The ability to perform pattern-matching operations on text is a skill that is
highly useful to any programmer. Whether you are creating a routine to
validate data entered into a form, performing parsing and mining on data
sets, or searching for sequence similarities in the human genome, chances are
that the ability to construct a regular expression will be of great value to
you. A single regular expression can often be used to create the same
pattern-matching functionality that would otherwise require a lengthy
subroutine.
Yet despite these apparent benefits, many .NET developers find regular
expressions daunting because they have a syntax based on Perl 5 regular
expressions and are thus somewhat different from the typical .NET language
constructs. In this article I wi... (more)
The security benefits and risks of Open Source code is one of the most
debated topics in information security today. The views of proponents of the
Open Source model are typified by Eric Raymond's argument that Open Source
software is intrinsically more secure since its open nature lets a greater
number of programmers view the source code and uncover potential security
threats before the... (more)
A current look at the field of bioinformatics will reveal that it is a field
that is largely dominated by the Linux operating system, as well as by
programming languages such as Perl, Python, and Java. Windows and its
associated native application development platforms are not in widespread use
among present-day bioinformatics practitioners. In fact, the usage of Linux
and other open sou... (more)
In late May 2004, Microsoft made the announcement that it was considering
entering the High-Performance Computing (HPC) Market, a market that has
traditionally been dominated by custom-engineered Unix-based machines. In
recent years, advances in technology have made possible the construction of
lower-cost computing clusters that utilize off-the-shelf hardware such as
Intel- and AMD-based... (more)
With the release of Visual Studio .NET and the structured error-handling
capabilities of the .NET Framework came significant improvements in the way
that VS programmers are able to capture and deal with programmatic errors.
Yet these more robust abilities do not lessen the importance of one of the
most time-tested means of error handling: prevention.
In this article I will highlight vario... (more)