In this paper we describe a Python- and Tkinter-based visual-programming environment called ViPEr. This tool enables non-programmers to build computational and visualization networks interactively. Computational nodes can be placed onto a canvas and their input and output ports can be connected using the mouse. The connections between the nodes define a directed graph that will be used to propagate data and trigger the execution of nodes that have new input data. ViPEr is, in appearance, similar to programs such as AVS [Upson et al. 89] from Advanced Visual Simulations Inc, or OpenDX [DX 93] from IBM, but presents some fundamental differences which will be pointed out throughout this paper. Several examples of applications will be used to illustrate ViPEr’s design and current range of capabilities.
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Most modern programming languages rely on exceptions for dealing with abnormal situations. Although exception handling was a significant improvement over other mechanisms like checking return codes, it is far from perfect. In fact, it can be argued that this mechanism is seriously limited, if not, flawed. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion by providing quantitative measures on how programmers are currently using exception handling. We examined 32 different applications, both for Java and .NET. The major conclusion for this work is that exceptions are not being correctly used as an error recovery mechanism. Exception handlers are not specialized enough for allowing recovery and, typically, programmers just do one of the following actions: logging, user notification and application termination. To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive study done on exception handling to date, providing a quantitative measure useful for guiding the development of new error handling mechanisms.
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Google Analytics - free online web analytics | The 3-year-old web application, created by Google after acquiring Urchin Software, that allows businesses to make better decisions with respect to their web applications.
1. Start with the correct user account
Since Google Analytics (GA) is a free tool that processes incoming tracking data on-the-fly, but there is no way to bulk transfer data between accounts. Setting up a long-term email address for your account is crucial, especially if you don’t want to keep multiple sets of data around in the future. Create a generic account based on your domain called google@domain.com - then simply use your ISP to forward that address to the appropriate one.
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This document is written for application developers who want to build WebLogic Server e-commerce applications using the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) from Sun Microsystems. It is assumed that readers know Web technologies, object-oriented programming techniques, and the Java programming language.
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Zend Core™ supports businesses using PHP and managing database information for mission critical web applications. It provides a seamless out-of-the-box experience delivering a stable, easy to-install and supported PHP development and production environment.

Presented in a browser-based environment, Zend Core provides a highly stable and efficient means for installing and managing PHP servers. Resources and reference information are bundled into Zend Core for “one click” access to a wide range of information, configurations and reference documents.
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.NET Micro Framework (.NET MF) is a new technology that can be applied to a variety of small devices. For a relatively new technology, there are already several different development tools and a platform standard already available. Some of the development tools are still in beta, and as you can guess new ideas are already in the works. This application note is a guide to what tools are available for application development. This application note will be updated as new tools become available.
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C# 3.0 has many features well-known to functional programmers
- Parameterized types and polymorphic functions (generics)
- First-class functions (delegates)
- Lightweight lambda expressions & closure conversion
- Type inference (for locals and lambdas)
- Streams (iterators)
- A library of higher-order functions for collections & iterators
- And even:GADTs (polymorphic inheritance)
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C# 2.0 introduces several language extensions, the most important of which are generics, anonymous methods, iterators, and partial types.
• Generics permit classes, structs, interfaces, delegates, and methods to be parameterized by the types of data they store and manipulate. Generics are useful because they provide stronger compile-time type checking, require fewer explicit conversions between data types, and reduce the need for boxing operations and runtime type checks.
• Anonymous methods allow code blocks to be written “in-line” where delegate values are expected. Anonymous methods are similar to lambda functions in the Lisp pro- gramming language. C# 2.0 supports the creation of “closures” where anonymous methods access surrounding local variables and parameters.
• Iterators are methods that incrementally compute and yield a sequence of values. Itera- tors make it easy for a type to specify how the foreach statement will iterate over its elements.
• Partial types allow classes, structs, and interfaces to be broken into multiple pieces stored in different source files for easier development and maintenance. Additionally, partial types allow separation of machine-generated and user-written parts of types so that it is easier to augment code generated by a tool.
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