tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99631202011-04-21T15:52:29.139-07:00My thoughts on various Software Development related issues.bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.comBlogger211100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1137357629517042882006-01-15T20:40:00.000-08:002006-01-15T12:41:52.083-08:00

I've coveted 12" inch iBooks for some time, they're small, light, well equipped, and have that quintessential Apple design that makes them very easy on the eye.I've had a Toshiba Tecra A2 with a nice shiny 15" monitor for a while, and I love it, Ubuntu went on it easily and found all the hardware first-time, and it's fast and plenty of disk space, the screen's great and the keyboard's perfectly

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1133625828611781222005-12-03T07:51:00.000-08:002005-12-03T08:03:48.633-08:00

In the past year, there have been two major trends in Web Development.Web 2.0Rapid Web Application Frameworks such as Django and Ruby on RailsRuby on Rails (RoR), in particular has captured much mindshare, and it's not hard to see why, the combination of database integration, and the relatively small amount of code required to publish data on the web, allied with the nice demonstration movies has

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1120513284338657332005-07-04T14:21:00.000-07:002005-07-04T14:49:24.846-07:00

I normally spend all day working in Eclipse writing Java source.I quite like Eclipse's "Refactoring Browser" and use it a lot, one of my colleagues was surprised to discover what it does when I was demonstrating the "extract method" action.Tonight I was working on some Blogger API related code in solely as mental exercise (there are several APIs already floating about), and I was satisfied when

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1118928017283984162005-06-16T05:57:00.000-07:002005-06-16T06:21:47.873-07:00

I remember about seven years ago, when I was learning Java, I thought Javadoc was cool, and that it would take care of a lot of the documentation problems that I've felt frustrated with for years...Developers hate writing documentation, I fairly sparsely comment my own code, preferring to make the code logical to read, and only commenting those bits that need a "heads-up" from a fellow coder.

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1117702822366512862005-06-02T01:59:00.000-07:002005-06-02T02:00:22.370-07:00

I first started using Smalltalk around 1994, with Smalltalk/V, and I was immediately impressed by how easy it was to pick up and model objects in.In 1998, I think, I started developing financial modelling software in Dolphin Smalltalk, I can still remember how cheap Dolphin was, for the development environment from heaven.The software parsed data downloaded from a Property Management app into

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1115729724687821282005-05-10T05:45:00.000-07:002005-05-10T06:27:44.606-07:00

Well...over the past month I've been hectic...I've given two full length talks on Asterisk for ScotlugStarted building a new Plone based site for ScotlugI've read:The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to MasterBill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly EverythingReal World Web Services: Integrating EBay, Google, Amazon, FedEx and moreThe Struts CookbookThe Definitive Guide to PloneDeveloped the

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1112602773237629402005-04-04T01:16:00.000-07:002005-04-04T01:57:17.336-07:00

Ok...I'm working on a replacement website for Scotlug using Plone.I'm writing a skin from scratch based upon a custom page layout and CSS file.Last night I finally got the ZPT templates laid out in the shape of the design I'm aiming for.While I'm completely rewriting the skin, I'm still leveraging Plone's features, a last minute replacement of my manually-placed slots with the code which

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1111402541702330562005-03-21T02:33:00.000-08:002005-03-21T02:56:40.360-08:00

Well...I've had Glandular Fever for the past month or so...which is at least the 2nd time I've been diagnosed with it, and prossibly the 4th time I've actually suffered from it...I guess I'm one of the 6% of people who relapse...It's not pleasant, and despite the fact that I was off work for 3 weeks, I didn't get much chance to investigate interesting technology.One thing I did get was a clone of

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1107810230426592882005-02-07T13:57:00.000-08:002005-02-07T13:19:27.973-08:00

At last...I think I "grok" ZopeX3... Reading Jeffrey Shell's excellent series of blog entries I was able to get a couple of my own content items defined and into ZopeX3 and am quite pleased... It's not that the Zope3 book isn't good, or that the example is any different from this, just that sometimes I just need the bare essentials of something to form the basis for some experiments which lead

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1106647049726882832005-02-07T07:29:00.000-08:002005-02-07T07:03:35.106-08:00

Over the past week, I've had several reasons to think about Smalltalk. From code-samples written in Ruby to my thoughts on Object Protocols as I rewrite a significant body of Python into Java. Variable names changed for obvious reasons :-) In Python anotherSubset = [ x for x in state.masterListOfPeople if x not in state.subsetOfPeople ] Compare with the Java... ArrayList anotherSubset = new

