Software Development
7 Best Things About Being a Consulting Software Developer
I ran across the video below at the SDLC blog: “Hug a developer… They’re in terrible pain.”
This came at an significant time for me, because I too have been working on a project that is quite painful for me. It’s painful, because I saw the disaster coming, because I warned about it, because I was [...]
Top 10 Most Bizarre Programming Languages Ever Created
From NETTUTS, a humorous summary of 10 bizarre programming languages, namely:
Ook!
Piet
Whitespace
LOLCODE
Shakespeare
Befunge
reMorse
FALSE
Whenever
l33t
The conclusion one draws from this list is unmistakable and undeniable: There are programmers in the world who have far too much free time on their hands!
-TimK
More Reasons to Avoid SourceSafe
I’m helping out with a project I used to work on, one in an organization that uses SourceSafe to manage its source code. Fortunately, this time, I don’t have to deal with SourceSafe this time. All I have to do is to submit my diffs against a baseline, and someone else will have to deal [...]
Proof That Programming Language Trivia Is Stupid
As reported in the New York Times:
When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.
Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to [...]
New Website about Software Engineering & Custom Web Development
Just a quick note: I’ve started a new website at JTSE.com about software engineering and custom web development. Like most of my sites, it’s a blog (or pseudo-blog), and there’s an RSS feed. If you’re interested in software-development topics (especially if you subscribed to this blog back when I was talking a lot more about [...]
You Know You’re an Old Fogey Software Engineer When…
Today, I came to a realization. I’m now officially an Old Fogey Software Engineer. You know, like those narrow-minded, intolerant, old-time veterans of the field I used to look down on when I was but a young Whippersnapper. They were so limited in their view, only being able to do what they have always done, [...]
Does Bad Writing Reflect Poor Programming Skills?
Writing is a communication skill. And they say that communication skills and the other soft skills are what programmers need today. Effective developers don’t work alone. They work with others in a team. And a team member needs to communicate with the other team members to be effective.
It’s like playing football. No one person can [...]
Seven Truths of Good Code
What is “good” code? Some define it as “beautiful.” Some equate it with experience. Some with cleverness. Some can’t tell you what it is. Others know it when they see it. For me, “good” means maintainable.
Good code, yes, has grace and beauty. But what makes it worthwhile is that it’s easy to work with. It’s [...]
Ten Favorite Books
These are not necessarily my all-time favorites in all categories. I don’t even know whether I could narrow the list down that far. But these are ten really good books from my library, all of which I heartily recommend.
In fact, I continue to be amazed at how many people have not read even the most [...]
Quick and Dirty May Be Dirty, But Is It Quick?
I’ve been meaning for some time to write about how slow “quick and dirty” is, how misnamed the term is, how misguided are the hoards of managers (many of them former and current software developers) who embrace “quick and dirty” as a fast solution to pressing problems, as though it could ever deliver an actual [...]