I haven't written new C code since the turn of the millennium. Since then it's been almost all Java and Python. Along with Java and Python come JUnit and Python's unittest module.
I've grown completely dependent on unit testing.
I'm looking at some C code, and I want a unit …
more ...Had a knock-down drag-out fight with another architect recently over "status" and "priority".
She claimed that the backlog priority and the status where the same thing. I claimed that you can easily have this.
Priority: 1, Status: Not Started
Priority: 2, Status: In Process
Priority: 3, Status: Completed
See? It's …
more ...On StackOverflow you can read numerous questions on "flattening" nested lists in Python.
They all have a similar form.
"How do I flatten this list [ [ 1, 2, 3 ], [ 4, 5, 6 ], ... , [ 98, 99, 100 ] ]?"
The answers include list comprehensions, itertools, and other clever variants.
[STRIKEOUT:All] Much of which is …
more ...This isn't computer forensics; it's something much simpler.
A colleague has been struck down with a disease (or won the lottery) and won't be back to work any time soon. Worse, they did not use SVN to do daily check-ins. Their laptop has the latest and greatest. As well as …
more ...Many folks ask about Agile project planning and total cost. As our internal project managers wrestle with this, there are a lot of questions.
Mostly these questions are rejections of incremental delivery ("All or Nothing") or rejections of flexibility ("Total Total Cost"). We'll look at these rejections in detail.
Traditional …
more ...Got this question recently.
"Any suggestions on PM tools that meet the following considerations
- Planning
- Estimating
- Tracking (allowing both PM input and developer input)
- Reporting
- Support both Agile and Waterfall projects
- Releases
- Bug fixes (probably just another type of backlog)"
Agile PM requires far less planning than you're used to …
more ...See Joel On Software: The Duct Tape Programmer: he lauds the programmer who gets stuff done with "duct tape and WD-40".
Here's why: "Shipping is a feature. A really important feature. Your product must have it."
Dave Drake sent the link along with the following:
This "speaks of coding for …
more ...The USPS ZIP codes have a multi-part structure. The first three digits are a prefix that defines a sectional center facility.
The USPS table L005 3-Digit ZIP Code Prefix Groups—SCF Sortation maps clusters of ZIP3 prefixes to Facility and State codes. The following URL has this table.
A co-worker has mistakenly cloned a directory tree rather than link to it. Then they made some number of changes to files in that directory.
Your job is to compute a directory-level difference between an official copy and the changes they made. Sadly, you can't trivially …
Good stuff in ComputerWorld: Partnerships can Go Too Far.
"Consider vendor innovation. As companies become large and entrenched, they typically become more risk-averse and less creative, often rejecting ideas that challenge conventional wisdom."
This is really only half the story.
Programming is hard -- really hard. Read EWD …