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Softcoding
Softcoding is a computer coding term that refers to obtaining a value or function from some external resource, such as text files, INI files, preprocessor macros, external constants, configuration files, command-line arguments, databases, user input, HTTP server responses. It is the opposite of hardcoding, which refers to coding values and functions in the source code. Programming practice Avoiding hard-coding of commonly altered values is good programming practice. Users of the software should be able to customize it to their needs, within reason, without having to edit the program's source code. Similarly, careful programmers avoid magic numbers in their code, to improve its readability, and assist maintenance. These practices are generally not referred to as 'softcoding'. The term is generally used where softcoding becomes an anti-pattern. Abstracting too many values and features can introduce more complexity and maintenance issues than would be experienced with changing th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Daily WTF
The Daily WTF (also called Worse Than Failure from February to December 2007) is a humorous blog dedicated to "Curious Perversions in Information Technology". The blog, run by Alex Papadimoulis, "offers living examples of code that invites the exclamation ‘ WTF!?'" (What The Fuck!?) and "recounts tales of disastrous development, from project management gone spectacularly bad to inexplicable coding choices." In addition to horror stories, The Daily WTF "serve as repositor of knowledge and discussion forums for inquisitive web designers and developers" and has introduced several anti-patterns, including Softcoding, the Inner-Platform Effect, and IHBLRIA (Invented Here But Let's Reinvent It Anyway). The site also has an associated "Edition Française", a French-language edition headed up by Jocelyn Demoy, launched in March 2008, as well as a Polish edition. A running gag in the forums is that the site is the original "WTF", as it doesn't provide even basic search capabilities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hardcoding
Hard coding (also hard-coding or hardcoding) is the software development practice of embedding data directly into the source code of a program or other executable object, as opposed to obtaining the data from external sources or generating it at runtime. Hard-coded data typically can only be modified by editing the source code and recompiling the executable, although it can be changed in memory or on disk using a debugger or hex editor. Data that are hard-coded is best for unchanging pieces of information, such as physical constants, version numbers and static text elements. Softcoded data, on the other hand, encode arbitrary information through user input, text files, INI files, HTTP server responses, configuration files, preprocessor macros, external constants, databases, command-line arguments, and are determined at runtime. Overview Hard coding requires the program's source code to be changed any time the input data or desired format changes, when it might be more con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hardcoding
Hard coding (also hard-coding or hardcoding) is the software development practice of embedding data directly into the source code of a program or other executable object, as opposed to obtaining the data from external sources or generating it at runtime. Hard-coded data typically can only be modified by editing the source code and recompiling the executable, although it can be changed in memory or on disk using a debugger or hex editor. Data that are hard-coded is best for unchanging pieces of information, such as physical constants, version numbers and static text elements. Softcoded data, on the other hand, encode arbitrary information through user input, text files, INI files, HTTP server responses, configuration files, preprocessor macros, external constants, databases, command-line arguments, and are determined at runtime. Overview Hard coding requires the program's source code to be changed any time the input data or desired format changes, when it might be more con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domain-specific Language
A domain-specific language (DSL) is a computer language specialized to a particular application domain. This is in contrast to a general-purpose language (GPL), which is broadly applicable across domains. There are a wide variety of DSLs, ranging from widely used languages for common domains, such as HTML for web pages, down to languages used by only one or a few pieces of software, such as MUSH soft code. DSLs can be further subdivided by the kind of language, and include domain-specific ''markup'' languages, domain-specific ''modeling'' languages (more generally, specification languages), and domain-specific ''programming'' languages. Special-purpose computer languages have always existed in the computer age, but the term "domain-specific language" has become more popular due to the rise of domain-specific modeling. Simpler DSLs, particularly ones used by a single application, are sometimes informally called mini-languages. The line between general-purpose languages and domain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rule Of Least Power
In programming, the rule of least power is a design principle that "suggests choosing the least powerful omputerlanguage suitable for a given purpose". Stated alternatively, given a choice among computer languages, classes of which range from descriptive (or ''declarative'') to procedural, the less procedural, more descriptive the language one chooses, the more one can do with the data stored in that language. This rule is an application of the principle of least privilege to protocol design. The Rule of Least Power is an example in context of the centuries older principle known as Occam's razor in philosophy. In particular, arguments for and against the Rule of Least Power are subject to the same analysis as for Occam's razor. Rationale Originally proposed as an axiom of good design, the term is an extension of the KISS principle applied to choosing among a range of languages ranging from * the plainly descriptive ones (such as the content of most databases, or progressive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inner-platform Effect
