C

C++: The weapon of choice for arrogant programmers when selecting their method of self-destruction. C#: A programming language used by bad programmers to convey legitimacy to bad .NET programs. Casting: Selecting actors to play parts in a movie or play. Swinging a long pole, wildly, in a choreographed exercise intended to outwit fish. Assigning a […]

My Failures

I thought I could teach. I still do. James tells his brothers, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” I don’t have to wait to be judged by others; I judge myself most harshly already. I’m sure, though, that others […]

A

Abstraction: The extent of generalization necessary to make a square peg look like a round hole. Slight-of-Hand technique used by programmers to fool clients into thinking they understand the problem domain. The recognition that clients will not pay for art, but will pay for a critique of it. Account: Discrete reckoning of monies or values […]

Where Inspiration Goes To Die

Gang of Four (GoF) Kent Beck Ward Cunningham To some they are the Pied Pipers of the design movement in software architecture and development.  They are legend.  They are the pinnacle of professional achievement. The GoF defined 23 design patterns that are near gospel, if not alpha and omega of the design encyclopedia.  It is fundamental […]

Agile Agonisties

When professional managers weaseled their way into Agile, I demoted the word to low-case “agile.” Everything I read in the beginning cried out, “professional developers work better without non-technical oversight.” The way the manifesto writers sought to accomplish this was through elimination of the middle manager and inclusion of the “owner,” and the creation of the […]