All posts tagged ‘Programming’

File Under: Programming
Oct
20
2010

Development Tips to Improve Your Code Quality

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quality you can taste

Any good programmer can tell you writing code is an art form, and as with most art forms, the key to success is good habits and lots of practice.

The Ruby Learning blog recently posted an interesting list of ways to improve your code quality and, perhaps more importantly, develop habits that will lead to better code creation. Developer James Schorr’s tips range from the obvious, like using a good version control system, to the more subtle: “realize that just because we “can” doesn’t mean that we “should”… anything’s possible, but not everything’s advisable.”

The article is broken into the three major parts of any programming workflow: pre-development, development and post-development. There are a number of great suggestions in each, but our favorite parts are the fourth category: Enjoying Your Development. Almost any project is fun and enjoyable in the beginning, but then there seems to come that point at which the fun evaporates and we get bogged down in the grunt work of writing code. Schorr has few tips to help break you out of those boring stretches:

Give yourself time to think and rest. There are some days where I just can’t write code well; other days where it’s just flowing. This is due to how your brain functions. You need sleep and a change of pace and scenery now and then.

Walk away for a while. It’s easy to get “tunnel vision” and think that you’re close to solving a problem and to think that more effort will solve it… You would be surprised at the ideas or solutions that will spring into your mind as you are thinking about or doing other things.

Head over to the Ruby Learning blog to read some of the other helpful tips and tricks for producing quality code.

Photo: Christian Hellman/Flickr/CC

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File Under: Programming, Security
Mar
24
2010

XSS Vulnerabilities, Raw SQL Top List of Common Programming Errors

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bobbytablesNo programmer is perfect, but some mistakes are more dangerous than others. While some mistakes might just slow down your site, others can open up vulnerabilities that expose your code, your database and even your users to all manner of attack.

To help you identify the more serious errors common in programs of all types, a group of top software security experts in the US and Europe have released their Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors.

Unsurprisingly, cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and improperly handled SQL top the list of common and dangerous mistakes. Remember kids, sanitize your database inputs; you just never know when someone is going to name their child: “Robert’) DROP TABLE Students;”

While not all the errors in the list are common in web programming, some of the more serious things are concerns for web developers — cross-site request forgeries, missing encryption of sensitive data and unrestricted file uploads are all common web programming issues.

Also interesting is the weaknesses by language section, which breaks down common mistakes in PHP, Java, Perl and C/C++. No doubt web developers would like to have seen Python and Ruby in that list, but it should at least be useful for PHP and Perl programmers.

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File Under: Glossary
Feb
15
2010

API

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The application program interface (API) is a set of building blocks for programmers.

APIs are made up of routines, protocols, and tools. Most operating environments provide an API so that programmers can write applications consistent with that environment. For example, developing software using the Windows API ensures that your user interface will be consistent with other Windows applications, making it easier for users to learn your new programs.

Use on the Web

Web APIs provide simple ways to interact with websites. Using an API, you can extract public data from sites like del.icio.us, Flickr and Digg to create mashups, reuse data or just about anything else you can imagine.

APIs are also useful for extracting your own private data from a web service so that you can back it up elsewhere or display it on another site.

When talking about APIs you’ll here the following terms quite a bit.

Common Web API Related Terms

  • Web service/API — These terms are largely interchangeable and simple refer to the ways you can interact with the data on your favorite websites.
  • Method — A method is just one aspect of an API; you might also see methods refered to a functions. For instance, if you’re interacting with Flickr, you might want to get your public photos. To do so you would use the get_user_photos method.
  • Response — The information returned by the API method that you’ve called.
  • REST — Short for Representational State Transfer. REST treats data as a web document that lives at a specific URL. REST APIs use standard HTTP requests such as GET, PUT, HEAD, DELETE and POST to interact with data.
  • XML-RPC — This older API scheme formats method calls and responses as XML documents which are sent over HTTP.
  • SOAP — Simple Object Access Protocol. A W3C standard for passing messages across the network. SOAP is the successor to XML-RPC. It’s complexity has led many to disparage SOAP and with more APIs leaning toward REST, SOAP’s future is uncertain.
  • Ajax — Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Technically it has nothing to do with APIs, however many sites using APIs send their queries out using Ajax which is partially responsible for the popularity of JSON.
  • JSON — JavaScript Object Notation. JSON’s main advantage is that it is easy to convert from JSON to nearly any other programming language. JSON uses key-value pairs and arrays, something common to PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby and most other languages. The portability of JSON has made it an increasingly popular choice for sites developing APIs.


