Category Archives: Programming

When TDD Is Not a Good Fit

Posted on September 29, 2019 | 10 comments

I like to use Test-Driven Development (TDD) when coding. However, in some circumstances, TDD is more of a hinderance than a help. This happens when how to solve the problem is not clear. Then it is better to first write a solution and evaluate if it solves the problem. Writing tests only makes sense after the solution is viable. Continue reading →

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Posted in Programming, Testing

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Book review: Accelerate

Posted on May 26, 2019 | 2 comments

The book Accelerate details the findings of four years of research on how DevOps affects various outcomes, such as software delivery tempo and stability, as well as the organizations’ profitability and market share. DevOps in this context means things like continuous delivery, automated tests, trunk-based development, and proactive monitoring of system health. It is quite clear that DevOps practices bring lots of benefits to organizations adopting them. The research findings are also in line with my own experience of DevOps.

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Posted in Programming, Testing, Work

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More Good Programming Quotes, Part 3

Posted on April 3, 2019 | 1 comment

I like good programming quotes. Here are some new ones I have found since my last posts.

Complexity

“Why do people find DNS so difficult? It’s just cache invalidation and naming things.” – @jdu Continue reading →

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Posted in Programming

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Programming: Math or Writing?

Posted on March 30, 2019 | 4 comments

Is programming like math, or is it like writing? I think there are elements of both in it, even though programming is a discipline of its own. Nevertheless, it is interesting to think about what aspects are like math, and what aspects are like writing. Maybe it will even lead to a better understanding of what programming is.

Like Math

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Posted in Programming

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6 Git Aha Moments

Posted on June 25, 2018 | 24 comments

When I switched jobs four years ago, I went from using subversion (svn) to using git as the version control system. Even though I am a pretty quick learner, it took me a quite a while to really understand git. I read a lot on how git works, but even so, I didn’t always realize what the implications were for how to use git. Here are six big “aha moments” I had on how to use git. Continue reading →

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Posted in Learning, Programming

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Exercises in Programming Style

Posted on March 13, 2018 | 6 comments

In the book club at work, we recently finished reading Exercises in Programming Style by Cristina Videira Lopes. The book consists of a simple program implemented in 33 different programming styles. It is a great way of showing the different styles, and the book was quite popular in the book club. The book is relatively new (it was published in 2014), and I don’t think it is as well-known as it deserves to be. So here is a summary and review of it. Continue reading →

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Posted in Learning, Programming

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Programming for Grade 8

Posted on December 17, 2017 | 11 comments

For the past two months, I have been helping my son’s grade 8 class to learn to program. All students wrote Python programs and got a feel for what programming is. This post has details on how we organized the course, code examples and lessons learned. Continue reading →

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Posted in Learning, Programming

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