Programming
Programming / Seeing the light of version control
(Originally written on 30 June 2007. Revised on 25 October 2008.)
This article is dedicated to all the programmers who are still not using a version control system. I know you are out there; I was one of you mere weeks ago. But that has changed, and believe me, it's a world of difference.
Programming / Smart Computers Dumb Users
-- Samuel Stoddard, Computer Stupidities
If you're a computer professional, you have been in this situation: one day, a person whom you know to be intelligent and educated needs to learn how to use a computer. And she just won't get it, no matter how hard you try. You may blame it on the computer being such a complex machine, or you being a bad teacher, but this doesn't explain why your other friend, who is not a genius either, had no trouble at all learning the very same skills from you.
Programming / Missing The Point Of Programming
This is in response to a lambda-the-ultimate post on literate programming, in which they wonder why it never caught on. Now, there are several possible answers to that question, and they give one or two good ones. But I think they are ultimately missing the point.
See, the idea of literate programming was born out of the well-meaning but ultimately misguided notion that programming is hard because of the notation. It's the same thinking that gave us pseudocode and UML. Did I mention 4GL languages? No, I didn't, because that particular idea died, thankfully, before I could be exposed to it (being young does have advantages, you know). The others survived enough for me to learn about them and to use them with abandon for a while. Then I asked myself a simple question. Why am I writing all my programs twice?
