My computer makes funny noises sometimes. They sound like notifications, but I can’t figure out what they’re meant to say. Well, until recently. And then I figured it out. If you’re a mobile developer, you may have had a similar experience. Unlike normal notifications, which are usually accompanied by a visual clue, these seem toContinue reading “Who Said That?”
Category Archives: Programming
If It Isn’t Broken…
How many times were you told “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”? Working isn’t necessarily optimal. You may find something to be working in a sub-optimal way. When this happens, fixing it should be a valid option. Very often, “if it isn’t broken” is said when “we’ve always done it this way” is intended.Continue reading “If It Isn’t Broken…”
It’s Like Apples And Pickles
When I need to explain a complex idea, I often use an analogy. This helps convey concepts to people from different disciplines, too. One thing I learned is how important it is to choose the right analogy. A colleague recently used car design as an analogy to software development. This analogy was fundamentally wrong onContinue reading “It’s Like Apples And Pickles”
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Have you ever found yourself walking down a long passageway only to meet a dead end sign? How about completing a form, tapping submit and only then finding out some fields were mandatory? If you’re a developer, how many times have you ended up with data in a weird state? What do all of theseContinue reading “The Light At The End Of The Tunnel”
Don’t Talk Just KISS
I love efficient code. There is an odd type of satisfaction to writing well-performing code. Faster! Shorter! Less memory-consuming! More power! MORE! Well, it’s easy to see how quickly this gets out of hand. Before you know it, your code is a hot mess of high-performing, totally unmaintainable blocks. What started as a beauty endsContinue reading “Don’t Talk Just KISS”
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
I consider myself a creative person. It’s hard to be a developer without a passion for creation. I love inventing new things and exploring new ideas. Being open-minded is important to me. There are things in life, though, that are better kept unchanged. Reinventing the wheel doesn’t always work. In fact, a new wheel isContinue reading “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”
A Debt That Can Never Be Repaid
I’ve been writing code for over twenty years. In twenty years, I’ve learned there’s never enough time to write all the code I want to write. Developers have been struggling with the constraints of time since the first lines of code were punched into cards. There is never enough time to add all the codeContinue reading “A Debt That Can Never Be Repaid”
Keep Your Comments To Yourself
I’ve been writing code for well over 30 years now. In 30 years of coding, I learned my code has to make sense to me long after I’ve written it. Later on, I started working on code shared with others. My code had to make sense to them, too. When code got really complicated, IContinue reading “Keep Your Comments To Yourself”
So Predictable
Good code should have test coverage. However, writing tests is not a box-ticking exercise. If tests are not written well, they are not helpful. One characteristic of a good test is that its results are consistently reproducible. This helps us see what the problem is every time we run the test. There is a commonContinue reading “So Predictable”
Beauty And The Beast
I was recently interviewed for a new contract. One of the questions I was asked was this: which would I say was more important: beautiful code or a good, polished UX. I found it to be a very important question. Paraphrasing, this was my answer: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We shouldContinue reading “Beauty And The Beast”
Optimising My Life 