http://www.artima.com/weblogs/index.jsp?blogger=andydent Artima Weblogs is a community of bloggers posting on a wide range of topics of interest to software developers. http://www.artima.com/images/artima88x33.gif http://www.artima.com/ http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=220174 Ruby is the cool new kid of on the block and has some significant cred in code-generation circles. Python has whitespace sensitivities that make it a poorer fit for templating solutions. This sounds like a no-brainer decision but is the real argument about which language the market wants to see used? http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=218195 A shower song to remind me why it's useful to write down alternatives and reasoning. http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=208868 Would you hire a programmer who insisted on working things out or using APIs solely from memory? If we expect people to be able to quickly research things on the web as part of the programming, why not include that in interviews? Is search efficiency a skill that should be on your resume? http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=189510 Everything I'm doing seems to be about small chunks of thought. These chunks need tracking, comparing, versions controlling and melding into presentations of varying narrative richness. The interesting projects and interested parties include software engineers, publishers and academics but there's no killer app in sight? http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=189208 In which Andy suffers an extreme bout of cynical disbelief in the merits of Resource Oriented Architecture and "solving" the discovery problem by giving up and just having a description as part of a "Resource". http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=187239 How do you develop a Roadmap for a broad-ranging community, encompassing several service-oriented architectures? Here are some ideas. http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=180637 How do you transfer knowledge about a system in an optimal way, without forever being the 'guy who knows'? What practices will help you exit gracefully? Or, even if you aren't leaving this area of the project, how do you lessen the documentation burden? http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=174969 There are two kinds of software experience you want for your end users - Invisibility and Smile on My Face. http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=167444 OO frameworks, especially in the C++ world, have usually shipped with source. This is often highly educational and sometimes a life-saver. Until, Apple didn't ship the Cocoa source. http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=167050 Given a solid OO education and C++ background but having missed some of the traditional CS language theory, what is a minimum required reading list, especially when designing a non-traditional language? http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=164559 Namespace processing seems to be the 'will do later' entry on every XML toolkit author's list. Following from discussion in the recent thread "Simplifying XML Manipulation" I wanted to emphasise that namespaces are the key to reuse in schemas and hence any chance of rich data interchange. Don't ignore them! http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=160373 What if you could write Python code with an alternate interpreter/preprocessor that allowed you to use different keywords in your native tongue, including ideogrammic languages? This proposition comes from a thought that Python semantics may be flexible enough to act as a VM for the new CEDSimply language. http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=158259 I recently had reason to work on some code a few years old and used Object Master and an older CodeWarrior IDE. I'd forgotten how much more productive coding could be with the assistance of a Smalltalk-style 3-pane browser. Here are a few points I've picked from my revisit. http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=158261 If you don't speak English, what programming languages are the best fit and does this radically change how you develop Domain-Specific Languages? http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=158795 Introducing the CEDSimply project and some thoughts on a clean way to assign pointers using safe multiple dereferences of possibly nil pointers: CurrentLogger = gRS.runner.UI.LogTo unless nil