Why is it so damned hard to rename a directory in Xcode? When you open up Xcode and create a new Project, it creates a virtual directory – a “Group” into which your application source files go. If you look at the project with Finder or through the shell you’ll find a directory of the [...]
Recently been deeply stuck in building software (apart from starting my PhD part-time). A long time ago I wrote about dynamically loading Spring contexts and component discovery – this system I’ve been building is an evolution of that one. We decided to adopt an most REST-based style to integrate between our components. Now, “run-time” discovery [...]
I found a massive bug in Eclipse – it has a copy and paste function. In Eclipse’s defence, Intellij IDEA and Netbeans also exhibit identical broken functionality.
Most developers familiar with agile methods are familiar with the idea of the spike. A spike is a time-boxed task that concentrates on clarifying the unknowns in your project. Usually these are technological (“can this be done with this technology?”) but they are also sometimes in the area of the business domain (“is this a [...]
I kind of disagree with this picture by Josh Susser regarding the “circle of death” in terms of code quality and late night effort. It is right enough as far as it goes but it doesn’t go far enough. First up, the easy way out – take a day off, go for a walk in [...]
I just want to answer the anonymous “process nazis” trackback on yesterday’s ‘//TODO’ Considered Harmful post, because that blog desn’t allow comments without a login. Quite apart from issues with Godwin’s Law (and that the writer has enumerated a bunch of rules that get “violated” then accuses other people of being process nazis), the post [...]
Yesterday I said that developers should start being a little more militant about the craftsmanship of their code, i.e. pushing back on broken methodology that demands poorly-built code be released into the wild. This sort of code is always inherently fragile and will break your software if it has not already. Today I just want [...]
Broken development processes lead to broken code. When you find badly formed code, and especially if you didn’t write it just then in order to make the test pass just a minute ago, and super-especially is the code is already in production, you not only need to rectify the code, you need to rectify the [...]
XP: After 10 years why are we still talking about it? By Robert C. Martin. Uncle Bob argues passionately, and correctly, for the principles of software craftsmanship. Link: http://www.viddler.com/explore/sergiopereira/videos/7/.
You might have seen the following cartoon before: It’s from a site called The Project Cartoon. What I didn’t know was the site allows you to use the little cartoons to make your own version. You can caption and re-order the panels. For your amusement, and perhaps your edification, I present “The Rewrite Will Be [...]