Visual Studio 2010 RC Now availible in Corner Cubicle

SwiftStriker00 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:44:21 -0600

Microsoft has pushed out Visual Studio 2010 RC yesterday for MSDN subscribers (2/8/10), and tomorrow ( 2/10/10 )for everybody else.

Get your copy today!

(Announcement)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx

(Login to MSDN)
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/securedownloads/default.aspx?pv=18:370

Dream.In.Code T-Shirts - Now Available For 500+ Post Members in Dream.in.code News

skyhawk133 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:53:58 -0600

[b][size=6]The Dream.In.Code T-Shirts Have Arrived![/size][/b]

[b][color="#FF0000"]This is for members with 500+ Posts Only![/color][/b]
[b]You'll be able to order t-shirts at a later date. [/b]

[attachment=16437:3483018-original.jpg]

<iframe src="http://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dHhud3dLTWstS3Rna2JsNWZzUk5ZZlE6MA" width="760" height="1266" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>

Week #6 Challenge: Haskell in 52 Weeks Of Code

skyhawk133 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:39:37 -0600

[img]http://www.dreamincode.net/home/images/52weekfooter.png[/img] [b][size=5]Week #6: Discover Haskell[/size][/b]

[b][color="#FF0000"]Prize Challenge - This week we'll draw a random person that completes the challenge for a $50 Amazon Gift Card![/color][/b]

Challenge submitted by [member=Raynes].

[img]http://haskell.org/sitewiki/images/a/a8/Haskell-logo-60.png[/img]

[b]CHALLENGE[/b]: Write a desktop calculator in Haskell. It's a scalable application that you can take as far as you like. If you want, you can add variables, and by the time you've added tail recursion, you're turing complete. You can go simple, and just write a simple command-line calculator that does as much as you want it to do. You don't need to learn much of Haskell to write this. If you don't want to write a calculator, you're welcome to write something else. Just Have Fun

[b]INTRODUCING THE LANGUAGE/TECHNOLOGY:[/b] It is hard to really introduce Haskell in few words. Haskell is a compiled, advanced purely functional programming language that has been around for over 20 years. Haskell is of the most popular functional programming languages. In Haskell, there are no side effects. There is no 'lets modify that global variable!'. There is no global state. Haskell is pure, and does I/O via the IO monad, which you will learn about fairly early. You don't even have to understand or know what Monads are to use the IO monad, and you can do this challenge with no knowledge of monads. Haskell is strongly and statically type, and the type system actually helps you, rather than gets in your way. Because Haskell is pure, and due to the power of it's type system, it makes it easy to write large, complex, and stable code. It's impossible for there to be a type error in your code at runtime. Code written in Haskell is more likely to work correctly if it compiles than in other languages.

Haskell isn't as hard as people make it out to be. When people say that you have to forget OOP and such to learn Haskell, they mean that you cannot try to learn Haskell and assume that OOP is the only way to do things, or try to write OOP code in Haskell. Haskell is easy to learn if you open your mind, and take yourself back to the beginning. The time before you knew other languages. Your previous knowledge will help you, and as long as your OOP assumptions are left behind, it will not hinder you. Haskell is amazingly fun, and one of the most elegant languages you will ever code in. There are a lot of cool things in Haskell that will blow your mind. Even if you don't decide to use Haskell for personal projects or anything more than this challenge, just writing a little code in Haskell will benefit you. I think once you've used Haskell, you'll want to know more.

More introduction materials can be found here:
[url="http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Introduction"]http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Introduction[/url]

[b]IDEAS:[/b][list]
[*] One you become more familiar with Haskell, turn your calculator into a turing complete language.
[*] Add a GUI to your calculator using WxHaskell or gtk2hs (and Glade, the GUI builder if you like that sort of thing).
[*] If a calculator doesn't appeal to you, write something else! Anything else! Just have fun!

