The getKeyChar method always returns a valid Unicode character or CHAR_UNDEFINED. Character input is reported by KEY_TYPED events: KEY_PRESSED and KEY_RELEASED events are not necessarily associated with character input. Therefore, the result of the getKeyChar method is guaranteed to be meaningful only for KEY_TYPED events.For key pressed and key released events, the getKeyCode method returns the event's keyCode. For key typed events, the getKeyCode method always returns VK_UNDEFINED....

Everyone who's been programming professionally for a while knows the standard format of the technical interview. You go in, there's a whiteboard in the room, and you write code on it to answer questions.Everyone also has the same basic complaints about these interviews. In a normal work environment, you have access to an API or search engine, but at a whiteboard you don't. Whiteboard questions generally don't include much in the way of overall design, and they're typically limited to simple algorithms, so they don't really test all of a candidate's skills. And let's be honest, programmers tend...

One day, you're browsing through your code, and you notice two big blocks that look almost exactly the same. In fact, they're exactly the same, except that one block refers to "Spaghetti" and one block refers to "Chocolate Moose." // A trivial example: alert("I'd like some Spaghetti!"); alert("I'd like some Chocolate Moose!");These examples happen to be in JavaScript, but even if you don't know JavaScript, you should be able to follow along.The repeated code looks wrong, of course, so you create a function: function SwedishChef( food ) { alert("I'd like some " + food ...

Problem:I’m working on a wamp system, and have started playing around with sockets. I enabled sockets via the wamp interface:wamp : PHP settings : PHP extensions : php_socketsand could run my php file via my browser.When trying to run the same file via the command prompt (start : run : cmd), I got the following error:Fatal error: Call to undefined function socket_create() in … on line …Solution:The command prompt uses a different php.ini file to the apache server.The Apache php.ini file is accessible via the taskbar icon, and is located at:X:\WAMP INSTALL DIR\Apach...

I like C, but I have to admit that, sometimes, “The Old Man of Programming” can be a bit of a killjoy. This is one of the most exciting eras in computer history, but lately, C’s acting like he doesn’t evenwant to have a good time. While the cool kids like Ruby and Haskell are living it up, C’s over in the corner obsessing over bits and bytes and memory alignment and pointers and the stack and machine architecture and unreachable allocations and multiple indirections…and it’s…kind of a buzzkill. You want to tell him, “Dude! Lighten ...

As you may know if you’re a regular reader of this blog, sometimes we like to take a trip down memory lane. It’s time for another one of those trips, to the murky past of the Internet and the dawning World Wide Web of 1995.Let’s start first with the people who actually use the Internet. How many were there back then?Worldwide Internet users in 1995Today there are almost 2 billion Internet users worldwide. In 2000, there were 361 million worldwide. But go back even farther in time and you’ll find out that back in 1995, the Internet had a worldwide user base of less t...

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. These three companies rule webmail withGmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, the three largest email services on the Internet.What might escape a lot of people, though, is just how important email services are for the online presence of those companies (yes, even for Google). To give you an idea, let’s look at some rather interesting website traffic numbers.Webmail share of site trafficAlexa can give you an estimate of how many people visit various parts of a website, or to be precise, which subdomains are visited the most.Gmail&n...

I find quotes inspiring, motivating or sometimes just thought provoking, so here's some of my favourites from over the years. Sometimes reading a book can have a real influence on how you write code, or how you approach a problem. Sometimes a simple quote  is enough to make me question the way I look at the code I'm writing. Or often I sit in awe about someone's so well distilled what I've known internally for ages but have never been able to enunciate.   "Design is finding the problem, not the solution" -- Leslie Chicoine      "There...