open source
Eric Raymond, in The Cathedral and the Bazaar, famously wrote: Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. The idea is that open source software, by virtue of allowing anyone and everyone to view the source code, is inherently less buggy than closed source software. He dubbed this “Linus’s Law.
markdown
Let me open with an apology to John Gruber for my previous blog post. We’ve been working on the Standard Markdown project for about two years now. We invited John Gruber, the original creator of Markdown, to join the project via email in November 2012, but never heard back.
markdown
In 2009, I lamented the state of Markdown: Right now we have the worst of both worlds. Lack of leadership from the top, and a bunch of fragmented, poorly coordinated community efforts to advance Markdown, none of which are officially canon. This isn’t merely incovenient for anyone trying to
gender diversity
(The title references Shanley Kane’s post by the same name. This post represents my views on what men can do.) It’s no secret that programming is an incredibly male dominated field. * Figures vary, but somewhere from 20% to 29% of currently working programmers are female. * Less than 12%
blogging
In 2007, I was offered $120,000 to buy this blog outright. I was sorely tempted, because that’s a lot of money. I had to think about it for a week. Ultimately I decided that my blog was an integral part of who I was, and who I eventually
virtual reality
A month after I wrote about John Carmack, he left id Software to become the CTO of Oculus. This was big news for two reasons: 1. Carmack founded id in the early 90s. An id Software without Carmack is like an Apple without Woz and Jobs. You wouldn’t leave
.net
I’ve been a Microsoft developer for decades now. I weaned myself on various flavors of home computer Microsoft Basic, and I got my first paid programming gigs in Microsoft FoxPro, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft Visual Basic. I have seen the future of programming, my friends, and it is terrible
software development
Occasionally, startups will ask me for advice. That’s a shame, because I am a terrible person to ask for advice. The conversation usually goes something like this: We’d love to get your expert advice on our thing. I probably don’t use your thing. Even if I tried
history
In the go-go world of software development, we’re so consumed with learning new things, so fascinated with the procession of shiny new objects that I think we sometimes lose sight of our history. I don’t mean the big era-defining successes. Everyone knows those stories. I’m talking about
software development
I’ve been fortunate to have some measure of success in my life, primarily through this very blog over the last eight years, and in creating Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange over the last four years. With the birth of our twin girls, I’ve had a few months to
programming concepts
I didn’t intend for Please Don’t Learn to Code to be so controversial, but it seemed to strike a nerve. Apparently a significant percentage of readers stopped reading at the title. So I will open with my own story. I think you’ll find it instructive. My mom
software development
I adore words, but let’s face it: books suck. More specifically, so many beautiful ideas have been helplessly trapped in physical made-of-atoms books for the last few centuries. How do books suck? Let me count the ways: * They are heavy. * They take up too much space. * They have to