1. Strive to add more function by deleting code.
2. A Designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. (Saint-Exupery)
3. In software, the most beautiful code, the most beautiful functions, and the most beautiful programs are sometimes not there at all.
4. Vigorous writing is concise. Omit needless words. (Strunk and White)
5. The cheapest, fastest, and most reliable components of a computer system are those that aren’t there. (Bell)
6. Endeavor to do more and more with less and less.
7. If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter. (Pascal)
8. The Inventor’s Paradox: The more ambitious plan may have more chance of success. (Polya)
9. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. (Perlis)
10. Less is more. (Browning)
11. Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. (Einstein)
12. Software should sometimes be seen as a soap bubble. (Perlis)
13. Seek beauty through simplicity.

That list is from a book entitled, “Beautiful Code” by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson. Sometime or other, I’ll get my hands on a copy… lol

On a side note, I posted the actual assignment itself here: Recursive Permuations for people to download and use as an example. I posted my assignment because I thought it would be a great template for others to see when dealing with finding recursive permutations of a string. This program really taught me alot and helped to better my programming style. While doing the assignment, I realized the importance of properly naming your variables:

Instead of:

 int i; //used for loop

Try:

int loopCounter; //used for iterating through something

Anyways, long story short, I thought this assignment was great! He assigned the third assignment on the 9th of February and I finished it tonight after redoing it 2 times already. Once I submit it and it’s graded, ill post it on my site. Stay in touch

So, Here’s 3 easy things you should remember when dealing with the management of data structures in C.

Step 1: Name your pointers in someway that indicates its a pointer.

Alot of the times, I manage to pass a variable and at that time I knew it was a pointer but what happens one or two days later? If you name your variables inefficiently, your brain will explode when trying to understand what you were thinking. It’s a fact. In order to avoid something that will take you MUCH more time than it should, just make the effort to do it right in the first place.

Bad examples of pointer names:

int * temp;
char *** stringArray;
char ** string;

Good examples of pointer names:

int * tempPointer;
char *** stringArrayPointer;
char ** stringPointer;

// - OR -
int * tempP;
char *** stringArrayP;
char ** stringP;

Step 2: Function Commenting

Be sure to add comments to your function that help keep you on track. Make these comments clear and straight to the point. Try to describe what the goal of the function is, precisely. This will keep you on track when you need to refer back to what the heck you’re doing.

P.s. - If you think you can get by without commenting things, you’re thinking foolishly and you should change.

Step 3: Don’t say your code doesnt work.

Saying your code doesnt work is like saying your book doesnt work. If I gave you my book and said what do you think of it, and you replied with: It doesn’t work, I’d take my book and hit you in the face with it.” - Mouser, donationcoder.com

Basically, when you stare at your code wondering what is going on, because its inevitable, take a second to realize WHY its not working instead of saying, my code doesnt work.

I have known of this quote but never knew its origin, until tonight. Ewemoa, from DonationCoder.com, shared the quote with mouser who recommended it be shown to me. Thanks to both of them, I can now effectively quote its origin as well. Long story short, I wanted to include this quote, and the page that was referenced to me, on my website. Here is the link: http://shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/premature-optimization-is-the-root-of-all-evil/

Enjoy

This component was written by Dave Barton. Here is his description for the component:

DCPcrypt is an open source library of cryptographic components (encryption and hash algorithms). The idea behind DCPcrypt is that it should be possible to “drop in” any algorithm implementation to replace another with minimum or no code changes.

Algorithms implemented include: Blowfish, Twofish, Cast-128, Cast-256, DES, 3DES, Ice, Thin Ice, Ice2, IDEA, Mars, Misty1, RC2, RC4, RC5, RC6, Rijndael (the new AES), Serpent, TEA, Haval, MD4, MD5, RipeMD-128, RipeMD-160,SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, Tiger.

I recommend this component to all who are interested in adding encryption/decryption abilities to your program. Even the Documentation was helpful!!! (and thats rare!)

Download the component here: http://www.torry.net/vcl/security/strong/dcpcrypt2.zip

Features:

• Simple Drag and Drop interface to make life easier!
• Click Sort and watch as your files are sorted into folder’s according to their filenames!
• After File’s are sorted into folders, FileSorter cleans up after itself (deletes the now empty folders)!

• Executable ( 829 KB) : Download

Basically, all I want is a wish list program. This is essentially an itemized list of things I “want”, which I can include details about including price, any http link, and even a price or price range all at my own option of course.

Since we have so many things we *need*, we have to choose each paycheck what we will spend it on. This can be challenging when there are so many small things that we need and want to get, so sometimes we end up overseeing or forgetting important things that we wanted to get. Basically I’d just like to get kindof a ‘master wishlist’ going on, which basically is a way to input items and put some details about them such as price and importance, then order them in a way that I will purchase the things that are important/urgent and cheap first, then things that aren’t urgent but important, then things that are urgent but not important, and lastly things that are neither important/urgent or cheap.

Here is the result program

• Executable ( 1.45 MB) - Download