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So, I just started a new job a few weeks back. It is my first job doing software, and I have been tasked with learning how a giant project works. Now, the guy before me left NO (zilch) documentation or comments anywhere in the source code. In addition, he applied basically EVERY design pattern in the famous design patterns book by Gamma, etc...
My question is, how do I start? I have tried setting break points for certain calls that I want to learn (learn bit by bit), but because of the 5 million design patterns employed, every call goes up about 7 levels just to finish, and by then, it's hard to keep track of the 20 some objects being created and used.
Has anyone had a similar experience? A few pointers on different methods to try?
Specs: language - VB.net
IDE - Visual Studio 2010
Using - Windows Forms
Brain - Melting
Inheriting a large project without documentation is always a huge pain in the ass. I hope you have already accustomed your manager to the inconvenient truth that it will take several weeks or even months until you can maintain that project efficiently.
I would start with creating some UML class diagrams. That could tell you a lot about how the system works and which design patterns are used where.
While doing so, I would also add comments to the code with everything I learned about it. When I am not sure if I understood what the code does correctly, I would add a common string like "NOT_SURE" to the comment. Later, when I have a better understanding of the system, I could use a text search to find and revise these comments.
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I'm a React Native Developer from the past 7 months. And this is my first technology I'm working on. So, I recently got to know that there are certain coding rules which I wasn't following and was unaware of. I have two general programming questions.
So I just got to know from an inteview that one should create wrapper functions in their code, by which I can just call a single function which points to a module or a API.
Like wrapper functions, what else is a good practice in programming?
Since I never worked on Android/iOS before and directly jumped to React Native. I often find myself doing trial and erros when it comes to do styling in my application.
Or what is the right way to style an element without giving too much margin/padding, which I assume is wrong. Or what is the right way to style where the styling works the same in all devices. Can someone recommend me a right article or video or something for this styling issue?
This may well be the broadest question(s) on StackOverflow :-). Just a few suggestions for the first question.
1. Read :
Many books have been written, some down-to-earth (Clean Code, The Pragmatic Programmer, Code Complete, Refactoring, ...), some more theoretical (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, ...).
2. Collaborate :
You can sollicit code reviews from colleagues, have pair-programming sessions with them, attend coding dojos or hackathons. All of these are ways to share and transfer knowledge among peers, are very helpful, and almost always fun, too.
3. Play :
Sites like codewars.com are great to let you experiment with huge numbers of coding challenges, risk-free, and with the bonus benefit of seeing the solutions of others (once you're done :-)).
Maybe it's worth posting the second question separately, with the appropriate title. Good luck!
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How long does it take to extend the functionality of a pos terminal?
I don't have any idea how long does it take to develop / extend functionality of a POS terminal. I have a friend who is asking me for this and we came across the "How Long Part".
My friend already has a running pos terminal that we developed with MQX Operating System by freescale (we are using K60 MCU) we bought it at aliexpress.
We were planning to extend the current source for NFC / contactless functionality (we also bought the reader from aliexpress)
Is developing it in 6 months time for 4 C++ developers sufficient enough?
To quote a classic:
[Y]ou’ve got to decide if you can deliver a Fortran compiler from scratch in seven days. You’ve got a staff of two programmers to help
you.
Can you do it?
“Well, I suppose, it depends,” you say.
On what?
“Um, will my team be able to use UML-generating tools?”
Does that really matter? Three programmers, seven days, Waterloo
Fortran IV. Are UML tools going to make or break it?
“I guess not.”
OK, so, what does it depend on?
“Will we have 19 inch monitors? And will we have access to all the
Jolt we can drink?”
Again, does this matter? Is caffeine going to determine whether you
can do it?
“I guess not. Oh, wait. You said I have a staff of two programmers?”
Right.
“Who are they?”
Does that matter?
“Sure! If the team doesn’t get along, we’ll never be able to work
together. And I know a few superstar programmers who could crank out a
Fortran compiler by themselves in one week, and lots of programmers
who couldn’t write the code to print the startup banner if they had
six months.”
Now we’re on to something!
If your team has worked together before, if you set your features to match your deadline (not the other way around), and if you have a keen sense when you've gone off the rails, probably. Presume you can, multiple your estimates by four, and carry on!
(Seriously, I can't answer this technically becuase it's a people question. But I hope it's inspirational! Good luck.)
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First and foremost, I would like to say I am very, /very/ new to programming and the like. If I decide to build this, this would probably be my first "large" project i've ever done myself.
What I am looking to build is a very simple Chat/IM client to use for the users in our office network. It would just call us their Windows logon name and use that to IM and the like. I'm talking a very simple client, with a list of names of people who are logged into the network, and option to IM them and an option to do a multiple user chat. It doesn't have to be visually stunning.
How difficult would this honestly be? Is it possible for me, someone who has very little knowledge when it comes to programming to teach myself how to build it?
If not, can you explain why this would be very difficult and what already built clients would work well for what I am using?
This is a big application. Your first parts will suck and refactoring it later will suck even more. I suggest building something small in the first place and then step from one bigger project to another.
XMPP/Jabber is IMHO the best solution for office IM. Most clients like Pidgin, Adium etc can connect to it. Every bigger company I worked for in the last years used it. Take a look at Openfire - A free open source XMPP server that you can directly connect on and which is easy to set up: http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/
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I am currently my software engineering degree and as I am in my second year I need to select a topic for my project. I am totally confused on how to pick a good project topic, which I could use in my final year as well.
I have specialization in the following areas, java, vb.net, sql server 2005 as well as artificial intelligence.
I can also manage with designing interfaces for vb.net in flash.
Any help on a good topic which I should select would be greatly appreciated.
The best projects are the ones that you actually want to build. I struggle with this kind of thing myself in my "outside-of-work" projects.
Gauge the amount of time you have to work on it, that will probably limit your possibilities.
Pick something you're passionate about, even if it means learning a few (small) things -- this isn't a good time to learn C# or Ruby, but using learning how to use encryption in VB.NET is probably small enough.
If you can, build something you can use or that someone close to you can use.
An example:
I built a small P2P messaging client for my 3rd year security course which used Public Key encryption to send messages between clients. It wasn't fancy, but it worked and I managed to build it in about 3 weeks. A few of us used the client in class for the remainder of the term.
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I'm working on quite complicated project, in terms of business-logic quantity and quantity of components.
Each developer mostly works on "his own" component. I understand that this isn't very cross-functional, but it is impossible to know every components' details.
Team sostav changes from time to time. So we have situations when one person have to work on "other person's component". And this can be on periodic basement, so you can come back to the issue a month later - in that moments you can ask component business-logic's owner the same questions again and again, because you simply can forget some tiny but important details a month later.
This situation is annoying sometimes.
We have daily stand-up meetings, when person tells about what he has done and going to do.
We have project's wiki F.A.Q. page - we extract the most frequently asked questions.
What do you think about the problem?
And how would you recommend us to solve it?
given the component nature I'd go with:
1.) A framework document specifying the applications purpose, setup, requirements etc.
2.) Module documents for each component in a common format and indexed by name.
Look at the http://docs.python.org for a good example of general docs and http://docs.python.org/modindex.html for a good example of module/component docs
Oh, and daily meetings are generally bad, they take up a lot of time and answers get forgotten. Newcomers or sick people miss the meetings and have to be re-briefed. It's 100x better to write it all down and keep a paper/email trail unless discussion/feedback is required.