[/list][b]RESOURCES:[/b]
My resource thread should definitely come in handy here: [url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic144577.htm"]http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic144577.htm[/url]

I especially recommend that you read through [url=http://learnyouahaskell.com/]LYAH (Learn You A Haskell)[/url] if you're new to the language, and then if you want more, you can start reading Real World Haskell. You can find links to all of this and more in the thread I linked. There is a Functional Programming forum that Skyhawk created partially at my suggestion during my first few days on this site.

It's one of the reasons I like this site so much. It's here: [url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic144577.htm"]http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic144577.htm[/url]. I and a couple other people answer questions in there, though I'm probably the most frequent. If you have any questions, you can ask them there. There are also a few snippets in the Other Language snippet section, but I doubt it's enough to help anybody.

There is also a list of Haskell resources worth checking out:
http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~sheard/course/CyberMil/HaskellLinks.html
(Provided by Portland State University)

Of course, it is always a good idea to check out the original developer site for tips and guides:
http://www.haskell.org/

[b]HOW TO GET STARTED:[/b]
You're going to want to get Haskell via the Haskell Platform, a standard Haskell distribution for all systems. It comes with useful libraries, and stuff you need to install Haskell libraries from Cabal and such. Not to mention, the flagship Haskell compiler, GHC. It's insanely simple to install regardless of what system you use. There is even a Windows installer. You can find the link to the Haskell Platform to the resource thread I linked in resources.

After you've installed Haskell, you'll probably want to use Emacs or Vim to code in it. Of course, you can use any text editor, but you wont get the most out of Haskell unless you use Emacs or Vim. There is also an IDE for Haskell written in Haskell called Leksah. I hear it's pretty good at this stage. There is a bit of information about various editors, including relevant links in the resource thread.

Once you've installed Haskell, you can fire up a terminal and type 'ghci' to get the Haskell 'REPL' running. This is probably the most useful thing you will ever use. You can type in expressions and have them evaluated immediately. Once you have GHCi running, type this in: [code]putStrLn "Hello, DiC!"[/code]

Have fun!

Confused about languages... in Web Development

lc123 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:30:47 -0600

Hi Guys

new to the forum, found it through google. (warning: long post!)

So my situation is this: I am looking to move forward with my programming "career" but am consfused about what I should do. Right now I work as a support/developer in a professional setting. I support the websites at my company. Any programming I undertake personally I do (probably badly!) through coldfusion. Simply, given I have little experience this is the easiest to use I have found. Also it is what our outside web developers use (I hand off any work that I can't do)

I have had exposure in my job to asp.net/C#, looking at existing code I can somewhat understand and probably make small changes to. But I would not be comfortable undertaking a development project in this. It seems to me that ASP.NEt is a bit more impressive, but also seems a lot harder.

While I am doing fine in my job, and can easily give people what they want usually, using the CF/dreamweaver, in order to move forward in my career I feel it is necessary for me to get some kind of certifications. I do have a degree of course, in information systems. But i need to get actual programming knowledge/certifications

my company will likely pay a large chunk of class costs for me.

but what to do? Should I study alone, using books and take online tests like the Adobe certification in Coldfusion, or the various Microsoft asp.net certifications available? Should I start "at the top" and take a C programming course? I did take Java in uni but I can hardly remember that so my OO programming knowledge is somewhat rusty.

Basically I'm not really sure what direction to go in. I began searching online and found out that there are about a dozen programming languages I've never even heard of, and people say they are the "best" so I'm terribly confused!

Seems to me since what we use here now is Cfusion and asp.net/c# that would be what I should learn. But I want to end up with tangible certification of some kind as that is the sort of thing my boss will recognize. While I can learn plenty as I go (which is what I've been doing, relatively sucessfully) it doesn't get me any closer to promotions really.

So, any advice is appreciated.

Thank you!

Freelancing Works in Freelancing

capty99 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:07:12 -0600

I just started full time (or as many hours as I can with my dad's situation) freelancing about 2 weeks ago, since I graduated in December and had a little down time.

I'm posting because so far it has been both a learning experience and can hopefully give some tips. Now, I have been freelancing for about 6-7 years but money was not my primary goal, it was for spending cash only, and not a life-driven activity. In 2 weeks I went from not looking for jobs to having to plan out a few weeks down the road when I have the time to drop new jobs in the queue.

