₦airaland Forum

Apple have always claimed that their software is inherently more secure than Windows however we now find vulnerabilities have been discovered in the much vaunted Safari browser within a few hours of its release http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsID=9128&pagtype=all

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Windows OS or it's applications are more secure than Mac just that perhaps Apple shouldn't be so quick to always claim the moral high ground on the issue of security as it seems that Apple is just as capable of providing insecure software as Microsoft or anybody else for that matter.

I'm curious, why should I bother installing Safari at all? I mean what does Safari do that IE7 doesn't?

Many thanks for the comments guys, you all make very interesting observations.

You didn't say if you were looking for a specific language however the good thing is as this is one of the topics covered in just about every tutorial for every programming language there are many resources available on the internet and here are just a couple of URLs:

Java http://java.sun.com/developer/JDCTechTips/2002/tt0806.html
C# http://www.codeproject.com/cs/algorithms/highspeed_primenumbers.asp?df=100&forumid=93480&exp=0&select=2046265

You may also want to check out some of the following results returned by Google:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=on&q=prime+number+generator+source+code

Check out the following link for detailed instructions on how to set you PATH & CLASSPATH for java
http://ist.berkeley.edu/as/ag/technology/howto/install-java-sdk-win.html#Env_Variables

sbucareer has written an excellent tutorial for java which assumes no prior knowledge which you can find at https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-6848.0.html. Have a look at it and of course shout out if you have any specific queries.

The printer properties .CurrentX and .CurrentY are used to set the current print position on a page where .CurrentX refers to a column and CurrentY refers to a row. Imagine that you are printing on a page that has 50 lines and each line can contain 80 characters, since you most likely don't intend to print every character on every line, you use .CurrentY to set the row (i.e. Line) that you want to print on and .CurrentX to set the column. So in my example, you can see where I increase the .CurrentX value to print column headings.

There's nothing like a clear and informative subject title, and your subject title is nothing like clear and informative

In my humble opinion, I don't think Nigeria is any different to most other countries in terms of popular computer and/or software products in use. The cost of software is certainly prohibitively expensive for the average Nigerian, however high demand ensures that a thriving bootleg market exists.

Whilst I don't believe it was your intention to be patronizing, I would respectfully suggest that your question could certainly be seen as such.

Check out the following Wikipedia links for comprehensive answers to your quesstion

C++ [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B[/url]
CISCO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco
CCNI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCNI
CCNA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ccna
CCNP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCNP

Interesting article which makes a few good points.

Unfortunetaly, printing is somewhat cumbersome with VB6 but I hope he following sample gives you an idea of how to go about it

Private Sub cmdPrint_Click()

   On Error GoTo PrintClickError
   
   'Prompt the user to select a printer
   Printer.EndDoc
   Printer.TrackDefault = True
   frmMDIAdmin!dlgMDI.PrinterDefault = True ' Note the Dialog control referenced here is in a seperate MDI form
   frmMDIAdmin!dlgMDI.Flags = cdlPDNoPageNums Or cdlPDNoSelection
   frmMDIAdmin!dlgMDI.CancelError = True
   frmMDIAdmin!dlgMDI.ShowPrinter
   
   Printer.Font = "Arial"
   Printer.FontBold = True
   Printer.FontSize = 16
   Printer.FontItalic = False

   Printer.CurrentX = (2 + (96 - Printer.TextWidth("This is the title of the page")) / 2
   Printer.Print "This is the title of the page"
   Printer.Print
   
   'Column Headings
   Printer.FontSize = 11
   Printer.FontBold = True
   Printer.CurrentX = 2
   Printer.Print "First";

   Printer.CurrentX = 35
   Printer.Print "Second";
   
   Printer.CurrentX = 45
   Printer.Print "Third";
   
   Printer.CurrentX = 55
   Printer.Print "Fourth"
     
   Printer.FontItalic = False
   Printer.FontSize = 10
   Printer.FontBold = False
   
   Printer.EndDoc
   DoEvents

   Exit Sub
   
PrintClickError:

   Exit Sub
   
End Sub

Specifically for Microsoft Access, you would use an "OLE Object" type which can be used to store various types of binary data.  Check out the following link for an example:  http://www.learnaccessnow.com/chap17b.html

Following on from sbucareer's tip, you may wish to consider migrating to Oracle if possible as it gives you a lot more functionality and better performance than Access.

@Naijaguru

naijaguru:
- Some IT manager would do so, in the belief that they would enhance the code. Not everyone who can enhance codes can develop from scratch. I tell you, there are some pros in re-using open source codes / applications, but can't develop one.

