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Welcome to Software Development on Codidact!

Will you help us build our independent community of developers helping developers? We're small and trying to grow. We welcome questions about all aspects of software development, from design to code to QA and more. Got questions? Got answers? Got code you'd like someone to review? Please join us.

Activity for matthewsnyder‭

Type On... Excerpt Status Date
Edit Post #290502 Post edited:
13 days ago
Edit Post #290502 Post edited:
13 days ago
Edit Post #291349 Initial revision 13 days ago
Answer A: How and where does Python code start running? How can I control that?
Files with `.py` extension are scripts. You run them with `python myscript.py`. Python is an imperative language, so executing a file will run each line one by one, starting from the top, and exit when the end of the file is reached. In your example, the script is saying: 1. Create a functio...
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13 days ago
Comment Post #291286 Is this how systemd does it? I think pamac also uses the same escalation method.
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20 days ago
Edit Post #291284 Initial revision 28 days ago
Question Privilege escalation from Python like from systemd
When you try to do a privileged systemd operation without the privilege, you get an escalation prompt: ``` $ systemctl stop docker ==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.systemd1.manage-units ==== Authentication is required to stop 'docker.service'. Authenticating as: [MY USER NAME] Password: ...
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28 days ago
Edit Post #291257 Initial revision about 1 month ago
Question VS code - stop reopening old tabs
When I open VS Code inside a project dir, it reopens all the tabs that were open last time, and re-expands all the folders that were unfolded last time. I find this annoying. Usually, when I close VS Code, it's because I'm done working with what I was doing. I don't want to manually "clean up" at ...
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about 1 month ago
Edit Post #291200 Initial revision about 1 month ago
Answer A: GnuTLS config for my own root CA, for use on internal server
For future readers - based on input from Michael, and some research that was spurred by that improved version, this is the final config I arrived at: ``` https://gnutls.org/manual/htmlnode/certtool-Invocation.html#certtool-Invocation cn = "nosuchdomain.com" organization = FakeCompanyName cou...
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about 1 month ago
Edit Post #291194 Initial revision about 1 month ago
Answer A: Why is global evil?
A global variable or object is in scope everywhere. That means it's possible to modify it from any part of your program. Imagine a mature program, made up of thousands of lines of code and dozens of files. A statement that does something with that global variable could be found anywhere in those. ...
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about 1 month ago
Edit Post #291187 Initial revision about 1 month ago
Answer A: PHP - Why using "global" considered bad?
Nothing in particular will go wrong. `global` is a valid and supported keyword, the code will work. There is no problem for the computer. The problem is for you. When something is `global`, it could be getting changed by anything else. You have to read through the whole codebase, to understand wha...
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about 1 month ago
Edit Post #291186 Initial revision about 1 month ago
Question Why is global evil?
Many languages discourage global variables. Why is this?
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about 1 month ago
Comment Post #291089 Yeah, that makes sense. If you just label posts with status rather than segregating them, it has potential for a mess when you start getting non-certified answers to certified questions. I was just wondering if this is something that we already have without developing any additional UX. But now th...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291132 >Presumably these people are at least users of the software. I don't think you can presume that. When we talk about contributing to FOSS, we think of someone who wants to write code and solve problems in someone else's program. Whether they themselves use the program is tangential. If you do a str...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291132 I don't know if I would call it recent :) I feel like it was all laissez faire until about 2010, and then they decided to really drop the hammer on it between 2011-2012. IMO it's a terrible policy, and many other people think so too, so there's endless attempts at trying to push the line back and rea...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291068 Yeah, the focus on community is a big part of what makes this messaging confusing IMO. When I hear "community", I think "people" not "product". So people I can go to, ask questions, and get help. The answers themselves are sort of transient, and the group of helpful people are the real goal, as it we...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291089 I didn't know about Staging Ground, but that seems like a great idea that would make everyone happy. I wonder, did it fail because it was somehow fundamentally flawed? Or they just lost interest? Then again, isn't the staging ground equivalent to letting experienced users mark a question as "certi...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291132 That said, why do you feel this is not answerable? For example, if someone posted a large survey of FOSS contributors that looks at this topic, that seems like a pretty objective answer. I know I've said myself in the question that I'll accept an anecdote, but that's just me compromising for the s...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291132 That's a fair comment. You obviously have to draw the line somewhere about what is too subjective. I feel like here it is looser than the closest analog, StackOverflow, since we allow software recs for example. But then maybe this is too loose. I don't mind deleting this if there's a general agree...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291068 @#64277 I do think that would accomplish the goal you have. It would make the site more like a wiki. Wikis don't have this dilemma of balancing quality against people trying to get help, and it's more obvious what the site is trying to do. But I have to say, guys, if this place is intended to be b...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291089 Oh, and, if it's really: > have them go away and come back when they get it Then I think this is a bit too subtle in current site UX (well, until your question gets closed). It could be spelled out a lot more clearly, IMO.
