Author

Junaid

Hi, my name is Junaid. I worked in Android, SEO, .NET and CodeIgniter. I'm also a formal author of TEP YouTube Channel and several courses at Udemy. I'm providing services of my skills and knowledge via this site. Keep connected and stay tuned.

FAQs About Software Engineering
Software Engineering

FAQs About Software Engineering

by Junaid
written by Junaid

This article is going to explain you the answers of frequently asked questions regarding software engineering. People are curious about software engineering and create chaos by their own about software engineers.

When was just started learning software engineering I was very excited about the charm which I have heard and watch in movies. But reality is a far away from these imaginations.

I have learn anything in my career being a software engineer and that’s why I want to share my thoughts with the newcomers and the passionate people about software engineering.

What is software?

The term software relates with the computer program or context of coding. Indeed I prefer to elaborate the simple term into the generic realistic way. Software air engineering is not all about the development it’s about the documentation, system configuration and the right way to develop a solution.

Usually a software is a combination of different components. Such as configuration files to incorporate software within any environment, system documentation to provide a guide for end user about how to utilize the software.

In the market mostly software engineers are concerned with the development of software and new solutions which can be solved to the customer. Basically there are two fundamental software types which are represent as a product.

  1. Generic product
  2. Customise product

1 – Generic products

stand along office products

These are known as standalone solutions which are developed for generic purposes. The target audience of these software’s are those people who can afford it. Software companies the weather these products as their best service. Right now in the market there are many stand alone solutions which are on the top such as Microsoft Office, Photoshop, AutoCAD etc.

2 – Customize product

custom software solutions

These are the systems which are developed upon the request of particular customer. Software engineers develop special solutions for the special requirement of the client and these software’s are not able to resold to any other client . Because this is not a generic product which is entertain every person.

The basic example of customized product is the company website. Nowadays every company have their own website which cannot be replicated to another company. Similar to this there are many ERP solutions, school systems many many more management systems.

Basic Questions!

1 – What is software?

A simple program along with its documentation which is developed for the special purpose or to entertain any problem programatically. Games and mobile application or also known as a software.

2 – What is software engineering?

It is a sub branch of computer science which deals with the development life cycle of a software. In simple words we can say that it is the way of development any solution according to pre-define standards.

3 – Difference between software engineering & computer science?

Software engineering is drives from computer science to enhance their broader view. Computer science is dealing with the fundamentals and core theory of software, where software engineering emphasis on the practical approaches and on the commutative analysis of software delivery in mean time.

4 – Difference between software engineering & system engineering?

System engineering is all about hardware and embedded element of a computer system. Nowadays system engineering become a independent big domain and we can see its usage in face of PLC, embedded programming and Microcontroller. Where software engineering is playing a vital role regarding the methodology of development and structure of programming.

5 – What is software process?

A process in software engineering is a back to back set of activities which aims to to develop particular area of a software solution. In simple words we can say that requirement gathering is a process. Because the ultimate aim of this process is to develop the actual software.

6 – What is a software process model?

In the beginning of software era engineers have to perform back to back processes without any sorting order. Now after a lot of research software engineers introduced some process models to develop the solution in a fast-paced environment. Set of activities and multiple processes are named as a Process model such as agile, waterfall and spiral etc.

7 – Costs of software engineering?

Software engineers divide a cost of software in two slabs. According to the generic analysis around 60% of the actual budget is spend upon the core development and rest of 40% is spend upon testing and quality assurance.

Cost = Cost of Dev + Cost of QA

8 – What are software engineering methods?

There are many approaches to develop a software in a good manner. In this approaches we can conclude data notations, UML diagrams, use cases, business and functional documentation, standard development rules and process guidelines.

9 – What is CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering)?

Software systems which are developed to extend the functionality of main software and to automate their processes are known as CASE. These are mostly used for method support.

10 – Attributes of good software?

There are many attributes of good software according to different preferences and prospective of the software engineers. In the ideal case software should deliver for what it’s developed. It should be dependable, reusable, extendable and easy to maintain.

11 – Key challenges facing software engineering?

Due to high demand of software systems engineers have to to create reusable code and for that a lot of approaches applied which takes a lot of time to implement. In the first build software take a lot of time but in the next versions of software, engineers used already created module to extend the functionality of existing system.

