Nat Pryce over at Mistaeks I Hav Made has an interesting series on writing test code, starting with Test Data Builders and then enhancing the technique with Define common state and avoid aliasing problems Combining builders Emphase the domain model with factory methods Factoring out duplicated logic creates a domain-specific embedded language for testing This […]
James Bach proposes a fancy word in the same thought-space as what I call “Cargo Cult Programming”. How often have you heard somebody say “My program didn’t work, but {the local guru|the Javadoc|MSDN|a Google search} told me that if I sprinkled some extra lines of random code, the problem would go away.” Then, on the […]
This ought to get at least a few of Adam‘s goats. Sadek Drobi over at InfoQ summarizes a debate about certification for programmers where several writers advocate that programmers really should be certified in testing software. InfoQ: Testing and Quality Control the only Certification Needed? A new certification for software developers should not be about […]
InfoQ: Microsoft Research’s Accelerator: A Data-Parallel Library for .NET that Targets GPUs Microsoft Research’s Accelerator Project exposes a .NET library for performing parallel data processing using a computer’s GPU. Accelerator is a .NET 2.0 DLL that requires DirectX 9, included with Windows XP SP2, and a graphics card that supports Pixel Shader 2.0 or above. […]
An unusually long link-excavation strikes pay dirt: Greg points through Jorge Aranda to Ed Yourdon who, in the course of an article well worth reading, happens to point to an interview with Linda Rising (also worth your time) at InfoQ. The interview was conducted by Deborah Hartmann, a Toronto-based agile development consultant who co-authored a […]
Adam Goucher, who escaped the Previous Employer before I did, links to an excellent reference on software testing: Quality Tree Software‘s Test Heuristics Cheat Sheet. Many thanks to Elisabeth Hendrickson for sharing this with us. I’m planning to print out a bunch of copies and staple one onto each member of my development team.
Greg sent me a link to a CBC.ca story: Doctors too slow to embrace electronic health records. My first reaction was “Of course doctors don’t want to use electronic health record systems. Have you looked at them? They’re nasty!” Now, physicians are notorious for resisting change, but we need to step back and think about […]
Diane’s comment on my previous post is bang on (groan…). With the exception of a couple of sign changes, “Guns don’t…” is an excellent analogy for what I’m talking about. While I was ruminating on how to flesh out the analogy, Larry stepped in and got to the point. There’s a growing “user-centric” movement in […]
Hugh Macleod at Gapingvoid drew a cartoon that I’m considering getting tattooed on my forehead: And then the comments led me to Bokardo and UIE Brain Sparks, and now I need to find another few hours to read and think about user interface design…
