• (cs) in reply to savar
    savar:
    Your English is rusty. Both your examples use the same verb tense (present).

    Nah, yours is. <g> You missed that "One magazine" is singular, while "Many readers" is plural. The singular usage is what DHagar was referring to when referencing "RDN is a free magazine for influential readers that provides[/] insight" - he was pointing out that the use of [b]that is correct instead of the and mentioned by DoctorFriday.

  • (cs) in reply to 008
    008:
    theabbas:
    After thinking about it, I'd go and do a find replace reactor thus making

    thefiles theresult

    become

    /* the / files / the */ result

    Is a find replace reactor as powerful as a nuclear one?

    More! A nuclear reactor can only open a comment - a find replace reactor can open AND close it!

  • (cs)

    "From all this I've come to the conclusion that SVN does not add value as a day-to-day tool for our web design work. It is not designed for, nor intended to be used in the way we are trying to use it. It may have some value as a system for maintaining our backup copies--and for us it maybe should just be thought of as a system for making and storing backup copies." - From an actual email from a "webmaster".. who ironically chronically complains about files 'disappearing'... or 're-appearing' after being deleted... hm...

  • (cs) in reply to borislutskovsky
    borislutskovsky:
    "From all this I've come to the conclusion that SVN does not add value as a day-to-day tool for our web design work. It is not designed for, nor intended to be used in the way we are trying to use it. It may have some value as a system for maintaining our backup copies--and for us it maybe should just be thought of as a system for making and storing backup copies." - From an actual email from a "webmaster".. who ironically chronically complains about files 'disappearing'... or 're-appearing' after being deleted... hm...

    what college (or high school) was the "webmaster" attending at the time ?

  • (cs) in reply to pitchingchris

    college? high school? west virginia pinball repair academy?

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to borislutskovsky
    borislutskovsky:
    college? high school? west virginia pinball repair academy?

    West Virginia Pinball Repair Academy, WVPRA?

    Hey I went there!

    -Anon

  • dkf (unregistered) in reply to brazzy
    brazzy:
    How about a little less arrogance and at least a minimum acknowledgement that they may have encountered a bug in SVN?
    Could be, but more likely that the problem is located between a chair and a keyboard. I have seen bizarre stuff done by SVN, true, but it's actually just (honestly) propagating checkins done by people who don't understand what a version management system does or what a merge is...
    brazzy:
    I love CVS/Subversion dearly, but I'm currently witnessing its limits. We're migrating from plain eclipse to RSA for modelling and coding. The modelling is mainly done by analysts, and all the data of a model (which can and does consists of dozens of diagrams and hundreds of objects) is saved as one big XML file (you can split it into smaller files, but our architects claim that that also creates some pitfalls they want to avoid). [...] The most annoying thing about the whole problem was the guy responsible for coaching the analysts who insisted that working on one huge file and constantly merging changes was no more difficult or problematic than working on separate files.
    Ugh. That's nasty (those modelling tools are nasty too) and probably the only way to fix it is to write a custom merge tool. Yuck. On the other hand, are the alternatives that much better? (Shared folders suck donkey balls for concurrent work due to locking issues, and emailing files back and forth is like using real source management but without any of the advantages. Having done both, SVN - or even venerable CVS for that matter - is far better.)
  • (cs)

    I have done some work for a company once (just part-time) and the source code control was similar to what is described here. It worked OK (I was the only person working on it). Real source control was not required in this case. And we didn't need a database because there was only a few records and it was still very fast. I did need to write a program though to convert timesheets from Excel to CSV using a specific format, because the way they already were wasn't that good, there was many mistakes (including project codes were all different, etc). We just converted to web-based time-sheet system instead, it was a internal program used only by the company. It does have a lot of reports I wrote though, including program in PHP to generate bar-graph/pie-graph, etc. Everything I did didn't take very long, everyone else takes too much time to do it (they expect it to take many days, and also expected that we needed a team of people to work on it, but it only took a few hours, and only one person). Of course the mentor in this article is stupid, but he's right about one thing, I didn't need any object oriented programming (in this case, but in other cases object oriented might be useful, and in the case in the article, relational databases would have also been useful, but in my case I needed neither).

    If you need to hire a programmer, see if they can actually write a program, don't look at education and stuff like that. People that need to go to school to learn programming aren't real programmers. As long as the program works, and you don't do stupid stuff like FOR/CASE paradigm and stuff like that, you should be fine at it. Different programmers have their own style, which can change sometimes, but don't be stupid. I have written bad code as well before (such as not indenting), but that was more than 10 years ago, but now I know better, MUCH BETTER!!