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1106306804312525492005-01-21T02:11:00.000-08:002005-01-21T03:26:44.313-08:00

Currently at work I'm rewriting a significant body of Python code into Java. (yes...converting last year's Python - the spec has changed and the logic no longer has to be readable by business-users) The benefits of truly dynamic languages in simplifying code are not to be underestimated, binding "local" variables to objects that are passed between major modules, cuts down on the

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1105875102228663602005-01-16T02:59:00.000-08:002005-01-16T05:05:02.266-08:00

Reading this I attempted to make the following comment, but after previewing the comment, then attempting to submit, it kept taking me back to the front page...unfortunately the source code isn't available that I could see, so I've got no ideas where the bug lies, or indeed of a fix (despite having seven years Smalltalk experience) so I'll reproduce my comment here... James, You're missing

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1105539245472317412005-01-12T06:00:00.000-08:002005-01-12T06:21:40.843-08:00

My brother gave me a Waterstones voucher as part of a generous Christmas present, so after a couple of false starts I set off in the wind today to buy some books to read. When I left this morning, I had intentions of perhaps buying the Italian cookery book that I'd bought my mum as a present, it's a damned good book...but when I got there I headed straight for the computing section...I browsed

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1105531198920519102005-01-12T03:56:00.000-08:002005-01-12T04:14:35.876-08:00

Reading the excellent IBM redbook Architecting Portal Solutions I was struck by the definition of a "Portal". "people integration (or portal) solutions" Definition: People integration solutions allow a company to provide a personalized, integrated, interactive view of its business by giving customers, suppliers, partners, and employees anytime/anywhere access to information, transactions, and

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1105361304646071492005-01-10T04:27:00.000-08:002005-01-10T04:48:24.646-08:00

Recently there has been a surge of "popular science" books but the winner of the 1980 Pullitzer for General Non-Fiction was a truly mind-boggling book "Gödel, Escher Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid". In the words of the author GEB is: "GEB is a very personal attempt to say how it is that animate beings can come out of inanimate matter. What is a self, and how can a self come out of stuff that is

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1105105739062403882005-01-07T05:18:00.000-08:002005-01-07T05:48:59.063-08:00

ba·roque adj. also Baroque Of, relating to, or characteristic of a style in art and architecture developed in Europe from the early 17th to mid-18th century, emphasizing dramatic, often strained effect and typified by bold, curving forms, elaborate ornamentation, and overall balance of disparate parts. also Baroque Music. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a style of composition that

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1105016061328039892005-01-06T04:36:00.000-08:002005-01-06T04:54:21.326-08:00

Richard Stallman has compared software with books, the comparison seems fair, both are the result of creative processes by human beings, computer language code is no more than the expression of ideas in a "foreign" language. For some unknown reason, code seems to be treated differently in law tho'. If you read a book, and then wrote a book that had similar themes, as long as you don't

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1105012449229735762005-01-06T02:17:00.000-08:002005-01-06T03:54:09.230-08:00

There are barriers to entry in every industry... I'd suggest that most in most industries, cash is the biggest barrier, in Software Development it's time. Remaining up-to-date with even a handful of development tools requires a significant amount of time and effort and an architectural role requires significant knowledge, both in breadth and depth. There are a variety of sites that can help

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1104935750297675282005-01-05T05:52:00.000-08:002005-01-05T06:35:50.296-08:00

In #scotlug an IRC channel for the Scottish Linux User Group a frequently asked question is "What Content Management System should I use?" The answer is, whichever one provides the features you need. For most people, Content Management means role-secured entry of content into a standardised layout, and management of associated "artefacts" such as images and PDFs or downloadable files. This

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1104928309315474622005-01-05T04:15:00.000-08:002005-01-05T05:25:03.623-08:00

Searching that vast repository of code that is SourceForge for Groupware yields tens of hits all different projects, providing varying peoples' ideas on what Groupware is. I'm looking for something to handle in a collaborative manner the following things: Calendar - shared and individual Tasks Lists of things that are relatively free form and shareable Bug-tracking: differs from Tasks mainly

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9963120.post-1104921560526832542005-01-05T02:17:00.000-08:002005-01-05T02:39:20.526-08:00

I've read over http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=86641">Guido's Adding Optional Static Typing to Python -- Part II and I don't get it... Perhaps based upon my Smalltalk experience, perhaps based upon my Java experience, but I honestly believe that Python's strengths lie in its dynamic abilities. Who cares what object gets passed to a method?Really? If the object implements the

bigkevmcdnoreply@blogger.com0