Popular Web APIs

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File Under: Glossary
Feb
15
2010

Event

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Events are user interactions with their computer, such as a mouse click or key press.

In the good ol’ days, computers handled user interactions as input of batched data. The user fed a hunk of data in, the computer did something to that data, then produced the results. With the advent of interactive devices like the GUI interface, computers could display answers to computations onscreen. The input for these interactions are events caused by the user, which could be keystrokes, button clicks, or the position of the mouse pointer. (see Event Handler).

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File Under: Glossary
Feb
15
2010

Expression

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In JavaScript, expressions are phrases that the interpreter can evaluate. For example, 

x + 10
and 
x < 10
are expressions since they can be evaluated, while 
x = 10
is simply a statement.

In linguistical terms, JavaScript is made up of sentences, phrases, and words. The sentences are JavaScript statements, in which an entire action is expressed. The phrases are JavaScript expressions, in which the elements of the action can be created and put together to make a statement. The words are JavaScript operators, which are used to act upon the data passed to them.

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File Under: Glossary
Feb
15
2010

Function

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A function is a named group of statements in a program that performs a task when it is invoked.

Other programming languages make a distinction between a function, which returns a value, and a procedure, which performs some operation but does not return a value. Since JavaScript does not make this distinction, you can create functions that return values elsewhere in your code.

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File Under: Glossary
Feb
15
2010

Hash

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A hash, also known as an associative array, is a collection of data in which each piece of data has two components: a key and a value. Much like the hash at your local diner, JavaScript hashes go unordered: They’re not indexed by numbers. For example, if you wish to use JavaScript to put up a different GIF animation on your site every day of the week, you might throw all these animations into a hash associated to each weekday as a key. Then you would refer to the key day to invoke that day’s animation.

For example, in a normal array, you’d have: 

  dinner[0] = "monkey brain";

  dinner[1] = "meatloaf";

But in a hash, you could use a string as the index: 

  dinner["monday"] = "monkey brain";

  dinner["tuesday"] = "meatloaf";
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File Under: Glossary
Feb
15
2010

Hover

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Much like standing behind your co-worker while she slaves away, hover implies standing by but not doing anything. In dHTML, it refers specifically to when the user has positioned her cursor over a link but not yet clicked anything. The style will not change if the cursor is simply passed over the link, but you can set an action to take place after a predetermined amount of hovering.

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File Under: Glossary
Feb
15
2010

Loop

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A loop is like a programming thought. Say you’re a police officer using a radar gun to catch speeding motorists. If the speed limit is 55 miles per hour, you might say to yourself: “If a car makes my radar gun display a higher value than 55, I’ll pull them over, but until then I will continue to take readings. And perhaps snack on this cruller.” In programming, the statement of this loop would be the action (firing up your motorcycle and chasing the speeder), and the expression would be the evaluation of whether or not the passing car made your radar gun read higher than 55. This is an example of a “while” loop: 

  while (carSpeed < 55) {

  carSpeed = readRadar();

  // note:readRadar() should return the latest carSpeed

}



pullEmOver();  // this will only execute once carSpeed is >= 55
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File Under: Glossary
Feb
15
2010

Object dHTML

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In object-oriented programming, an object is a self-contained entity that consists of both data and manipulation procedures.

Similarly, HTML 4.0 includes the <OBJECT> element to extend HTML in order to make it more dynamic. <OBJECT> allows an author to download external data or programs into the current page. This element can be used to gather other pieces of information, including Java applets, ActiveX controls, and possibly dHTML. The long-term goal of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is for the <OBJECT> element to become the only way to embed data, replacing the <APPLET> and <IMG> elements.

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