    And, if you really want your code to read like a sentence, can't you use COBOL? (I don't use COBOL but isn't that was COBOL is for, if you did use COBOL?)

  • curmudgeon (unregistered)

    Not to defend the idea. But surely the author realizes that those "hundreds of lines of code" required to generate all those pages are EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM that would have been solved by the dynamic page generator. The distinction is when the code is run, not what it does.

  • longsufferer (unregistered) in reply to 404 Name Not Found
    404 Name Not Found:
    Jay:

    [...] They'll check things out for "browse only" or whatever the equivalent is, then make the file writeable and work on it. Or they'll check it out, then check it back in, and then work on it. And when I ask they say they were just playing with something experimental and didn't want to tie it up, or that as they weren't the original author or they're just a junior programmer they thought they weren't worthy to officially check it out, etc. [...]

    The real WTF here is using a non-concurrent system that locks files which are "checked out". Concurrent systems, which advises of conflicts and allows you to merge changes in, are much better. Plus - nobody can "break" the system by checking it out browse-only or whatever, since nothing ties up the files.

    Just my 2 cents, but it seems like the real problem here is the system locking code files being changed, and not programmers circumventing it.

    In short the real WTF is MKS

  • (cs) in reply to DoctorFriday
    DoctorFriday:
    After I read:
    RDN is a free magazine for influential readers that provides insight into Microsoft's plans, and news on the latest happenings and products in the Windows development marketplace.
    I always end up thinking "So the readers are the ones who provide the insight into Microsoft's plans? ORLY!?" How about instead:
    RDN is a free magazine for influential readers and provides insight into Microsoft's plans, and news on the latest happenings and products in the Windows development marketplace.
    Um... no... if it was going to say that the readers provide the insight, it would be, "RDN is a free magazine for influential readers who provide insight..." See, one reader "provides", whereas two readers "provide". And "that" applies to things; "who" applies to people.

    Still, if the wording bothers you, how about this? "RDN is a free magazine which provides insight to influential readers regarding blah blah blah"

  • (cs) in reply to Thuktun
    Thuktun:
    Ha, ha, ho?
    The intent is, "Ha, ha, (you) ho."
  • (cs) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    SomeCoder:
    we couldn't rollback for some reason
    Well there's a big fat WTF all by itself...
    SomeCoder:
    If we had file locking, the problem wouldn't have occurred.
    Instead, you have the much more common problem of someone getting the lock and then going on holiday for several weeks, so blocking everyone else. (And if you allow busting the lock, guess what? Everyone busts the lock all the time and you've got the worst of all worlds.)
    Two administrators (so that one is available when the other is not). Only administrators can undo a lock. They require a damn good reason (like, "Joe has the project file checked out, but I need to add a form to it and he won't be back for two weeks.") Joe may lose some work, but that's his problem for not insuring that he had everything checked in before leaving on vacation.
  • Trix (unregistered) in reply to _js_
    _js_:
    DoctorFriday:
    ... How about instead:
    RDN is a free magazine for influential readers and provides insight into Microsoft's plans, and news on the latest happenings and products in the Windows development marketplace.
    You didn't notice the word "that", which cannot point to readers, who are people, but only to an object like a magazine?

    Your use of and also ruins the second and, making it a lot harder to understand the sentence.

    You "fixing" a sentence results in a bug that's worse than the problem that never even existed. I hope noone in this world allows you anywhere near computer code, the only thing you would do is make it worse.

    Actually, the sentence, as fixed, is much clearer due to the reasons given by the fixer. The second "and" is clearly part of the new clause delineated by the comma. FWIW, "that" commonly is used to refer to a class of people (ie. "readers", in this instance). "Who" or "that" seem to be equally correct - at least, I haven't found a consistent rule for what word should be used in that instance.

  • GF (unregistered) in reply to pitchingchris
    pitchingchris:
    Gio:
    ...

    I think this comment was intended for the earlier article, not this one.

    Ya think? Just maybe?

  • jo42 (unregistered) in reply to Skizz
    Skizz:
    Wouldn't 'People against OOP' be POOP?
    POOP would be PHP Object Oriented Programming.
  • Maj najm (unregistered) in reply to Lysis
    Lysis:
    Maj najm:
    DeLos:
    RandomDreamer:
    Woot Second

    No it's not important to easily keep track of code changes and revert to previous code versions. What a WTF

    I am a firm believer that the correct spelling (and more l33t) is w00t. Otherwise, if you use o's I think you should have to write it whoot and then it just looks lame.

