Computer programming is the process of creating computer software. Use this tag if you have any questions relating to this area.
Questions tagged [programming]
31 questions
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Has Phil Karlton ever said "There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things"?
Several references to the quote "There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things" can be found, such as Martin Fowler's blog and others.
I'm unable to find the source of this quote, has he ever said it?
Vitor De Mario
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Does the source code of the software for a high-end car contain on average around 100 million lines of code?
This infographic shows the different number of lines that some software applications (or a general type of them) have on average.
The number of lines shown for an average modern high-end car strikes me as implausible. I know modern cars have lots of…
Jesús Gómez
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Do programmers who learn to type faster become better programmers?
CodingHorror writes:
So if you want to become a great programmer, start by becoming a great typist.
[...]
When you're a fast, efficient typist, you spend less time between thinking that thought and expressing it in code. [...] I believe in…
Christian
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Are a large proportion of programming job applicants unable to implement FizzBuzz?
On the blog Coding Horror, Jeff Atwood quotes individuals as saying that a large number of programming job applicants are unable to implement FizzBuzz. Why Can't Programmers.. Program?
[Quoting Don't Overthink FizzBuzz]
Like me, the author is…
Andrew Grimm
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51
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Do professional software developers write an average of 10 lines of code per day?
In the 1975 software project management book, The Mythical Man Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Fred Brooks states that, no matter the programming language chosen, a professional developer will write an average 10 lines of code (LoC) per…
travisbartley
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51
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Has a programmer ever embezzled money by shaving fractions of a cent from many bank transactions?
There's a popular story that describes a programmer having altered a program at a bank so it diverted fractions of a cent from every transaction to another account (or some variation like multiple accounts) so he could collect it later.
The story…
Bart Silverstrim
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36
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Were the Space Shuttle's computers incapable of handling end-of-year roll-overs?
There is a claim circulating on Facebook that space shuttles couldn't fly near the end of the year because its onboard computers could not handle a year turnover.
Searching for the claim, I found Y2K-like fears create shuttle scheduling crunch,…
Calmarius
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35
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1 answer
Do functional programming languages offer significant advantages?
Many functional language advocates make a few surprising assertions about them:
functional languages code is significantly less buggy than otherwise
functional languages code is significantly faster than otherwise in parallel scenarios
functional…
Sklivvz
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Has any programmer ever been paid per line of code?
There have been some claims that some software developers were paid per line of code written:
Bill Gates was paid per line of code
I heard that Microsoft has a tradition of needlessly long and complex
programs in part because when Bill Gates…
user14708
29
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1 answer
Does pair programming improve the correctness of software?
Some advocates of pair programming suggest that two software engineers working on a single feature together - at the same desk, at the same computer - will create software that is more correct - that is, closer to specification and more bug-free -…
Jimmy Breck-McKye
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23
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Does talking to a rubber duck improve programmer performance when debugging?
In software engineering (especially XP) there is a commonly held belief that talking to a rubber duck will improve performance when debugging problematic code.
This technique is referenced in multiple places from well-respected blogs such as Coding…
combinatorics
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23
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Does healthcare.gov contain 500 million lines of code?
I just saw an infographic comparing the size of various programs in lines of code, the largest one of those being the healthcare.gov site at 500 million lines of code. The source they used seems to be this NY Times article that states
According to…
Mad Scientist
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Is programming in Python faster than in C, C++ or Java?
There's a widespread belief among programmers that the more dynamic and loosely typed the language, the more productive the programmer will be in it. Guido van Rossum wrote about programming productivity using python in 1998 and searching around the…
Kit Sunde
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Is using vim faster than a mouse-based editor for source code?
Many people claim that editing text using the vim editor is faster than using a mouse-based one, for experienced users.
There seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence for this claim, but considering that the typical vim user probably spends a lot of…
loopbackbee
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Is Obama the first President of the US to write a computer program?
According to a recent Wired article, US President Barack Obama was the first president to write code:
President Barack Obama told the world that everyone should learn how to code. And now he’s putting his money where his mouth is.
Earlier today, to…
mati
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