Opinionated posts!
published: Thu, 27-Oct-2005 | updated: Sat, 6-Aug-2016
Here are the articles I've written that are, shall we say, a little opinionated.
Elegance in programming
Over the next couple of weeks, a small team of us will be going through a subsystem in our product to clean it up and to harden it against exceptional situations. It currently works, but when something goes wrong, it can fail in mysterious ways. We're also going to take the opportunity to do some much-needed profiling for speed and memory. The original subsystem was written in C# back in the day when the company hadn't much experience in all things .NET and I'm afraid it shows. Read more...
Delphi or C#?
I've been asked this kind of question before: "I have a Win32 application written in Delphi. I now need to move it to .NET. Should I try and use Delphi for .NET? Or should I rewrite it in C#?" I got such a question this morning from one of my Norwegian readers. I generally tell them the same thing, there's no clear answer, but embellish it according to the amount of time I have at that moment. (Updated: 23-Sep-2005) Read more...
The need for basic Computer Science
Is it worth the time and effort for a self-taught developer to learn the basics of Computer Science? An unequivocal yes, in my view. Knowledge of the standard structures and algorithms will help anyone; but understanding how to analyze the behavior of your code will, to be frank, enable you to make it run faster and more efficiently. Read more...
Stupid web site tricks
I'd have to say if you publish a page on your web site and you intend to continue making your web site available then you should ensure that the web site's URLs don't change. It seems bloody obvious to me. I'm just getting tired of searching for stuff on the Internet and finding that some so-called expert on a subject has removed his website/blog, or reorganized it, or archived some of it. Read more...
Sql is so twentieth century
Sometimes I forget how quaint the SQL language can be. There I am merrily coding away in C# and .NET within Visual Studio, Intellisense guiding the way, the compiler saving me from the most egregious mistakes, and then I have to write a bit of SQL as a stored procedure. Suddenly it all comes to a screeching halt, not because I don't know the language, but because there is so little real-time developer support. Read more...
Experiencing Delphi 2005
A couple of weekends ago I completed another article for The Delphi Magazine, this one on Dependency Injection and pico containers. For the article I made a good start on a pico container written in Delphi for Win32 (henceforth, called Delphi32). It wasn't all plain sailing, though. (Updated 18-May-2005) Read more...
What is good-enough software?
The problem with the term "good enough software" is that it seems to have a slightly grubby connection: software that's just good enough to pass muster. It isn't polished, it isn't clean, perhaps it isn't even maintainable (a one-off program, for example). Read more...
Function inlining
Last night, Delphi R&D gave a preview of Diamondback, the next release of Delphi. Lots of news, but there was one language change that got my goat. Read more...
Not because Nick says so!
In my last blog I said that I'd comment on articles in Delphi Informant, especially with regard to technical veracity. Well, the new issue of DI is out (at least, I can
access the new content online), and I have a couple of comments on Nick Hodges' first article. Read more...
Reviewing the MSDN article on hash tables
I came across a new series on MSDN on writing and using data structures in .NET. Seeing as this is my area of expertise, I took a look. They're good, but there were a few factual errors in the discussion on hash tables. Read more...
Understanding programmer's block
We've all been there before. You're staring at the blank screen in your favorite editor, but you just don't know what to type. Nothing suggests itself. You're stymied. You have Programmer's Block. Read more...
On Microsoft Reader
I've been participating in Microsoft Reader's promotion over the summer: free ebooks. This promotion was to help ebooks as well as the new version of Microsoft Reader. Are ebooks the next big thing? Or are they lame beyond belief? Read more...
Wake up, Delphi Informant!
I got a free copy of Delphi Informant at BorCon, and read a couple of articles. They should slap their Technical Editor around a bit. Read more...
Gaming with smart cards
The CEO of the American Gaming Association shows he doesn't understand the technology. Sigh. Read more...
So, how do you code?
It's a valid question. Do you just put fingers to keyboard and type away as fast as you can, or is there method to your madness? Read more...