I'm not sure about this as I think that it's often more difficult to take over someone's code and enhance it than to start from afresh.

@Naijaguru

naijaguru:
- And again, like Afam rightly said, they might want to exploit you by using your work as a demo for some other clients, and when their contract gets approved, they'll patronize an Indian written application!

I take your point but on the other hand, if the company gets a contract based on a demo you have developed then why wouldn't they employ you instead of going to India assuming you were still available of course?

I have often spent a lot of time debating this issue with colleagues so I thought I would offer my suggestions and see what other points of view Nairaland developers have.

For me, there are a few points that makes someone a good developer which I would summarise as follows:

No Substitute For Experience
At the end of the day, a certain level of technical skill and knowledge is mandatory and in my experience whilst theory is all well and good there is absolutely no substitute for experience so a good developer has to have his/her hands dirty. Having said that, the experience I’m talking about has to have been constructive and varied. I mean just because you have been doing something for a very long time doesn’t necessarily mean you have been doing it the right way.

Plan Before You Code
I’m a firm believer in having an overall design before I start writing code and at the very least, I think a good developer should have an overview of the solution showing the various system components, data repositories, data flows etc. To do this, the developer must have a clear understanding of the requirements to ensure that the design satisfies them. In other words, a good developer should not just be concerned with writing good code but perhaps more importantly he/she should be concerned with designing a solution that meets the stated requirements.

Test To Destruction
I believe the testing process (both component and integrated) should form a part of the project right from inception and a good plan will allocate plenty of time for testing once the initial development is complete. With almost any software project you care to look at retrospectively, you will discover that more time was spent testing and debugging than writing the initial code. Don’t just assume that your code will work the way you intended, test it to prove that it does.

Documentation
I am no different to perhaps the majority of developers in that I don’t particularly like writing documentation however I believe it is a necessary evil as anyone that has had to take over a project will appreciate. I am talking here about 2 forms of documentation the first being helpful comments in the code and the second being written documentation setting out the system architecture.

Attitude Is Important
I believe that a developer’s attitude is sometimes just as important as the level of skill he/she possess. Imagine you have to work in a team where all the developers are very defensive and don’t take kindly to criticism, I would suggest that in such an environment, the rate of output would be slow and even though the individual components may be perfect, they may not all work together to give produce the ideal solution . I believe that a good developer should have an open mind and be willing to listen to alternative suggestions and accept justified criticism of his/her design or code. After all if you are sure of your design, then you should have no reason to get defensive, you just calmly explain why you have done what you have done keeping in mind that there may always be a better way.

Never Stop Learning
Software development is a very dynamic environment with new techniques and methodologies evolving at a very rapid rate. Whilst it’s not necessary (or indeed possible) to keep up with every single new initiative, I believe it is important however to put aside some time during your working day to do some research and hence keep your skills up to date. Your research may even lead you to conclude that a particular methodology is not worth learning in detail but the key point is that you have made an informed decision.

Know Your Limitations
It’s often said that there’s a very fine line between self confidence and arrogance. Even the best programmer in the world cannot possibly know everything so for me, a good developer is confident about his/her knowledge but is also very quick to admit to a lack of knowledge where it exists. In my view, there is no shame in ignorance, the problem arises when given adequate resources, you don’t do anything about it.

Good Enough Is Not Enough
It is very tempting once you’ve got your solution working to forget about it and move on to the next challenge however I think a good developer will come back to the solution after a while and take a critical look at it to ensure that it cannot be enhanced in anyway. I also believe this should be done even if any enhancements you implement will never be used as the main benefactor of the exercise is you the developer.


I should conclude by making it clear that the above are just my opinions on what makes a good developer in an ideal world and on occasions I myself struggle to adhere to all the sentiments I have expressed above. That being said, I would be interested in hearing what other Nairaland developers think.

Whilst I can't categorically say whether or not there is any exploitation intended in this case, in my experience, interviews take many forms and as wa_do_mi quite rightly said, there is no standard way to conduct an interview.  What i can say is I have on 2 seperate occasions for 2 different jobs been asked to develop an application during the interview process and my response in both cases was to say that naturally there wasn't enough time to complete the job however, I clearly stated how I would design the application and wrote high level pseudo code for the solution. In both cases, my response was exactly what they were looking for as I was employed on both occasions and this was confirmed to me after I started working there.

