Back in June, I posted my own version of the Joel Test – updated for 2010. [See Here.] Do you have a change management system? Can everyone make a build in one step? Do your daily builds include automated tests? Is work item tracking integrated with source control? Do you fix bugs and write new code? Do you track progress and manage change? Do you have a requirements management system? Do programmers have quiet working conditions and teaming rooms? Do you use the best tools money can buy? Are your...

Static Reflection in .Net Where have I been? I recently took a few minutes to look through the latest MSDN magazine and ran across a nice article by Jeremy Miller on “Functional Programming for Everyday .NET Development”. The section titled “Lambdas as Data” was my first introduction to static reflection in .Net. Where the heck have I been? I don’t write database persistence code, so I am not familiar with NHibernate (or fluent NHibernate) (which is where Jeremy’s sample comes from), but I am still...

Designing Software for Scientists Creating a software design for scientists can be tricky business. Unlike the businessman, who is better off looking at the pretty database report or marveling over the catchy name of the latest Forms over Data application, the scientist can actually contribute to the implementation – provided you use the right architecture. In year’s past (I’m referring to 20+ years ago), the typical Physicist / Chemist / etc. was nearly on par with the typical software engineer...

Remember when a program was termed a “GUI Application” - a program with a Graphical User Interface? It had features like menus that “dropped-down” (or “popped up”), scroll bars to reveal more of the virtual surface area, a pointing device (still called a cursor), and lots and lots of Drag & Drop. Thankfully, that moniker has mostly died. Now it is time another term to fall by the wayside – the Web Application. What is a Web Application? Just what is a web application, anyway. An application delivered...

The Joel test is intended to gauge the quality of a software development organization. Ten years later, it is in need of an update. Below is a possible “New Joel Test”, updated for 2010. 1. Do you use source control? 1. Do you have a change management system? There needs to be a configuration management plan, control of assets beyond “source code”, branching and merging strategy (even if it’s not to branch), release stabilization and deployment plan, security permissions and roles, quality gates...

This post is not another list of security mistakes in web application development – not my cup of tea. No, this is a list of the top five programmer errors. That is, errors made by software development professionals performing their craft. No. 1 – Writing Too Much Code “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants” – Sir Isaac Newton. I recently came across this post by Chris Williams asking for help in finding a bug that resulted in “serious error in the debugger”. There...

Here are my top five. What are yours? No. 1 Failure to clearly define a network protocol In today’s world of everything over HTTP, designing low-level network protocols are mostly a thing of the past. Behind the firewall, however, failure to clearly define a network protocol before implementation is one of the largest sources of re-work. Take the time to clearly define the network communication protocols – at whatever level is required for your application. Even if you are running over HTTP, define...