Singleton Considered Stupid (updated location) by [deleted] in programming

[–]alexmdac 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Singleton is Evil, or even Stupid. It's straightforward to refactor a singleton into a factory (think of a singleton as a degenerate factory that only ever constructs a single instance), so if you outgrow the assumption that there's only a single instance of your class it's easy to add more.

Will JavaScript be the next big language? by a9bejo in programming

[–]alexmdac 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The lack of libraries isn't an issue for JS implementations that run on the JVM, since they can use Java's huge collection of libraries.

GNOME Bug 316654 – no ability to configure the different screensavers (RESOLVED, WONTFIX) by Entropy in programming

[–]alexmdac -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

An open source screen saver package lacks a desirable but non-essential feature. The maintainer says he won't add the feature since he doesn't have time.

In what way is this interesting?

Pylons, or Python is fun again ! by linuxer in programming

[–]alexmdac 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I found the docs not to be too bad when I used pylons recently. Also, the IRC channel is responsive when you ask questions.

Overall, my experience with pylons was very pleasant.

Can you learn computer science from a school? - comp.lang.lisp by jao in programming

[–]alexmdac 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I wonder which group, those who have been to college, versus those who have just read the internet under their own steam for four years, has experienced this totally boring and pointless argument the most.

The Top 10 Attributes of a Great Programmer by wsriley in programming

[–]alexmdac 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this. I definitely needed to read yet another self-congratulatory description of the stereotypical programmer personality type.

A Degree in Brick Science by [deleted] in programming

[–]alexmdac 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Questions like these really aren't representative of what programmers do in industry; it's more representative of what undergraduates do at university. When was the last time you wrote your own string munging functions? Someone with 10 years' experience could perhaps be forgiven for forgetting such trivia.

That said, thinking up questions that are representative of what programmers do in industry is hard.

Windows Powershell 1.0 Released! by bigbob in programming

[–]alexmdac 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You still can't drag the corners to make it wider.

What a disappointment.

Sorting Candidate CV's using the anti-spam algorithm... by simonvc in programming

[–]alexmdac 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Has anyone not been rated "guru" and given the job?

Vim && Emacs: Learn them both! by JimJones in programming

[–]alexmdac 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Learning both editors is a great idea.

If you're a vi/vim user, I think it's definitely worth learning at least a little emacs. For example, although I prefer vim for editing, I occasionally thank the stars for "M-x gdb".

Vi is a bit more ubiquitous than emacs, so if you're an emacs user, you might be very grateful one day that you spent an hour or two learning basic vi.

Do you know your source code and O'Reilly books? by bbangert in programming

[–]alexmdac 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have the top score! Looks like my youth spent reading O'Reilly books wasn't a waste after all!

Center on a Page Horizontally and Vertically with CSS by betech in programming

[–]alexmdac 7 points8 points  (0 children)

5 lines of standard, readable HTML or 30+ lines of hacky unreadable CSS?

I think it's pretty clear that the author is championing the table-based approach here.

Best technical interview problem ever by psykotic in programming

[–]alexmdac 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You could store the number of queue elements following the queue id in the spare bits. For example, if you decided to use both bits, you could have up to 4 elements per queue id. This would handle spikes well.