Tag Archives: computer programming

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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Python & Baseball

19 Monday May 2014

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One of the cool things about being a carpenter is that you can make your own shelves and dog houses. One of the cool things about being a computer programmer is that you can make your own computer apps!

In an era when computers are so much a part of life, that’s a useful skill. And the nice thing about doing it yourself is that things turn out exactly as you want them. You can make things that are perfect just for you.

Case in point: using Python to create custom charts of baseball stats!

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Rule #3: Don’t Ignore Warnings

13 Tuesday May 2014

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There have been times when, working on other people’s code, one of the first things that pops up is that their code generates thousands of warnings. I’m not exaggerating the number; there have been at least two times I can recall where someone’s code set generated that many warnings. And both times, the code set wasn’t all that large (only tens of thousands of lines).

Which leads us to Rule #3: Don’t ignore warnings!

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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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Too much specialization!

06 Thursday Mar 2014

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To make this blog (I hope) useful, I have tips and advice and bits of advice. But the initial motivation was wanting to write about programming or software in general — topics too technical for my regular blog. In particular, I wanted a place to document past projects, ideas and personal (but sharable) thoughts about coding. I wanted a place to tell stories.

Today I have a story to tell about a programming project I’m working on.

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Always Use Less-Than

05 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in CS101, Opinion

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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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Naming Things

04 Tuesday Mar 2014

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One of the things that programmers do a bazillion times during their career is come up with a name for something. Every variable, every sub-routine, every class, every method, every instance, even the program itself and all its supporting files: they all need names. In some cases the naming is obvious and easy, but in others it’s complicated. You can end up creating a big ball of mud if go about it casually.

So one thing you want to start doing is being intentional about naming things.

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Rule #2: Source Code is for Humans

03 Monday Mar 2014

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When you write code, always remember Rule #2: Source code is for humans. This rule ties to Rule #1 about clarity. You’re writing for humans, so write clearly! The compiler can understand any syntactically correct ball of mud you make, but humans need all the help you can give them. Write for your human readers, not the compiler.

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