I've been asked about the proper location of Stored Procedures more than once. I've come down very strongly in opposition to triggers and stored procedures.

First, PL/SQL is slow . Anecdotally, people claim that introducing PL/SQL made an app faster. I submit that they restructured the application significantly to …

I'm trying to make sense of the "Voice of the Customer" as the 6σ folks term it.

I get email once in a while on my books (Programming , Python and OO Design ). The volume of mail indicates that I have a few hundred readers. I'm honored to have readers who …

Here's how it shakes out from my point of view. You could say that my bias is showing. I think, however, I have solid evidence for my opinions.

C++. Fine if you like memory management. Don't get me wrong, some people love the nitty-gritty details. Some people would prefer to …

I want to thank folks for their thoughtful comments.

I clarified a few design points.

Most importantly, I added four new appendices. For Python programmers, I provided examples of unittest, doctest and epydoc. For Java programmers, I provided examples of JUnit and javadoc.

I use the word denormalization heavily, to make a point to a certain class of developers. Other developers object to the term, since it doesn't have a precise meaning.

The point I often have to make this:

1. 3rd Normal Form is for Updates.
2. Data Warehousing is about Insert and Select …

The comment was eaten by Haloscan, but here's the text...

You need to read Rozhenstein on characteristic functions.

select
sum(case when a < .5 then 1 else 0 end) 'A'
,sum(case when a >= .5 and a < .75 then 1 else 0 end) 'B'
,sum(case when a >= .75 then …

The problem is this: parsing HTML from a variety of sources to create pleasant, easy-to-manipulate spreadsheets. HTML can represent the same data in a variety of ways, even within a single web site. What we have are several layers of parsing; layers which must be linked with increasingly simplified intermediate …

The updates to Building Skills in Object-Oriented Design cover some notes on testing, Agility and rework, two ongoing themes that can't be emphasized enough.

There were two small updates regarding testability.

First, creating Outcome instances — for testing purposes — does involve an ugly hack of repeating the payout odds. Since we're …

Don't ask why. I can't explain it without violating a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

However, check this out. Search for NMEA Checksum VB.

• http://www.experts-exchange.com/Databases/GIS_GPS/Q_21413235.html
• http://www.codepedia.com/1/Calculating+and+Validating+NMEA+Checksums
• http://www.codepedia.com/1/Taking+Out+the+Garbage:+NMEA+Checksums …

The star schema represents data as a table of facts (measurable values) that are associated with the various dimensions of the fact. Common dimensions include time, geography, organization, product and the like. I'm working with some folks whose facts are a bunch of medical test results, and the dimensions are …