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General Programming

What really separates Senior Developers from Junior Developers: I’ve posted previously why I don’t like the term ‘junior developer’ as it usually just means you are saying a developer is younger than you, and is often used to be demeaning for no good reason. There are times when being demeaning is arguably the right thing to do, but it generally isn’t a good thing to do. It should usually be reserved for when dealing with senior management, though I don’t recommend you practice it unless you really know what you are doing. Being demeaning to people who don’t have an opportunity to be better just makes...; posted @ Monday, April 30, 2012 7:41 PM | Feedback (2)

Repost–Can blargsmack on Tuesdays: This post from K. Scott Allen deserves merit on its own for what he’s trying to accomplish, but I’m reposting largely just so I can reproduce the following sentence: “Although this code was intentionally obfuscated, it's not unlike walking into the code for a complex domain the first time and not understanding why a wurgled customer can blargsmack on Tuesdays if they hold a vorkenhosen status. All domains are nonsense at the start.” Brilliant.; posted @ Monday, April 09, 2012 6:04 PM | Feedback (0)

Stop calling less experienced developers ‘Juniors’: I’ve noticed in some of Greg Young’s videos where he refers to less experienced developers on a team as “Juniors.” This actually isn’t a criticism of Greg nor necessarily of the use of the term; instead, it’s a note that there can be a mindset that can be damaging, which should be avoided. Background I know this will shock many people, but when dealing with developers (or managers or executives, for that matter) who are ‘at my level’ or above, I can be pretty direct and demanding. When it comes to developers or support personnel at a lower...; posted @ Sunday, March 18, 2012 10:16 PM | Feedback (2)

Running Windows 7 on a MacBook Air using Boot Camp: In previous posts, I talked about some of the annoying issues I’ve had with trying to use a MacBook Air due to its sleep issues. However, besides the sleep stuff, the main issue I’ve run into is that it is hard to try and ‘replace’ my main development machine due to the lack of memory you can get installed on an MBA. 4 GB max, which means 2 GB (more or less) for Windows 7. For normal non-development work, 2 GB would actually be fine, but I tend to like to have multiple Visual Studio instances open, 30-50 browser...; posted @ Sunday, February 12, 2012 7:37 PM | Feedback (0)

Do Developers understand budgets?: Had an interesting conversation with a good PM recently (yes, there are such things as good PMs). There was a project that revolved around upgrading an application from a much earlier version of the .NET framework to a more current one. Even after the upgrade, the overall workflow process includes a number of manual steps in error scenarios that are sub-optimal. A developer on a different team suggested that it was a mistake to allow such manual steps. Surely, proper usage of the capabilities of the .NET framework could eliminate these manual steps. From the outside, this suggestion...; posted @ Sunday, December 11, 2011 8:55 PM | Feedback (2)

Development Train Wreck Days: Mama said there would be days like this: So, it got to the point, I believe after error #7, that I started calling out the numbers for each subsequent error. By the end of the day, I reached 21. Developers talk about “being in the zone” on those days when everything comes together, and you feel ‘hyper-productive’, often accomplishing more in code in a day than you normally would in a week. Train wreck days are like “being in the anti-zone.” And I’m not talking about days when you just don’t get a lot of code written, for whatever reason (too many meetings, confusion about requirements,...; posted @ Thursday, December 08, 2011 7:54 PM | Feedback (0)

Repost: A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design: This is a very interesting read. I like this line in particular: “Are we really going to accept an Interface Of The Future that is less expressive than a sandwich?” Take a look.; posted @ Thursday, November 17, 2011 11:53 AM | Feedback (0)

Repost: Relaxed attitude towards the pragmatic delivery of okay software: Rob Ashton has a post up about how he’s addressed his development of a current project. There’s tons to quote here: “…this time I made a real effort to drop any up-front 'zomg my code must be perfect' aspirations from the get go. What does this mean? Well I pretty much decided that technical debt should not be something to be overly avoided, overly organised code-bases stifle creativity and I really just wanted to deliver something.” “A couple of months later how does that leave me? Is the code-base a huge unmaintainable mess? I would say...; posted @ Wednesday, November 02, 2011 9:31 PM | Feedback (0)

Repost: CQRS is too complicated……not: Rob Ashton has a good post up about how the complaint that CQRS is too complicated isn’t really valid. It’s a good summary.; posted @ Wednesday, September 28, 2011 7:06 PM | Feedback (0)

Review: Tekpub Webcast - Full Throttle : TDD with Brad Wilson: So, after going through the signup process, I finally gained access to this episode. Leading up to this review, I have watched the episode in total 3 times: the first time I watched straight through while taking quick short hand notes, the second time, I watched portions of it in succession, stopping to take more in-depth notes, the third time, I watched it to fine-tune my comments on specific sections. Since I’ve been ragging on Tekpub, it is only fair to start off with a positive general note. Tekpub’s Production Quality Rob has been doing...; posted @ Tuesday, September 20, 2011 8:07 PM | Feedback (0)

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