I'm a graphic & web designer, a little of both , but mostly print related. Therefore these things may apply to only a small number of you guys.

1. First things first, get a website up. I know that sounds basic and dumb, but the role the site plays is so important, so also : do it right. Every job I have right now is because of the site. People like to see the actual work though, they could care less about the design of the site. I think if I had put a white page up with links to all my work it would have had almost as much of an effect. And don't overwhelm them. Regardless of thinking that maybe they will browse for a while, the people that will browse your portfolio are people similar to you, not the clients. They will click once or twice and be done with it.

2. Word of mouth cannot be overrated. Coming into freelance sometimes people think they can make their own times, set their own goals, since it is all on them. Clients are more important here than really anything else in my opinion because not only are they paying you money, they're also your best form of advertising . Yesterday I found an unsolicited review someone put up on a website for me, because I was good to this guy he did it without me asking and this website is one that he frequents and is respected. Since then I've signed on with two more companies due to just one guy's quick thread. This alone has refreshed how I view my customers. I'm a nice guy but can get peeved every once in a while, not anymore. I will choke on my pride to make them happy from now on.

3. Be an asshole. Pardon me, and don't call me out on the difference in my #2 and #3, but its true. What I mean is not to be mean to these people, but have your lines drawn. As computer guys we are often the go-to computer repair men, or called on to help family, friends etc... out. If someone asks you to do this as a deal for them, and they promise something like money down the road or free advertising by word of mouth etc... you just have to say no and ask for the money or walk away. Promises do not pay rent. It's tempting at times but more often than not doesn't pan out. Set your rates , know what you want, and tell them that.

4. Include everything in budgeting. Know about your overhead. Freelance graphic design has costs. It doesn't seem like it when you just sit down and work on a computer for a few hours but it does. Your using your own electricity, computer, heat etc... and while it may not be much it adds up. More importantly than that though is that designing a website is not just the time you actually type in code. You will probably underestimate your dealings with the clients by up to 1/3 of the real time it takes you. I still do this. Use tracking software to manage how much time you send emails or phone calls and it adds up really fast. 4 hours of design never comes in 4 hour blocks where you get paid at the end of the day. That 4 hours is stretched over a couple of days or weeks with multiple contacts back and forth -- to bill for only 4 hours is not doing you any good.

5. Pricing. Set your price but know how to adjust it. I was worried I was getting too much business (not the worst problem) but was running out of time when Robot Death Squad proposed that I just raise my prices. how silly I did not come up with this on my own, but its true. Supply and demand is how you should determine your pricing. customers may not like it if you have built up a relationship and then up your price , but thats the hard part of freelancing : you have to be your own advocate, negotiate on your own and get what you deserve.

6. Practice. Get better. It is very easy to get into a rut of being good at something and just repeating it over and over again, but learning new things will move you up in pay grade, its just harder to set time apart for that when you feel like your working all day and night on projects.

That's all that rolled off the top of my head. It was long but hopefully worth it.

Welcome To The New Forums & New Server! in Dream.in.code News

skyhawk133 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:22:17 -0600

If you're reading this, you're on the new forums, on our new server. Go ahead and report issues in this thread but please try to read the first few posts to see if your issue is already mentioned.

[b]LOG OUT AND LOG BACK IN FIRST TO RESOLVE ANY PERMISSIONS ISSUES[/b]

Known issues:

- New Topic/Reply Screen Layout Is Messed Up
- Some Emoticons Missing
- [code], [code=language],[il],[spoiler], etc. tags no processed. This will be fixed in the coming hours as posts are re-cached on the new server.
- Profile Pages layout is messed up.
- Kudos Cron isn't running so promotions and kudos processing won't take place till tomorrow.

If you encounter any ERRORS, please post the error, screen shot, URL you encountered the error on, etc.

If there is just a horrible skin problem, post a screen shot, browser you're using, and link to the page.

Thanks!