    We Owned Other Team. ;)

    l2gamerspeak n00b

    Oh, I just saw your name and realized why you don't get it - it's all the curry

    Nah, no need at all tbh.

    and maj najm would be two english words spelled with another pronounciation. Could perhaps be indian, but it aint. ;) so try again, or fail again, whichever you feel is best.

  • MM (unregistered) in reply to 404 Name Not Found
    404 Name Not Found:
    How about this - working on some library, where 2 people are working on one file, but COMPLETELY separate methods. code merge is a breeze, just copy all the changes over - you are both changing isolated components of the same file, anyway. if we used a locking mechanism on the file, development would slow down. As long as you assign the tasks appropriately, code merges should never be an issue, because you are working on different functionality, even in the same file.
    If those functions truly are unrelated than they should never have been in the same file in the first place. If you seperate unrelated functionality into seperate files, then file-locking doesn't interfere with people working on something else, and it just makes sure that you don't have two people trying to do the same thing and interfering with each other's work.

    Basically, file locking just ensures that these sorts of safe, easy merges (of people working on seperate sections) are the only type of "merging" you'll do, since people working on different functionality would be checking out different files. A conflict would only come up if there was a failure to, as you say, "assign the tasks appropriately", and in that case I wouldn't trust software trying to do some sort of line-by-line merge of two people's changes to the same function, when both made those changes without seeing the effect the other person's changes would have on theirs.

  • Thomas (unregistered)

    Don't you just love it when a clueless idiot looks down on you and tells you you still have a lot to learn?

    I get that quite a lot in my company. The other day my mentor was showing me how to find duplicate records in a DB2 table with a printout, a ruler and a pen. Looking down on me for not knowing this handy technique.

    Really, what do they teach us rookies at those computing courses? Sheesh...

  • (cs) in reply to _js_
    _js_:
    DoctorFriday:
    After I read:
    RDN is a free magazine for influential readers that provides insight into Microsoft's plans, and news on the latest happenings and products in the Windows development marketplace.
    I always end up thinking "So the readers are the ones who provide the insight into Microsoft's plans? ORLY!?" How about instead:
    RDN is a free magazine for influential readers and provides insight into Microsoft's plans, and news on the latest happenings and products in the Windows development marketplace.
    You didn't notice the word "that", which cannot point to readers, who are people, but only to an object like a magazine?

    Your use of and also ruins the second and, making it a lot harder to understand the sentence.

    You "fixing" a sentence results in a bug that's worse than the problem that never even existed. I hope noone in this world allows you anywhere near computer code, the only thing you would do is make it worse.

    Well, his heart's in the right place. The use of "that" is slightly ugly and jarring -- I suspect that its current prevalence is due largely to the little wiggly green line that Word throws up when one types "which." However, the transference of the plural form within a sub-clause from the original subject to the nearest object is a well-known phenomenon (god knows, I do it myself all too frequently), and yes, it can cause a mental blink.

    A more readable equivalent would be "blah blah blah magazine; it provides blah blah blah, and blah blah blah." A more honest equivalent would be "Beware! Snake Oil! Enjoy!"

    None of this has anything to do with coding eptitude, of course. And noone spells "no-one" as noone.

    Addendum (2008-03-25 20:22): Just noticed FredSaw's comment above, which is equally valid. As a fully paid up, BrainBent-certified, Grammar Nazi, I have to confess that the difference between the abstract "that" and the personal "who" doesn't bother me that/whose much, because I suspect that it will disappear within the next twenty years or so.

    Odd that Fred should use "blah blah blah" too, though. Perhaps this reflects on the preposterous self-importance of the no doubt eminent publication in question?

  • RF (unregistered) in reply to Pyro

    Yeah, or a way to stay in school forever... far far away from the MBAs.

  • Benjamin Keil (unregistered) in reply to DoctorFriday
    DoctorFriday:
    I always end up thinking "So the readers are the ones who provide the insight into Microsoft's plans? ORLY!?" How about instead:

    Although, you can tell that provides goes with magazine because it shows singular agreement. If it was provide with plural agreement, then it would go with readers.

  • (cs) in reply to savar

    In my CS1001 course (Intro to CS, programming in Java), we were required to use SVN from the start. Some of the practicals were given an automatically-generated preliminary mark, by compiling the latest version of the project and checking against test cases (it also checked for similarities between submitted source files, and sometimes looked for required language features). By the end of the first term, most students came to like it, and many used it for their other work as well.

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