The Programmer's Paradox

The First Principle of Software

2012-01-27T18:03:00.000-05:00

The very worst thing that any computer can do is lie to you. You have to be able to trust it when it says it will accomplish some work on your behalf. If it tells you one thing, then goes off and does something completely different -- causing a huge mess -- you have the right to be mad. If it shows you deliberately incorrect or misnamed data then you should be pissed. Except during hardware

An Informal Ramble

2011-12-22T16:41:00.001-05:00

[ Author’s Note: I really don’t know what to say. It was just one of those days. If you don’t feel like reading a broad rambling on loosely connected ideas, please don’t read this! ]A good place to start -- as always -- is with a few definitions. For this particular discussion it works better if I create them loosely and use somewhat non-conventional meanings. I’ll try to explain why that

The Engineering of Software

2011-12-19T17:50:00.002-05:00

The last thing I ever wanted to be -- twenty-six years ago -- was an engineer. When I started university I had heard that 70% of all engineers hate their jobs and that they were often bored at work. Boredom sounded horrible. What I wanted, was to master the black art of coding. To follow in the foot steps of those early magicians I had seen in the computer magazines. The ones that crafted

Getting to the Truth

2011-12-10T20:02:00.001-05:00

One of the most enjoyable things about building software is that it requires the developers to dig around in other domains. If you’re writing financial software, you need to know how the industry works, understand the terminology, and all of the complex details underneath. If you build something for the printing industry, you need to grok their equipment and business models. Everything you

Problems and Solutions

2011-11-30T13:51:00.001-05:00

The world is littered with a growing number of problems. Some of these problems are solvable by using a computer, some not. To solve a problem with a computer all it takes is to design and construct a software solution, then get people to use it. Easy?Solving a problem with software is not nearly as simple as it looks. Many more solutions fail then succeed. The stats are ugly: 66% of all

The Big Idea

2011-11-22T17:47:00.001-05:00

Way back when I was a co-op student, I got a job at a small company that built analytics applications for statistics. My previous co-op employer had laid off the whole division, so I had to find a new gig. There were lots of choices back then, so I picked the company because I would get experience programming in C. It seemed like a good idea at the time.At first the job was great. I got to

Thinking About It

2011-11-09T18:09:00.001-05:00

That dreaded moment comes in every software project development cycle. The plans are too ambitious, the time too short. After an exciting start, the groove descends into the valley of just plugging away, day after day, while trying hard to keep to an impossible schedule. It comes every time, on every project (if it doesn’t please, please let me know where you work :-)What I’ve witnessed over

Problem Solving

2011-11-01T11:44:00.002-04:00

"Mainframe guys?! What do they know? They’re dinosaurs, the industry passed them by years ago...” was my response twenty years ago, when I first got out of school. Someone had recommended that I take a look at how the mainframe guys (and gals) had solved a particular problem way back, while I was still just finding my identify in high school. But I dismissed it far too easily. Things, I

Layering, Architecture and Convergence

2011-10-26T14:13:00.000-04:00

The central problem in software development is managing complexity. This complexity comes from the sea of details and decisions, large and small, that need to converge into a stable, working system in order for it to be successfully used for its intended purpose. That not only includes the code, but also the analysis, management, documentation, packaging, distribution, training, support,

Contradictions

2011-09-13T18:00:00.001-04:00

Programming is easy. You just assemble large lists of instructions for a computer to follow. And these days there is an abundance of information out there about which combinations of instructions will produce the best effects. If you can’t figure it out, there are plenty of people to ask.But programming is hard, because there is never enough time to assemble all of the instructions yourself

Know your Limits

2011-07-28T15:29:00.000-04:00

I’ve taken this week off from my day job to work around the house. It’s a yearly ritual -- my house is over a 100 years old and in constant need of repairs. This time my main focus is the front deck. It’s 16 feet in length and the top is about 8 feet deep. There are four deep steps running the whole length of the deck. It was probably built at least 20 years ago, but I suspect that it might

Styles, Standards and Conventions

2011-07-14T13:14:00.000-04:00

Does it really matter how the code is formatted? Does it matter how you name the variables? Does it make a difference which variations of syntax you utilize for common tasks like loops? For the most part any particular style, standard or convention is arbitrary. Sure, there are some that reduce or enhance the readability -- look at the obfuscated C contest for excellent reduction examples

