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Re: multithreaded cache?

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Robert Klemme wrote:
> Thanks for sharing that story. What I find amazing about this is that what you
> did isn't exactly rocket science and yet they didn't do it before. You would
> guess that it's just what every engineer would do but no: something prevents
> this from happening.

It was worse.

Turns out the resource acquisition managed by the inter-thread map coulda 
woulda shoulda been handled better by an object instantiated with a simple new 
..() call.

The returned reference and access to the object would perforce have been 
limited to the instantiating thread. Any other thread woulda shoulda coulda 
had its own independent resource, object, reference, whatever. Sharing was not 
needed.

Loosely speaking -

  Desirable desire = getFromMap(FANCY_CAR);
  // map is shared, with fancy-schmancy synch

vs.

  Desirable desire = new FancyCar();
  // Map? Meshugge! I'm not sharing!

> And it is true for a number of other techniques I would consider bread and
> butter tools:
>
> - Ensuring requirements are gathered properly and understood before starting
> to code (and design of course).

True, with provisos.

  = Requirements are not fixed. What you should have now is the best available 
for now.

  = "Properly"? "Understood"? There are books on this, but it boils down to:

    Your software will be used. By whom? Why? What would annoy them? Don't do 
that! What would make them forget the software is there and just get their job 
done? Do that!

"Proper" is always from the user's standpoint. Not what they say, by the way, 
but what they think and feel - really. Behind the bullshit and self-deception, 
when they aren't posturing for your benefit and really are just trying to get 
their work done. And that's where "understood" comes in. Give'em what they 
want, not necessarily what they ask for.

> - Testing code _before_ shipping.

Some espouse before even writing it. I say, sure, great idea, when you make it 
easy to express my ideas in tests instead of imperative code.

Hmm.

BTW, this being Java, have you guys tried EasyMock? (AndroidMock in Android 
Java.) That shtuff rocks. It makes your very code better, not just tested but 
idiomatically. Tricky stuff. I'll post about that when I get back into it. 
I've discovered a Right Way and a Wrong Way to do mocks, just like I did with JPA.

> - When writing unit tests, making sure to also include tests for critical
> values (usually corner cases such as -1, 0, 1, limit, limit - 1, limit + 1,
> null, "", etc.).

Consider this. No matter what input a module receives, it must achieve a valid 
program state in response.

No matter what.

Coding to this formalism means, for example, that a method can handle all 
possible argument values.

public interface Caromer
{
   public Fromitz carom(Flamo flame);
}

As Herr Klemme points out, 'null' is one possible input for 'flame'. 
Non-'null' is another. Presumably a 'Flamo' has observable state that 
distinguishes input values. If the type were 'Integer' or 'int', Robert's 
example int values might pertain.

But you cannot give infinite test cases to a unit test. So you pick edge 
cases, on both the "happy path" (positive) and "unhappy path" (negative) 
scenarios. Consider this:

public interface Quadrupler
{
   public int quadruple(int val);
}

What if it were called with an auto-unboxed Integer?

  public int someClient(Integer val)
  {
    Quadrupler quadrupler = QuadFactory.get();
    Integer quadded = quadrupler.quadruple(val);
  }


> - Thinking about the person who must use what you produce, regardless whether
> it's a document, a configuration file layout, a DSL, a class, a library. It
> seems many people in software development are far more concerned with the
> inner workings of what they create instead of considering how it will be used.
> Maybe it's easier or it is because making it work takes the largest part of
> coding - still the outcome often is dissatisfying and a little more thought
> upfront goes a long way at avoiding maintenance headaches and worse things.
>
> ...
>
> This can't be so difficult, can it?

You have a fine sense of humor.

It's as easy as empathy, and getting inside the mind of a professional in a 
field of which you know little to nothing.

Testing certainly helps. Functional tests (as opposed to unit tests) can and 
should be part of and produced from requirements. At the user-facing level you 
can send test scenarios back as memos of understanding (MoUs) - what better 
way to make clear what you understand and how it will play out?

Prototypes count, too. They can meet tests, even. Building a prototype that 
meets tests, starting within a day or so of starting, kicks ass for converging 
on clarity. Keep it up - every day the prototype runs, works (up to whatever 
you've done that day), can be checked out and run in any directory, by any 
developer, and run, etc.

Add a CI tool like Jenkins to run your tests every time you "git commit" to 
"origin/master" (or whatever); you got yourself a one-entity professional shop.

<http://www.junit.org/>
<http://www.easymock.org/>
<http://code.google.com/p/android-mock/>
<http://jenkins-ci.org/>

-- 
Lew
Honi soit qui mal y pense.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Friz.jpg

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multithreaded cache? bugbear <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim> - 2012-05-15 10:14 +0100
  Re: multithreaded cache? Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2012-05-15 11:41 +0200
    Re: multithreaded cache? Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-05-15 15:57 -0700
      Re: multithreaded cache? Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2012-05-15 16:13 -0700
        Re: multithreaded cache? Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2012-05-16 01:22 +0200
      Re: multithreaded cache? Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2012-05-16 01:19 +0200
        Re: multithreaded cache? Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-05-15 20:26 -0400
          Re: multithreaded cache? Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2012-05-15 21:41 -0300
          Re: multithreaded cache? Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2012-05-16 09:26 +0200
            Re: multithreaded cache? "Mike Schilling" <mscottschilling@hotmail.com> - 2012-05-26 14:54 -0700
        Re: multithreaded cache? Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-05-16 22:03 -0700
          Re: multithreaded cache? Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2012-05-21 15:25 +0200
  Re: multithreaded cache? Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-05-15 08:22 -0400
  Re: multithreaded cache? Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2012-05-15 09:56 -0700
  Re: multithreaded cache? bugbear <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim> - 2012-05-16 14:33 +0100
  Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-17 11:54 +0200
    Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-17 12:06 +0200
      Re: multithreaded cache? Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2012-05-17 09:51 -0700
        Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-17 20:48 +0200
      Re: multithreaded cache? Sebastian <sebastian@undisclosed.invalid> - 2012-05-20 01:35 +0200
        Re: multithreaded cache? Sebastian <sebastian@undisclosed.invalid> - 2012-05-20 01:48 +0200
          Re: multithreaded cache? Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-05-19 18:11 -0700
    Re: multithreaded cache? Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2012-05-18 20:42 +0200
      Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-18 23:45 +0200
        Re: multithreaded cache? Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-05-18 18:31 -0400
          Re: multithreaded cache? Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2012-05-18 22:15 -0700
            Re: multithreaded cache? Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-05-19 07:09 -0400
          Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-19 12:33 +0200
            Re: multithreaded cache? Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-05-19 14:24 -0700
              Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-21 21:15 +0200
                Re: multithreaded cache? Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-05-23 23:11 -0700
                Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-24 23:05 +0200
                Re: multithreaded cache? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-05-24 20:11 -0700
                Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-25 17:42 +0200
                Re: multithreaded cache? Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2012-05-25 07:09 -0300
        Re: multithreaded cache? Silvio Bierman <silvio@moc.com> - 2012-05-21 15:21 +0200
  Re: multithreaded cache? Kevin McMurtrie <mcmurtrie@pixelmemory.us> - 2012-05-24 23:22 -0700
    Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-25 17:36 +0200
      Re: multithreaded cache? Kevin McMurtrie <mcmurtrie@pixelmemory.us> - 2012-06-02 12:27 -0700
        Re: multithreaded cache? Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-06-02 21:54 +0200

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