Conclusion

There is a basic difference between generic and custom products, and that is, in the generic software development all the requirement and specification is controlled by the software development team and in the custom software development all the specifications are controlled by the client.

This basic difference is getting absolute day by day and many software houses are started developed generic product which can be easily customized according to clients. The basic example of these type systems are ERP and SAP.

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

by Junaid
written by Junaid

In order to support their opinions and decisions, people need data more than ever. Fortunately there are a ton of free online datasets. Google definitely is your friend with any questions about online stuff, but many of the highest quality data sources do not necessarily appear in a Google search at the top. This article is aimed at directing you to my top 7 resources to find online data of high quality.

1 – Five Thirty Eight

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

FiveThirtyEight covers a wide range of news topics and includes data in their articles at all times. They now share a lot of the data sets that they are using. This is a great source of sport, culture, and politics data.

2 – Data world

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

Data world has a wide variety of datasets and enables you to work easily on a given data project with others. You need to create a login to access datasets on this site.

3 – World Bank

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

The World Bank is providing a ton of different country information worldwide.

4 – Government Data Agencies

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

Most government agencies have a lot of data that can be downloaded and used by the public. You can find datasets for city, state, and federal. Environment, economy, demographics, and much more data sets are available.

  • https://www.data.gov/
  • https://www.usa.gov/statistics
  • https://www.federalreserve.gov/data.htm
  • https://www.bls.gov/
  • https://data.ca.gov/
  • https://datasf.org/opendata/

5 – Github

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

Github is the online collaborative code repository world standard. There’s more than just code on Github, there are many platform projects that have datasets to use. Searching for data is a great place and there is even a project with another list of public data sources:

6 – Kaggle

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

Kaggle is a competition website for data science. Some data and a prompt will be posted by different groups. Site users then have a set amount of time to finish the project. The best part is that it remains on the website after their data is posted and is available for free download. More than 12,000 datasets are now available on the website.

7 – Google

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

Google created a separate search engine for data sets specifically. It’s still in Beta so for every topic there may not be great results, but this should be your first place to check out when looking for data.

Data Analysis and Quality Check

There are a few questions you should ask for any data set you can find online.

Can I trust on data source?

Consider the data source’s reputation, are they a large institution or a single person? If you’re skeptical, look at other data sources around the same topic and see if the numbers still look reasonable. I would rank most of those sources as highly reputable. You should be a little cautious about any community contributed data on websites such as DataWorld or Github as it is unlikely to be verified.

Is this data is valid?

Investigate the data, get some estimates of what the maximum and minimum for any column should be, and then see if any values are outside. An easy way to see this is to sort the maximum and minimum values in ascending and descending order by each column. To do this, select all the data in Excel or Google Sheets, then click the filter icon and select options A to Z and then Z to A.

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

Much data could have been incorrectly entered, somebody might have typed in $1,100.00 or $11,00.00 instead of $11,000.00. Using the above described sorting options can help detect the most obvious examples. Another common example is that sometimes people don’t want to provide real data for things like phone numbers, so in those columns you might get a lot of 9 or 0.

A column’s title may also be misleading. For example, a field could be called “Employed percent” and the field could mean 0.80 or 80 both 80 percent. Usually this can be determined with context clues (what seems reasonable, what other values look like in this column, etc.).

Is this data is complete and compatitive?

In a dataset, data is missing many times. Checking for null or missing values in any dataset you want to use is a best practice. For example, in Excel you can do this by using the COUNTBLANK function, COUNTBLANK(B1:B3) results in a count of 1 in the image below.

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

Is this data is biased or skewed?

Try to visualize the various data columns in your data set. Use a histogram for numerical columns. See what type of distribution there is (normal, left, right, uniform, bimodal, etc) for each column. A frequency table is mostly one value for non-numeric columns? Checking these things will build your intuition about the overall quality of the data and the columns to be used in an analysis.

Dataset Distributions:

Find Quality Datasets Online for Business Intelligence

Many data tools allow you to check for all these kinds of quality issues quickly and easily. With csv or excel file, Excel and Google Sheets are the fastest and easiest to use. There are also more advanced tools, such as Alteryx, that you can use to check multiple columns at once.

configure XAMPP on Windows 10
Software Deployment

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

by Junaid
written by Junaid

XAMPP is a free open source software that makes it easy for web designers and developers to install the components they need to run PHP-based software such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and others on Windows 10, Mac OS X, and Linux.

