Tag Archives: software development

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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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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Software Development

28 Friday Feb 2014

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Software development can be hard to describe or compare because it depends so much on the use of abstraction. One can visualize a continuum of professions based on how much abstraction they tend to require from their workers. Software tends to be on the far end of that spectrum. Not only do programmers deal almost entirely with abstraction, but often with multiple layers of abstraction!

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Four Primary Principles for Programmers

27 Thursday Feb 2014

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Over the years I’ve come to believe in four basic principles computer programmers should adhere to. They reflect four paths of continuing education programmers walk throughout their career. The bottom line, really, is that you’re going to be doing these things a lot; it will serve you well to learn to do them well and with intention.

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New Blog!

26 Wednesday Feb 2014

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I have a lot of computer programming stuff I’d like to write about, but it’s way too specific for my regular blog (which has a hard enough time attracting readers), and it’s too general to be appropriate for my Book of BOOL blog.

So here I go with blog number three. (Technically, blog number four; my very first blog was my now-long-abandoned baseball blog.) This blog is exclusively for writing about computer programming topics. Expect a mix of “stuff I’ve done that was fun” plus “stuff I’ve thought about and want to document” plus “good advice for coders.”

I’ve written some of those last kind on my regular blog. To get things going, and to put them in a more sensible place, I’ll re-post them here.

Soon. But for now, “Hello, World!” It’s a whole new blog!