Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2014 October 10

= October 10 =

Package or aggregating software functions by feature or by layer
I read some articles about packaging or aggregating software functions by feature or by layer (mainly for java or OOP, and was about classes and packages. But i guess that the question can be generalized in terms of functions, in the end OOP objects are function containers, and folders where to store those collection of functions). Almost everyone that discuss the topic agrees on packaging by feature, but for me seems a matter on "how the things are organized in our mind"), moreover the discussion sometimes seems not clear for me. So i ask here: 1. if you know studies (and not only articles) that point out that one design is better than the other for some defined quality; 2. if you can give me an hint if i got the concept of layer/feature packaging properly (i will explain my view later) ; 3. If you know some other organic of knowledge that could be used as a guideline for the topic (that is: packaging / how to aggregate functions). Thanks a lot (i hope that the answer will be useful also for others)

Here follows a small interpretation of the question by me, i will avoid examples that are too specific (sometimes i don't get some web oriented examples, or i don't see clearly the difference because i'm not in the domain of the application), and i will use as example a real life experience: find, transport, mount and use a piece of forniture (a desk or whatever).

So if i want to package by layer i would package in this way i guess:

I use the windows syntax for folders, so folder\subfolder\file.extension Search\Kitchen.code //just functions for searching the proper kitchen Search\Cupboard.code Search\Table.code Transport\kitchen.code //just functions for transport properly a kitchen Transport\Cupboard.code Transport\Table.code Mount\Kitchen.code //just functions for mount properly a kitchen Mount\Cupboard.code Mount\Table.code Use\Kitchen.code //just functions for use properly a kitchen Use\Cupboard.code Use\Table.code Instead if i want to package by feature i would package in this way i guess:

I use the windows syntax for folders, so folder\subfolder\file.extension Kitchen\Search.code Kitchen\Transport.code Kitchen\Mount.code Kitchen\Use.code Cupboard\Search.code Cupboard\Transport.code Cupboard\Mount.code Cupboard\Use.code Table\Search.code Table\Transport.code Table\Mount.code Table\Use.code

but in this case i lose the advantage of generalize common functions for searching, transporting, mounting and using, or not? Again, many thanks. --Pier4r (talk) 15:31, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
 * All I can throw out before this gets archived is that
 * Certainly organizing "by layer" happens in the sense of multilayered architecture; your example seems to be more "by function".
 * Organizing "by feature" certainly also happens, but sometimes at a very high level (in Firefox, Javascript is a "feature" that involves very many components with their own complicated organization).
 * Most OOP implementations favor the second of your two examples because we expect the nouns (Kitchen/Cupboard/Table) to have more persistent state than the verbs (Search/Transport/Mount/Use), so we make them the classes and attach the verbs as methods. With multiple dispatch, we might group the same methods more like the first example because the classes do not need to "own" their methods.
 * Hope this helps. --Tardis (talk) 13:40, 15 October 2014 (UTC)

Oracle data in Excel
Does this exist... I want some sort of data server that works as an in-between for Excel and Oracle. I want the workers to be able to open an Excel spreadsheet and somehow link it to the data server. Then, the worker can enter "=salary(201)" and the cell will fill the salary for employee 201 in the Oracle database. The worker can enter "=count(employees)" and the cell will fill the count of how many employees there are in the Oracle database. I know that the data server will be limited, but right now there is nothing at all. So, a limited data server will be better. 209.149.115.99 (talk) 17:22, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I haven't used Oracle, but I've done this sort of thing a lot to retrieve data from MS-SQL databases using with user-defined functions in VBA, specifically with ADODB objects (Connection, Command and Recordset). This page from Microsoft gives some information about how to connect to Oracle from Excel. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 18:50, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

Chinese script
I am using Windows XP and I can't get language scripts to install. I have tried the XP disk and I have tried the Microsoft links on Help:Multilingual support (East Asian). The computer refuses to find the files on the disk and when I use the browse function it makes up its own mind wether to try or not... but they don't work anyway... I may have wiped all of the symbols from Shaolin Kung Fu. does anyone know how I can fix this without using obscure software? ~ R . T . G  22:46, 10 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Try to use the links from the scripts from the Help:Multilingual support (East Asian) if it works. - gacelperfinian&#40;talk in &#45; error&#63; Start [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Gacelperfinian&action=edit a new topic] &#41; 08:19, 11 October 2014 (UTC)


 * I did try that, but I am still getting boxes instead of script. I'll just be careful not to edit them with it.  ~  R . T . G  11:40, 11 October 2014 (UTC)