usability
In-N-Out Burger is a fast food institution here in California. Part of their appeal, I think, is their radically simplified menu. Instead of forcing customers to process a complex menu with a hundred choices, In-N-Out got real and pared it down to what really matters: a burger, fries, and a
programming languages
For many programmers, our introduction to programming was our dad forcing us to write our own games. Instead of the shiny new Atari 2600 game console I wanted, I got a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a computer instead. That's not exactly what I had in mind at the time,
programming languages
I've become a big fan of Twitter. My philosophy is, when in doubt, make it public, and Twitter is essentially public instant messaging. This suits me fine. Well, when Twitter is actually up and running, at least. Its bouts of frequent downtime are legendary, even today. (I was
programming languages
I arrived at work today to find this package. It's from one "C. Petzold", whoever the heck that is. Inside was a copy of the book 3D Programming for Windows: Three-Dimensional Graphics Programming for the Windows Presentation Foundation. It's even inscribed: This is, of
software development concepts
It takes discipline for development teams to benefit from modern software engineering conventions. If your team doesn't have the right kind of engineering discipline, the tools and processes you use are almost irrelevant. I advocated as much in Discipline Makes Strong Developers. But some commenters were understandably apprehensive
programming languages
A standard part of my development kit is Microsoft's Visual Studio [http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/]. Here's what I have to install to get a current, complete version of Visual Studio 2005 on a new PC: 1. Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Edition 2. Visual Studio
software development concepts
Here's an interesting thought question from Mike Stall: what's worse than crashing? Mike provides the following list of crash scenarios, in order from best to worst: 1. Application works as expected and never crashes. 2. Application crashes due to rare bugs that nobody notices or cares
programming languages
I believe there's a healthy balance all programmers need to establish, somewhere between … * Locking yourself away in a private office and having an intimate dialog with a compiler about your program. * Getting out in public and having an open dialog with other human beings about your program. I&
software development concepts
Most software projects fail. But that doesn't mean yours has to. The first question you should ask is a deceptively simple one: how big is it? Steve McConnell explains in Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art: [For a software project], size is easily the most significant determinant of
programming languages
Paul Heberli and Bruce Karsh proposed something they call futurist programming in 1994: We believe there is a great opportunity for Futurist principles to be applied to the science of computer programming. We react against the heavy religious atmosphere that surrounds every aspect of computer programming. We believe it is
programming languages
Tim Berners-Lee on the Principle of Least Power [http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Principles.html]: > Computer Science spent the last forty years making languages which were as powerful as possible. Nowadays we have to appreciate the reasons for picking not the most powerful solution but the least powerful. The
user experience
One of my great frustrations with the Mac is the way the maximize button on each window fails to maximize the window. In a comment, Alex Chamberlain explained why this isn't broken, it's by design: This is a textbook example of how Microsoft's programmers