JimmyHoffa Lots of paper. Waterfalls of paper. You coded to the spec, and hoped everything worked when it all was put together. Until then, simulators.

Robert Harvey

Just like stubs and mocks in unit testing, except that these stubs and mocks have realistic behavior embedded in them that can substitute for the test equipment.

Not ideal, but better than nothing.

Well, that, and good programming practices. The kind that don't run you down a rabbit hole.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT there was nothing about the way people used and or scheduled work on the devices that allowed people to get the devices when they needed it more easily?

user55340

Back in the old days, you would sometimes even make your own pseudo-hardware that didn't really do it, but looked like it did.

Jimmy Hoffa

I'm thinking more about process

user55340

4:19 PM

For example, a balance that had digital out... it was a rather expensive balance, and the research group only had one. So they hauled out an old Apple2, wrote a program on that that spit out data that looked like it was a balance.

Jimmy Hoffa

I mean that's where the flaw is right now for the guy. Management doesn't have enough devices and apparently the process for allocating them is causing loss in productivity

Robert Harvey

Paragraph 3 in his question bothers me. It means that the software was not written robustly enough to handle ambiguities like flaky test equipment or too many devices.

user55340

You're coding against the $1000 balance? Here's a card that cost us $5 to fabricate that made the old Apple there do the same thing... but with prerecorded data.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT yeah we did the same stuff at at philips, lots of simulators and data generators had been written by the EEs who worked on the devices and some by our team. Ironically one of the favorite datasets throughout the teams was 6-month actual usage dataset from one of the dev's mother-in-laws who happened to need and use one of the devices. We all had copies of her real data just because it was more robust than all of the fake data we had and triggered more parts of the system...

Robert Harvey

Real data is great. The best way to exercise SQL queries is to hit a customer database with them, and see how they behave. At my last job, we had dozens of these on a server. We were very careful with them, of course, to prevent disclosure of sensitive data.

user55340

4:26 PM

Employer^, we woud regularly take snapshots of customer/production databases for development work / testing / reproducing bugs.

user55340

Employer^^, it was a bit more touchy (PCI and all) - sometimes we needed the 'real store' data, but it also meant 'hey, there are encrypted credit card numbers in here...'

Jimmy Hoffa

Everybody always found it depressing using her data though, she slept like 10+ hours non-stop every damned night.

Robert Harvey

We actually received these databases from customers via email sometimes, patched them up, and emailed them back. I had nightmares about accidentally emailing a customer somebody else's database.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT yeah, we had some sanitization scripts our DBAs would run before anything came out of production for us to try and repro stuff with for HIPPAA - would garble any PII

user55340

@JimmyHoffa ... remember that 'devops' nightmare I was describing the other day?

Jimmy Hoffa

4:35 PM

@MichaelT oh that could never have happened at that job. This is a bit different here... we have so much operations work that goes on, "devops" is an excuse for us to stem the tide of requests for manual processes because we spend so much time dealing with bugs from manual mistakes

user55340

Btw, the 'two problems' question appears to be the largest ars traffic we've had in awhile.

user55340

programmers.stackexchange.com/help/badges/56/publicist

user55340

If you look at the publicist badges, you will see that we don't get too many via ars.

user55340

5:12 PM

They need a convention celebrating all things meat. It should be held in the San Francisco area. It should be called.... Bay Area Con... or ba-con.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT wow.

user55340

Yep. Deep thoughts.

Thomas Owens

5:30 PM

@MichaelT Boston has a Beer and Bacon Festival. I understand there is gratuitous amounts of bacon at the Seattle Beer Fest, as well. Unfortunately, I'll be in Seattle during the Boston event and back in Boston during the Seattle event.

user55340

Boston Area CONfestival?

Thomas Owens

@MichaelT Haha. Just Beer and Bacon. Or Bacon and Beer. I forgot. Short and to the point: it has beer...and bacon.

I understand tickets sold out in a day this year.

user55340

baconbaconsf.com

Thomas Owens

5:43 PM

@MichaelT It's loading slow at work. Is that the bacon food truck?

user55340

@ThomasOwens Yep.

Thomas Owens

If it is, that may be the one thing that I'm jealous of SF for having.

user55340

Then there's also bakonvodka.com (maybe blocked at work - alcohol) - Bacon Vodka

Thomas Owens

@MichaelT Been there, done that. Doesn't taste like bacon.

