The latest in this series makes a shift from C++ to Java since that’s what I’ve been mucking about with lately. I’m in a little bit of a time squeeze at the moment so explanations will have to come later (though this code should be fairly readable and obvious what its doing).
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Iterator;
import [...]
Today’s potential interview question is to reverse a linked list, without recursion. This one can be rather tough on the brain if you don’t think visually, but the basic idea here is to keep a pointer to:
Keep a pointer to the next node so that you don’t lose a way to access it once you [...]
Interviews in the field of programming are all very similar, usually involving a whiteboard and an algorithm. Sometimes these questions are so incredibly simple, yet for whatever reason you can’t craft an answer on the spot. I’m going to start a series on some code snippets that are common to see in interview situations. All [...]
Do you remember the first time you had coffee? A lot of people relate their first experience as a bad one, and that coffee is an acquired taste. I can’t relate to that because I’ve always loved coffee, from my very first taste, but I understand the notion, and I want to relate that idea [...]
Today I take another paragraph from one of Joel Spolsky’s posts and quote it here for emphasis on something I find very important:
“When a programmer complains about “politics”, they mean—very precisely—any situation in which personal considerations outweigh technical considerations. Nothing is more infuriating than when a developer is told to use a certain programming language, [...]
“If somebody tells you that the job of a bricklayer is to lay bricks on bricks then you will probably not want to be a bricklayer. But what if somebody told you about building a cathedral? It is the same with programming. You need a vision to make it meaningful.”
Today I went back and re-read Joel Spolsky’s advice The Law of Leaky Abstractions and it hits a nail on the head about what peers from EWU were missing:
“Learn how to do it manually first, then use abstractions to save time. Code generation tools which pretend to abstract out something, like all abstractions, leak, [...]
I spent several months trying to locate a job in Seattle, but the economic situation displaced a lot of software developers who are now vying for the same positions as college graduates. I had many interviews and leads in Seattle, but in the end it proved too competitive to break into. Now that the ink [...]
I kept updating my blog with a list of things I’d like to learn or improve upon, and it seemed redundant to continually copy/paste the information to a new post, just to update it. I would however like to keep the list online, so I’ve moved it to this single location.
As the title implies, I’m doing some brushing up on some technologies in the Microsoft stack. I’m going to keep my bases covered in all areas.
In brushing up on my ASP.NET, I’m reminded of a co-worker who once suggested using Smarty with PHP, for separation of presentation and logic. This feels a lot like Smarty. [...]