APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Author Archives: Graham
Programming, maths and the other things
Sarah Mei argues that programming is not math, arguing instead that programming is language. I don’t think it’s hard to see the truth in the first part, though due to geopolitical influences on my personality I’d make the incrementally longer … Continue reading
Posted in philosophy after a fashion
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Intellectual property and software: the nuclear option
There are many problems that arise from thinking about the ownership of software and its design. Organisations like the Free Software Foundation and Open Source Initiative take advantage of the protections of copyright of source code – presumed to be … Continue reading
Posted in economics, IANAL
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On Mental Health
This post has been a while in the writing, I suppose waiting for the perfect time to publish it. The two things that happened today to make me finally commit it to electrons were the news about Robin Williams, and … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Contractually-obligated testing
About a billion years ago, Bertrand Meyer (he of Open-Closed Principle fame) introduced a programming language called Eiffel. It had a feature called Design by Contract, that let you define constraints that your program had to adhere to in execution. … Continue reading
Posted in architecture of sorts, code-level, OOP, TDD
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The Wealth of Applications
Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations opens by discussing the division of labour. How people are able to get more done when they each pick a small part of the work to be … Continue reading
Posted in economics, futurology
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One decade in
The first working week of August 2014 comes ten years after the first working week of August 2004. You knew that. The first working week of August 2004 was the first week since completing my degree that I worked for … Continue reading
Posted in whatevs
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PADDs, not the iPad
Alan Kay says that Xerox PARC bought its way into the future by paying lots of money for each computer. Today, you can (almost) buy your way into the future of mobile computers by paying small amounts of money for … Continue reading
Posted in futurology, UI
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The reasonable effectiveness of developer tools
In goals upon goals upon goals, I suggested that a fixation on developer tools is misplaced. This is not to say that developer tools are unhelpful, nor that they can’t have a significant impact on our work. Consider the following, … Continue reading
Posted in software-engineering, tool-support
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Goals upon goals upon goals
As I read Ed Finkler’s piece on losing excitement in technology, I found myself recognising pieces of my own story. The prospect of a new language or framework no longer seems like a new toy, an excuse to stay up … Continue reading
Posted in futurology, philosophy after a fashion
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Intra-curricular activities
I’m apparently fascinated by the idea of defining curricula for learning programming. I’ve written about how we need to be careful what we try to pay forward from the way we learned in the past, and I’ve talked about how … Continue reading
Posted in academia, advancement of the self, books, edjercashun, learning
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