Category Archives: software-engineering

On adopting testing, and CocoaDojos

Posted on 2011-05-12 by Graham

In episode 18 of iDeveloper.TV Live I was discussing test-driven development with Scotty and John. I suggested that a great way to get started with TDD was to start adopting it in baby steps in your code. Got a bug … Continue reading →

Posted in code-level, iDeveloper.TV, software-engineering, TDD | 4 Comments

On platform-specific strategies

Posted on 2011-05-07 by Graham

I’m writing some library code at the moment that needs to work on both Mac OS X and iOS. The APIs I need to use on each platform are different, so I need different code on each platform. I also … Continue reading →

Posted in code-level, iPad, iPhone, Mac, software-engineering | 2 Comments

On internal quality

Posted on 2011-04-10 by Graham

I was asked by attendees at my VTM talk on test-driven development a small collection of questions on a similar theme, which I’ll summarise here. How do I do TDD when my boss doesn’t want me to? What do I … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, code-level, Responsibility, software-engineering, Talk, TDD, VTM | 6 Comments

On my own competency

Posted on 2011-04-04 by Graham

There was a question on programmers.stackexchange.com about whether to put your Stack Overflow reputation in your CV. I don’t, and answered as much: there’s no point in writing for its own sake, unless you want to be a writer. If … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, software-engineering | Comments Off on On my own competency

On NSInvocation

Posted on 2011-03-16 by Graham

I was going to get down to doing some writing, but then I got some new kit I needed to set up, so that isn’t going to happen. Besides which, I was talking to one developer about NSInvocation and writing … Continue reading →

Posted in Foundation, iPad, iPhone, Mac, software-engineering | Leave a comment

On comment docs

Posted on 2011-03-12 by Graham

Something I’m looking at right now is generation of (in my case, HTML) API documentation from some simple markup format. The usual way to do this is by writing documentation markup inline in the source code, using specially formatted comments … Continue reading →

Posted in books, documentation, software-engineering | 5 Comments

On repeatable builds

Posted on 2011-02-16 by Graham

One of the key features of software engineering, as distinct from cowboy coding or hacking, is that it should be repeatable. That doesn’t mean that you should do the same project twice in identical ways from beginning to end: that … Continue reading →

Posted in software-engineering | 1 Comment

On squeezing out that last ounce of performance

Posted on 2011-02-07 by Graham

As I get confused by a component of an application that should be network-bound actually being limited by CPU availability, I get reminded of the times in my career that I’ve dealt with application performance. I used to work on … Continue reading →

Posted in antivirus, software-engineering | Comments Off on On squeezing out that last ounce of performance

Protecting source code

Posted on 2010-12-15 by Graham

As I mentioned on the missing iDeveloper.tv Live episode, one of the consequences of the Gawker hack was that their source code for their internal software was leaked into the Internet. I doubt any of my readers would want that … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, code-level, Data Leakage, Encryption, Policy, Responsibility, software-engineering | 5 Comments

On Fuzzy Aliens

Posted on 2010-12-03 by Graham

I have just launched a new company, Fuzzy Aliens[*], offering application security consultancy services for smartphone app developers. This is not the FAQ list, this is the “questions I want to answer so that they don’t become frequently asked” list. … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, code-level, iPad, iPhone, Privacy, software-engineering, threatmodel | Leave a comment