In fact, it's vile. It's horrible. Don't. Run far, far away.

user55340

The problem with it is, most people try to bring out the "bacon" flavor without working with the flavor as something to complement other.

user55340

5:46 PM

Bacon vodka

Bacon vodka is vodka infused with bacon flavor, part of a larger trend of "carnivorous cocktails" and the addition of savory flavor to mixed drinks. The infused alcohol can be sipped but is typically used in mixed drinks like the Bloody Mary or bacon martini. History and commercial availability Meat-infused beverages are nothing new to the cocktail world, some famous examples including the "Bull Shot" at Ernest Hemingway's favorite bar (Harry's) in Venice in the 1940s, A handful of bars and mixologists have been making bacon or other meat-infused cocktails for years, including the Double ...

Thomas Owens

Oh. You're supposed to mix it.

user55340

straight? yea, that would be vile.

Thomas Owens

I drink my vodka neat.

So that's how I tried bacon vodka.

user55340

But as part of a bloody mary? Hmm...

Thomas Owens

It would be good at brunch.

user55340

5:47 PM

Consider that a bloody mary often tries for a savory flavor by using steak sauce in the mix.

Thomas Owens

I've never heard of that before.

user55340

foodgeeks.com/recipes/…

user55340

> 1 Tomato Juice (12 oz,Campbell's, or Sacramento)
2 Fresh squeezed lemon juice
3 Fresh squeezed lime juice
4 A-1 steak sauce (1 tsp)
5 Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp)
6 Olive juice (1 tbsp)
7 Hot sauce (not tabasco) (1 tsp)
8 Celery seeds crushed or powder (not salt)
9 Grey Goose Vodka (2 oz)

user55340

That goes for the A1 and Worcestershire - both of which would impart some savory flavors.

Thomas Owens

I've usually had them with tobasco.

Not A-1 or worcestershire.

user55340

5:49 PM

Back in Cali, I went to a pub where the bartender was open to exploration of flavors... we discussed making a bloody mary mix based on Absolute Pepper and the ingredients of A1.

Thomas Owens

I usually go to beer bars. I haven't been to very many bars that do cocktails.

user55340

(tomato, rasins, vinegar, salt, crushed orange, garlic, onions...)

user55340

A bacon vodka + absolut pepper mix would have been a very good mix for that.

user55340

This one sounds quite good:

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT this is basically my from-scratch recipe. Is awesome. It's missing the black pepper though, and "not tobasco" ??

user55340

5:53 PM

1.5 oz Bacon Vodka
3 oz Pineapple Juice
Splash of Butterscotch Schnapps

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT yuck

user55340

Ever had a Hawaiian Pizza?

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT of course but bacon is disgusting as well as butterscotch schnapps

hawaiian pizza has canadian bacon, totally different

not even remotely as salted and gnarly as real bacon

user55340

Traditionally, yes... I've also had it with american.

user55340

The issue is more the type of bacon that you get.

Jimmy Hoffa

5:54 PM

@MichaelT a waste of good pizza

user55340

http://www.fireduppizzaco.com/menu.php
Hawaiian Honeymoon:
Smokey BBQ Sauce
5 Blend Cheese + Provolone
Applewood Smoked Bacon
Pineapple

enderland

6:28 PM

hawaiian is best without canadian bacon

psr

@enderland or pinapple

enderland

@psr no, pinapple is the best on pizza (haters gonna hate... and hate they do on this one)

do any of your workplaces have any sort of "bike to work" benefit? I'm wondering if I can get something like that at mine

but I have no clue how common it is

user41796

@enderland You're on the wrong coast. :-)

enderland

and by that you mean no coast? ;)

user41796

ding!

enderland

6:32 PM

I biked 52 miles round trip last friday. was a worthwhile "YOLO" type thing, but not going to happen anytime soon again ;)

ratchet freak

pretty common to get a benefit in belgium

enderland

yeah

user41796

previous employer subsidized purchasing a mass transit (bus) pass

enderland

we get some gym membership reimbursement

user41796

but beyond setting up a shower / locker room area, I can't say I have ever heard of a "bike to work" bennie.

enderland

6:33 PM

I shoudl create a fake gym and get it registered

and just do my "workout at the gym" at my fake gym

ratchet freak

address =your home address

and invite your female employers to "work out"

user41796

@enderland I know you're joking, but that's venturing into IRS territory due to taxes on those benefits. IRS takes a horribly dim view of fraud.

enderland

nah I was thinking I should put it as my bike

@GlenH7 hah I know. But... it's annoying that I could bike 20 miles round trip every day and not get the gym benefit since it's more convienent for them to do that than figure out "Does enderland bike?" :)

I'm planning on driving closer and biking, nice 12 mile trail right into work

user41796

Not a question of convenience. It's a question of documentation.

