APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Author Archives: Graham
Object-Oriented Programming in 1714
Here are some excerpts from Leibniz’s La Monadologie (specifically from Daniel Garber and Roger Arlew’s English translation in Discourse on Metaphysics and Other Essays). THE MONAD, which we shall discuss here, is nothing but a simple substance that enters into … Continue reading
An odd thought: I have written software for a computer whose CPU was used as an I/O controller for a computer that I have programmed, whose CPU was used as an I/O controller for a computer that I have programmed. … Continue reading
Programming language advent
http://shape-of-code.coding-guidelines.com/2014/12/01/algol-60-awk-algol-68-ada-apl-and-assembler/ The first article, containing languages beginning with ‘A’, is linked above. I can tell this is going to be a month of reading.
Posted in tool-support
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That can’t possibly work.
A while back I was at a Facebook developer event, talking about techniques for analysing Objective-C. My summary of the problem was something like “it’s one of those things that works pretty well in the ivory towers of practice but … Continue reading
Posted in learning
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Détournement and Recuperation
Letterists International probably invented the ideas behind free software and creative commons. They created the idea of détournement, in which existing mainstream logos and slogans were subverted for anarchist, satirical and other radical political purposes, like the picture of the … Continue reading
Posted in philosophy after a fashion
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Today’s surprisingly short workflow-improving win
When I have a TODO comment (or a #error in code, which is how I frequently do TODOs), I switched to writing the commit message I want to be able to use when I’ve fixed the TODO. Then I write … Continue reading
Posted in code-level, documentation
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Meritocracy is a myth. And our belief in it is holding back the tech industry from getting better. The intent to be meritocratic is not a myth, but we know what road is paved with good intentions. —from Tech’s Meritocracy … Continue reading
http://computinged.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/why-nerd-culture-must-die-not-everyone-can-teach-themselves/ Truth.
http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2687011 There’s no such thing as a General-purpose processor, and belief in such a device is harmful.
Joe Armstrong thinks we don’t need modules in software. Instead, all functions should have unique names and be published in a global database.
