APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Author Archives: Graham
On the glorification of ignorance
When I wrote I have some small idea of what I’m doing, it was on the basis that DHH was engaging in some exaggeration. Surely software engineers, whose job depends on what they know and what they can learn, would … Continue reading
Posted in whatevs
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Explicitly considering subtyping in inheritance
By far the post on this blog that gains the most long-term interest and attention is why inheritance never made any sense. In this post, I explain that there are three different ways to think about inheritance—ontological inheritance (this sort … Continue reading
I have some small idea of what I’m doing
I feel partly to blame for the current minor internet shitstorm. But first, some scene-setting. There have long been associations between the programmer community and particular subcultures, some of which have become—not monocultural—at least dominant cultures within the world of … Continue reading
Posted in advancement of the self, edjercashun
Tagged History of Software Engineering
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An Imagined History of Agile Software Development
Having benefited from the imagined history of Object-Oriented Programming, it’s time to turn our flawed retelling toolset to Agile. This history is as inaccurate and biased as it is illuminating. In the beginning, there was no software. This was considered … Continue reading
Second Brain
The idea of a second brain really hit home. Steven and I were doing some refactoring of some code in our Amiga podcast last night, and every time we moved something between files we had to remember which header files … Continue reading
Posted in advancement of the self, tool-support, whatevs
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Scripting confusion
LaTeX (and TeX, for that matter), syntax is relatively consistent, and uses a lot of backslashes. Bourne shell syntax is somewhat inconsistent, and also uses backslashes. Regular expression syntax I seem almost perversely disinclined to remember, and definitely sometimes often … Continue reading
Posted in LaTeX
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I only have 17 years of experience, but every point on this list accords with my experience. I’ve made my own attempt to catalogue things software developers should know (that are not writing code), but this is a succinct and … Continue reading
The “return a command” trick This is a nice trick, but we need a phrase for that thing where you implement extreme late binding of functions by invoking an active function that selects the function you want based on its … Continue reading
The missing principle in agile software development
The biggest missing feature in the manifesto for agile software development and the principles behind it is anyone other than the makers and their customer. We get autonomous, self-organising delivery teams but without the sense of responsibility to a broader … Continue reading
Posted in agile, Responsibility
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Apple and Bug Bounties
I know that there are bigger problems to discuss about Apple’s approach to business and partnerships at the mo, but their handling of security researchers seems particularly cynical and hypocritical. See, for example, this post about four reported iPhone 0days … Continue reading
Posted in AAPL, Privacy, security
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