Dr. Ibb

Hello, all.

enderland

6:36 PM

Yeah, you can't document "visits" to a "bike gym" the way you can others

user41796

Hola, @Dr.Ibb

ratchet freak

for all they know you park your car a block away and then bike the last bit

enderland

there's a $20/month credit thing too but that hardly feels worth it

(not at my company right now)

bikeleague.org/content/bicycle-commuter-benefit

$240/year doesn't seem like it's worth it to fight HR/etc for that :(

user41796

@enderland nope, not really

Dr. Ibb

Portland has quite a few "bike to work" type benefit organizations.

But yeah, it's not worth the credit.

Especially given the upfront investment for a good commuter bike if you don't already have one.

enderland

6:40 PM

Yeah I spent about $1000 in the past month on biking stuff, though I enjoy it too (I'm not doing this exclusively for $$$$)

Dr. Ibb

@enderland Yeah, that's understandable. I'm just saying that $20/month isn't enough incentive for me to go out, get a bike, and start riding.

ratchet freak

you active on bicycles.SE?

Dr. Ibb

Of course, I live about 40 miles away...

enderland

@Dr.Ibb yeah no kidding

@ratchetfreak no... I'm more of a learning phase right now

I've biked a ton in my past

but wanted to do so for work for quite some time

but finally am getting a place I can (even though 26 miles from work isn't good, I can split the difference really nicely now)

Dr. Ibb

Now if they were like "Hey, we'll buy you a bike and give you another incentive if you ride X miles or see X health benefits", that would make it worth it.

ratchet freak

6:42 PM

@enderland doesn't stop you from looking at the questions there :)

enderland

@Dr.Ibb yeah I'd love that, especially since I got like $300 just for doing a basic health screening onsite

@ratchetfreak true... SE is a trap though

ratchet freak

@enderland worse that tvtropes because here you can get into a discussion :)

Dr. Ibb

Not to derail the bike topic, but have any of you ever quit a job because your manager left? Mine is leaving the company unexpectedly and I'm weighing my options, because my loyalty is really to him and so far he's been a key part of my being successful here.

ratchet freak

sounds like a question for workplace: my manager is leaving should I follow?

Dr. Ibb

Yeah, I thought about it but it's fairly specific.

So I don't want it to be closed as off-topic or anything.

ratchet freak

6:46 PM

first see if he would like to continue to work with you

Dr. Ibb

How do you mean? As a mentor on the side or something?

enderland

that Q would be fine on WP, but I'd add a bit more of a question to it than "what should I do"

ratchet freak

and then see if his new employer would also consider hiring you

@Dr.Ibb no just in general

you are following him around and he may get sick of you (or already is but doesn't want to say)

Robert Harvey

If you feel beholden to him over some sense of loyalty, you shouldn't; I would imagine that he wants you to continue to succeed where you are.

Dr. Ibb

@ratchetfreak Yeah, I don't think that's the case. We've had a good working relationship. He just got a better offer and took it. He feels pretty guilty because I just started like 9 months ago and now he's taking off.

Robert Harvey

6:48 PM

BTW, what happened here?

2

Q: Japanese Multiplication simulation - is a program actually capable of improving calculation speed? Or am I doomed from the start?

On SuperUser, I asked a (possibly silly) question about processors using mathematical shortcuts and would like to have a look at the possibility at the software application of that concept. I'd like to write a simulation of Japanese Multiplication to get benchmarks on large calculations utilizin...

math theory concepts cpu process

Off-topic?

user41796

Please do not cross-post the same question across StackExchange sites. If you feel you have posted in the wrong place then flag for a moderator and we will look into migrating it for you. Thank you. — maple_shaft ♦ 23 hours ago

enderland

@RobertHarvey I think it's more that the manager... made the job so to speak

Dr. Ibb

@RobertHarvey That may be true. And it's not so much I want to follow him around, it's more that he made a good portion of my current work bearable and not having him around is going to be challenging.