The point to remember is that an interview is meant to assess a variety of skills you posses and one of them is your self confidence in the sense that if you are asked to perform an impossible task, then you should say that it can't be done (or to be more precise, you can't do it).  Doing well in an interview does not mean always saying yes to whatever the interviewer may ask you and I also think it's counter productive to start the process with the view that the organisation in question is looking to exploit you. I have always treated every interview I have done as a learning process and even in the unlikely event that someone is trying to exploit me, I feel I always get something in return.

To those who suspect that the applicant is being exploited, let me ask you a few questions:

- If you were the IT manager of the organisation in question, would you use an application developed under such circumstances bearing in mind the developer is very likely to make several errors due to nerves?

- Even assuming you decide to use the code, who will support it if you don't employ the developer?

- If you have developers in house who are able to review the code and perhaps enhance it, then surely you would use them to develop the application in the first place.

Just a few thoughts,

On the assumption that this is not a trick question, you can download it at http://messenger.yahoo.com/. Click on the "Get Started" button and follow the instructions

Great article which wouldn't be so funny if there wasn't an element of truth in it

I'm assuming you're talking about sorting the result of a query on the database in which case I would think your best bet is to use an ORDER BY clause in your SQL so the data is sorted before you load it into a recordset. If what you mean is sorting the data after it has been loaded into a grid for example (i.e. Giving the end user the ability to sort), then depending on the amount of data involved, I would still consider reloading it from the database with a suitably modified query.

The database server will in almost all cases be capable of executing a much more optimised sort than you can do in code which is why it's almost always best to delegate such tasks to the server.

Very helpful post.

The URLs for the various packages are as follows:

MySQL: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads
Apache: http://httpd.apache.org
PHP: http://www.php.net/downloads.php

cocoon:
I would have prefered if the topic has been rephared as "WHY I PREFERED .NET TO JAVA"

Thanks cocoon, this is precisely the point that I'm trying to make.

@IG, First and foremost, I didn't learn my development skills in a classroom either and I apologise if you thought I was trying to blind you with grammar or patronise you in any way because that certainly wasn't my intention but having said that no matter how one learns any skill I think it is very important to use the correct terms. I read somewhere once that you should always say what you mean otherwise you won't mean what you say and from my professional experience, I can confirm that there is certainly a lot of truth in that statement.

Re .NET being the "syntactically richer",  maybe I'm missing something but as C# and Java both use Getters/Setters I still maintain that the syntax is just different and I for one don't see any added "richness" for want of a better expression in C# as opposed to java particularly as the core functionality in both cases remains the same. but that of course is purely my personal opinion and undoubtedly others such as yourself will disagree with me.  I guess the bottom line is it's just a matter of personal taste.

Re Attributes, I fully accept that this feature does not exist in core java and you have to use a 3rd party tool such as Jakarta Commons Attributes from Apache (http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/attributes/) to achieve the same thing but the salient point for me here is that should I wish to use the feature, there is a highly reputable open source solution available and this for me is major consideration. You could argue with some justification that it is better to have everything in one package but it is rarely the case that everything you need and/or want is available out of the box.

In conclusion, I don't want to give the impression that I don't like .NET at all because it certainly has some very impressive and innovative features and the IDE is without doubt one of the best available but what I do have difficulty accepting is your assertion that it is better than java. Both languages have their strengths and weaknesses so one is certainly better suited to a particular solution than the other but that doesn't make either one better than the other in all cases.

IG:
@Sbucareer, I still cannot find properties in Java. You have to use the getter and setter methods instead.

in .NET you can have something like

 txtName.text = "Nairaland"

and

string strName = txtName.text

but in java it will have to be like

txtName.setText("Nairaland";

and

String strName = txtName.getText();

See what I mean ?

I think you may have misunderstood the concept of what constitutes a property in OOP.  A property is an encapsulated item of data that is stored within an object and therefore the syntax by which you manipulate the property is irrelevant. Whether you use the .NET style or Java Getters/Setters when manipulating the property, the result achieved in both cases is encapsulation so your statement that Java does not have properties is erroneous.

In C# you have to use Getters/Setters to enable manipulation of a property in the implementation of the class as follows:

private string queueName;

public string m_queueName
{ 
   get { return queueName; } 
   set { queueName = value; } 
}

You can certainly argue that you prefer one syntax to the other but that's something different.

I use Google and it would seem that majority of search engine users are with me on this one and I don't believe Nigerians would be any different

Check out the following:
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156451
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/List_of_Major_US_Search_Engines.htm
http://www.websearchworkshop.co.uk/search-engines.php
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156221
http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-Search-Engines&id=495602