If you’re a web developer, designer or blogger, XAMPP will save you time and frustration by manually installing and configuring Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl to create a test environment on your device. In this guide, you will learn how to install XAMPP on your Windows 10 computer, how to set up the software, and how to solve common problems.

Installing XAMPP on Windows 10

Use the following steps to download and install XAMPP to your Windows 10 computer:

Note: If you have special PHP version requirements, download the installation version. If you don’t have a version requirement, download the oldest version as it can help you avoid problems trying to install a software based on PHP.

  • To run the installer, double-click the file.
  • To continue, click the OK button on the warning.

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • Click the button Next.

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • XAMPP offers a wide range of components you can install, including MySQL, phpMyAdmin, PHP, Apache, and more. Most of these components will be used by you, as such it is recommended that you leave the default options and click the Next button.

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • Use the default location settings to install the software, or select another folder to install it, and click the Next button.

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • Clear the XAMPP option Learn more about Bitnami.
  • Click the button Next.

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • To allow the app through the firewall (if applicable), click the Allow access button.

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • Click the button Finish.

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • Choose your (English or German) language.
  • Click the button Save.

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

Once the steps have been completed, the XAMPP Control Panel will start and you can start the configuration of the web server environment.

Configure XAMPP on Windows 10

There are three main sections in the XAMPP Control Panel. You’ll find all the services available in Modules. By clicking the Start button, you can run each service.

On the right side you will also see the process ID number and TCP / IP port numbers used by each service when you start some of the services, including Apache and MySQL. For instance, Apache uses 80 and 443 TCP / IP port by default, while MySQL uses 3306 TCP / IP port.

To access the administration dashboard for each service, you can also click the Admin button and verify that everything is working properly.

configure XAMPP on Windows 10

There is a list of buttons on the right to configure different aspects of the control panel, including Config to configure which modules you want to start automatically when you start XAMPP.

configure XAMPP on Windows 10

Netstart will provide you with a list of services that currently access the network, process ID and port information for TCP / IP.

configure XAMPP on Windows 10

And quick access buttons are also available to open the shell command-line utility, XAMPP installation folder, services, and quit the app.

Finally, you get the logs section, where every time you start a module or change a setting you can take a look at what happens. It’s also the first place to look at when something doesn’t work.

configure XAMPP on Windows 10

For most people using XAMPP, the default settings should work to create a testing environment for running a website for personal use or a client.

Depending on your configuration, however, you may need to change the Apache server TCP / IP port number, the upload size of the database, or set the phpMyAdmin password. You will need to use the Config button for the corresponding service to change these settings.

For example, to change the settings on the Apache server, you will need to open the httpd.conf file and the my.ini file to change MySQL settings.

Apache not starting on XAMPP

XAMPP installation is very straightforward, but sometimes there is a problem that won’t allow the Apache server to run on Windows 10 and other versions of the operating system.

The problems can be attributed to the World Wide Publishing Service that can be installed and run on port 80 on your Windows PC. Port 80 is also the default TCP / IP port that Apaches uses on XAMPP and there are no two applications that can use the same port on your computer.

As shown below, you have a few ways to fix the problem:

  1. Uninstall World Wide Web Services
  2. Change the default Apache TCP/IP port
  3. Manually stop World Wide Web Publishing Service

1 – Uninstall World Wide Web Services

If, depending on the World Wide Web Services feature, you do not have any applications, you can uninstall them using the following steps:

  • Open Start Menu.
  • Search for Control Panel, and to open the experience, click the top result.
  • Click the Programs button.
  • Click the option Program and Features
  • Click on or off the link to Turn Windows features.

configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • Expand IT services and uncheck World Wide Web Services. If you don’t rely on these services, you can also uncheck FTP Server and Web Management Tools here.
  • Click the OK.

configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • To apply the changes, restart your computer.
  • Click Start on Apache to open XAMPP Control Panel.

Apache should be able to run on your device in port 80 after completing the steps.

2 – Change the default Apache TCP/IP port

Alternatively, the following steps can be used to configure Apache to run on another TCP / IP port:

  • On the XAMPP Control Panel.
  • Click the Apache Admin button.
  • Click the option httpd.conf.
  • Find the line and scroll down: Listen 80.
  • Change the 80 for another port number of TCP / IP. Port 81 can be tried.
    (The line should read after the change: Listen 81.)

configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • Save the httpd.conf file and close it.
  • To run the Apache server, click on the Start button.

