APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Author Archives: Graham
Can’t you just…
Continuing the thoughts on vexing problems, one difficulty when it comes to discussing software is talking about the size of software. I’m not really talking about productivity metrics – good or bad – like source lines of code or function … Continue reading
Posted in Business
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On the business case for (or against) software
In the vexing problems, I dismissed the hard problems of computer science as being incidental to another problem: we can’t say what the value of our work is. That post contained plenty of questions, precisely because the subject is so … Continue reading
Posted in Business, economics
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The Vexing Problems in Programming
I admit it, I’ve been on the internet for quite a while (I could tell you that my ICQ number is 95941970, but I haven’t logged in for years) and my habits haven’t changed. I still regularly get technology news … Continue reading
Posted in Business, economics, Responsibility
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Withholding the Four Freedoms
Having downsized my rather over-enthusiastic computer collection (thanks, eBay!), I was down to one computer. Unfortunately, as a rather long in the tooth MacBook Air, it’s no longer suited to my needs and neither is it upgradeable. I got all … Continue reading
Posted in freesoftware, GNU, UI
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I didn’t study computer science at school or university, and still manage to work as a programmer. That is not to say that I don’t need to know some things that are taught on computer science courses. Just this week … Continue reading
Something old, something new
Sometimes, what you want out of a software system is something unexciting. Something proven to work, that’s well-understood, and has had all of the kinks smoothed out over years (or even decades) of refinement. Of course, what you get when … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Dogmatic paradigmatism
First, you put all of your faith in structured programming, and you got burned. You found it hard to associate the operations in your software with the data upon which they act, and to make sure that the expectations made … Continue reading
Apple’s Best Programming Language
My talk at App Builders 2016 was on Apple’s best programming language. Spoiler alert: it’s Dylan. Or is it? I chose a few properties one might wish to find in programming languages, then demonstrated how these were all present in … Continue reading
Posted in code-level, Uncategorized
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On immutable data structures…?
If you write a scholarly publication and cite another one, what you say about it depends on its mutability. An article or a book can be cited by saying “this publication I’m identifying here says this”. Maybe you have to … Continue reading
Posted in academia, architecture of sorts
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In which I interview so you don’t have to
Describing job interviews for technical roles in the software industry to people who have left or have always been outside the software industry requires two things: patience on the part of the one doing the describing, and the ability for … Continue reading
Posted in advancement of the self, Business
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