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1500 questions
138
votes
3 answers

Forking a repo on GitHub but allowing new issues on the fork

I have previously forked other people's repos on GitHub, and I have noticed that issues stay with the original repo, and that I can't file issues on the forked repo. I now have the following task. I am working for a small business where development…
Tom Swirly
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137
votes
16 answers

Does craftsmanship pay off?

Possible Duplicates: Prototyping vs. Clean Code at the early stages Frankly, do you prefer Cowboy coding? After working in a number of companies, I am starting to realize that my commitment to writing high quality, well tested software, does not…
murungu
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137
votes
4 answers

So what *did* Alan Kay really mean by the term "object-oriented"?

Reportedly, Alan Kay is the inventor of the term "object oriented". And he is often quoted as having said that what we call OO today is not what he meant. For example, I just found this on Google: I made up the term 'object-oriented', and I can…
Charlie Flowers
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137
votes
27 answers

Is source code generation an anti-pattern?

If something can be generated, then that thing is data, not code. Given that, isn't this whole idea of source code generation a misunderstanding? That is, if there is a code generator for something, then why not make that something a proper function…
Utku
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137
votes
12 answers

How to recognize a good programmer?

Our company is looking for new programmers. And here comes the problem - there are many developers who look really great at the interview, seem to know the technology you need and have a good job background, but after two months of work, you find…
gius
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137
votes
6 answers

Why does the TRACE level exist, and when should I use it rather than DEBUG?

In Log4J, Slf4J and a couple other logging frameworks in Java, you have two "developper" level for logging: DEBUG TRACE I understand what DEBUG does, because the explanation is clear: The DEBUG Level designates fine-grained informational events…
Laurent Bourgault-Roy
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137
votes
6 answers

Why shouldn't a GET request change data on the server?

All over the internet, I see the following advice: A GET should never change data on the server- use a POST request for that What is the basis for this idea? If I make a php service which inserts data in the database, and pass it parameters in…
Devdatta Tengshe
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137
votes
3 answers

Why Was Python Written with the GIL?

The global interpreter lock (GIL) seems to be often cited as a major reason why threading and the like is a touch tricky in Python - which raises the question "Why was that done in the first place?" Being Not A Programmer, I've got no clue why that…
Fomite
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136
votes
4 answers

Excessive use "final" keyword in Java

While I understand what the final keyword is used for in the context of classes and methods as well as the intent of its use for in regards to variables; however, the project I just started working on seems to have an excessive number of them and…
rjzii
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136
votes
5 answers

Why do people fork repositories on GitHub?

I noticed that a lot of GitHub accounts only have repositories which are forked from other accounts. In addition the people who do this usually don't make any contributions to the forked repositories. I've heard of people collecting stamps and…
Aadit M Shah
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136
votes
14 answers

Why are statements in many programming languages terminated by semicolons?

Is there a reason that a semi-colon was chosen as a line terminator instead of a different symbol? I want to know the history behind this decision, and hope the answers will lead to insights that may influence future decisions.
A Coder
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135
votes
10 answers

Why do most of us use 'i' as a loop counter variable?

Has anyone thought about why so many of us repeat this same pattern using the same variable names? for (int i = 0; i < foo; i++) { // ... } It seems most code I've ever looked at uses i, j, k and so on as iteration variables. I suppose I picked…
kprobst
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135
votes
14 answers

Is it possible to rewrite every line of an open source project in a slightly different way, and use it in a closed source project?

There is some code which is GPL or LGPL that I am considering using for an iPhone project. If I took that code (JavaScript) and rewrote it in a different language for use on the iPhone would that be a legal issue? In theory the process that has…
Chris Barry
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135
votes
5 answers

Am I too 'clever' to be readable by Jr. devs? Too much functional programming in my JS?

I'm a Sr. front-end dev, coding in Babel ES6. Part of our app makes an API call, and based on the data model we get back from the API call, certain forms need to be filled out. Those forms are stored in a doubly-linked list (if the back-end says…
Brian Boyko
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135
votes
16 answers

Why do people use C if it is so dangerous?

I am considering learning C. But why do people use C (or C++) if it can be used 'dangerously'? By dangerous, I mean with pointers and other similar stuff. Like the Stack Overflow question Why is the gets function so dangerous that it should not be…
Tristan
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