New tutorials sections - Ruby & Python in Dream.in.code News

Core — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:10:06 -0600

We've got quite a few tutorials in the [b]Other Languages[/b] tutorials section that were targetting Python and Ruby developers. Actually, there were enough tutorials that we decided to open separate tutorials sections for the above mentioned programming languages:

[b]Ruby[/b]
[url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showforum132.htm"]http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showforum132.htm[/url]

[b]Python[/b]
[url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showforum133.htm"]http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showforum133.htm[/url]

We hope that soon we'll see even more contributions!

Week #5 Challenge: Ruby in 52 Weeks Of Code

Core — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:53:10 -0600

[img]http://www.ruby-lang.org/images/logo.gif[/img]

[b][size=3]GET FAMILIAR WITH RUBY[/size][/b]

[b]CHALLENGE:[/b] Get familiar with Ruby by creating a simple Ruby script.

What is Ruby? Wikipedia says it best:
[quote]Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby supports multiple programming paradigms, including functional, object oriented, imperative and reflective. It also has a dynamic type system and automatic memory management; it is therefore similar in varying respects to Python, Perl, Lisp, Dylan, and CLU.[/quote]

[b]IDEAS FOR SCRIPTS:[/b][list]
[*]Simple number guessing game.
[*]Script that checks if a string is a palindrome.
[*]A madlibs game.
[*]File splitter/joiner.
[*]XML or JSON parser.
[/list][b]RESOURCES:[/b]
There are a lot of good resources out there for learning Ruby. Of course, I'd suggest reading the [url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic62058.htm"]Ruby Basics[/url] tutorial by [url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/index.php?showuser=96904"]Kingbradley6[/url] right here on DIC.

If you would like to read more, you can visit the [url="http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/"]Ruby[/url] website, where you can even [url="http://tryruby.org/"]try out Ruby right from your web browser without installing anything[/url]!

Also, [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_(programming_language)"]here's a link to the wikipedia page that I quoted[/url].

We also have a bunch of Ruby snippets here on Dream.In.Code that you can easily use in your application:
[url="http://www.dreamincode.net/code/browse.php?cid=22"]http://www.dreamincode.net/code/browse.php?cid=22[/url]

And of course, there are some tutorials to help you get started:
[url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic150146.htm"]Ruby: Using Loops[/url]
[url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic139022.htm"]Block and Iterators in Ruby[/url]
[url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic129175.htm"]A Basic Understanding of Classes inside of Ruby[/url]
[url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic130428.htm"]How to distribute Ruby Applications[/url]
[url="http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic130006.htm"]Create a Game in Ruby ~pt 1~[/url]

[b]HOW TO GET STARTED:[/b]
I would suggest following the [url="http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/quickstart/"]Ruby Quickstart[/url] guide to get started. It will help you get Ruby installed on your operating system and take you through a small tutorial that will help get you familiar with the language and the Ruby console.

Ruby files are usually saved with the .rb extension and can be ran by passing the file as an argument to Ruby.

Here's an example of a simple Ruby script file:

[code]print "What is your name? "
name = gets.chomp
puts "Hello #{name}!"[/code]

To run this script, save it as a Ruby file (.rb), and use the command:

[code]ruby sample_ruby_script.rb[/code]

As you can see, Ruby is easy to get setup and an amazing language to work with. I've been working with Ruby for almost 5 months now and I can say that it's definitely a favorite of mine.

If you find yourself becomming increasingly interested in Ruby, then you can look into the book [i][url="http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781593271824"]Wicked Cool Ruby Scripts[/url][/i] by Steve Pugh for more scripting ideas and to further learn the Ruby language.

I wish you luck in this challenge and more importantly, [b]HAVE FUN WITH IT![/b]

This challenge will self destruct in 5 seconds.

Google is phasing out support for old browsers. in Web Development

SixOfEleven — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:47:45 -0600

Google has recently announced that it will, starting March 1, 2010, stop supporting older browsers for two of their applications: Google Docs and Google Sites. They are saying this because the web has changed from simple text pages to rich. interactive pages with video and voice.

