DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by danielstoner

Thought Driven Development a Methodology of Abile Development

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:46:03 GMT

Warning: This is a rant against TDD extremism! Sensitive TDD people better step out of this dark sleazy communist place right now! Why do I pick on TDD? Because it makes no sense. The development and design shall be driven by thought not by test. Yes some people are able to "think" better about their problems while using TDD. Kudos to them! But not all people are alike.

Bad advice on exceptions from Joel

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:46:02 GMT

Starting from some comments on my exception handling series of articles I run into a couple of blogs pointing to this post on joelonsoftware.com. I think this is the worst advice on exception handling I have ever read, sorry Joel. I know this is an old post, I know Joel is entitled to his own opinion and I know he has the right to write his code as he sees fit. But as an opinion leader he influences others.

The Creators of 30 Programming Languages: pages, blogs, interviews

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:46:02 GMT

Behind any programming language there is a creator or sometimes a small team. Each language has a story and a philosophy and each creator had a motivation, a problem to solve. Here is a collection of resources about these people: personal pages, blogs, biographies and interviews.

Code review - The meaningless ritual

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:46:02 GMT

Most of the time code reviews are a meaningless ritual. Everybody pays lip service to the importance of code reviews and a lot of people, especially in the management, are convinced that code reviews very effectively reduce the number of shipped bugs. The problem is. most developers hate code reviews and avoid them like the plague. If they can't avoid them, then they show up and act their part like in a play at the theater of the absurd.

12 Unit Testing Tips for Software Engineers

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:01:18 GMT

"In this post we look at a dozen unit testing tips that software engineers can apply, regardless of their programming language or environment."

Software development dogmata - good practices gone bad

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:46:03 GMT

Many practices in the software development world are widely accepted at some moment in time as the "true way". The trouble starts when the "true way" is forced down the throats of people who need a "new way". Usually popular practices follow a similar path between the moment somebody discovers/creates them and until they get massively popular.

How to run a software development company (INTO THE GROUND)

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:31:02 GMT

The series will cover the things you *shouldn't* do if you hold some sort of managerial stake in a software project. Sadly these tales will be from my own personal experience working for companies that have drifted into disarray. These examples will be embellished somewhat to drive the points home, but by and large, everything you will read in these posts will be true.

How bad comments are born in your code

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:46:02 GMT

Many programmers mention their support for "good" comments in the code. A significant percentage of all developers think the quality of the comments is one of the traits that separate good experienced programmers from the rest. But the cruel reality is lots of code out there is not commented at all or, even worse, it is commented but the comments are so bad they make understanding the code harder.

Top 10 Things New Twitter Users Need To Know

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 07:01:02 GMT

Those new to Twitter need some guidance. Jeff Blankenburg has come up with a list of things that someone new to Twitter needs to read before even creating their account.

No, inheritance is not the way to achieve code reuse!

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:01:03 GMT

I am not sure how so many people go through so many years of school, which is supposed to make us better at thinking, and they fail to differentiate the "why" and the "how". During interviews, when I ask their opinion about the purpose of inheritance in OOP, invariably I get this precooked answer (not so nicely expressed): inheritance is the way to achieve code reuse. No it is not!

The Agile 800 Pounds Gorilla

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:46:02 GMT

I woke up this morning and I was Agile. We are all Agile now. Or we are gonna become Agile. Soon. No doubt about it. It is an order. And orders are not to be discussed, just executed. The Enterprise goes Agile! With the elegance of the huge battleship being pulled across a desert between oceans by slaves, camels and elephants, the Enterprise goes Agile.

36 steps to success as technical lead

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:16:20 GMT

The "tech lead" role can be treacherous at times. While the name implies "leadership", most of the times it doesn't come with implied authority like a manager role for example. It often happens that this role is in a no-man's-land where it brings a lot of responsibility but not enough formal authority. In order to successfully help a project from this position one has to navigate through narrow and convoluted straits.

13 reasons for UML's descent into darkness

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:01:03 GMT

UML lost the programmers. There is no doubt about it. in my mind. And when a software design technology loses the programmers it fades away no matter what the academia thinks. This happened because UML was pushed in a direction that most code writers don't like: it started to look a lot like bureaucratic paper work.

Daily Standup Meetings for Agile Instructional Designers

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:26:03 GMT

In this post, I will introduce the concept of daily standup meetings for instructional designers . A lot has been written on this topic for agile software development. But this agile principle can be used in any field like instructional design. Therefore, this blog will explain the benefits, key questions and structure of a daily standup meeting.

55 Free High Quality Icon Sets

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:01:02 GMT

A lot of freebie icons. Another great article from Smashing Magazine