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1500 questions
59
votes
93 answers

What do you consider the 1st principle(s) of programming?

I always liked to ask myself "what's the first principle(s) of this?" after I learned the basic stuff of something (e.g. programming). It's an inspiring question, IMO, that can force you to think about the most important principle(s) behind…
Weipeng
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59
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12 answers

How Do Computers Work?

This is almost embarrassing ask...I have a degree in Computer Science (and a second one in progress). I've worked as a full-time .NET Developer for nearly five years. I generally seem competent at what I do. But I Don't Know How Computers…
Rob P.
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59
votes
7 answers

.NET Properties - Use Private Set or ReadOnly Property?

In what situation should I use a Private Set on a property versus making it a ReadOnly property? Take into consideration the two very simplistic examples below. First example: Public Class Person Private _name As String Public Property…
tgxiii
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59
votes
25 answers

How big of a team do you need to benefit from bug tracking software?

My development team just grew by 100% (from 1 developer to 2). My new cohort want to invest in bug tracking software. Is there benefits to such software for such a small team?
user18735
59
votes
13 answers

Why is Windows registry needed?

As I have debugged problems in com, side by side, dealt with dll hell, all while hating the windows registry with passion, I was wondering why is it needed. I never felt compelled to read an entire book on registry best practices, and then just "get…
Job
  • 6,459
59
votes
19 answers

What differentiates the exceptional programmers from the really good ones?

You know who they are. They are the rock stars of programming: They code 10X faster. Their code just works. They not only know their primary language inside and out, but they also know how it works under the hood. They know the answer to most…
Robert Harvey
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59
votes
10 answers

Should non-priority technical debt tickets be pruned from backlog?

I regularly review the technical debt tickets from my backlog, to prioritize them and remove those which are no longer relevant (fixed by some other development, obsolete...) Among those with high priority, we take 2 or 3 in each sprint, and this…
Gua-naiko-che
  • 740
59
votes
12 answers

Is it common to have to iterate on a design due to overlooking problems with it?

When I'm designing a system for a program, I often make misjudgements that will prevent the design from either working, being maintainable, easy to use or all the above. This means I will usually have to iterate several times, refactoring my code…
Sebastian King
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59
votes
8 answers

Do seasoned developers still have to deal with merge conflicts?

I am still a software engineer in training, but I have heard the following adage multiple times: Good coders don't have to deal with merge conflicts. Whenever I work on a project with others, I'm losing an annoying amount of time and effort on…
lemeneux
  • 733
59
votes
11 answers

Why does C++ have 'undefined behaviour' (UB) and other languages like C# or Java don't?

This Stack Overflow post lists a fairly comprehensive list of situations where the C/C++ language specification declares as to be 'undefined behaviour'. However, I want to understand why other modern languages, like C# or Java, doesn't have the…
Sisir
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59
votes
11 answers

Woes of a Junior Developer - is it possible to not be cut out for programming?

(Let me start off by asking - please be gentle, I know this is subjective, but it's meant to incite discussion and provide information for others. If needed it can be converted to community wiki.) I recently was hired as a junior developer at a…
user575158
59
votes
4 answers

Should I be using both AngularJS and ASP.NET MVC?

I started learning AngularJS and ASP.NET MVC, but am not sure why to use them both together in the same project? Aren't they both MVC frameworks? Should I be using them both in the same application? Isn't it one or the other?
Natalie
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59
votes
4 answers

What happens if a feature merged into develop is postponed by management?

We recently had a problem whereby a feature for our webapp (automatic signup) was postponed by management because they felt the start was too "cold" but they wanted all the other features we had been working on to go live. The problem is that this…
Calin Leafshade
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59
votes
2 answers

Is performance the only reason not to use SignalR (websockets) entirely in lieu of a traditional REST API?

I have used SignalR to achieve real-time messaging functionality in several of my projects. It seems to work reliably and is very easy to learn to use. The temptation, at least for me, is to abandon developing a Web API service and use SignalR for…
tacos_tacos_tacos
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59
votes
14 answers

When is type testing OK?

Assuming a language with some inherent type safety (e.g., not JavaScript): Given a method that accepts a SuperType, we know that in most cases wherein we might be tempted to perform type testing to pick an action: public void DoSomethingTo(SuperType…
svidgen
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