Category Archives: Programming

“Joel On Software” By Joel Spolsky

If you’re in the business of developing software, you should read the “Joel On Software” book. Period.
(Shortest review I’ve ever written.)
While I don’t agree with everything Joel has written, I find most of what he writes to be a clear exposition of common-sense approaches to managing software development. No BS, just simple stuff that works. [...]

Job Interviews; Personality Does Matter

I recently interviewed a very intelligent, capable programmer who was near the start of his career. I decided not to make him an offer, and he sent a very nice follow-up e-mail asking for tips on how to present himself better. I figured my reply might be very useful to other applicants, so I’m posting [...]

Working on the spec for SPBS

I’ve been working on the spec for SPBS — it’s slow going, as my real job has been taking most of my focus. But I realized that in designing the templating system for the blog, I’m actually designing a domain-specific mini-language. I think I’m going to reread that chapter of The Art of Unix Programming.
But [...]

Announcing The Launch Of SPBS — the Simplest Possible Blogging System

And by “Launch,” I mean “I’m starting to write it.” There’s a long way between that and a completed program. But you can check my progress at SPBS’ Google Code site: http://code.google.com/p/spbs/
I’ve written an introduction to SPBS, and the reasons I’m writing it here, at http://code.google.com/p/spbs/wiki/SPBSIntroduction

Google FTW: Fixing Arrow Problems in OS X Python

I lived with it for ages. I tried to fix it on my own, by selecting different emulation types. Finally I Googled for it. And pretty much instantly found the answer:
python `python -c “import pimp; print pimp.__file__”` -i readline
Moral? If at first you don’t succeed, Google. If Google fails, try, try again.
Update: And to [...]

Correction to Ubuntu Geek’s “How To Check Your External IP Address From The Command Line”

I follow the Ubuntu Geek blog, and have found some very useful tips there. However, there’s a problem with their latest tip, “Howto Check you (sic) external IP Address from the command line.”
Some background: There’s a very useful website located at whatismyip.com, which reports the IP you used to connect to the site. If you’re [...]

Writing Software Is Hard (Duh!)

Great article by Kyle Wilson on why software is hard to create:
Talking about a software development schedule more than a year out is like talking about where we go after we die.  Everyone has some idea where we’ll end up, but those ideas differ wildly, and there’s a lack of solid evidence to support any [...]

How to Remove All Subversion Folders From A Directory Tree

Say you’ve got a Subversion source code tree checked out, and for whatever reason you want to remove all Subversion directories inside that tree. (The thing that makes a Subversion tree a Subversion tree is the presence of a “.svn” folder in every folder of the tree. If you had a complicated source tree with [...]

My Workflow: TextMate, Subversion, and Python

I’m focusing in on some very important parts of my workflow. Version control is Subversion. I’m most of the way through the book on it.
Text editing is TextMate. I was trying to use vim, because it’s one editor I can use both on my OS X desktop and SSH’d across the network to linux boxes. [...]

How To Install Subversion in OS X

The folks behind Subversion don’t produce an OS X binary, so they link to a third party who produced one. Unfortunately, the current regular version is 1.4.3, and the latest OS X binary is 1.3.
I found a different binary at Martin Ott’s site. I have no idea why his site isn’t linked from Subversion’s, but [...]