programming languages
In 1992, I thought I was the best programmer in the world. In my defense, I had just graduated from college, this was pre-Internet, and I lived in Boulder, Colorado working in small business jobs where I was lucky to even hear about other programmers much less meet them. I
programming languages
Ever have one of those days where everything you check into source control is wrong? Also, how exactly is that day is different from any other? But seriously. Code that is visible is code that can be wrong. No surprise there. But did you know that even the code you
security
In Why Isn't My Encryption.. Encrypting? we learned that your encryption is only as good as your understanding of the encryption code. And that the best encryption of all is no encryption, because you kept everything on the server, away from the prying eyes of the client. In
security
In Why Isn't My Encryption.. Encrypting?, many were up in arms about the flawed function I posted. And rightfully so, as there was a huge mistake in that code that just about invalidates any so-called "encryption" it performs. But there's one small problem: I
code review
I am continually amazed how much better my code becomes after I've had a peer look at it. I don't mean a formal review in a meeting room, or making my code open to anonymous public scrutiny on the internet, or some kind of onerous pair
code review
Ben Collins-Sussman on programmer insecurity [http://blog.red-bean.com/sussman/?p=96]: > What do you do when somebody shows up to an open source project with a gigantic new feature that took months to write? Who has the time to review thousands of lines of code? What if there
programming practices
Is software development an activity preferred by anti-social, misanthropic individuals who'd rather deal with computers than other people? If so, does it then follow that all software projects are best performed by a single person, working alone? The answer to the first question may be a reluctant yes,
egoless programming
The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming, as originally established in Jerry Weinberg's book The Psychology of Computer Programming [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633420/codihorr-20]: 1. Understand and accept that you will make mistakes. The point is to find them early, before they make it into