APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Category Archives: architecture of sorts
I’ve vastly misunderstood the Single Responsibility Principle
So have a lot of other people; my understanding of it accords with much writing I’ve seen about the principle on the web, and elsewhere. For example, in Michael Feathers’ “Working Effectively with Legacy Code”: Every class should have a … Continue reading
On or Between
The new way to model concurrency is with coroutines (1963), i.e. the async/await dance or (building upon) call-with-concurrent-continuation. The new new way is with actors (1973), and the old and busted ways are with threads (1966), and promises (1976). As … Continue reading
On UML
A little context: I got introduced to UML in around 2008, at an employer who had a site licence for Enterprise Architect. I was sent on a training course run by a company that no longer exists called Sun Microsystems: … Continue reading
Posted in agile, architecture of sorts, design, software-engineering, sunw, tool-support
Tagged History of Software Engineering
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It protects. It also promotes and prevents.
I sometimes get asked to review, or “comment on”, the architecture for an app. Often the app already exists, and the architecture documentation consists of nothing more than the source code and the folder structure. Sometimes the app doesn’t exist, … Continue reading
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Everyone rejecting everyone else
It’s common in our cooler-than-Agile, post-Agile community to say that Agile teams who “didn’t get it” eschewed good existing practices in their rush to adopt new ways of thinking. We don’t need UML, we’re Agile! Working software over comprehensive documentation! … Continue reading
On exploding boilers
Throughout our history, it has always been standardisation of components that has enabled creations of greater complexity. This quote, from Simon Wardley’s finding a path, reminded me of the software industry’s relationship with interchangeable parts. Brad Cox, in both Object-Oriented … Continue reading
Sprouts
Having discussed reasons for change with a colleague on my team, we came up with the sprouts of change. Good software is antifragile in the face of changing: Situation People Requirements Organisation Understanding Technology Society Like any good acronym, it’s … Continue reading
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Change
I was just discussing software architecture and next steps with a team building a tool to help analyse MRI images of brains. Most of the questions we asked explored ways to proceed by focussing on change: what if the budget … Continue reading
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Zen and the Art of Software Maintenance
In one part of the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which is neither about Zen nor motorcycle maintenance, there are two motorcycles and two riders. John Sutherland is a romanticist who appreciates the external qualities of his … Continue reading
Posted in architecture of sorts, design
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Great Documentation, Great Software
A paraphrased conversation, the other day, between me and a customer of one of my customers: Me: Are you experienced at working with my customer’s developer APIs? Them: I always feel like a newbie, because there’s so much stuff. But … Continue reading
Posted in architecture of sorts, documentation
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