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]

Extensibility is important. Face it, unless you are able to easily extend the functionality of your application, you are going to be missing out on a big competitive advantage. If your application is easily extensible, you will be able to build new features and respond to competition more quickly. F... [More]

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve come across full-fledged systems that were created 10 years ago when classic ASP was acceptable commonplace. Back then of course, classic ASP was cool. The shift from static HTML to dynamically generated content was a compelling one, and to be fair it has serv... [More]

In falling in love with a programming language, one of the qualities most people look for is the level of elegance that can be achieved within the language. Few things are more satisfying to a programmer than solving the problem with beautiful, elegant code. Elegance and conciseness are closely re... [More]

Over the last 10 years I've worked of a number of both small and large projects. Until recently I hadn't really evaluated my approach to a new project. I hadn't really thought much about how I decided on a design, how I began the implementation and how I generally managed the project. Over time i... [More]