In a previous article I explained why I generally do not think it is worth debating the relative merits of one
computer language over another, while at the same time pointing out one major exception: whether the language
in question is untyped vs. strongly typed. Unlike the other properties of a language, I believe its ability
to guarantee the type of each variable in the code base is extremely important in the lifetime cost of software
written in that language. Like many of the other posts,…
A few years back I was attending the yearly strategy workshop of my employer at the time,
along with all my other colleagues. We were divided into groups of six to nine people and tasked
with, among other things, coming up with an approach to enable innovation within the company.
One of the people in the group I was in, relayed his story of why he left his previous employer,
the local telecom giant, over the same thing. He told us how this company asked all their
employees to propose projects,…
I am not sure why, but out of the set of all anti-patterns, drive-by coding is the one I am personally most disturbed by.
Perhaps that's because it's so unnecessary. Perhaps because it's indicative of laziness on behalf of the developer.
Perhaps because it is, itself, a smell of much more serious cultural issues. For exactly this last reason, if not for
any other, I feel very strongly that this particular anti-pattern should be uprooted mercilessly whenever noticed, before
it becomes endemic…