Once the steps have been completed, the Apache server should run in the port you specified with problems.

The only caveat with this change in configuration is that each time you want to connect to your website, you will need to attach TCP / IP port number to the address.

For example, you need to type: localhost:81/dashboard instead of localhost / dashboard to access the Apache server on the web browser.

3 – Manually stop World Wide Web Publishing Service

Another thing you could do is stop the World Wide Web Publishing Service (World Wide Web Services) and change its settings by using the following steps only to start the service manually:

  • Open Start menu.
  • To open the experience, search for Services and click the top result.
  • Double-click the Web Publishing Service.

configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • Click the button Stop.
  • Change the type of startup to Manual.
  • Click the button Apply.
  • Then click the button OK.

configure XAMPP on Windows 10

  • Click the Start button on the XAMPP Control Panel to run the Apache server.

The best way to get Apache back to work is to uninstall the World Wide Web Publishing Service, but if that’s not possible you can change the TPC / IP port number or stop service as needed.

Final Thoughts

In this article you have learned, how you can Install,  Configure, Fix common issue of Xampp in Windows environment. I hope it will be very insightful for you. As a CodeIgniter developer I used to play with xampp. In the beginning I have to face many issues regarding environment setup that’s why I have shared this. If you feel any ambiguity in this and there is any suggestion I will warmly welcome you.

Best Code Editor for Programmers
Software Development Tool

12 Best Code Editor for Programmers 2019

by Junaid
written by Junaid

As a developer, you need to have the best code editor to save your time of development. It is crucial because in a lightweight environment, the text editors allow developers to write the codes. The programmers primary use text editors to write code for website and application development.

Today’s market is filled with many free and paid code editor. The coders are challenged to select the best code editor that has all the features they need to write, debug, and execute the codes.

Features such as auto-indentation and highlighting syntax help programmers improve their coding skills.

In order to make it a little easier for each developer to choose an editor, I have prepared a list of some of the best ones available code editor either free of charge or at subscription cost.

1 – Emacs

Best Code Editor for Programmers

It is a real-time display code editor that can be customized, extended and self-documented. It’s different from most of code editors as it’s a visual one and gives you a full document representation. You can move freely anywhere in the program and edit any part of the document that requires modifications.

GNU Emacs’ user interface allows users to combine commands into macros. This helps the work to be automated. It works on Mac, Windows, and Linux and is therefore a text editor for multi-platforms. While most of these days’ editors are real-time, Emacs was one of the earliest to release this feature.

Type: Freeware

2 – Atom

Best Code Editor for Programmers

It is an open source text and code editor designed and developed by GitHub for programmers. It’s a text editor multi-platform. The editor has an integrated package manager that allows you to search and install new packages.

You can open multiple projects simultaneously within one window. It has a convenient user interface compared to most editors, which is why many programmers prefer to use Atom to write codes.

Type: Freeware

3 – Brackets

Best Code Editor for Programmers

Although lightweight, it is a powerful source code editor that web developers mainly use. It is written in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS and is licensed under the MIT License. Brackets do not require programmers to jump between the file tabs.

You can open a window in the code instead. When using brackets, coders get a real-time connection to the browser. This means that the spot reflects any php changes they make to the source.

It has a user interface quick edit feature that puts inline context-specific codes and tools. The integrated manager of extensions ensures fast and efficient management.

Type: Freeware

4 – Notepad++

Best Code Editor for Programmers

Made for the Windows platform entirely, it uses pure win32 API. You get a small program size and higher speeds of execution with Notepad++. Many developers prefer to use it because for a number of programming languages it has built-in syntax highlighters.

The C++ text editor has a powerful editing component; Scintilla. This editor’s functionality can be extended by using hundreds of free plugins. The best part about using this editor is that it uses relatively smaller CPU power, which in turn results in the device’s power consumption. It thus helps to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide to the environment.

Type: Freeware

5 – Geany

Best Code Editor for Programmers

For programmers, it is a lightweight text editor and uses Scintilla and GTK+. Geany also has some IDE features. The editor supports a lot of programming languages and has a feature of auto-completion in it. It supports many types of files and enables you to browse the source code.

