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1500 questions
110
votes
8 answers
Why is polling accepted in web programming?
I am currently working on a Ruby on Rails project which shows a list of images.
A must-have for this project is that it shows new posts in realtime without the need of refreshing the web page. After searching for a while, I've stumbled upon some…
dennis
- 1,169
110
votes
4 answers
What are the differences between server-side and client-side programming?
I've seen questions (mainly on Stack Overflow), which lack this basic
knowledge. The point of this question is to provide good information
for those seeking it, and those referencing to it.
In the context of web programming, what are the…
Madara's Ghost
- 8,887
110
votes
15 answers
What's the career path for a developer who doesn't like management?
If you're developer (Senior or Lead Developer) and you'd rather stay with code/design than pursue a management career, what are the available career paths at your company, or any you've heard of? How far can you go?
Is it possible to continue being…
Shady M. Najib
- 261
110
votes
9 answers
Is it advisable to ask employees to create 'work' GitHub accounts?
I've moved all our company Git repositories to GitHub and now I want to add employees to the projects. Since most employees already have personal GitHub accounts, I'm wondering whether I should ask them to create a work GitHub account. The reason…
fiorenti
- 1,127
- 2
- 8
- 4
109
votes
25 answers
How far should one take e-mail address validation?
I'm wondering how far people should take the validation of e-mail address. My field is primarily web-development, but this applies anywhere.
I've seen a few approaches:
simply checking if there is an "@" present, which is dead simple but of course…
Lauren
- 1,259
109
votes
29 answers
How do you manage your knowledge base?
As programmers we have a lot of inputs:
Ebooks
Code snippets
Interesting emails
Documents
Web articles
Blog posts
StackOverflow questions
Podcasts
...
Which tools do you use to store, organize, search and consult all of this stuff?
Is there a…
systempuntoout
- 3,553
109
votes
6 answers
What is a term for a function that when called repeatedly, has the same effect as calling once?
(Assuming a single-threaded environment)
A function that fulfills this criterion is:
bool MyClass::is_initialized = false;
void MyClass::lazy_initialize()
{
if (!is_initialized)
{
initialize(); //Should not be called multiple times
…
Rufus
- 1,487
109
votes
5 answers
Aren't the guidelines of async/await usage in C# contradicting the concepts of good architecture and abstraction layering?
This question concerns the C# language, but I expect it to cover other languages such as Java or TypeScript.
Microsoft recommends best practices on using asynchronous calls in .NET. Among these recommendations, let's pick two:
change the signature…
corentinaltepe
- 981
109
votes
6 answers
Why is XML called a "language" exactly?
I've been wondering why XML has an L in its name.
By itself, XML doesn't "do" anything. It's just a data storage format, not a language! Languages "do" things.
The way you get XML to "do" stuff, to turn it into a language proper, is to add xmlns…
Mr Lister
- 1,599
- 3
- 12
- 18
109
votes
10 answers
How to make a large codebase easier to understand
Suppose that I am developing a relatively large project. I have already documented all my classes and functions with Doxygen, however, I had an idea to put a "programmer's notes" on each source code file.
The idea behind this is to explain in…
Alex Spataru
- 1,267
- 2
- 8
- 9
109
votes
8 answers
Why have private static methods?
I just wanted to clear up a question I have. What is the point of having a private static method as opposed to a normal method with private visibility?
I would have thought an advantage to having a static method is that it can be called without an…
Rehan Naqvi
- 1,209
109
votes
7 answers
You're hired to fix a small bug for a security-intensive site. Looking at the code, it's filled with security holes. What do you do?
I've been hired by someone to do some small work on a site. It's a site for a large company. It contains very sensitive data, so security is very important. Upon analyzing the code, I've noticed it's filled with security holes - read, lots of PHP…
MaiaVictor
- 5,830
109
votes
5 answers
Staging environment vs Production environment
I work for a company where we build enterprise applications, and we maintain three environments: development (or dev), staging (or stage) and production (or prod).
The meaning of dev is intuitive: it's the environment used during development of the…
rdasxy
- 3,323
- 7
- 30
- 41
109
votes
12 answers
Is the C programming language still used?
I am a C# programmer, and most of my development is for websites along with a few Windows applications. As far as C goes, I haven't used it in a long time, as there was no need to. It came to me as a surprise when one of my friends said that she…
Pankaj Upadhyay
- 5,070
- 12
- 44
- 60
109
votes
20 answers
Making money with Open Source as a developer?
I'm currently a student (Applied Information Technology) and we do most of our programming in C# and Java. I was wondering how can I as a developer, make money with open source. I know there is the story of give support, or provide services, but I'm…
Haproli