Category Archives: windowsphone
Q&A Etiquette
Q&A sites are a powerful tool in a programmer’s debugging tool chest. These sites allow you to instantly communicate with more experienced programmers from a variety of different fields to help you figure out your issue. I think something not many newbies realize is that it’s a community that lives and dies on its users and their inputs and interactions. With that in mind, here are the top five things to keep in mind when looking for an answer on a Q&A site.
Developer Resources
How many times have you been working on a bit of code, feel good about completing it, cleared up a few errors, then get hit with something like:
It’s the most obscurely written error with very specific numbers that mean almost nothing to you. You’ve never even heard of the file it’s accessing! How do you even begin debugging? What if you can’t even get to the point where you can get errors?
Whether it’s your absentmindedness forgetting to do some crucial element or being unfamiliar with an API you just downloaded, errors happen all the time and you often have no idea what they mean. Worse yet, what if you know what you have to do, but have no idea how to go about it? If all you need to do is get the current email address from Microsoft Outlook, but have no idea how to ask it for data, your project won’t be moving far. Don’t panic, there are numerous great resources to help you get unstuck from programming mud.
Webpages As Apps
Websites have come a long way from the Hamster Dance. In their short lifespan, web browsers have become one of the most robust digital platforms, and for good reason – they’re on everything. Whether it be Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Ubuntu Phone, one thing you’ll find on almost every platform is a web browser. But what does all this have to do with apps?
Mobile Fragmentation
A term you may hear bandied around when people talk about what OS to choose is “mobile fragmentation.” The term itself is rather vague, but it’s still a serious concern nonetheless. Essentially, mobile fragmentation is the paradigm that mobile OSs have been slipping into in which a userbase has different versions of the operating system, meaning one cannot safely take advantage of newer opportunities if coding for clients on older systems is a consideration. In short, it’s one of the most annoying problems you’ll face as a developer.
