Jeff Atwood

Indoor enthusiast. Co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse. Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about. Let's be kind to each other. Find me

Bay Area, CA
Jeff Atwood
Levelling Up in the IDE

programming languages

Levelling Up in the IDE

I have nothing against World of Warcraft, but the Gamasutra editorial World of Warcraft Teaches the Wrong Things highlights one problem I have with the entire MMORPG* genre: [WOW teaches players that] investing a lot of time in something is worth more than actual skill. If you invest more time

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Sometimes a Word is Worth a Thousand Icons

user experience

Sometimes a Word is Worth a Thousand Icons

Pop quiz, hotshot. What do these toolbar icons do – and what application are they from? Okay, maybe that’s a bit too monochrome. Does color help? Okay, let’s try something less abstract. Does a more traditional look help? So we can see there’s some kind of VCR-like functionality,

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C# Snippet Parity

c#

C# Snippet Parity

Microsoft recently released a complete set of C# code snippets for Visual Studio 2005. This brings C# to parity with VB.NET, which had many more code snippets “in the box.” Unfortunately, Microsoft’s installation strategy for these new snippets leaves a lot to be desired. You can download and

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Will Mouse Gestures Ever Be Mainstream?

user experience

Will Mouse Gestures Ever Be Mainstream?

Darwinia is the third game I’ve played with mouse gesture support: 1. Bungie’s classic 1998 game Myth used gestures in a limited way to indicate squad facing post-movement. 2. Lionhead’s 2001 game Black and White used gestures to invoke various spells. 3. Introversion Software’s 2005 game

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Darwinia

gaming

Darwinia

One of the most amazing gaming experiences I’ve had in recent memory was playing Introversion Software’s Darwinia. It’s a bit difficult to explain, but the game is a cross between Tron, Syndicate, Populous, and Lemmings. It has a distinct, beautiful retro style all its own. And the

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Choosing between .NET Pepsi and .NET Coke

.net

Choosing between .NET Pepsi and .NET Coke

I’ve increasingly come to believe that the debate between C# and VB.NET is a red herring. Choosing between C# and VB.NET isn’t a meaningful choice. It’s like choosing between .NET Pepsi and .NET Coke. Either way, you’re getting a cola flavored carbonated beverage. If

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Colorization Required

markup languages

Colorization Required

Black and white works fine when I’m reading newspapers. But when I’m reading computer languages of any kind – from Perl to SQL, from C# to Regular Expressions, from HTML to XML – I can’t bear to read them in black and white any more. Consider this Infocard XML

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The Real Cost of Hello World

programming languages

The Real Cost of Hello World

The archetypal Hello World program has always had a calming effect on developers. It’s been a programming staple for decades: [Hello World] is typically one of the simplest programs possible in a computer language. Some, however, are surprisingly complex, especially in some GUI contexts; but most are very simple,

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writing

Fear of Writing

When I meet people that have something to say, and an interesting way of saying it, I encourage them to blog. But there’s one big hurdle many people simply never get past: the actual writing. I can respect that. Writing is hard. People spend their entire lives learning how

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Standard Browser Keyboard Shortcuts

keyboard shortcuts

Standard Browser Keyboard Shortcuts

All modern browsers have extensive keyboard shortcuts: * Internet Explorer * Firefox * Chrome * Safari I tested every shortcut, and here’s my list of keyboard shortcuts that work in all browsers – or, for the rare keyboard shortcuts I found especially useful, those that work in at least two of the above browsers.

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Lotus Notes: Survival of the Unfittest

enterprise software

Lotus Notes: Survival of the Unfittest

Via Ole Eichhorn, the UK Guardian’s Survival of the Unfittest: Lotus Notes is used by millions of people, but almost all of them seem to hate it. How can a program be so bad, yet thrive? We’ve all had bad software experiences. However, at one of my jobs,

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Presentation Zen

communication

Presentation Zen

So I’ve been critical of other people’s presentations. Which naturally leads to a few questions: * What makes a presentation good? * Why don’t you try giving a presentation? I realize that giving presentations isn’t easy. But I still feel that some speakers haven’t done the basic

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