Category Archives: software-engineering

Code longevity

I recently wrote about the impending centenary of applied computing; a time when we could reflect on the first hundred years to make it easier for people to progress beyond our position into the second hundred years. This necessitates looking … Continue reading

Posted in code-level, economics, software-engineering | Comments Off on Code longevity

Preparing for Computing’s Big One-Oh-Oh

However you slice the pie, we’re between two and three decades away from the centenary celebration for applied computing (which is of course significantly after theoretical or hypothetical advances made by the likes of Lovelace, Turing and others). You might … Continue reading

Posted in academia, advancement of the self, books, learning, Responsibility, software-engineering, tool-support | Comments Off on Preparing for Computing’s Big One-Oh-Oh

On too much and too little

In the following text, remember that words like me or I are to be construed in the broadest possible terms. It’s easy to be comfortable with my current level of knowledge. Or perhaps it’s not the value, but the derivative … Continue reading

Posted in advancement of the self, architecture of sorts, OOP, software-engineering, tool-support | Leave a comment

Software, Science?

Is there any science in software making? Does it make sense to think of software making as scientific? Would it help if we could? Hold on, just what is science anyway? Good question. The medieval French philosopher-monk Buridan said that … Continue reading

Posted in advancement of the self, learning, social-science, software-engineering | Comments Off on Software, Science?

Inside-Out Apps

This article is based on a talk I gave at mdevcon 2014. The talk also included a specific example to demonstrate the approach, but was otherwise a presentation of the following argument. You probably read this blog because you write … Continue reading

Posted in architecture of sorts, MVC, OOP, ruby, software-engineering | Comments Off on Inside-Out Apps

ClassBrowser’s public face

I made a couple of things: ClassBrowser discussion list The project website‘s source is now visible and MIT licensed I should’ve done both of these things at the beginning of the project. I believe that the fact I opened the … Continue reading

Posted in Responsibility, software-engineering | Comments Off on ClassBrowser’s public face

ClassBrowser: warts and all

I previously gave a sneak peak of ClassBrowser, a dynamic execution environment for Objective-C. It’s not anything like ready for general use (in fact it can’t really do ObjC very well at all), but it’s at the point where you … Continue reading

Posted in C++, code-level, Mac, OOP, software-engineering, TDD, tool-support | Leave a comment

A sneaky preview of ClassBrowser

Let me start with a few admissions. Firstly, I have been computering for a good long time now, and I still don’t really understand compilers. Secondly, work on my GNUstep Web side-project has tailed off for a while, because I … Continue reading

Posted in advancement of the self, C++, code-level, learning, OOP, software-engineering, tool-support | Comments Off on A sneaky preview of ClassBrowser

Story points: because I don’t know what I’m doing

The scenario [Int. developer’s office. Developer sits at a desk that faces the wall. Two of the monitors on Developer’s desk are on stands, if you look closely you see that the third is balanced on the box set of … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Responsibility, social-science, software-engineering | Leave a comment

Conflicts in my mental model of Objective-C

My worldview as it relates to the writing of software in Objective-C contains many items that are at odds with one another. I either need to resolve them or to live with the cognitive dissonance, gradually becoming more insane as … Continue reading

Posted in AAPL, Business, gnustep, iPhone, OOP, software-engineering, tool-support | Leave a comment