The minimum versions of browsers the recommend are:[list]
[*]Internet Explorer 7.0
[*]Firefox 3.0
[*]Google Chrome 4.0
[*]Safari 3.0
[/list]
There is more to the article the Google posted on their [url="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/01/modern-browsers-for-modern-applications.html"]blog[/url].

Future VB Wishlist in VB.NET Programmers

AdamSpeight2008 — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:11:06 -0600

Just been reading [url="http://blogs.msdn.com/lucian/default.aspx"]Lucian's VBlog[/url] which has a few extracts from the VB Wishlist
I do agree with Iterators, why they didn't include it when they add Linq I'll never understand.

So I have few i would like to see also.

[u][b]Date & Time Literals[/b][/u]

[il]Dim ChristmasDay2010 = #25/12/2010#[/il]
[il]Dim Noon=#12:00#[/il]
Represents 12pm (Midday)

Is also options to include the wildcard ?
[il]Dim XmasDay=#25/12/????#[/il] Represents 25th December on any year.

[code]
If Date.Now = #25/12/2010# Then

End If
[/code]

[u][b]Inequalites[/b][/u]

Form;-
<Value0> >= <Value1> >= <Value2>
<Value0> >= <Value1> > <Value2>
<Value0> > <Value1> >= <Value2>
<Value0> > <Value1> > <Value2>
<Value0> <= <Value1> <= <Value2>
<Value0> <= <Value1> < <Value2>
<Value0> < <Value1> <= <Value2>
<Value0> < <Value1> < <Value2>

[code]If 10>=x>=0 Then
' x is with 10 & 0 inclusive
End If

IF 0<=x<=10 Then

End If

If 0<x<10 Then
' x is between 0 and 10 exclusive
End If

If 0<=x<10 Then
' x is between 0 (Inclusive) and 10 (Exclusive)
End If[/code]

' Example using Date Types
[code]If StartOfHoliday<=Today<=EndOfHoliday Then YourOnHoliday.
[/code]

Implementation as an Expression Tree:-

[code]
AND
Op1 Op2
V0 V1 V1 V3
[/code]

[u][b]± & ±% (Within a range)[/b][/u]

Form;-
< Value0 > = <Value1>±<Value2>
< Value0 > = <Value2>±<Value2>%

[code]Dim x As Double =99
If x = 100±10 Then
' x is within 10 of 100
End If

If x=100±10% Then
' x is within 10% of 100
End If
[/code]

[u][b]UserKeywords[/b][/u]
Allow the programmer to define keywords that can be used with in their code.

Rules:
The userkeyword being define cannot be used within the function defining it.

Example

[code]
<UserKeyword()>
Public Function IsA(ByVal dd As Date,BYval dayw As Enum.DaysOfWeek) As Boolean
If dd IsNot Nothing Then return False
return dd.DayOfWeek=dayw
End Function

<UserKeyword()>
Public Function IsThe(ByVal dd As Date,BYval dayw As Date) As Boolean
If dd IsNot Nothing AndAlso dayw IsNot Nothing Then return False
return dd = dayw
End Function

[/code]

[code]
If Today IsA Friday Then
IF Today IsThe #31/12/2010# Then
[/code]

What's on your vb.net wish list?

women in CS in Student Campus

ellevador — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:07:01 -0600

I keep wondering why there are so few females pursuing a CS or other degree. Any real opinions why? I love working with guys but I keep hoping I'll find a girl in one of my classes, and I can pick their brain. I am the only girl in all my classes for the last year, why not more?

Anyone Doing Global Game Jam on Friday? in Game Programming

skyhawk133 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:19:42 -0600

It's not too late to register for GlobalGameJam! Is anyone participating this year?

[url="http://www.globalgamejam.org/"]http://www.globalgamejam.org/[/url]

[quote]Register for the Global Game Jam and join game developers from around the world in a 48-hour marathon game-developing weekend. From 5 oclock Friday, January 29 until 5 oclock Sunday, January 31, anyone who has ever wanted to create their own video game will have the chance to join others at 138 locations in 39 countries around the world.[/quote]

Check locations for a local Game Jam: [url="http://globalgamejam.org/Locations"]http://globalgamejam.org/Locations[/url]

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