Brilliant!

Rizwan Yasin wrote:

do u know programming is like a poetry?

Of course it is. In some ways. But are these important ways? I guess it depends on your view of poetry. And programming. You might as well say, "programming is like curry". Except that you can't eat it. :^)

Yes and no. I have only been a full-time programmer for some 2 years or so, but I have been programming (both professionally and for pleasure) for some 20 years, on and off. The truth is, I really do find it relaxing to read computing books. Depending on how you look at these things, I guess I am either very sick X|, or I am lucky enough to really love what I do :cool:. Also, in my defence, I do read fiction on holiday, too. My Blog: http://allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

John Cardinal wrote:

NO PROGRAMMING BOOKS

That doesn't sound like much of a holiday to me! ;) My Blog: http://allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

And someone to wander around the office all day talking to people about the computer he has at home. :-D My Blog: allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

John R. Shaw wrote:

simple logic and experience will eventually show you what the problem is

I can over-complicate things for anyone. Sadly, simple logic really is not one of my strong points. :( However, I'd be delighted to benefit from experience, and I don't doubt that yours is more extansive than mine. Please, do enlighten me. I would like to learn.

The Grand Negus wrote:

Well, does it? If so, how much faster? If not, what good is it?

I do think that .Net helps me write applications faster. As for "how much", I really have no idea. I really don't care. Why? Because speed of development isn't everything - not even the main thing. As long as I don't write applications significantly slower using .Net than using 'traditional' methods, then I don't have a problem with .Net. So, what .Net does do for me, then? "What good is it?" The benefits of .Net are that it helps me maintain my applications more efficiently, it helps me debug my applications more quickly, it helps me write better applications, it enables me to write applications I couldn't write before, and (most imporantly) significantly adds to my enjoyment of writing applications. The truth is that speed of development is marketing hype. Most marketing hype is about the things that matter to people who buy products, not about the things that matter to people who use them. A lot of products have 'features' that are there to sell them, not for people to use. For example: How many people buy mobile phones with all the latest features and just use them to make calls? How many people buy a video recorder because of all the clever things they can do (like make the tea, clean the toilet etc.), then just use them to watch pre-recorded movies? My Blog: http://allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

if (condition) {     //do something } This is the only true way. All else is heresy. ;P Seriously, I think this all just comes down to personal preference. Everyone has his or her own reasons for preferring one style to another. Those reasons could be to do with practicality, ideology, aesthetics, familiarity, or just following standards. In my case, I like the above layout because it takes up fewer lines on the screen, so I can see more of my code at once. I simply can't see why some people think that the alternatives look nicer. Also, my background is in languages that don't have “curlies”, but whose layout is more like this layout. For example, the structure of VB.Net code is similar: If condtion THEN     'do something END IF Perhaps this similarity to VB.Net is really what some people object to? My Blog: http://www.allwrong.com[^]

Just 92% :( I am ashamed. My blog: http://allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

;P;P;P Practicality? Humbug! ;P;P;P Although, I must admit, you do have a good point. Stupid reality. :sigh: See here: http://allwrong.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/visions-of-grandeur/[^]

You're right. I am a freak. Just how much of a freak, you'd never believe. But apart from that, I am not convinced by your argument: 1. There is nothing in the question that says you *have* to define TRUE as success. In some languages, 0 is the code for success, and this casts to FALSE. 2. The purpose of the call *could* be to free up the disk space occupied by the item, in which case, the function has *failed*. So I would return FALSE. Alternatively, both (1) and (2) could be the case. Which would make your answer correct, but in a rather freaky sort of way, no? My blog:http://allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

I know! I know! The *right* answer is... True! No, no, I mean false! Er... no. It depends. Um. Maybe neither? Or both? Or something. Yes, yes. Something. Or null? Right. Let's start with a bit of analysis. Requirements The question explicitly states that, the "function that is *meant to* delete an item". It does *not* say "is meant to delete an item *if* it exists.". The question does *not* say what the purpose of the deletion is. This could be: 1. To ensure that the item is not in the list. 2. To release the memory / disk space that holds the item. So, the non-deletion of an item must be assumed to be a failure of the function. Parameters Persumably there are the following cases: 1. The item exists and is deleted. 2. The item exists and cannot deleted. 3. The item does not exist. 4. The user has passed invalid parameters into the function. Case (1) is a success. Case (2) and (3) are a failure of the function. Case (4) is an error. This leaves 2 reasonable behaviours: A. Return nothing for (1) or throw an exception for (2),(3) and (4). B. Return TRUE for (1), FALSE for (2) and (3), and an exception for (4). Fowever, the question asks if we should throw TRUE or FALSE for (3), so (A) is not valid. Conclusion Answer: Return FALSE. And *DOCUMENT* the meaning of this result, ideally in XML coments so that they show up in intellisense. So, what do I win? My Blog: http://allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

My ansewer: 1. Maintainability 2. Maintainability 3. Maintainability Maintainability above all things: If the application is maintainable, the other attributes can be added. If not, then one day the user's requirements will change and the application will become useless. 4. Usability Software exists for users, because users want to achieve something. Better software that users can actually use, even if it isn't perfect, than an application that is functionally correct but completely unusable. 5. Customisability 5. Dependability 5. Performance 5. Reliability 5. Scalability 5. Security Everything else follows from Maintainability and Usability. In essence: people first. Maintainability = usability for developers. My Blog: http://allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

Like this: scrollLockStatus=confirm("Please click OK if scroll lock is on, CANCEL if it is off."); ;P allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

Amateur! It's a nice sharp pencil and a sketch pad for me! ;) My blog: allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

Really? :omg: Are you the hacker? Just trying to throw us off the trail? Well, you don't fool me! I'll hit "Post" and then shut down, once and for all. You won't get me with your logic bomb! ;P

As I am sure you know, the real answer to any "what is the best programming language" type question is "it depends on what you want to achieve". For hobby programming, VB6 is fine. If you are doing work for yourself, you might as well work with what you enjoy. For 'serious' work, VB.Net (or C#) are the way to go. The main reason, IMHO, is that VB6 is dead from Microsoft's point of view. Gradually, all the VB6 sites will disappear and the community will dwindle. Increasingly, you will be left behind the rest of the world. You will be unable to interface with the latest technologies and methodologies. There will be nobody left to work with, nobody left to talk to, nobody to appreciate your genius, nobody to maintain your code after you are gone. Of course, all this *could* be an advantage, depending on your personality. There are still COBOL programmers out there who make a good living working on legacy code. Personally, I made the switch to VB.Net from VB two years ago. I love it; not least because of the Visual Studio IDE. IMO, It is a truly remarkable piece of work. I hope this helps. KramII[^]

Hi, I guess you could write some clever JavaScript, embed it an an HTML page, point IE to it and then you'd know. As a real programmer, I do like to over-complicate things where I can :wtf:. allwrong.wordpress.com[^]

Agreed. For me, the most important question that I need the help file to answer is "Why?". Why did the application designer put in a feature? What is it for? Do I need to know about this feature? Giving a realistic scenario is one of the best ways to answer this question. Once I know what a feature is for, I may want to use it. So it is only when I understand the "Why" that the "How" comes into play. How do I use the feature? Naturally, the Help file needs to answer this, too. It is also useful to have an overview of the user interface. My Blog.

MSDN really is poor these days. I am sure it used to be better. I used to bemoan the fact that I can't put MSDN on my IPAQ. Most of my core ref. manuals are either .pdf or .chm files, even BOL. But not MSDN. These days, however, I don't miss it because it is virtually useless anyway. But I'd be interested to know: how do you think MSDN could be imporved?