If you use the plugins, the editor can be extended. You can also fold the code partially in this editor. Like many other editors of text, it simultaneously supports multiple documents. In a single window, you can open multiple files. This is referred to as tabbed editing.

Type: Freeware

6 – NoteTab

Best Code Editor for Programmers

NoteTab has a tabbed interface that handles several text files. There are over 90 commands on a user-configurable toolbar that make it a highly customizable editor.

It is different from other editors because it has its own “Clip” macro language. Compared to some other text editors, the search and replacement feature on NoteTab is much more powerful.

The pasteboard is one of NoteTab’s most powerful features. This can be used from days or weeks ago to search and reuse clippings.

Type: Freeware | Subscriptions

7 – Visual Studio Code

Best Code Editor for Programmers

Another open source text editor, Microsoft is developing it. JavaScipt, Node.js, and TypeScript are supported by the editor. It supports more than 30 languages of programming. Visual Code Studio has more to do than highlighting syntax and auto-completing.

The feature is called IntelliSense, which provides intelligent completion based on imported modules, function definitions, and types of variable. It provides Git version control and some other debugging tools for easier development. There are also portable editor versions available.

To add even more themes, languages, and debuggers, you can install additional extensions. The best part is that these extensions are running in separate processes, ensuring the editor speed is not affected.

Type: Freeware

8 – Sublime Text

Best Code Editor for Programmers

It’s an incredibly fast text editor, packed with features, and fully customizable. Despite being a lightweight editor, the editor’s efficiency and accuracy is just perfect. It uses a custom toolkit for the user interface, optimizing its beauty and speed.

IDE has a great alternative and it’s the editor of Sublime Text. With the editor of Sublime Text code, you get the freedom to divide the screen at the same time into two documents. Nearly everything can be customized in the Sublime Text editor with simple JSON files. It has a palette of commands to make snippets, setting, and more easy to access.

Type: Freeware | Subscriptions

9 – WebStorm

Best Code Editor for Programmers

You can debug the customer side and Node.js apps with the WebStorm text editor. The interface in the source code can be put and the call stack and variables can be explored. HTML, CSS, Node.js, and JavaScript provide intelligent help.

Profit from test runners, REST customers, linters and tools for construction. It is available at an IDE tool window in the Editor if you need a terminal at any time.

Type: Freeware To Subscriptions

10 – VIM

Best Code Editor for Programmers

It is one of the industry’s oldest text editors and is popular with programmers who require an fully customized text editor. The reason for its popularity is that it supports complete keyboard actions, so you don’t have to use a mouse at all. It is another reason because it is popular in almost every Unix machine.

This can also be used with a terminal via SSH in a remote development environment. It works also very well with larger files to improve productivity overall. This text editor does not have a limited functionality and can be extended with tons of plugins.

Type: Freeware

11 – Blufish

Best Code Editor for Programmers

Bluefish is an advanced text editor with a number of dynamic website writing tools. It supports programming in over 20 languages and is available for multiple operating systems.

Blufish can also be run as stand-alone software and integrated with GNOME. It is not a plain editor of text, nor is it a complete IDE. Bluefish is easy to program and develop the sites as it is a relatively lightweight editor. Bluefish is using GKT+ for its GUI widgets.

The code editor is written in C language, but the API plugin in C is used primarily to separate maintained and non-maintained components.

It is possible to extend the program’s overall functionality by installing additional plugins and scripts.

Type: Freeware

12 – ICEcoder

Best Code Editor for Programmers

This one is a text editor for coders and programmers based on a browser. This means you can do everything in your web browser’s single window and see the differences simultaneously on another window tab. You get a perfect performance both online and offline through ICEcoder.

All you need to code is a web browser in this editor. This unique feature makes the site much more convenient for development and maintenance. Database management becomes a cake walk with the admin plugin. It’s a better phpMyAdmin version. Features such as Emmet coding assistance, closing tag completion, tag wrappers are also available.

Type: Freeware

Thoughts

The choice to pick the best text editor for programming is entirely yours from these options. Choosing may be a little hard, but whatever you choose, you’re going to enjoy writing code in it. Help you determine your preferences with the options you get.

Based on your needs, you need to select the best code editor. You can choose to start Notepad++ as a beginner. It is easy to use, but at the same time it is extremely flexible and expansive. You get all the features you need to conveniently develop a website. You can also tell us your choices and share your thoughts about the ones you’re using.

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