Dr. Dobb's Design Blogs

Sometimes Optimizations Cancel Each Other

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:43:00 -0400

Two rights can make a wrong in the software-design world.

Implementing Half Floats in D

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 11:47:00 -0500

D offers a set of features, the confluence of which enables the creation of user-defined types that work well enough to take the pressure off of adding more built-in types.

Wall Street and the Mismanagement of Software

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 09:47:00 -0400

How Knight Capital becomes a knight errant when it came to software design and delivery.

Measuring Performance for Analytics, Decision Support, and the Data Warehouse

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:03:00 -0400

The Transaction Processing Council (TPC) produces specifications for benchmarks to compare hardware and software configurations used for applications such as online transaction processing (OLTP) and decision support.

C++11: unique_ptr

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 06:37:00 -0400

There are a lot of great features in C++11, but unique_ptr stands out in the area of code hygiene. Simply put, this is a magic bullet for dynamically created objects.

100 GB to 30,000 GB: Size, Speed, and Benchmarks

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:43:00 -0400

Performance, data integrity, and ease of use are key characteristics to look for when comparing database systems.

Visual Studio 11: The Early Release

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:23:00 -0400

In this article, I'll show you how a little thing like a lambda can make a big difference in your coding style.

Bubble, BubbleSort, and Trouble

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:29:00 -0500

Bubblesort was the first sorting algorithm that I ever learned (and I programmed it in COBOL). It is easy to code and simple to understand.

Supercomputing, The Cloud, Big Data, and NoSQL

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:54:00 -0500

Sometimes technology that has become trendy is a branch on an evolutionary tree; other times it's a revolutionary departure from the long-established status quo.

What's the Best Paradigm for Data Compression Routines?

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:20:00 -0500

General purpose data compression routines tend to be used on binary streams of data, either from files or in-memory objects. So what is the best general paradigm for input and output when compressing data: iostreams or iterator?

Seeing the Light with Backtracking

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:03:00 -0500

Use the processing speed of computers to generate and explore different possible configurations to solve Akari puzzles.

Three Parallel Backtracking Designs

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:41:00 -0500

Clay presents three design versions of the parallel NQueens() function.

Is SPMD a Relevant Threading Model Anymore?

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:29:00 -0400

Learning to program in parallel without needing to design algorithms that rely on the programmer to dole out tasks to threads is much easier

Beneath the Planet of the Iterative Quicksort

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:31:00 -0400

You first need to know when it is okay for threads to terminate

2011 IT Project Success Survey

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:04:00 -0400

Take the 2011 IT Project Success survey and be entered in a drawing for a chance to win a book!

Planet of the Iterative Quicksort

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:25:00 -0400

What's involved in parallelizing an iterative algorithm?

Parallel Data Structures

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:12:00 -0400

Fantasy or (yet-to-be-discovered) reality?

Geographically Distributed Agile Development

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:17:00 -0400

One question that keeps popping up is whether you can be agile on geographically distributed teams. The answer is a resounding yes.

Design & Architecture Jolt Awards

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:40:00 -0400

Design, Architecture, and Planning category open for nominations

Testing and Logical Fault Tolerance for Parallel Programs

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:33:00 -0400

Regardless of how the list of requirements for a piece of software is generated, the testing process must make sure that the software meets those requirements and that the requirements meet the user's expectations

Modern Engineering: Availability, Capacity, and Volume

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:44:00 -0400

Whether the topic is Mississippi River flood control or cloud computing, there have been important engineering accomplishments and spectacular failures.

High-Level Programming Languages Should Improve Support for SIMD Instructions

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:19:00 -0400

Exposing SIMD units within interpreted languages could simplify programs and unleash floods of untapped processor power

Alice 3: Visualize Concurrent Code in Action

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:49:00 -0400

A new version of this innovative 3D programming environment makes it easy to understand the importance of concurrency

The Future of Microprocessors and the Potential Trick Bag for Developers

Tue, 31 May 2011 11:22:00 -0400

Borkar and Chien's article on the future of microprocessors is a fine piece of prophecy that we highly recommend for anybody who wants to know where all this multicore, parallelism, performance-speedup stuff is going

Agile and EVM Strategies

Tue, 03 May 2011 15:02:00 -0400

Because agile provides much greater openness and visibility to stakeholders, artificial measures such as EVM typically prove to be overhead at best, whose only value is to cater to the dysfunctional bureaucrats infesting many organizations.