Readability and Naming Things

January 25, 2011
29
Many people think that the readability of code has to do with the letters and symbols used. They believe it is the adding, removing, or changing of those symbols that makes code more readable. In some sense, they’re right. However, the underlying principle is: Readability of code depends primarily on how space is occupied by letters and symbols. What does…
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The Power Of No

January 20, 2011
5
How many times have you used a piece of software that was full of incredibly convoluted features, strange decisions, and unusable interfaces? Have you ever wanted to physically or verbally abuse a computer because it just wouldn’t do things right, or you couldn’t figure out how to make it function properly? And how often have you thought, “How could any…
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Before You Begin….

January 17, 2011
5
One of the major goals that I have with researching software design is the hope that we can take people who are “bad programmers” or mediocre programmers and, with some simple education and only a little experience, bring them into being good programmers or great programmers. I want to know–what are the fundamental things you have to teach somebody to…
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Software Design, In Two Sentences

May 13, 2010
12
In the context of The Equation of Software Design, it is now possible to reduce the primary principles of software design into just two statements: It is more important to reduce the Effort of Maintenance than it is to reduce the Effort of Implementation. The Effort of Maintenance is proportional to the complexity of the system. And that is pretty…
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Privacy, Simplified

December 29, 2009
22
So, there’s a lot of talk on the Internet about privacy. Some people say that privacy is only desired by those who have something to hide. Some people insist that privacy is a human right that should never be violated without consent. There’s only one problem with this whole debate: what is privacy, and why would anybody want it? This…
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Why Programmers Suck

December 1, 2009
70
A long time ago, I wrote an essay called “Why Computers Suck” (it was given the title “Computers” and “What’s Wrong With Computers” in two later revisions, and the original title never saw the light of day). The article was fairly long, but it basically came down to the idea that computers suck because programmers create crazy complicated stuff that…
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The Singular Secret of the Rockstar Programmer

November 10, 2009
44
Before all the laws of software, before the purpose of software, before the science of software design itself, there is a singular fact that determines the success or failure of a software developer. This fact makes the difference between the senior engineer who can seem to pick up new languages in a day and the junior developer who struggles for…
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The Engineer Attitude

August 20, 2009
41
The attitude that every engineer should have, in every field of engineering, is: I can solve this problem the right way.…
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