₦airaland Forum

Laolballs:
This is not an effective way of implementing linear search on an ordered array , because even if the element been searched for is in the first array index , the algorith woukd still search through all the array before returning the result, it would waste resources.. Can you make it such that the loop stops as soon as the element is found?? That woukd be more efficient

kindly read the code very well, dear. see the part where I wrote

if(arr[i] == v ) return i;


With the level of experience you guys seem to be showing about algorithms; I'm starting to regret answering the questions in the first place. I hope I dont sound rude; but its just the way I feel sha.

Fulaman198:
@larisoft, in Java an insertion sort would resemble something like this (swap method not implemented here, but this is written to give you an idea)

public class InsertionSort {
	public static void theInsertionSort (int[] values) {
		int currentIndex;
		for (int pos = 1; pos < values.length; pos++) {
			currentIndex = pos;
			while (currentIndex > 0 && values[currentIndex] < values[currentIndex - 1]) {
				//perform a swap method/function here in the values array to switch value in
				//current index with value in the index before it
				//swap(values, currentIndex, currentIndex - 1);
				currentIndex = currentIndex - 1;
			}
		}
	}
}

that , my dear, is an insertion sort. The swap happens there where j becomes j-1.

if your still certain that it isn't, I ll be glad to know why.

larisoft:
public class insertion_sort{

static int[] test;

public static void main(String[] args){
test = new int[] {10,22,21,23,2,1} ;

print_a(test) ;

sort(test) ;

print_a(test) ;

}

private static void print_a(int[] a){

for(int i : a){

System.out.print(i + " " ) ;
}

System.out.println() ;
}


private static void sort(int[] arr) {

//loop through the array
for (int i = 1; i < arr.length; i++) {

//get the current element
int current = arr[i];
int j = i;

//compare this element with every element before it
//if you meet an element smaller than it;
//create space there in preparation to insert it there.
//do not insert immediately though. keep moving down till this current element is greater than the ones before it
//after which you now place the element in the last space created...
while (j > 0 && arr[j - 1] > current) {
//this(j-1) element is greater than our current element and yet is located before it
//copy this(j-1) element to the element after it; thereby making this element eligible for replacement
arr[j] = arr[j - 1];
j--;
}

//place this element where it belongs in the array and move on to repeat this process on the element after it
arr[j] = current;
}
}

}

thats the implementation of an insertion_sort algorithm.

for the linear search

public int search(arr[], int v){

//loop through array
for(int i =0; i< arr.length; i++){

//if this element is equal to the value we are searching for, stop search here and return the index
if(arr[i] == v) return i;
}

//if we got here, this value does not exist in this array. return -1
return -1;
}

Didnt test it but I suppose it will work.

larisoft:
public class insertion_sort{

static int[] test;

public static void main(String[] args){
test = new int[] {10,22,21,23,2,1} ;

print_a(test) ;

sort(test) ;

print_a(test) ;

}

private static void print_a(int[] a){

for(int i : a){

System.out.print(i + " " ) ;
}

System.out.println() ;
}


private static void sort(int[] arr) {

//loop through the array
for (int i = 1; i < arr.length; i++) {

//get the current element
int current = arr[i];
int j = i;

//compare this element with every element before it
//if you meet an element smaller than it;
//create space there in preparation to insert it there.
//do not insert immediately though. keep moving down till this current element is greater than the ones before it
//after which you now place the element in the last space created...
while (j > 0 && arr[j - 1] > current) {
//this(j-1) element is greater than our current element and yet is located before it
//copy this(j-1) element to the element after it; thereby making this element eligible for replacement
arr[j] = arr[j - 1];
j--;
}

//place this element where it belongs in the array and move on to repeat this process on the element after it
arr[j] = current;
}
}

}

thats the implementation of a insertion_sort algorithm.

for the linear search

public int search(arr[], int v){

//loop through array
for(int i =0; i< arr.length; i++){


if(arr[i] == v) return i;
}

return -1;
}

public class insertion_sort{

static int[] test;

public static void main(String[] args){
test = new int[] {10,22,21,23,2,1} ;

print_a(test) ;

sort(test) ;

print_a(test) ;

}

private static void print_a(int[] a){

for(int i : a){

System.out.print(i + " " ) ;
}

System.out.println() ;
}


private static void sort(int[] arr) {

//loop through the array
for (int i = 1; i < arr.length; i++) {

//get the current element
int current = arr[i];
int j = i;

//compare this element with every element before it
//if you meet an element smaller than it;
//create space there in preparation to insert it there.
//do not insert immediately though. keep moving down till this current element is greater than the ones before it
//after which you now place the element in the last space created...
while (j > 0 && arr[j - 1] > current) {
//this(j-1) element is greater than our current element and yet is located before it
//copy this(j-1) element to the element after it; thereby making this element eligible for replacement
arr[j] = arr[j - 1];
j--;
}

//place this element where it belongs in the array and move on to repeat this process on the element after it
arr[j] = current;
}
}

}

i would have loved to. But in the meantime, follow this

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp

its one of the best tutorials on HTML.out there.

thanks so much for the feedback guys

enigmatique:
Hmmm. These points are very enlightening and well written. Thumbs up larisoft.

Thanks for reading, Enigmatic

[quote author=Raypawer post=46303333]From The look of things, ur app is an offline app how do you display ads

[/quote

I used Google admob, bro

The second method is genius! But someone like me might think "writing a review" still too time consuming . However, I would respond fast to just "Rate this app" without having to comment on why I rated it the way I did.

satmaniac:
E be like say you know no say your name dey on your blog o. Abi you think say people no dey read your sense making article on your potentials filled blog? I go soon flash you Na joke o.

However I got a coding problem and it seem this is the perfect opportunity to lay bare the problem to you, but I don't know what is wrong with nairaland PM, for I have tried PMing you and for some unknown reasons I couldn't get to type into the text field on the PM page.

wow thanks for the thumbs up satmaniac. You can reach me on larypetero at gmail.com

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yearbook.larry.yearbook,
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larisoft.larry.shoppinglist,
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.unizik
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larisoft.larry.caselaw,
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larysoft.casebook


These are just the ones I can display here. I have plenty others if you are interested.

My email: larypetero at gmail.com

lol...this thread. Dont mind me, brothers. The app is 'Quick Shopping List'. I wanted something really basic but I will implement your recommended features. Thanks so much.

FrankLampard:
Larry Okeke my man

mmm...FrankLampard. This one you are hailing me by my real name. I dey wonder how you come know the name oh. Thanks for stopping by my brother.

FincoApps:
LOL I understand how you feel about the marketing aspect and that is why till this minute, I still create apps for both BlackBerry Java phones and BlackBerry10 phones. As dead as BlackBerry might seem.... it has really helped to make my app Pin Pals popular.

Like right from day 1, it started with 150+ downloads per day
Then improved to 300 per day
And when thy featured it (for free) it climbed to an amazing 2k - 4k per day....

Bottom line is Blackberry has helped my life

Lol... Thanks so much for reading , fincoApps. You are one of those guys I usually think of as "seen it all, done it all" on this platform.

By sharing this; I by no means claim to ‘ have arrived’. We are all learning; but having crossed the 10,000 users milestone; I thought it nice to share the mistakes made in the process.

My first app on google playstore was GP Calculator. It has 16 flavors now for 16 Universities in Nigeria, and has a version that works for all polytechnics in Nigeria. The app according to google analytics has attained 10000+ downloads (all flavors). These are some of the things I wish I knew before making this app. As always, my target audience are newbies.

Making an app without planning how to market it is a waste of one’s effort.

After learning the basics of java back in late 2012; I delved right in to create something I thought students really needed: an app that will help them track their GPA. The academic frenzy in my school (UNN) was so rife that I imagined that once people heard that its about calculating GPA, they would freeze google playstore for hours in their rush to download my app.

As it turned out, a day went by,.. a week...2 weeks passed and no one had downloaded my app. It was just sitting there. I felt awful. I had spent all this time creating what no one wanted.
However, a popular school blogger back then whom I was friends with, because we both loved tech learned of this app, and published it on his blog. Within a week; almost everyone had the app! It was amazing!

This would never have happened if the blogger had not published it.


The no of downloads my app has on playstore is misleading as far as Nigeria is concerned. To know the Real No of Users you have, use google app analytics!

After some time, I could practically see my app in every phone I handled and was receiving fan mails like kilode. Yet; google playstore said I had only 125 downloads.

This confused me; until I realized that Nigerians RARELY download their apps from playstore. The likeliest way they get apps is through flashshare or xender. Thus, the no of downloads we see on playstore is just the number of people that directly downloaded the app from playstore. All the guys that got it from flash share go unreported.

With Google analytics though, I could see the no of unique users I had and how much time they spent in the app, as well as how frequently they used the app. My findings were quite disappointing which brings us to the next heading.

Making an app that will be used only once or twice in a year is not very profitable:
Having attained over 10,000 installations; I believed the time was ripe to start monetizing my app. The surest way to do this was to put ads. There was a problem though; people used the app only once in 6 months (each semester). This means that the ads I placed will be displayed just twice in a year to each user.

According to google adsense, I need 1000 impressions to earn 1 dollar. Poor me, right?

I concluded that whatever app I was going to make next would have to be one that engages users at least every day.

There is no perfection in app development and so; I will always have to update:
I spent so much time (about a month after the app was ready) fine tunning my app to what I thought was perfection before initial release in 2012. I added a lot of unrelated features, and kept changing colors, hoping it would look more beautiful. After all my efforts, It still turned out to be woefully flawed up on till I got user response, and amended the app to look and feel more like what the users desired.

Thinking about it now; I should have just released the app and patiently corrected it later after the user had tasted it.

To newbie programmers out there; once your app does the core thing it is supposed to do; RELEASE IT! Don’t bother adding features upon features until you have heard from the user. I also wish senior devs whom the newbies look to for correction would be more encouraging than devastating when reviewing apps made by junior devs..


Its unfortunate that once a newbie releases an app and shows off his/her pride on a programmers platform; everyone rushes to tear him/her down neglecting the purpose the app was made in the first place. This is wrong. Am grateful I did not experience it.

Well; thats it. To see GP Calculator for your school: below are the links.

Abia State University (ABSU):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.absu

Anambra State University (ANSU):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.ansu

Ebonyi State University (EBSU):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.ebsu

Enugu State University (ESUT):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.esut

Ekiti State University (EKSU):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.eksu

Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.futo

Obafemi Awolowo University:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.oau

University of Benin(UNIBEN):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.uniben

University of Lagos (UNILAG):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.unilag

University of Illorin (UNILORIN):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.unilorin

University of Portharcourt (UNIPORT):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.uniport

University of Uyo (UNIUYO):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.uniuyo

Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.unizik

Imo State University (IMSU):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.imsu

Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.lautech

Ondo State University of Science and Technology (OSUSTECH):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.osustech

Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.rivers

Taraba State University (TASU):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larry.universitiesgpcalculator.tasu

Have any mistakes you made developing your first app? please share in the comments section

Source: http://larisoftng..com

seunthomas:
Well you need servers to host the api. Or is the app going to communicate p2p(even with that you would need a signalling server-intermediary server). Anyway, i was offering to build the app for free as a partnership. How are u doing by the way @larisoft.

Baba, am fine and learning o.

On the issue at hand, I m not asking why use servers. am asking; if your needs are so big that you will need dedicated servers, why not just use a cloud service? you can read my comment up there.

FincoApps:
Lol you don't even know what the app is about yet and you automatically assume architecture and scalability are critical....

from what he says, I deduce he needs an app he believes is "large". My solution? build something he can keep expanding on and it won't tear apart. that's the major feature in apps like snapchat. Those asking for dedicated servers...cloud nko? why waste time hacking away at servers which is just a utility.

My brother, it is usually a mistake to release an app on two distinct platforms at once. You should normally release on one platform, watch user reaction, modify, and then make for the other platform.

My company exclusively handles big projects like this where architecture, and scalability are critical and we can help you make an app like this for 200,000 Naira or more, depending on the features you desire.

My email is larypetero@gmail.com if you are interested in working with me.

A Math Science Student? Brother, you are so in the right lane!!! I cant emphasize this enough.

Just learn programming as much as you can. Your certificate when mixed with above average skills, will not just open doors; it will smash them off their place.

As per your question, I recommend you learn python. this will enable you do math stuff with python, and then save the results in your database. But I'm recommending python because I think you may eventually desire to be employed at google (A company that treasures math majors and python coders) and that (python) will come in handy.

Good luck, bro.

Dhtml, thumbs bro. This is really good. I will play with it some more.

Hi, law buddies.

Would your research be easier if you could get all the cases related to murder by just typing in 'murder' in your phone? Or just typing in 'Electoral Law' and recent cases related to election come up? What if you could read properly formatted texts of these cases right there in your phone too? One more thing- if you could do all this without having to touch your MB, it'd be super cool, right?

Well, there is an app for that called 'NIGERIAN CASE LAW'. It covers 7000+ Subject matters, and has 10,000+ cases.

The download link is : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larisoft.larry.caselaw&hl=en

NOBODY...ABSOLUTELY NO BODY ELSE IN NIGERIA IS OFFERING THIS. You may have seen apps that offer large collections of cases but have no categorization. You may also have seen some other apps that are categorized but have too few cases and categories, because they were categorized by humans. The other alternatives will charge you thousands every month.

Nigerian Case Law is completely offline. You download it once and you have no business referring it to the internet again except for updates.

You can see the screenshots of the app below.



To use, open the app, you will see 7000+ case subject matters listed e.g. Commercial Law, Action, Criminal Law, etc. Select any category, you will see the case(s) for that category. Tap on a case to read it.

There is a search option on top of each screen to help you find what you are looking for faster.

halmat:
^^^ What professional advise can you give about picking up yii2 framework instead laravel or cakephp

if you had asked between codeigniter and yii2 my answer would have been simpler but as it is, in my humble opinion, go for laravel. it is more popular and you will be able to work with more teams since a lot of PHP developers already know it.

eNelo, If I remember correctly, you started programming only 6 months ago and you are a girl. I must say am really impressed.

While your work is original and functional, a spacious room exists for improvement. Look into improving the UI. Also, the input should be filtered more thoroughly to fend off malicious users. I also imagine you already know languages other than PHP will need to be added over time.

Once again, I am greatly impressed. Thumbs up.

as in ehh

DanielTheGeek:
I can see you are using Font Awesome icons on your menu bar, just add &nbsp; in front of the <i></i> tag to add a space before the text.

LOL...
badass programmers on nl...if u f up; ur put in ur place FAST.

Goodluck dear! We are proud of you!

danidee10:
Hardware guy.....being a sysadmin....No No No

As a sysadmin you'll need to know a lot of technologies and how they work together so I'll give it to the technology guys

Nice writeup though

You forgot to include the copy and paste programmers

Thanks dandyee for your input. I agree with you on the idea that Sys admins should know lots of technologies. They should even be console experts.

project7:
Interesting read.
I have a question to ask.
Have you ever been caught up in a tricky triangle where the management or directors gives the project their commitment but the end user in the organisation for example the accountant does not have the will to let the project succeed and starts frustrating the implementation to create an impression of incompetence of the developers. You know a situation where the end user by default has the leverage to give the management a thumbs up signal that the job is done and completed.

No, project7., I have not oh. But I imagine that in such a situation, one would have to play Ball with the said end user...you know, Office politics.

I have been writing a lot of articles these days, trying to cover Nigerian Programming and Nigerian Programmers to the best of my ability. While we all know that other US based blogs focusing on programmers exist, our landscape is greatly different from theirs thanks to low IT literacy levels, epileptic power supply, what I call the "Nigerian Mentality", amongst many other factors. Today's Installment appears below. Head over to http://larisoftng..com.ng/ for more.


In software development; freelancing is supposed to be fun. In it, you are your own boss, you make hundreds of thousands in weeks without having to pay tax!, and everything, from bidding for contracts, to deployment of finished product, can be completed from the comfort of your home. All in all; it’s the 21st century worker’s dream profession.

So, why are so many great developers going the full-time job route instead of this heaven?

Clients! They can make your life miserable by extending the features of an app every day. They can sweet talk you into accepting 10% of the appropriate fee for a project and when you finally grumpily agree; they increase the heat of your hell by putting pressure and threats on you till you get it right-or; you know, get it to work.

This article outlines points you must drum into your client’s ears before you agree to make software for them. If all of these points are followed, I believe the client-developer relationship will be much simpler and productive.

1. The Client should Understand the ONE Problem their app is supposed to solve: Every client…virtually every client that has worked with, or tried to work with me wanted an app that had features like
a. It should be able to chat (Like whatsapp?)
b. It should disseminate information to all users via push notifications (like Blogger?)
c. It should notify users of like-minded-people around them (like tinder?)
d. It should be able to transfer itself from one phone to another (like flashshare?)
e. It should have a game for when the user gets bored
f. It should have forums where users can create topics and discuss them.
g. It should simply be all the apps I have in my phone right now packed into one super app.

An app like this will fail in the market of course. But most importantly, an app like this should cost billions of Naira, and take a team of hundred programmers about 7 months to complete.

As if this list is not long enough. They usually call the next day to say and ‘larisoft’, the app should also have an alarm clock. I forgot to add that yesterday.

Most clients do not understand the principles of software (i.e. solve one problem and solve it well). They also do not understand how long it took whatsapp to become whatsapp. They have no idea what bugs are. If you hate yourself and accept this contract for any reason whatsoever, you will Never come out of this alive. Yeah! You’d be 80 and still on this software!

You should therefore systematically get them to eliminate everything an app doesn’t need till you arrive at the ONE thing it needs. Stress that you can always add more features with time. Also get them to agree that at least, till you are done developing the features you both have agreed on, any major modifications will be implemented, if and only if you, the developer, agree to it.

2. The Client Should have Sufficient Money: If you are tying to make an app that will become a business, or serve an already existing business, you should know that business requires capital and capital is usually not chicken change.

Software is expensive. If you are dealing with any developer that knows his way around a keyboard, he wont charge you cheap. Make your clients understand that. The developers that will charge you cheap charge you cheap only because they want to learn using your software. If you really want to get it right, you need a senior developer and they don’t come cheap.

It is better to get the right developer now, and pay him well once, than to get a quack now, pay him, and also pay a top developer later.

3. Client should Stash money away for maintenance: Yeah! Software is expensive. I already said that. IF you are starting a tech based business, be prepared to hire inhouse developers. Do not however think that the inhouse developer should be the same person who developed the core platform. For one, if the person that did the core platform is a top notch developer, chances are you wont be able to employ him. Hence, let the top dog create the software, outlining its architecture, and then let medium level developers maintain and extend it.

4. The Client should Expect Bugs and be ready to identify and correct them with me, the developer: A client once told me over the phone ‘Ah ah! This application doesn’t send me email as expected when I sign up! How can that be? I see you don’t know what you are doing!’

What really happened was that the server we used was forwarding the emails to the spam box. I felt really sad. I mean, am a programmer that is quite sensitive about his work and I managed to write an app that worked exactly as planned and this single error means I don’t know what am doing?”

Bugs are part of the business. Matter of fact, if a piece of software is deployed in 3 weeks time, another 1 week should be spent fishing for and correcting bugs. Make your client understand this.


[b]5. Client should Have patience: [/b]Only newbies make software ‘over the weekend’ except a huge chunk of that software has already been made before. The developer often has to draw up the structure of your app, create the UI design, code according to his specification, and in the process, correct a lot of things, going back and forth till he attains perfection.
Set out a generous amount of time for when the software will be ready. It is always better to say it will be ready in 1 month and then deliver in 2 weeks than the other way round. Also agree on the interval at which you will report your progress to said client. Try to avoid pressure traps like “Everyday”. Every other day is okay though.

Well, these are some of the ways I’ve kept my clients from killing me (tongue in cheek) over the years. Senior freelancers in the house; I will really appreciate your inputs.











Source: http://larisoftng..com.ng/2016/05/what-freelancers-should-make-clients.html

lol! I understand. I know one has to go to IT schools to get Certificates; But in my humble opinion, you didnt have to go to an IT school to become a programmer. And as such, buying materials which were declared compulsory, is not the cost of becoming a programmer, but the cost of getting a certificate in programming. These two are very different things because I know a lot of guys here that dont have certs in programming but are badasses.

Its just a matter of time shaa and you will be out and reaping the fruits of your investment.

[quote author=elfico post=45905712]Boss, na u try pass. That your desktop cleaner is really good. Waiting for version 2.0 . Hope you dont mind if I fork it?[/quote

go ahead bro.