Can you always turn a recursive function into an iterative one? Yes, absolutely, and the Church-Turing thesis proves it if memory serves. In lay terms, it states that what is computable by recursive functions is computable by an iterative model (such as the Turing machine) and vice versa. The thesis does not tell you precisely … Read more
In situations like that, I usually go with Concat. That usually implies to me that a new object is being created. var p = listA.Concat(listB); var k = listA.Concat(item);
See: RFC 3092: Etymology of “Foo”, D. Eastlake 3rd et al. Quoting only the relevant definitions from that RFC for brevity: Used very generally as a sample name for absolutely anything, esp. programs and files (esp. scratch files). First on the standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples (bar, baz, qux, quux, corge, … Read more
In Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications John Robbins has a big section on assertions. His main points are: Assert liberally. You can never have too many assertions. Assertions don’t replace exceptions. Exceptions cover the things your code demands; assertions cover the things it assumes. A well-written assertion can tell you not just what happened and … Read more
Bit fields (flags) They’re the most efficient way of representing something whose state is defined by several “yes or no” properties. ACLs are a good example; if you have let’s say 4 discrete permissions (read, write, execute, change policy), it’s better to store this in 1 byte rather than waste 4. These can be mapped … Read more
A coworker of mine said the only reason to use a GOTO is if you programmed yourself so far into a corner that it is the only way out. In other words, proper design ahead of time and you won’t need to use a GOTO later. I thought this comic illustrates that beautifully “I could … Read more
Many older tools misbehave if the last line of data in a text file is not terminated with a newline or carriage return / new line combination. They ignore that line as it is terminated with ^Z (eof) instead.
Type safety means that the compiler will validate types while compiling, and throw an error if you try to assign the wrong type to a variable. Some simple examples: // Fails, Trying to put an integer in a string String one = 1; // Also fails. int foo = “bar”; This also applies to method … Read more
There are legitimate criticisms of the Microsoft advice from the accepted answer. Inconsistent treatment of acronyms/initialisms depending on number of characters: playerID vs playerId vs playerIdentifier. The question of whether two-letter acronyms should still be capitalized if they appear at the start of the identifier: USTaxes vs usTaxes Difficulty in distinguishing multiple acronyms: i.e. USID … Read more
Programmers who don’t code in their spare time for fun will never become as good as those that do. I think even the smartest and most talented people will never become truly good programmers unless they treat it as more than a job. Meaning that they do little projects on the side, or just mess … Read more