Posts

Android meets .NET

It is always fun to program in C# (besides C++). If so, how would I feel if I was able to program in C# on Android? You may be wondering what in the world I am talking about. Android development environment is all Java and open source stuff. How could this Microsoft thing fit onto it? Well, it seems that some clever guys¹ had huddled up and ported Mono for Android, developed .NET libraries for the Android SDK, and also supplemented it with a Mono for Android project template in Visual Studio. Thus we relish writing C# code for Android. More ...

Quiz - Beauty of Numbers - Solution

One hint that should be helpful in building our solution is that we got to get retained after every wave of removal (until nobody else remains). That means it got to be really some special number or special kind of number. We could do what functional programmers would do. Write down the steps of removal for every queue size N, and it is not worth trying for very large N; in our case, even 20 or 30 could be large. But the point is we could iterate the steps manually and find a position K for every queue size N, where K is the position that remains after all the waves of removal. Once we are done with that, we should stare intensely 😂 on every K to derive a pattern, which would tell us something about those Ks, and with that we should be able to solve the problem. More ...

Quiz - Beauty of Numbers

Sriram quizzed:

Imagine there is a queue of people for getting a ticket for a movie or somehing. Where should be standing in the queue to last until the manager or some guy keeps removing people at odd indices. For instance, if the queue has 5 people given a token A to E, first we remove the first set of odd numbered positions in the queue, so A, C and E are gone. Now B and D remain. Again we remove the odd numbered positions. This time B alone is gone, and D is the winner. So in a queue like that, what is the lucky position you should hold so that you survive the wave of removals?

More ...

To Hold or Not to Hold – A story on Thread references !!!

void SomeMethod(int x, double y) {
  // some code
  ...
  new Thread(ThreadFunc).Start();
}

What do you think about the code above?

Some may say nothing seems to be wrong. Some may say there is not enough information to comment. A few may say that it is awful to spin off a thread like that (the last line of the method), and that there is a probability for the thread to be garbage collected at an unexpected point of execution. That is something interesting to discuss about.

Crazy Brackets – [](){}();

What does this cryptic bracket sequence mean? What programming language is it? Is it valid syntax? If there is even a weak chance of this syntax being valid? If so, what does it mean?

Alright, alright, alright! It is C++. That would calm most people; with all their love (pun) for C++. Specifically, it is C++0x. Amongst many other features that we have been waiting for, C++0x gives us the power of lambdas.

Wetting my feet in Android – Seinfeld Calendar

A couple of my colleagues and I huddled up to learn a bit of Android. I think I told you about that a short while back. We developed a very simple application – The Seinfeld Calendar.

Seinfeld calendar or otherwise called the habit calendar is Seinfeld’s productivity secret. The secret of achieving your goal is practising something, whatever your goal is, everyday and make it a habit. And mark it in your calendar each day you practice, and make sure you do not break the chain. Our application helps you keep track of your everyday tasks.

Anonymous Classes vs Delegates !!!

I am not a java programmer. By that, I do not mean I am against Java. As a programmer by profession and passion, I try to learn things along the way. That includes a little of bit of Java. I should say that my proper encounter, so to say, with Java is a simple application that I am trying out with Android. There might be some hard core differences and/or limitations in the Android version of Java. But I am almost certain that I am using only primary level features of Java. More ...

Quiz – Where am I ?

The question is, in C++, how do detect if an object is allocated on the stack or heap.

On Windows, the stack address is in the range of 0x80000000. If the address of the variable is in this range, then you could say that the object is allocated on the stack; else it is allocated on the heap. This technique of detecting is not preferable since it may not work on other operating systems (such as linux), and deals with the platform specific information making it a non-portable solution.

Meeting Martin

You may not know the guy in black. You should definitely be knowing the guy in green. Don’t you?

I am not a patron of his philosophies against planned design. But he sure is a great guy with lots of good ideas. It was nice having an hour long chat with him.

Invoking methods with out and ref – Finale !!!

Alright, it is a long wait. And I am going to keep it short.

Recap of the problem: Why did the ref variable in SomeMethod not get the expected result (DayOfWeek.Friday) when called from a different thread?

Boxing. Yes, that is the culprit. Sometimes, it is subtle to note. DayOfWeek is an enum – a value type. When the method is called from a different thread, we put the argument (arg3) in an object array, and that’s where the value gets boxed. So we happen to assign the resultant value to the boxed value.