The inner-platform effect is the tendency of software architects to create a system so customizable as to become a replica, and often a poor replica, of the software development platform they are using. This is generally inefficient and such systems are often considered to be examples of an anti-pattern. Examples Examples are visible in plugin-based software such as some text editors and web browsers which often have developers create plugins that recreate software that would normally run on top of the operating system itself. The Firefox add-on mechanism has been used to develop a number of FTP clients and file browsers, which effectively replicate some of the features of the operating system, albeit on a more restricted platform. In the database world, developers are sometimes tempted to bypass the RDBMS, for example by storing everything in one big table with three columns labelled entity ID, key, and value. While this entity-attribute-value model allows the developer to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-modifying Code
In computer science, self-modifying code (SMC) is code that alters its own instructions while it is executing – usually to reduce the instruction path length and improve performance or simply to reduce otherwise repetitively similar code, thus simplifying maintenance. The term is usually only applied to code where the self-modification is intentional, not in situations where code accidentally modifies itself due to an error such as a buffer overflow. Self-modifying code can involve overwriting existing instructions or generating new code at run time and transferring control to that code. Self-modification can be used as an alternative to the method of "flag setting" and conditional program branching, used primarily to reduce the number of times a condition needs to be tested. The method is frequently used for conditionally invoking test/debugging code without requiring additional computational overhead for every input/output cycle. The modifications may be performed: * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Business Rules Engine
A business rules engine is a software system that executes one or more business rules in a runtime production environment. The rules might come from legal regulation ("An employee can be fired for any reason or no reason but not for an illegal reason"), company policy ("All customers that spend more than $100 at one time will receive a 10% discount"), or other sources. A business rule system enables these company policies and other operational decisions to be defined, tested, executed and maintained separately from application code. Rule engines typically support rules, facts, priority (score), mutual exclusion, preconditions, and other functions. Rule engine software is commonly provided as a component of a business rule management system which, among other functions, provides the ability to: register, define, classify, and manage all the rules, verify consistency of rules definitions (”Gold-level customers are eligible for free shipping when order quantity > 10” and “maxi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parameter
A parameter (), generally, is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system (meaning an event, project, object, situation, etc.). That is, a parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, when identifying the system, or when evaluating its performance, status, condition, etc. ''Parameter'' has more specific meanings within various disciplines, including mathematics, computer programming, engineering, statistics, logic, linguistics, and electronic musical composition. In addition to its technical uses, there are also extended uses, especially in non-scientific contexts, where it is used to mean defining characteristics or boundaries, as in the phrases 'test parameters' or 'game play parameters'. Modelization When a system is modeled by equations, the values that describe the system are called ''parameters''. For example, in mechanics, the masses, the dimensions and shapes (for solid bodies), the densities and the viscosities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feature Design
Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item (in performance, portability, or—especially—functionality) * Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenomena being observed Science and analysis * Feature data, in geographic information systems, comprise information about an entity with a geographic location * Features, in audio signal processing, an aim to capture specific aspects of audio signals in a numeric way * Feature (archaeology), any dug, built, or dumped evidence of human activity Media * Feature film, a film with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole film to fill a program ** Feature length, the standardized length of such films * Feature story, a piece of non-fiction writing about news * Radi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Programming
Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as analysis, generating algorithms, profiling algorithms' accuracy and resource consumption, and the implementation of algorithms (usually in a chosen programming language, commonly referred to as coding). The source code of a program is written in one or more languages that are intelligible to programmers, rather than machine code, which is directly executed by the central processing unit. The purpose of programming is to find a sequence of instructions that will automate the performance of a task (which can be as complex as an operating system) on a computer, often for solving a given problem. Proficient programming thus usually requires expertise in several different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain, specialized algori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scripting Language
A scripting language or script language is a programming language that is used to manipulate, customize, and automate the facilities of an existing system. Scripting languages are usually interpreted at runtime rather than compiled. A scripting language's primitives are usually elementary tasks or API calls, and the scripting language allows them to be combined into more programs. Environments that can be automated through scripting include application software, text editors, web pages, operating system shells, embedded systems, and computer games. A scripting language can be viewed as a domain-specific language for a particular environment; in the case of scripting an application, it is also known as an extension language. Scripting languages are also sometimes referred to as very high-level programming languages, as they sometimes operate at a high level of abstraction, or as control languages, particularly for job control languages on mainframes. The term ''scripting lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
