Category Archives: Opinion

Just my opinion!

OOP versus Imp

25 Tuesday Jun 2019

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This is another note for a friend: a followup to a discussion about how some programmers really hate Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) languages.

Most of those who hate OOP hold up Imperative Programming (IP) as the One True Way to write code. The key difference is the IP is function (or verb) oriented whereas OOP is object (or noun) oriented.

I’ve never really understood that active dislike. It’s just another way to organize the same code you’d write anyway.

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Anyone Can Code?

14 Friday Sep 2018

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There’s a general ethic these days — that anyone can code — and like a lot of things, there’s some truth to it, but also some silliness. As usual, it really depends on what we mean by “anyone can code.”

If we mean it in the same way we might say, “anyone can drive,” I think it’s silly. But if we mean in the same way we might say, “anyone can doctor (or lawyer),” well, then I still think it’s silly.

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The Software Industry

11 Saturday Aug 2018

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xkcd #2030 by Randall MonroeI cracked up when I saw this recent xkcd cartoon. Randall Munroe rarely fails to deliver, but this one especially caught my eye. It’s painfully on-point and quite dismaying on at least two points:

Firstly, that it should still be this bad given all the time, money, and attention, it has received is reason alone for dismay. Part of the problem here may be that we haven’t admitted how hard software is to get right.

But, secondly, software is central to our lives now — far more than airplanes, and even more likely than elevator rides. You might ride an elevator, at most, a dozen times a day, but software enters your life more times than that.

Especially if you use a mobile computing device!

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My Ideal System v.1

27 Saturday Jun 2015

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I got into software in the late 1970s, so my first couple of decades involved lots of low-level systems and designs. My world had a lot of assembly code, interrupt handlers, and driver routines. I can’t say I miss living in that realm, but it’s still fun to revisit sometimes.

A rare place that still happens is when I get to thinking about how I might design an operating system should I ever chose to (these days a dubious and foolish choice, at best).

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Computer programming is hard!

16 Monday Jun 2014

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Computer Programming is hard! It’s at least as hard as what commercial architects do, and I will argue that it’s as intellectually difficult as what doctors and lawyers do.

Many people think it’s easy, because they know some nine-year-old who “programs,” but there’s a difference between fooling around with the computer and building good software applications.

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Managing Complexity

22 Thursday May 2014

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Somewhere I heard someone claim that: “Programming is an exercise in managing complexity.” The word “is” makes the sentence slightly ambiguous. It could mean: “Programming is just an exercise in managing complexity,” implying that that’s all programming is. Or it could mean: “Programming is an exercise in managing complexity (in addition to other things).”

I would absolutely disagree with the first interpretation; programming is definitely more than just managing complexity. On the other hand, managing complexity is a huge aspect of programming.

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Data, Text and Strings (oh, my!)

15 Tuesday Apr 2014

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The Strings and Text are not the same post on Musing Mortoray discusses the difference between “text” and “strings” and got me thinking. Rather than weigh down his (or her) comment section with a very long comment, I thought I’d go on a bit about it here.

I agree totally with the basic premise: that “text” and “strings” are different beasts. I also agree that text-handling depends on the text. There might be some difference in how we define text and string, and thinking about how I define them turned up a lot of thoughts on the matter. This isn’t intended as an opposition post (except on one point with regard to HTML). What follows is just one programmer’s opinion.

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Heartbleed bug

14 Monday Apr 2014

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The heartbleed bug has been in the news lately. Rightfully so; it’s a pretty big deal, at least in theory. How much damage is practically possible and how much damage may have occurred is unknown so far. But the potential security hole is enormous!

Two things really stand out about this bug: Firstly, attackers get (potentially) vast amounts of internal computer data while leaving no record. Secondly, the bug is a simple error caused by, metaphorically speaking, not looking both ways when crossing a one-way street.

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The Universal Answer

10 Monday Mar 2014

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At some point it strikes you. For some it  happens early in Computer Science class after hearing a professor say it for the umpteenth time. For others it happens when hearing it come from their own mouths for the umpteenth time. The Universal Answer to any (and all) computer (science) question(s).

“It depends.”

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Always Use Less-Than

05 Wednesday Mar 2014

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Here’s a simple tip! I can’t begin to count how many potential code bugs this has eliminated. It takes some getting used to but once you make it automatic it’s a real help in keeping code and your thinking correct.

The tip is this: when you write relational expressions, always use less-than, never use greater-than. (Less-than-or-equal is okay, too.)

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