http://undefined.com/ia Agile & Open Source Software, Economics, Liberty and Entrepreneurship Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:00:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en >distributed raman amplifiermber of articles have shown up recently, discussing the contribution that various languages, techniques and concepts can make to your programming expertise.  However, while I feel that there is merit in each of these ideas, they've missed the big one:  ______ ______ represents the core of programming, the gist, ... http://undefined.com/ia/2009/05/11/why-learning-____-will-make-you-a-better-programmer/ If I said: “The rise of the warp driveis more than just another speed shift that gets people excited. It will undoubtedly transform the space transportation industry, but it will also profoundly change the way people work and companies operate" You would almost certainly say "Well, duh, but warp drive doesn't exist" And ... http://undefined.com/ia/2009/04/28/warp-drive-would-be-cool/ a blast from the past   Sample: The LiarAn entire unit test that passes all of the test cases it has and appears valid, but upon closer inspection it is discovered that it doesn’t really test the intended target at all.     http://undefined.com/ia/2009/04/28/cool-list-of-tdd-anti-patterns/ Looks like somebody's making a play to be the new Alpha Dog!       http://undefined.com/ia/2009/04/27/python-throws-down/ Share and enjoy! http://undefined.com/ia/2009/04/23/i-like-this/ As discussed by Uncle Bob Is it true that an expensive handbag is better quality than a cheap handbag? Is it true that $150/bottle wine is always superior to $20/bottle wine? No? Is a "Ruth's Chris Steak" clearly better than a Waffle House steak?   Yes?  Then why does Waffle House sell so many ... http://undefined.com/ia/2009/04/23/low-quality-code-cheaper-code/ Interesting counter-take on Agile development with a hero-programmer model. This is just one example, but it would be interesting see if other examples support or counter this experiment.   My previous experience suggests that the less complexity you send overseas, the better you are.  which means that you need people locally who ... http://undefined.com/ia/2009/04/16/distributed-agile-heroes/ Mark Levison has some good advice for those Agilists who find themselves out of work.   My only quibble is with item #1: Get an email address with your own domain name. Having hotmail/yahoo/gmail address just looks unprofessional. Domain names are cheap and you can alias your domain to a google ... http://undefined.com/ia/2009/04/07/for-the-agile-unemployed/ Elegant Code asks "What's the next big shift,the one you'll never see coming" I think that's a fairly easy question to answer - its the technology that I'm skeptical of - that doesn't seem like it will ever really work in my lifetime.  For me, that's one of the following (ranked ... http://undefined.com/ia/2009/03/24/what-will-you-not-see-coming/ I've been unable to access Indefinite Articles from the web interface for about half-a-year now.  I thought it was a HTTP Redirect issue, and tried a few times to resolve it, with no luck.   It wasn't the end of the world, because I could post via MarsEdit, so I just ... http://undefined.com/ia/2009/03/11/mental-note-repair-tables/ This isn't the most exciting tutorial for Behavior Driven Developmentonline casino net (it talks more about the techniques than the theory), but if you want to learn more, it's worth a look. http://undefined.com/ia/2009/02/21/bdd-tutorial-video/ Creating immutable objects in Groovy - they made this surprisingly potent. The object-builder pattern - to help you during the setup of complicated unit tests. Agile - Beyond Best Practices - A mild rant against some of the recent buzzwords. Different perspectives on the value of unit testing - a very useful read ... http://undefined.com/ia/2009/02/21/cool-links-ive-been-saving-up/ Any methodology or process, even an agile one, does not protect you against making bad decisions. If your company runs out of money, it will not matter how beautifully structured the code is. This is just as true of waterfall projects as it is of agile ones. http://undefined.com/ia/2009/02/07/refactoring-gone-bad/ TDD is hard. It is also really, really valuable. My friend Mark Levison provides ideas and advice on overcoming objections and dealing with the technical and organizational challenges associated with TDD. http://undefined.com/ia/2009/01/16/problems-and-solutions-with-tdd/ Understand objections. They exist for a reason. Understand the reasons, and find solutions to those issues. Dismiss the reasons, and you will not gain traction, you'll gain obstacles. http://undefined.com/ia/2009/01/16/traps-and-pitfalls-of-agile/