@enderland Exactly.

user41796

@Dr.Ibb See what you can do to make the most of the current situation. If it becomes untenable because he was running that much interference for you, then decide to cut out

enderland

that's actually the situation I'm in, though my position is temporary - my manager (and his boss, realistically) are AWESOME - it'd be hard for me to enjoy what I'm doing as much without them

user41796

6:51 PM

But I wouldn't jump ship right now unless you absolutely know it's going to be a train wreck without him.

Dr. Ibb

@GlenH7 Makes sense. Thanks.

Thomas Owens

Dammit. I don't want to make these custom functions, but I also don't want to have like a dozen arguments to my constuctor.

user41796

IIRC, the company your with has some challenges (don't they all though). So I can see the value of your soon-to-be former manager. But don't panic just because of that one change.

ratchet freak

and if it becomes a trainwreck contact him and see if there is an opening

Dr. Ibb

My general sense is that as long I'm not going to be micro-managed and allowed some flexibility things should continue to go smoothly.

user41796

6:55 PM

No sense jumping ship then.

Dr. Ibb

Yeah. Thanks for the advice/sounding board. Tough to sort these things out when you're the only one on the "team".

Thomas Owens

So I've got 17 distinct commands. Each command has a UI panel that can be used to set the parameters, click a button to send the command, and view the response. I need a good way to associate the UI panels with the command data objects. The command data objects are Observables that publish events when a response comes in. However, each panel can't just have a reference to a generic Observable, it needs a reference to the specific command type. I think. Unless someone has a better idea.

Robert Harvey

@GlenH7 Yeah, not really a legitimate reason to close a question as "off-topic."

ratchet freak

maple got overeager?

Thomas Owens

@RobertHarvey I reopened it. Cross posting is bad, but I don't think a good question should be closed just because it was cross-posted.

If it's off-topic or fits one of the other close reasons, sure. But not just because it was cross-posted.

Robert Harvey

7:00 PM

2

A: Should strictly on-topic cross-posts be put on hold as "off-topic"?

Should a strictly on-topic cross-post be closed or put on hold as "off-topic"? No. Is there no better alternative? Cross-posting is sometimes done to get more exposure to a question, essentially throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. It is this kind of cross-posting t...

Thanks for reopening it.

Thomas Owens

@RobertHarvey Yes.

Have an up vote.

user41796

Part of the problem is that the CS question version of the cross-post has an answer on it.

user41796

But I think that's just a pain for the mods dealing with the migrate and merge.

user41796

The CS answer isn't as solid as the Progs answers, but it does address the more general aspects of what was being asked.

Thomas Owens

I think this is one of those questions that differentiate CS from Programmers.

user41796

7:04 PM

Could very well be. I noticed the Progs answers were more detailed in explaining why it won't work though.

Thomas Owens

Which I'm surprised of. I would have expected the opposite.

More of a higher level answer on Programmers and stupid insane math on CS.

Stack Exchange

Blog - Stack Exchange: Podcast #58 – Pack ‘Em In Like Bees

Abby T. Miller on May 19, 2014

Welcome to Stack Exchange Podcast #58 brought to you by the Stack Exchange iOS app! Our hosts Joel Spolsky, David Fullerton, and Jay Hanlon are joined this week by our guests, the Stack Exchange Design Team: Jin Yang, Stéphane “The French Guy” Martin, Courtny Cotten, and Josh Hynes.

Let’s kick things off with Community Milestones (assuming Joel knows where he is).

Joomla! IHOP dot com is a Joomla! site.

IHOP dot com is a Joomla! site.

Unrelated: Donald Knuth mentioned our TeX site in a recent TUGboat. …

user41796

@ThomasOwens exactly. We got the opposite this time

Thomas Owens

Hmm. Still not sure how to best associate that UI element with the model element.

user41796

@ThomasOwens Yeah, I'm stuck on that one too. But I'm also trying to figure out why an algorithm of mine continues to fire when it shouldn't.

user41796

7:08 PM

@MichaelT, @JimmyHoffa - you should help solve Thomas's design challenge of the hour

Thomas Owens

It's easier if the UI element is a straight up observer of a data model. You have a parent class for the data models that implements Observable. Pass in a collection and register many-many (which works out well, in most cases, since different views are slicing the data model in different ways). When you have a 1-1 mapping, it's harder.

And when you need the specific instance of a data model class, it gets even harder.

user41796

It sounds like your results are tightly coupled to the original command that was sent, so it does seem like you're stuck.

