Software & Engineering

Day 26: Write About Your Problem

coliveira — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:22:37 +0000

Problem solving is a very individual process. Everyone has a preferred way of thinking about problems, and as a result they come up with their own methods and strategies to find solutions. Programming is similar in that there are several ways of solving any design or implementation issue. It is also a singular field in [...]

Day 25: Learning to Document Properly

coliveira — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:35:59 +0000

Documentation is a polemic topic in programming because there are so many ways of doing it. While everyone agrees at some level that software documentation is important, there is rarely agreement between two programmers on exactly what needs to be documented and how. Despite the misunderstandings, there are still some common practices that can be [...]

Day 24: Refactoring Code Frequently

coliveira — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:49:12 +0000

Software is not a static entity that exists in a single, defined way. The great advantage of software over traditional engineering building material is that it can be modeled for different uses as necessary. This advantage, however, incurs in a penalty that is easily overlooked: it is necessary to maintain software during its life time [...]

The Beauty of Short Methods

coliveira — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:18:47 +0000

Writing short methods is one of the pieces of conventional wisdom that have been passed around as a form of agile technique. Many programers adhere to the use of short methods without thinking too much about it, while others disregard the idea altogether, more concerned with the practical activity of creating usable code. There is, [...]

Five Common Mistakes in the Early Design Stage

coliveira — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:41:07 +0000

Creating great software requires attention to several details that can make the difference between a well-designed system in one hand, and a failure in terms of features and maintainability in another. Every software engineer has a big list of elements that are necessary for a successful project and that should be part of the work [...]

Disadvantages of Statically Typed Languages

coliveira — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:36:40 +0000

It is widely understood that typed languages have advantages that make them suitable for development of a wide range of systems. In fact, statically typed languages such as C++ and Java are currently the most successful in terms of commercial adoption for the development of desktop and server-side applications. Most operating systems, including Linux, Windows, [...]

Day 23: Isolate Code Dependencies

coliveira — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:37:13 +0000

It is not a secret to experienced developers that most of the work in modern programming consists of interfacing application code with external libraries. For instance, if you work on application programming (as opposed to system development), there is no reason why you should be required to write another logging package or another data base [...]

The Wasteful Legacy of Programming as Language

coliveira — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:43:55 +0000

A few years ago I visited a friend who is a graduate student in linguistics. After some time he asked me if I was aware of the work by Chomsky on formal languages. I told him that yes, Chomsky work was a basis for much of the developments in theoretical computer science. More than that, [...]

Main Advantages of Typed Languages

coliveira — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:14:13 +0000

The concept of data types is one of the most powerful in the study of programming languages. Many languages have been devised with the main goal of delivering a type system with improved capabilities. Some of these languages coming from research labs, such as ML and Haskell, have become successful in their own right. Other [...]

Learning from Great Developers

coliveira — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:55:54 +0000

One of the most common questions about software development is how to become more productive as a programmer. It is well known that there is a big difference in productivity between mediocre programmers and great programmers, although this is still a little understood phenomenon. For example, there has been anecdotal evidence that the amount of [...]