Highest scored questions
64,221 questions
2181
votes
1
answer
486k
views
What technical details should a programmer of a web application consider before making the site public?
What things should a programmer implementing the technical details of a web application consider before making the site public? If Jeff Atwood can forget about HttpOnly cookies, sitemaps, and cross-...
1663
votes
11
answers
854k
views
Which hashing algorithm is best for uniqueness and speed?
Which hashing algorithm is best for uniqueness and speed? Example (good) uses include hash dictionaries.
I know there are things like SHA-256 and such, but these algorithms are designed to be secure,...
- 23k
1349
votes
14
answers
277k
views
Where did the notion of "one return only" come from?
I often talk to programmers who say "Don't put multiple return statements in the same method." When I ask them to tell me the reasons why, all I get is "The coding standard says so." or "It's ...
1050
votes
130
answers
437k
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I'm graduating with a Computer Science degree but I don't feel like I know how to program
I'm graduating with a Computer Science degree but I see websites like Stack Overflow and search engines like Google and don't know where I'd even begin to write something like that. During one summer ...
875
votes
357
answers
251k
views
What is the single most effective thing you did to improve your programming skills?
Looking back at my career and life as a programmer, there were plenty of different ways I improved my programming skills - reading code, writing code, reading books, listening to podcasts, watching ...
715
votes
29
answers
137k
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My boss decided to add a "person to blame" field to every bug report. How can I convince him that it's a bad idea?
In one of the latest "WTF" moves, my boss decided that adding a "Person To Blame" field to our bug tracking template will increase accountability (although we already have a way of tying bugs to ...
711
votes
17
answers
251k
views
How to respond when you are asked for an estimate?
We, as programmers, are constantly being asked 'How long will it take'?
And you know, the situation is almost always like this:
The requirements are unclear. Nobody has done an in depth analysis of ...
690
votes
9
answers
312k
views
Why is 80 characters the 'standard' limit for code width?
Why is 80 characters the "standard" limit for code width? Why 80 and not 79, 81 or 100? What is the origin of this particular value?
- 6,651
620
votes
13
answers
275k
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So Singletons are bad, then what?
There has been a lot of discussion lately about the problems with using (and overusing) Singletons. I've been one of those people earlier in my career too. I can see what the problem is now, and yet, ...
- 20.6k
583
votes
1
answer
76k
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Is the use of "utf8=✓" preferable to "utf8=true"?
I have recently seen a few URIs containing the query parameter "utf8=✓". My first impression (after thinking "mmm, looks cool") was that this could be used to detect a broken character encoding.
So, ...
- 24.4k
580
votes
2
answers
227k
views
What is the Mars Curiosity Rover's software built in?
The Mars Curiosity rover has landed successfully, and one of the promo videos "7 minutes of terror" brags about there being 500,000 lines of code. It's a complicated problem, no doubt. But that is a ...
- 3,713
546
votes
6
answers
204k
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Pros and Cons of Facebook's React vs. Web Components (Polymer)
What are the main benefits of Facebook's React over the upcoming Web Components spec and vice versa (or perhaps a more apples-to-apples comparison would be to Google's Polymer library)?
According to ...
- 5,463
542
votes
18
answers
493k
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Is it OK to have multiple asserts in a single unit test?
In the comment to this great post, Roy Osherove mentioned the OAPT project that is designed to run each assert in a single test.
The following is written on the project's home page:
Proper unit tests ...
541
votes
31
answers
122k
views
Why can't the IT industry deliver large, faultless projects quickly as in other industries?
After watching National Geographic's MegaStructures series, I was surprised how fast large projects are completed. Once the preliminary work (design, specifications, etc.) is done on paper, the ...
470
votes
21
answers
28k
views
Overcoming slow problem solving due to increased knowledge of what might go wrong [closed]
This has been troubling me for some time, and I'd really appreciate the input of other professionals.
Short background: I started programming when my parents bought me my first computer in 1988 (at ...