Essay Index

110% of 80% = Success! May 24th 2007 Problem Solving Engineering There's a neat little formula for you... on the surface, it makes even less sense than a coach exhorting his players to give "110%." It's ...
About Me May 26th 2007 Hi, I'm Oran Looney. Call me Oran. My e-mail address is the output of this Python script: print r'%(name)s@%(domain)s.%(type)s' % \ dict(name='olooney',domain='gmail',type='com') Programming ----------- I ...
About This Site April 19th 2007 Web I love programming. With code, the idea takes form as soon as you've fully expressed it; it becomes real. Mathematicians and philosophers never get that ...
Classes and Objects in JavaScript November 24th 2009 Coding Style Web Tutorial JavaScript supports object-oriented programming, with classes, objects, methods, and inheritance even though it doesn't have a `class` keyword. (This article is about [JavaScript 1.5][JS15] and ...
Deep Copy In JavaScript November 25th 2009 Coding Style Web Tutorial I've been interested in writing a generic deep copy algorithm in JavaScript for a while. The simple way to make a deep copy in JavaScript ...
Django File Uploads March 24th 2008 Python Web Tutorial > This essay is obsolete. Django 1.0 introduced new features and documentation. Please see [Django File Uploads][DFU]. [DFU]: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/http/file-uploads/ This tutorial provides a concrete example ...
Django at 30,000 feet April 23rd 2007 Python Web > Note: this essay is quite dated. I'm working on a re-write; in the meantime I'd recommend looking elsewhere for an overview of Django.-Oran Ok, ...
Editing ColdFusion with VIM December 21st 2007 Web Tutorial This is a quick how-to tutorial for configuring VIM for maximum productivity when Editing ColdFusion files. Not to keep you waiting, here's the configuration file: ...
Expanding Keywords to Links April 26th 2007 Python Tutorial Certain keywords and phrases on this site, like Code Complete , always appear as hyperlinks. That's because I use regular expressions (and Python) to do ...
Factory Methods October 12th 2008 C++ Coding Style Engineering Java Ah, object creation. Why must you be so problematic? Is it the way you inject dependencies on global classes into the most innocent of code? ...
Function Scope in JavaScript May 21st 2008 Coding Style Web Tutorial JavaScript's `this` keyword doesn't have to be confusing. This tutorial will help you use it correctly and effectively. JavaScript is designed to support true object-oriented ...
Clone() In JavaScript January 23rd 2008 Coding Style Web Tutorial Popular > My [other essay][DCJS] provides source code and documentation for shallow copy, deep copy, and clone functions. If you came here searching for "javascript clone," ...
How to Transform XML into Dynamic HTML June 7th 2007 Web Tutorial You know what I like about XML? The tools. It's not "you could write a program to do that," but "there's a standard tool to ...
JavaScript Arguments June 18th 2009 Coding Style Web Tutorial In JavaScript, the full collection of arguments passed into a function is made available through the special `arguments` keyword. It's useful for fancy functional programming ...
JSON Rex November 27th 2007 Coding Style Web Aristotle writes on tragedy: > The protagonist should be renowned and prosperous, so his change of fortune can be from good to bad. This change ...
Software Craftsmanship and Engineering January 20th 2008 Engineering What can you learn from your daily horoscope? For the sake of argument, let's agree that the stars don't actually say anything about your future. ...
LBYL vs. EAFP May 23rd 2007 Coding Style Engineering There are basically two error handling strategies: * Look Before You Leap (LBYL) * It's Easier to Ask Forgiveness than Permission (EAFP) I'm going to ...
On the Limits of Human Knowledge May 16th 2007 Python Philosophy I apologize for the title; I think it's funny to give an article about humility a pretentious title. I don't want to get mired in ...
A Literate Program on the 3rd Normal Form May 8th 2007 Python Coding Style I wrote this article in an unusual way: I started from the source code of a Python module, commented it thoroughly, made some minor formatting ...
Make CSS Sprites with the Python Image Library January 12th 2008 Python Web Tutorial Popular I'm going to show you how to write a Python script to automatically rollup icons into a single sprite image. The CSS to use those ...
The Minimal Interpreted Scripting Language May 20th 2007 Python Popular If you're thinking of creating a scripting language for your application, reading this article could save your life. Well, maybe not your entire life, but ...
A Nostalga Trip Down Java Lane June 5th 2007 Silly Coding Style Java When I was in college, I got a copy of NetBeans (a Java IDE) and did some Java projects to see what the language was ...
Overhead Limits Quality June 5th 2007 Engineering Light, not heavy, development processes allow for the highest quality code. This idea is quite popular these days. I'd like to offer an intuitive explanation ...
Productive Problem Solving May 2nd 2007 Problem Solving Philosophy Imagine the worst programmer possible. Here's how he writes code: 1. Open up the source in an editor and hits some keys at random. 2. ...
Programmers, Developers, and Hackers, oh my! August 9th 2007 Engineering Are you a computer programmer, hacker, or scientist? Perhaps a software developer, engineer, designer, or architect? Despite having plenty of connotations, these titles don't have ...
Requiem for an HTML Application June 17th 2007 Silly Web Once upon a time, I had to conform to a [coding style that demands elaborate headers][BCS] for every function, no matter how small. Worse, the ...
Semantic Code April 30th 2008 Problem Solving Coding Style Engineering > [se·man·tic][SD] (sĭ-măn'tĭk) adj. > 1. Of or relating to meaning, especially meaning in language. [SD]: http://www.answers.com/topic/semantic Programming destroys meaning. When we program, we first ...
Using Tables to Improve Code Layout April 29th 2007 Problem Solving C++ Coding Style Code layout is a surprisingly subtle problem. Or, maybe not so surprising if we remember that typesetting is its own profession, with hundreds of years ...
When to Sort Silverware April 25th 2007 Problem Solving Philosophy At work, I've been pushing for a Javadoc-like tool for the code my division maintains. However, it's been difficult to explain the ... Wait, I'm ...
x86 Assembly is My Scripting Language! May 4th 2007 Silly C++ Lots of people talk about the advantages of using supposedly "high level" languages for scripting. Languages like Python and Ruby supposedly handle all the icky ...

You can also see them grouped by tag.