Monday 18 June 2007

removing spyware

Once again has the "Coding Horror" blog written a very useful blog. As a computer scientists I am always expected to know how to save virtually any system from virus and stupid users. One of the top problems, I always run into is people which have allowed spy ware onto their computers, making them slow and unpredictable.

In the linked blog, there is a description of how to remove spyware. (link)

Enjoy cleaning...

Tuesday 12 June 2007

Reflection

Reflection is the mechanism of discovering class information solely at runtime. Reflection has been introduced with the .NET framework, and its usage of metadata.

Metadata is data about data, and in .NET framework it is contained along the code, to allow, among others reflection. The Metadata consists of class names, method signatures and the like, to enable both for runtime lookup of a class (i.e reflection) but also to enable the cross language execution. When the compiler compiles code, it always create the metadata along with the compiled code, and puts it in the assembly.

Reflection means being able to get instantiate a class of a type, just by providing the name of the class at run time or invoke methods just by presenting their name.

The use of reflection is slow and should only be used when absolutely necessary (link).

Maybe more later

Friday 8 June 2007

Software developer you are you owne worst nightmare

Stop writing code, its just more lines where bugs and errors can hide. The following is snippet I have copied from one of my own favorite bloggers Coding Horror, which writes about "the best code, is no code at all" where he actually references another blog written by Wil Shipley who argues that we should rein in our natural tendencies to write lots of code:


The fundamental nature of coding is that our task, as programmers, is to recognize that every decision we make is a trade-off. To be a master programmer is to understand the nature of these trade-offs, and be conscious of them in everything we write.

In coding, you have many dimensions in which you can rate code:

* Brevity of code
* Featurefulness
* Speed of execution
* Time spent coding
* Robustness
* Flexibility

Now, remember, these dimensions are all in opposition to one another. You can spend three days writing a routine which is really beautiful and fast, so you've gotten two of your dimensions up, but you've spent three days, so the "time spent coding" dimension is way down.

So, when is this worth it? How do we make these decisions? The answer turns out to be very sane, very simple, and also the one nobody, ever, listens to: Start with brevity. Increase the other dimensions as required by testing.

Which is some very clever words. You cant have everything, and the things you want, always comes at a cost of something else.

Now go coding and remember to use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid)