My Programming Tips » Programming Tips http://www.myprogrammingtips.com Advice from Programmers for Programmers Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:26:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 What I learned as a student and how it can be applied to freelancing (Part 1) http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/12/21/what-i-learned-as-a-student-and-how-it-can-be-applied-to-freelancing-part-1/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:59:25 +0000 admin http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/?p=82 Today, I would like to share with you the importance of business in addition to knowing how to program. Especially for freelancers, you need to think of ways to survive while enjoying your programming passions. As a student, I had to learn the difficult way – how to study about programming and focusing on schoolwork while surviving and paying the bills without getting into debt. So, I stumbled on many online and print resources. The first thing – most important is to save money!

Money saving is important because “a penny saved is a penny earned.” As much as you want to buy a book to develop your programming skills, have you thought about checking out free online resources or borrowing that book from the library? Think about return on investment in some cases. Is that new software necessary or can I stick with open source variations? Do I really need a fancy text editor when I can use many free ones that have quite a number of cool features?

Here are just some things to think about. Continue checking out our blog to learn more. Most importantly, have a happy holiday!

]]> http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/12/21/what-i-learned-as-a-student-and-how-it-can-be-applied-to-freelancing-part-1/feed/ 0 Importance of Memory http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/12/11/importance-of-memory/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:24:36 +0000 admin http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/?p=77 One of the things essential for programming to work is the ability of the computer to store data. Now you may ask: where is the data stored? How is it stored? Well, a basic explanation is that a PC has two types of computer memory. RAM, which is temporary for when your computer is doing work at a given instant. Additionally, computers have hard drives that enable you to store data relatively permanently (that is until your hard drive breaks down). For programmers, we use memory every time we work on code.

For example, if we store variables inside the computer, that is when we use memory.

int a = 1;
int b = 2;
int c = 3;

data = [a b c];

From the above scenario, we assigned values 1,2 and 3 to variables: a, b and c respectively. Further we have initialized a vector/array that stores the value 1,2 and 3.

In general, the larger the memory (measured in bytes) the better your computer will perform. However, please also keep in mind that most systems have upper limits, where if you infinitely add memory, it will not improve performance.

To learn more about computer memory, please continue to check out myprogrammingtips.com. Thanks and have a great day!

]]> http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/12/11/importance-of-memory/feed/ 0 Idea of the Day: Replace MATLAB with Python? http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/12/08/idea-of-the-day-replace-matlab-with-python/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:17:50 +0000 admin http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/?p=75 Do you think it is possible? Share your ideas. Voice your thoughts. What are the pros and cons? Check back later to see what MyProgrammingTips thinks about this. Have a great day!

]]> http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/12/08/idea-of-the-day-replace-matlab-with-python/feed/ 0 MATLAB and PDEs http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/12/03/matlab-and-pdes/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:53:07 +0000 admin http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/?p=71 It’s almost the weekend again. I have been working on MATLAB programming lately. Have some pretty awesome projects going on. Some involve eigenvalues and eigenvectors while others have complicated iterative loops going on. Right now, my favorite is the Shooting method to estimate the solution for boundary value problems. What fun? Now I get to work on partial differential equations! What fun? LOL. Anyway, if you guys have questions about MATLAB, please feel free to share here or on our forum… Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!!!

]]> http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/12/03/matlab-and-pdes/feed/ 0 A Simple Tip Calculator using HTML and Java Script http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/09/20/a-simple-tip-calculator-using-html-and-java-script/#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:57:38 +0000 admin http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/?p=56 For a recent project, I programmed a simple tip calculator using HTML and Java Script. Here is a sample code:

<html>

<head>

<title>Tip Calculator by MyProgrammingTips.com</title>

</head>

<body>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

document.write(”<h1>Tip Calculator by MyProgrammingTips.com</h1>”);

//Variables

var subtotal, percent, total;

//Input

subtotal=parseFloat(prompt(”Enter your bill amount before tips”,”100.00″));

percent=parseFloat(prompt(”Enter your desired tip percentage”,”20%”));

//Processing

tip=subtotal*(percent/100);

tip=Math.round(tip*100)/100;

total=subtotal+tip;

total=Math.round(total*100)/100;

//Output

document.write(”<p>Your bill amount before tips is $” + subtotal + “.”);

document.write(”<p>Your tip percentage is ” + percent +”%” + “.”);

document.write(”<p>Your tip is $” + tip.toFixed(2) + “.”);

document.write(”<p>Your total amount is $” + total.toFixed(2) + “.”);

</script>

</body>

</html>

<!–
Adrian Chu
Section 03
January 24, 2008
–>
<html>
<head>
<title>Tip Calculator by Adrian Chu</title>
</head>
<body>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
document.write(”<h1>Tip Calculator by Adrian Chu</h1>”);
//Variables
var subtotal, percent, total;
//Input
subtotal=parseFloat(prompt(”Enter your bill amount before tips”,”100.00″));
percent=parseFloat(prompt(”Enter your desired tip percentage”,”20%”));
//Processing
tip=subtotal*(percent/100);
tip=Math.round(tip*100)/100;
total=subtotal+tip;
total=Math.round(total*100)/100;
//Output
document.write(”<p>Your bill amount before tips is $” + subtotal + “.”);
document.write(”<p>Your tip percentage is ” + percent +”%” + “.”);
document.write(”<p>Your tip is $” + tip.toFixed(2) + “.”);
document.write(”<p>Your total amount is $” + total.toFixed(2) + “.”);
</script>
</body>
</html>

Check it out and let me know what you think. It currently relies on prompts to ask you how much your subtotal is and how much of a percentage you would like to give as gratuity/tips. A challenge for you can be to make it into a form-based program. Good luck!

]]> http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/09/20/a-simple-tip-calculator-using-html-and-java-script/feed/ 0 Ask for help! http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/07/27/ask-for-help/#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:32:13 +0000 admin http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/?p=35 I would like to share with you guys a story. During my years as a computer science student, I had never wanted to let the teacher or my classmates know that I did not understand the assignment. I liked to make an impression that I was capable without anyone’s help. Well that is not the best route to succeed in Computer Science. Teachers are available to help you understand the assignment and give you insight to your code. If you are stuck, try to figure it out yourself. If you still cannot do so, ask your friends, teacher assistants or your teacher for help. This case is the same for in industry as well. You must fulfill the requirements of your customer. If something is unclear, you should ask questions that are simple and have yes or no answers. That way, both parties have a clear understanding of what is expected. So if you have any questions, talk to your teachers and feel free to message our team. Have a great day!

]]> http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/07/27/ask-for-help/feed/ 0 Planning in the Software Development Cycle http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/07/26/planning-software-development-cycle/#comments Sun, 26 Jul 2009 07:22:35 +0000 admin http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/?p=26 This is part one of our ongoing series: Planning, the Software Development Cycle.

In Computer Science class, one of the first concepts we learn is the Software Development Cycle (or Process as some people like to call it). The most crucial of the tasks is first communicating with the cusomter and seeing what requirements they have. Remember, the customer is always first. To extract the requirements, one may have to ask yes or no questions to determine what the client really wants. You would not want answers that are ambiguous that may confuse what the customer is really wanting. One way to be certain that you have a clear idea what the client wants is to show them using code and the final product, perhaps without the design element or graphical user interface in place. Maybe you could draw out as an image what the interface would look like if the customer requires it. Next, it is important to consult with your client and give them input as to what functionality and design is achievable within the given timeline and budget. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck in your programming endeavors!

]]> http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2009/07/26/planning-software-development-cycle/feed/ 0 Tips to be a Better Programmer http://www.myprogrammingtips.com/2008/11/25/tips-to-be-a-better-programmer/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:51:28 +0000 admin http://myprogrammingtips.com/?p=3 In this article, I would like to share with you 20 Tips which can really help you to be a better programmer.

1. Study, study and study

The study allows us to perfect, but we look the more opportunities we will have to schedule better, I am speaking not only of universities, nor of course, at present, thanks to the Internet there are plenty of tutorials and manuals, not least the official site for PHP is really very good.

2. Search before you ask

This is a common evil that wants to learn to program, it’s easier to ask someone who knows, but it really does not have to be so for several reasons, first because it is something very vague, then that when someone gives us the answer easy not learn anything, what’s interesting when we are presented with a problem is to find the solution ourselves, but we just there to answer questions, this exercise is really benefit us to prepare our minds to solve future problems.

3. Find scripts already developed

Usually you can find many features, scripts ready for use, but it is interesting to study them, see how they work, so we learn if we copy and paste wrong.

4. Read the free video

I often download some applications are programmed to see, really learn much, as we do this every time we practice to learn more, especially if these applications are popular in which thousands of programmers around the world “get” hand to improve it. A good example of this is Wordpress.

5. Do not copy and paste

It’s easy, go to google looking for a role that can and what we need done. But the reality is not always what you downloaded is correct, and if we then have to solve a problem is most likely not have a clue where to start. Forget about learning factor zero implies that this practice.

6. Find the time to schedule

They sat in front of your computer, phone, your co-worker or family member asks you something, it really is the most annoying and uncomfortable that it is hard to concentrate, it is preferable to do something more “Light” before scheduling something wrong and then have to fix it.

7. Be your own Wiki

We recommend a lot, it’s easy to install a Wiki on our PC, we can just download the EasyPhp and take our order a functional server, and even better if you want to install “by hand”. The wiki is interesting to store frequently used routines, in my case save validations soil, etc.. Once we learned to do something and we have the best possible hand is interesting to not have to waste time writing the same thing over and over again.

8. Says whatever is necessary

Write comments in the code tends to be quite annoying and seems unnecessary, but comment on the important things we can save much time when we have to tweak the code months later.

9. Participate in forums / communities

It is interesting to interact with others who are in our same tune, often help us again and we can help. Online communities generally have very good vibes, and mutual aid which is abundant, a few lines of code can be useful for many people, so that everyone can improve. Remember to respect the 2.

10. Talk to other programmers

Instant messaging, in a cafe, phone, etc.. It is interesting to have friends who are in the same, not only by the issue of mutual assistance, these groups often also help “emotional” from the developer, some jokes, a comment may be an injection of energy to continue with a problem we can not solve.

11. Free time for other things

I love to program, but that understanding is not the only thing in life, sometimes it is a good start, a movie, you really need unplugged.

12. Set up your bunker

Having a work space according to your taste is essential to set a good chair that does not damage our column, a nice desktop that allows us to spread CDS, books, etc.. We must also be organized, but always to our liking, it’s good to be your target area and that no one hand, one in the long run it ends up feeling like a refuge.

13. Your team in a position

Another important point, a good computer, not having problems, if necessary a little more RAM, you do not need to schedule a supermáquina PHP but if this is not something that hanging every 2 sec.

14. Use free tools

If you can not pay for certain tools you actually spend on or download pirated versions, PHP does not need a lot and really not worth being rigged programs.

15. Organize your own library of scripts

Related to Item 7. The wiki is very good, but we must have organized, but find something you can take more time to write it again. I am very disorganized, but over the years I learned to manage my little problem: D

16. Are grateful to those who help you

If someone helps you, please at least say thanks. Remember that people around you are your technical support (at least they pay). If anyone bothers to answer your queries agradécele for the next person will continue this good will.

17. Be humble

Essential. There is always someone who knows more and more in this one “under” where there are real skulls, several years ago that I program in PHP, yet always learn something new, and partly that’s what I like to schedule, provided can be improved.

18. Always looking perfeccionarte

Related to the previous point. The technologies are evolving and we must do the same. When we have a nice practice a little free time is to optimize our code for a few months earlier, if we learned new things from certain that we can do better than before.

19. Try to be efficient and then try again

That does not mean that works this well. Also one of the most beautiful programming: You can always make a more efficient, consuming less resources, do not conform to yield the results we want, we can probably do better.

20. The first program you like the least

This is quite personal, but usually I get good results. When I feel something scheduling the first few minutes are “setting” then I say a period of maximum concentration, then the things that seem more complicated or when they are faster and better get out, then when this one can focus more tired to things more simple and routine.

I had several more tips, but the list is really going to do very long

I hope you find it useful.

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