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291089 I do agree that in theory, what you say is correct, for exactly the reasons you describe. However, I also suspect that new users of QA sites do not see it that way. I think a lot of new users *do* think "my question" and "helping me". I suspect most are unaware of the intellectual property implica...
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about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291133 Initial revision about 2 months ago
Answer A: What is a reasonable minimum for making a FOSS project inviting to contributors?
I don't actually know the answer to this, but I'll post a provisional one while we wait for someone wiser than me to chime in. I think this is a small subset of the real answer. 1. Don't forget the license. Make sure it's clear that it's FOSS. Code without a license on a public repo is, by default...
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about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291132 Post edited:
about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291132 Post edited:
about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291132 Post edited:
about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291132 Initial revision about 2 months ago
Question What makes people able but unwilling to contribute to FOSS projects?
Suppose someone has the requisite knowledge and skillset to contribute to a FOSS project, they have the free time to do so and they are aware of the project. Yet, they decide not to contribute. This appears to be quite common, the proportion of people who choose to contribute is a tiny minority of th...
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about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291131 Initial revision about 2 months ago
Question What is a reasonable minimum for making a FOSS project inviting to contributors?
A lot of people who maintain FOSS projects would like to get more contributions. What can the maintainer do to ensure that potential contributors are converted into actual contributors? There are many things you can do to encourage people to contribute to your project, up to and including payin...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291089 I think the second section is a great description of the current state of things as I see it, maybe better than the one in my question. If indeed I fundamentally misunderstand closures, then it sufficiently rebuts my original post. I do disagree on 2 points. 1) I understand the distinction you mak...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291089 Re: your first paragraph, I do agree with your description of the rules as they are written. I also agree that there are some people who act in that way when closing. For example, based on what you wrote here, I would expect that you wouldn't use "too broad" etc. to mean "stupid question". However...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291068 @#64656 If the experts were to ask beginner questions themselves, I think that would also address much of my concern in this. BTW, is it considered bad form here, if I see a very poorly asked beginner question, and then ask the real question myself then flag the original one as a duplicate of mine...
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about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291095 Initial revision about 2 months ago
Answer A: How to group a flat list of attributes into a nested lists?
The obvious way would be to simply start with an empty list of lists, loop through the input, and for each item decide which sublist to put it in. It's not super dev-friendly to remember which list was which. So instead, I think it's better to construct each sublist separately, and then combine th...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291068 Thanks for the response. Although we disagree, you did a good job of bringing up many valid counterpoints (some which I deliberately omitted in my own post). Re following the process of "edit then ask to reopen": To be fair, I think this is viable. The problem is that it's too cumbersome with curr...
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about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291070 Initial revision about 2 months ago
Question Is software system design on topic here?
Is software system design on topic for the software development site? For what I mean by system design, consider the "system design interview" commonly held these days when recruiting software engineers. I assume a software site would primarily deal with software systems, rather than things like a...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291046 We have code reviews section: https://software.codidact.com/categories/44 If you want feedback on code you should post there. You have several errors/problems in your code that are unrelated to your problem. But it's hard to tell you why your code isn't working without fixing those, and fixing the...
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about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291046 The question is actually very simple (see https://software.codidact.com/posts/suggested-edit/1388). The example code is too complicated and doesn't really help explain the question or answer it. IMO you should remove the example code to improve readability. The task is already clear from your example...
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about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291046 Post edited:
Simplify, standardize terminology, retag. No attempt to change original meaning
about 2 months ago
Comment Post #291046 The answer is something like: ``` nested = [] attrs = ['attr1', 'attr2', 'attr3'] for a in attrs: u = [] for i in flat: if i.startswith('attr1'): u.append(i) if u: nested.append(u) print(nested) ``` Wish I could post a full answer, but unfortun...
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about 2 months ago
Edit Post #291064 Initial revision about 2 months ago
Question Don't close questions for lack of detail/confusion
tl;dr: When a question is unclear, don't close right away, especially if it's possible to discern what they are trying to ask. Instead, use comments and edit suggestions to work with the asker and help them improve the question. Only close if it is absolutely hopeless (if the asker disappears for wee...
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about 2 months ago