Why do we have systems with millions of lines of code? Every so often you’ll hear about someone who starts their new job only to discover that the system they’re now maintaining consists of many millions of lines of code. Millions. Now, are you telling me that these systems need a million lines o... [More]

Back in high school, I remember writing the second version of my IDE program. This was the beginning of 2004 and I had very little experience of writing any sizable piece of software. IDE2 would allow multiple users to connect to a central server where they could work together on code. It would als... [More]

Most of us have worked on our own little side projects. Usually we have some inspirational moment where we conceive an idea and then go through a mental process to map out the project in our heads. At the end of it we have a new killer idea for a project. In mapping out the idea, we have thought a... [More]

Source control is really important. Without source control, we would be working with single revisions of code where older changes are lost as soon as newer changes are made. Without source control, you couldn’t simply go back in time to before you attempted to implement your own version of a divide... [More]

Some people think that solving the problem is the only thing that matters. Wrong. While solving the problem is key to building a successful product, a successful product is more than simply a solution to a problem. A great product makes you feel happy and actually want to use it. A really great pro... [More]

And now for something completely different. A programming language allows a human to talk to a computer, in the same way that a spoken language allows a human to talk to another human. Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s consider what programming and spoken languages have in common. The... [More]

Our current product sucks. The code is so embarrassing I wouldn’t show it my own mother – even she would know it sucks and never wash my laundry for me again. It’s hard to maintain, hell it’s hard to even look at. We can’t easily change it and we don’t have the confidence to try. The average numb... [More]

C# is a statically typed language. This means that types are checked at compile time rather than at runtime. However, in C# 4.0, the dynamic keyword will be introduced. That’s right, we will be statically typing something to be a dynamic type. The dynamic keyword essentially tells the C# compiler t... [More]

Back in 1997 I remember my first day at high school. It was a memorable experience because the first day of high school is obviously a big deal in the life of an 11 year old, but also for another reason. The building was split into two almost identical sections, each with a giant staircase which to... [More]

If you are not failing, you are doing something wrong. Having made that statement, let me attempt to read your reaction. You either read what I just said, thought about it, and reached eventual agreement or you violently disagreed by throwing old fruit at your computer. Probably the latter. I’m n... [More]