software development
Although it's a little hard to parse through, I was blown away by The Rise of “Worse is Better”, because it touches on a theme I've noticed emerging in my blog entries: rejection of complexity, even when complexity is the more theoretically correct approach. Two famous
.net
There’s an interesting article documenting the dramatic uptake of .NET: Want more proof .Net is taking off? Consider the following: In May, Forrester Research released a report that found 56 percent of developers polled consider .Net their primary development environment for 2004, compared with 44 percent for J2EE. In
programming languages
There’s an interesting interview with Miguel de Icaza. Miguel is the primary developer behind the open-source port of the .NET runtime known as the Mono Project. This project was recently purchased by Novell, ostensibly to bolster the development tools available on Linux. Miguel seems refreshingly free of the dogma
vb.net
If I see one more blog entry complaining about VB’s verbosity, or the elitism of C# developers, I think I’m gonna puke. Why can’t we all just get along? Part of what makes the .NET Runtime unique is that it offers you a choice of syntax; we
software development concepts
On Rory’s effusive recommendation, I purchased a copy of the book, Coding Slave, by Bob Reselman. I have mixed feelings about Coding Slave. It’s got a great title, it definitely kept my interest, and it’s a quick read. I can also pretty much guarantee you’ve never
programming languages
The term “computer science” is a borderline oxymoron. Very little of what we do in software development is science: Many historians suggest that modern science began around 1600 in the time and with the efforts of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), and Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Their era punctuated the
regex
I generally don’t subscribe to the UNIX religion, but there is one area where I am an unabashed convert: regular expressions. Yeah, the syntax is a little scary, but for processing strings, nothing is more effective. The RegEx is the power drill of the programmer’s toolkit: not appropriate
debugging
I’m looking forward to VS.NET 2005 like everyone else, but the one killer feature that will absolutely compel me to upgrade on day of release is Edit and Continue. I had no idea exactly how much time I spent editing live code in VB6’s debugger until I
software development concepts
As I was driving home, I found myself thinking about a favorite section of the book Accidental Empires, by longtime computer journalist Robert X. Cringely. Originally published in 1993, it’s getting a little long in the tooth, but it still contains a lot of great insights about the personalities
programming languages
I’ve found a number of blog posts about the pros and cons of Simonyi’s Hungarian Notation, most notably, this blog post commenting on the extreme polarity of the reprinted MSDN article rating: This single image really cuts to the heart of the debate, pointedly illustrating what a religious
software development concepts
Reading through this blog, I was just reminded that Code Complete 2* was released. Since this book is the first entry on my prioritized list of Recommended Reading for Developers, and Steve is the patron saint of this web site, you better believe I just placed an order for it!
programming languages
I don’t understand it. I’ve seen this phenomenon over and over in VB.NET, in code from experienced programmers: If dt.DayOfWeek = DayOfWeek.Sunday Then Return dt ElseIf dt.DayOfWeek = DayOfWeek.Monday Then Return dt.AddDays(6) ElseIf dt.DayOfWeek = DayOfWeek.Tuesday Then Return dt.AddDays(5) ElseIf