Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [software]

Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provides the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it.

Definition is taken from Wikipedia.

311 questions
233
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15 answers

New developer can't keep up with branch merges

I am the new developer - this is my first programming position. My issue is this: We use git - I cut a branch from our develop branch, then I start working on the minor task I've been assigned. It's very slow, because I'm inexperienced. By the time…
K--
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96
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12 answers

What is meant by the phrase “Software can replace hardware”?

Studying beginners course on hardware/software interface and operating systems, often come up the topic of if it would be better to replace some hardware parts with software and vice-versa. I can't make the connection.
Gabriele Scarlatti
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79
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15 answers

Is it possible to reach absolute zero bug state for large scale software?

I am talking about 20-30+ millions lines of code, software at the scale and complexity of Autodesk Maya for example. If you freeze the development as long as it needs to be, can you actually fix all the bugs until there is simply not a single bug,…
Joan Venge
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78
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7 answers

How to manage accidental complexity in software projects

When Murray Gell-Mann was asked how Richard Feynman managed to solve so many hard problems Gell-Mann responded that Feynman had an algorithm: Write down the problem. Think real hard. Write down the solution. Gell-Mann was trying to explain that…
user7146
54
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10 answers

If software engineering means making software for other domains when are you supposed to get the knowledge about that other domain?

I'm told that software is everywhere and therefore used in other domains. My question is if you're a software engineer working on software for lawyers or software for biologist when do you actually get the time to learn about the other domain you're…
WindBreeze
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52
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6 answers

How would I implement a "self-destruct" feature into the free trial version of my software?

There is the ongoing argument of free trial versus a freemium model (that is, a free-for-life version of their software with restricted and/or stripped down features) for allowing potential customers and users to test run their product. Upon my…
theGreenCabbage
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46
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11 answers

As a software architect, am I supposed to focus that much on analysing the logs and fixing other's bugs?

Since my graduation (late 2005) I was working for the same company as a c++ software engineer. A year ago I was promoted as a software architect but I have found myself involved more and more in qualification and fixing bugs, level 2 support. 50% of…
cpp81
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43
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7 answers

Are small amounts of functional programming understandable by non-FP people?

Case: I'm working at a company, writing an application in Python that is handling a lot of data in arrays. I'm the only developer of this program at the moment, but it will probably be used/modified/extended in the future (1-3 years) by some other…
kd35a
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29
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8 answers

How to justify rewriting/revamping legacy software in a business case?

I work for a great little software company which makes good revenue from our main software package. The problem for me is that it's almost unmaintainable. It's written in Delphi 7 (has upgraded versions over time) and has been worked on by a lot…
sxthomson
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28
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4 answers

What is the origin of the negative term "legacy code"

Everyone talks about legacy code in software development and I have heard the term over the last ten years used to paint any codebase as being bad. Where did this term, which has such powerful connotations to programmers alike originate? I am sure…
stevebot
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22
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5 answers

Fighting technical debt as the "lowest developer"?

Let's say you work for a company and what you do is develop software for them. You have no idea of the big picture or maybe slight. What you do have are tasks assigned to you via issue tracking system. You're given tasks, you make them work the way…
Joseph
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22
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3 answers

What actually is a module in software engineering?

According to Stephen Schach, “Classical and Object-Oriented Software Engineering”, chapter 6: a module consists a single block of code that can be invoked in the way that a procedure, function, or method is invoked This seems very vague and broad.…
Hoan
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20
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6 answers

Development methodologies when hundred of developers are working on one single solution?

We are an organisation consisting of around 200 developers that are working continuously on one single product (using the revision control Git) which is planned to be released at a certain date. Due to the huge number of developers, we are trying to…
corgrath
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18
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5 answers

How can I create my own software license?

I have seen numerous licenses for any kind of software such as the GNU GPL, BSD License, MIT License, and LGPL. What is the process for creating a new software license, such as "John Doe's generic license"?
user61465
16
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2 answers

What are some ramifications of open source software turning into closed source software?

If a company takes a permissively licensed open source application and then develops a closed source application from that by reworking extensive parts of the application, adding new features and applying bug fixes... Ignoring any license…
Verrier
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