programming languages
I didn’t choose to be a programmer. Somehow, it seemed, the computers chose me. For a long time, that was fine, that was enough; that was all I needed. But along the way I never felt that being a programmer was this unambiguously great-for-everyone career field with zero downsides.
programming languages
You know what’s universally regarded as un-fun by most programmers? Writing assembly language code. As Steve McConnell said back in 1994: Programmers working with high-level languages achieve better productivity and quality than those working with lower-level languages. Languages such as C++, Java, Smalltalk, and Visual Basic have been credited
swift
I saw in today’s news that Apple open sourced their Swift language. One of the most influential companies in the world explicitly adopting an open source model – that’s great! I’m a believer. One of the big reasons we founded Discourse was to build an open source solution
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
These two imaginary guys influenced me heavily as a programmer. Instead of guaranteeing fancy features or compatibility or error free operation, Beagle Bros software promised something else altogether: fun. Playing with the Beagle Bros quirky Apple II floppies in middle school and high school, and the smorgasboard of oddball hobbyist
eink
Sure, smartphones and tablets get all the press, and deservedly so. But if you place the original mainstream eInk device from 2007, the Amazon Kindle, side by side with today’s model, the evolution of eInk devices is just as striking. Each of these devices has a 6 inch eInk
programming languages
Way back in 2007, before Stack Overflow was a glint in anyone’s eye, I called software development a collaborative game. And perhaps Stack Overflow was the natural outcome of that initial thought – recasting online software development discussion into a collaborative game where the only way to “win” is to
programming languages
Computer performance is a bit of a shell game. You’re always waiting for one of four things: * Disk * CPU * Memory * Network But which one? How long will you wait? And what will you do while you’re waiting? Did you see the movie “Her”? If not, you should. It’
psychology
The Dan Ariely books, Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, profoundly influenced the way I design my massively multiplayer typing games. These books offer science in the small about human behavior, and stark insights into user behavior – and by that I mean our own behavior. All detectives are by
software development concepts
If I haven’t blogged much in the last year, it’s because we’ve been busy building that civilized discourse construction kit thing I talked about. (Yes, that’s actually the name of the company. This is what happens when you put me in charge of naming things. Pinball
software development concepts
Every programmer ever born thinks whatever idea just popped out of their head into their editor is the most generalized, most flexible, most one-size-fits all solution that has ever been conceived. We think we’ve built software that is a general purpose solution to some set of problems, but we
programming languages
I get a surprising number of emails from career programmers who have spent some time in the profession and eventually decided it just isn’t for them. Most recently this: I finished a computer science degree last year, worked about a year in the Java EE stack. I liked requirements