Prototype or System

2011-07-01T12:16:00.000-04:00

It is more than just intent. It’s really the application of knowledge in order to achieve expected results. That is, it is one thing to just play around with building something in the hopes that it might work someday. It is another to have gained the knowledge and experience necessary to build it with the certainty that it will do exactly what it is supposed to do. Wikipedia’s engineering

The Customer is Always Right

2011-06-21T17:42:00.002-04:00

In many businesses the maxim “The Customer is Always Right” is often a reasonable way to retain a strong client base. It works best when the transactions are small and there is an expectation of repeat business. It also helps with ‘word of mouth’ situations, where many of the customers talk to one another. In the very worst case -- there are always people out there who feel compelled to

Roles and Responsibilities

2011-06-11T12:17:00.002-04:00

One thing I’ve noticed about the software industry is that there is no unified base of definitions or best practices. Pretty much, everywhere you go, all of the programmers in different domains or markets have their own unique view of what the consider is standard, and proper. From a global perspective, this means that basically every programmer’s view of what is right, and what is wrong,

Following the Path

2011-06-01T09:00:00.017-04:00

There is some advice that is very well understood in a few commercial software development circles, but I don’t think it has made it out to the general industry. Software capabilities are by their very nature interdependent. They come in collections of related functionality and features. One convenient way to view these groups is as different paths that can be followed by the development

The Boundary Between

2011-05-27T09:00:00.001-04:00

A continuous system is one where no matter how small a section you exam, there is an infinite amount of further depth. A discrete one is where there are indivisible atomic pieces, which can be broken down no farther. Initially, as a by-product of how we naturally view the world, our perceptions were likely that the things around us were continuous. The Ancient Greeks were one of the

Focus

2011-05-21T10:44:00.002-04:00

So, you’ve got a large team of talented programmers, a problem to solve and some people with an understanding of the underlying domain details. What now? Any big job needs to get work done in order to be successful. Any type of constructive effort needs that completed work to be brought together into one large coherent piece. In this, software is no different than constructing buildings,

Deep Refactoring II

2011-05-17T16:33:00.000-04:00

In my last post, I laid out some very high-level ideas about refactoring our basic software architecture by removing the distinction between memory and disk. It’s was a very simplistic sketch of some of the underlying characteristics of this type of change. A reader, Kemp, commented on several issues. The first was with regard to temporary memory usage and the ability to clear out

Deep Refactoring

2011-05-16T09:00:00.014-04:00

History dictates today’s computer architecture. That’s the normal progression for knowledge and technology, but often there comes a time when we can and should take another look at the foundations. Some things don’t ‘need’ to exist the way they are, they just exist that way. Memory and disk split themselves because of practical hardware considerations. The faster RAM was considerably less

Software Virgin

2011-05-10T13:02:00.002-04:00

I know, I know. The term 'software virgin' is derogatory, but in my defense it wasn’t me that coined it. It was a fellow exec. from long ago that set the phrase. Ironically, while she was referring to others, she herself was never able to transcend its base definition. Software is exceedingly complex, but it is easy to miss that fact. Every year, more people are attracted to it and many

Risk and Inexperience

2011-05-05T09:00:00.011-04:00

In most of the discussions about startups, it is commonly mentioned that the special rewards belong to those who take huge risks by investing and working full-time for no money. Most founders see this as a rite of passage, and justification for them to get the bulk of the winnings and credit. The general idea is that you’re not taking significant risks unless you’ve put your life on hold,

Acting on My Behalf

2011-05-02T09:00:00.008-04:00

One thing that has really bothered me lately is how many software developers have lost one of the key essentials in software. The computer is a tool to do what I want, when I want it done. Installing or running software shouldn’t be beyond my knowledge or control. I should always be aware of what the computer is doing when it is acting on my behalf. It used to be that way. You installed

Getting Things Done

2011-04-29T12:28:00.000-04:00

I love the Rands in Repose post about Three Superpowers. If you don’t already read his blog, you really should, he’s a great writer and always has deep insightful advice. Often, due to a cruel world I find myself needing to fix problems, but unable to issue a Mandate. The Debate generally drives me nuts, I tend to only go there when the issue is really murky and subjective. What I rely on

Resilience

2011-04-27T09:00:00.004-04:00

When you are developing software, one problem you don’t want is for an error to occur but the processing continues until things get completely scrambled. This makes it really hard to track down the ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ of the initial error. With that in mind, we often build systems to stop immediately on the first suspicion result. Doing this makes it easy to find the problem and