Gut Reaction I was talking with someone about possible approaches to an API the other day. He asked me if I’d favor a method that took a parameter and had a return value or if I’d prefer a method that was void and took two parameters but with one as a ref parameter. My immediate,…
Many moons ago in my first role as a developer, I had very little real work to do for the first month or so on the job, so I occupied myself with poking around the company intranet, jotting down acronyms, figuring out who was responsible for what, and documenting all of this in spreadsheets and…
Paralysis By Options Do you ever find yourself in a situation where some API or another requires you to instantiate an object? (If you’re reading this blog, the answer is probably “yes”). What do you usually do at this point? Instantiate it, compile, and make sure you’re good before poking around to see what your…
A Simpler Time When I was in college in the late 90’s, we didn’t use source control. The concept existed but wasn’t pervasive in my environment. (Or, if it was, I have no recollection of using it). And, why use it? We were working projects lasting less than a semester (usually far less) and in…
Getting Philosophical Given that I’ve just changed jobs, it isn’t entirely surprising that I’ve had a lot of conversations recently about why I decided to do so. Generally when someone leaves a job, coworkers, managers, HR personnel, friends, and family are all interested in knowing why. Personally, I tend to give unsatisfying answers to this…
