Get a clue! or .. write a requirement

by

Guys and gals, we’ve all done it. Written code without requirements. Me too. Guilty. However what is your preference? Are you the developer that needs a mountain of documentation that details your every line of code? Are you the developer that thrives on having some creativity by just having a loose outline of what is … Read more Get a clue! or .. write a requirement

The Simpleton Pattern

by

Simpleton UniversityNo, you read that correctly.  Simpleton, not Singleton is the subject of choice today.  Recently a fellow developer was looking over some code that I had written.

He commented on it by saying, “Rob I just love looking at your code.  It’s simple, easy to read, well-commented, and just makes sense”.

I replied, “Well that’s likely because I’m a simpleton”.

So jokes ensued with my friend asking, “Is that the design pattern you follow?”.  I thought, well yeah actually I guess it is and thus was born the idea for this blog post.

Read moreThe Simpleton Pattern

The Pessimistic Programmer

by

If you’re a programmer of any kind and have done it for any length of time at all; particularly as your profession, not just a hobby, you know this one rule:

Good programmers expect things to go bad.

One of our prime directives as lord or lady of the bits and bytes is to predict what can go wrong and prevent it.  Or at the worst case, handle it gracefully.

Being a developer isn’t exactly all baby giggles and sunbeams so a healthy amount of pessimism is certainly warranted.

Read moreThe Pessimistic Programmer

You never know what you know until you share it

by

A lot of highly analytical folks I’ve met over the years have not been the best communicators.  Heck I was first mentored by a Unix admin.   He was not known for the leading you by the hand approach.  Ok, that’s not fair.  He’d lead you once but you’d better, by cracky, take copious notes and never have to ask about that thing again or suffer The Look.

Anybody with me on that one?  Been there?

Read moreYou never know what you know until you share it

Cursors are evil, Cursors are good

by

Sure, sure if you’re even slightly older than me “the cursor” was the unruly kid at school with a slightly skewed moral compass.  However, if you’re like me, and reside on the Great Timeline of Technology, being privy to both the old world and the new information-age world you realize that the cursor can mean a few other things.

Today we’re talking about t-sql.

Ok let me out myself here.  I hate cursors.  A lot.

They are bloated, complex, and use entirely too much code.  I get it though.  Sometimes you just have to use them.  And I get it that they have their place.  Cool.  However here is handy way to NOT have to use one though.

Read moreCursors are evil, Cursors are good

Software developer from good to great

by

I’ve been in IT for 15 years now.  For most of that time, I’ve been programming, at least on some level, even if it was “only” batch files.  I’ve worked as an employee, a contractor and an independent consultant.  For companies both large, medium and small, I’ve written code, built computers, networked them, trained users and written documentation for it all.  I’ve done this on small and large teams as well as having been “the guy”.  So I’ve been around … and there was five sentences about me.

Enough of that though, this is about you.

Read moreSoftware developer from good to great

Check it and check it again

by

The other day at work an interesting thing happened. I was working with someone else in order to troubleshoot an issue with pushing some software out to our live site. I had tested my changes on my local machine as well as the test site. So we rolled things out to an external test site so our client could preview the changes before we flipped the final switch.  Drum roll please …

Ask .. “What Changed?

by

Ok this may sound simple.  It may seem like a “duh” moment.  However, we’ve all been there, right?  The pressure is freakin’ ON .. and .. either your an employee or heaven-forbid, an even more expendable consultant, but the world is on fire, mountains are crumbling and folks ranting.  The guy or gal who last worked on this project is either dead and buried or “called in sick” and you’re lost.  Everyone is looking at you saying, “Well it worked when I went home last night!  How soon can we get this {insert name of the unbelievably important application here} back up and running??!?!”

 

Read moreAsk .. “What Changed?