The 15 Minute Rule Of Software Development
Thursday, March 18th, 2010I talk a lot about how having a spec is a critical component of software development. But how do you know that your spec is good, and that it has been developed enough? Simply put, how do you distinguish between a good spec and a spec that is lacking?
This problem had confounded me for a [...]
Why Active Record Isn’t A Bad Design Pattern
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010Were I writing this as an article for a newspaper, the subhead would be “Design Patterns Don’t Cause Application Slowness.” The point of this piece isn’t to defend Active Record per se; it’s to discuss the fact that design patterns aren’t to blame for your application’s problems, and more to the point, design patterns aren’t [...]
9:00 am | Comment (9) | Print | Categories: Best Practices, Object-Oriented Development, System ArchitectureIn Defense of Development Practices
Friday, March 12th, 2010On Tuesday, Marco Tabini told us that we were doing it all wrong. He makes some fantastic points about software development overall, and about the state of our profession. This article’s point isn’t to be a rebuttal, but a corollary to what he had to say.
Marco is right: every one of us is “doing it [...]
Testing: Making Sure Code Works Before Shipping It
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010Shipping code that works is crucial to retaining the support of customers and high quality in your application. While it’s impossible to ship code without any bugs at all, it is possible to control for as many as possible, and fix as many known issues as there is time. These strategies are designed to ensure [...]
1:00 am | Comment (2) | Print | Categories: Best PracticesBuild Systems: Relevancy of Automated Builds In A Web World
Friday, January 8th, 2010Often when I’m on a job interview, I’ll ask whether or not the company I’m talking with makes use of an automated build system of any kind. More often than not, the answer I get is somewhere along the lines of “build systems are irrelevant to the web; we can simply upload changes instantly.”
This thinking [...]
Web developer, amateur photographer, lover of the outdoors and travel. Expect to find me writing code, hiking or visiting new places. I own Blueprint DC and live in Washington, DC. Follow Me On Twitter!
- The 15 Minute Rule Of Software Development
- Learning Zend Framework: A Case Study
- Why Active Record Isn’t A Bad Design Pattern
- In Defense of Development Practices
- Upgrades In Open Source
- Taking A Look At Propel 1.5
- The Reasons To Attend PHP Conferences
- HipHop For PHP: Who Benefits, Who Doesn’t
- Some Soul Searching
- Cool DateTime Functions In PHP 5.3