Thomas Owens

Maybe the "pass a crap ton of arguments into the constructor" is the right answer?

Or have a crap ton of methods to set the relationship up.

enderland

and pass that instead ?

can you have an intermediate "creation data" type class?

Doesn't necessarily change that you are passing tons of arguments, but might cleanup the code a fair bit

Thomas Owens

@enderland I don't know what you mean. I instantiate my data model and my GUI in the main method and then register the components. I'm just having trouble with decent registration when there's a right coupling.

user41796

7:13 PM

Could you get away with an "argument object" to pass into the constructor? it just wraps all the crap into a single class, but it makes the constructor signature a bit prettier

Thomas Owens

Perhaps, yes. Actually, I like that.

enderland

@GlenH7 that's what I was suggesting ;)

user41796

makes it easier to pick and choose which bits of crap you actually need to use

Thomas Owens

What would you call this thing? "CommandSet"? It is the set of all valid commands for the application.

user41796

@enderland sometimes it's all in the description I guess...

enderland

7:15 PM

I guess I've always named those objects "CreationData"

user41796

@ThomasOwens "Set" isn't terribly descriptive in this case

user41796

Parms, options, fields, ....

enderland

so if I had a class, say "Part" I'd have "PartCreationData"

since the class was specific to creating the class

Thomas Owens

That's the thing, though. The commands contain the options/params. This just wraps the commands into a single argument for the UI.

user41796

CommandBlock

Thomas Owens

7:16 PM

So then I can pass in one object instead of 17, then register each command UI element with the appropriate command data model.

user41796

Or CommandFoo if you're into mild punnery.

user41796

CommandSet could work too. I'm not sure there's a second word that really helps capture what the class is doing.

Thomas Owens

It's essentially a wrapper. It holds 17 objects so I can pass in one instead of 17. And if I add a new command, it becomes slightly easier to manage.

ratchet freak

strategy pattern?

Thomas Owens

Not really. The commands all exist. They aren't interchangable.

user41796

7:19 PM

Just call it a CommandWrapper then

user41796

or UICommandWrapper or ... whatever.

user55340

@enderland sf2g.com

user55340

Look at the "Half Moon Bay" route.

user41796

Kind of a shame the OP didn't really put much effort into the Software versus Systems Engineering question. Could have been interesting otherwise.

enderland

@MichaelT thats a heck of a lot nicer than my ride thats for sure

user55340

7:23 PM

@enderland Did you look at the elevation gain on that route?

enderland

yeah that was the first thing I looked at :)

mine is something like 40 feet total. ha

user55340

"Biking down south, along the ocean... so nice... wait a moment? where did these mountains come from? Up up up 4000 feet..."

user55340

The Skyline route is a bit more sensible... (only 2200 feet gain)

enderland

its not a gradual incline either

app.strava.com/activities/223621

Chris Okyen

so with most webhostings, if I don't make a payment all the work I had done and put on that server space is removed?

user55340

7:25 PM

@enderland I told you... mountains

Thomas Owens

Well, it works.

One command implemented. 16 to go.

Dr. Ibb

@ChrisOkyen Some places will give you a certain amount of time to resolve the charges before they purge your account.

user55340

Note that Strava claims its 4751 elevation gain.

enderland

mine is almost all flat straightaways

fun with wind, that's for sure

user41796

@ChrisOkyen It's in their interest to keep your data for a little bit so you have a chance to pay them. If they immediately purge, they aren't as likely to get paid.

Dr. Ibb

7:27 PM

@ChrisOkyen I worked for a big hosting company, and we would give people 7 days after the payment due date before we sent out a warning, then after 15 days the account was deactivated and another email sent out, then at 30 days we would "archive" the data from the server, and at 45 days the account was completely purged.

Chris Okyen

@GlenH7 @Dr.Ibb oh and yep

user55340

(not a cyclist... but I did spend some time up there) I think the nicest route would be SF - Half Moon Bay (hwy 1) and then 92 to 35, and then Page Mill down to Palo Alto: goo.gl/pSRIt3

user55340

Chris Okyen

Oh

ratchet freak

how long did that take?

Chris Okyen

7:32 PM

so another thign

thing* So if I want to upload a "shortcut" to dropbox but shortcuts can't be opened by dropbox... What kind of file will work like a link ? does this have to do entirely with the browser or dropbox itself

....

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