The Pragmatic Programmers Interviewed

Grok Headline matches for The Pragmatic Programmers Interviewed

A pragmatic methodology book for
programmers of any level and language

A pragmatic methodology book for
programmers of any level and language 03/21/2003 02:24 AM
CNET Mar 21 2003 1:24AM ET

Hiring Programmers: A Programmers a
Programmer, right? by David K. Every

Hiring Programmers: A Programmers a
Programmer, right? by David K. Every 11/12/2003 01:23 PM
Human Resources people, Managers, and general users, have no idea how simple or complex computer programming is. They think that they can just throw programmers around from one task to another, then some HR people select computer programmers based on language (Syntax), and not what really matters (skills and abilities). This would be like hiring an employee based on what school they attended and not what subjects they studied! This article will give some non-programmers a better idea of what Programming is about, and what they should be looking for when hiring programmers.

Pragmatic move

Pragmatic move 04/28/2004 06:09 AM
CNET Asia Apr 28 2004 10:25AM GMT

New connections: the progressive and the
pragmatic

New connections: the progressive and the
pragmatic 03/14/2005 05:05 PM
Thomas Friedman, NYT, on a geo-green strategy: "combining environmentalism and geopolitics is the most moral and realistic strategy the U.S. could pursue today." Bill Greider, in The Nation on new thinking about investment strategy: high returns over the long term, as needed, for instance, by large public pension funds,...

Pragmatic Project Automation

Pragmatic Project Automation 08/31/2004 03:08 PM

Pragmatic Version Control Using CVS

Pragmatic Version Control Using CVS 12/30/2003 01:18 PM

Pragmatic JUnit Testing

Pragmatic JUnit Testing 03/06/2004 02:09 AM

Choice Is Pragmatic, Undramatic (Los
Angeles Times)

Choice Is Pragmatic, Undramatic (Los
Angeles Times) 07/07/2004 04:55 AM
Los Angeles Times - WASHINGTON — With the selection of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Sen. John F. Kerry tapped a running mate who combines obvious strengths with subtle risks.

Antarctic Response to Climate Change -
Not Pragmatic

Antarctic Response to Climate Change -
Not Pragmatic 09/23/2004 05:56 PM
Early in 2002, this website published an excellent article which documented the activity among the various ice shelves on the perimeter of the Antarctic. At that time, there had recently been several significant calving events, rendering vast, floating islands of ice. Also discussed was the complete collapse, in 1999, of an ice shelf known as Larsen B, which was formerly the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula - the northernmost and warmest part of the continent. The disintegration of the Larsen B shelf was called a "profound event", because it was thought to be stable. Fortunately, when massive icebergs are calved from ice-shelves, and even when they collapse and disintegrate completely, there is no resulting rise in sea level. It turns out though, that these same ice shelves serve a surprisingly important role in "holding back" the glaciers and land-locked ice on Antarctica which, if released into the ocean, would raise the world's sea level an estimated 20 feet (7m). Now it's much clearer just how important that role is.

Koreas Sidestep U.S. to Forge Political
and Pragmatic Links

Koreas Sidestep U.S. to Forge Political
and Pragmatic Links 06/25/2004 10:23 PM
Quietly ignoring Bush administration efforts to isolate North Korea, South Korea has become North Korea's most consistent diplomatic advocate.

For The Programmers...

For The Programmers... 04/22/2004 12:01 PM
I've just come across a piece of code with the following comment (paraphase): "This function returns 0 when is true, and 1 when is false. Please be aware when testing as a boolean."
AARGHHH!!!!

Vi for programmers

Vi for programmers 08/09/2004 07:51 AM
CNET Aug 9 2004 10:09AM GMT

MS Programmers: So Like Us

MS Programmers: So Like Us 02/16/2004 02:46 PM
It turns out Microsoft's Windows programmers have to deal with the same crap as the rest of the world's programmers. Kuro5hin.org has put up a overview of the comments in the recently leaked Microsoft source code. (Some of the comments are not rated G. If you use a text-to-speech reader, cover your kids' ears. )

In the struggle to meet deadlines, I think pretty much all programmers have put in comments they might later regret, including swearwords and acerbic comments about other code or requirements. Also, any conscientious coder will put in prominent comments warning others about the trickier parts of the code. Comments like "UGLY TERRIBLE HACK" tend to indicate good code rather than bad: in bad code ugly terrible hacks are considered par for the course. It would therefore be both hypocritical and meaningless to go through the comments looking for embarrassments. But also fun, so let's go.

The overall conclusion is rather flattering towards Microsoft: a lot of good code, with the obligatory ugly hacks for compatibility with other stuff. No stolen open source, either. Better go have a look before their cease-and-desist shows up.

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Do We Even Need Programmers Any More?

Do We Even Need Programmers Any More? 07/07/2004 02:47 PM
InternetNews is taking a look at the latest development tool releases from Sun and Microsoft that try to "dumb down" programming to the point that any old idiot can create applications and wonder s if coders are still necessary. The obvious answer the article reaches (and, yeah, the article includes a quote from me on this point) is that of course we'll still need real programmers. People have been promising the "programmer-less programs" for ages, and they seem to forget that designing applications isn't like designing a webpage. There's a lot more to it than just the user interface, and it's a different mode of thought. That said, however, it does seem like there is a real opportunity to expand the space of more personalized "quick and dirty" programs to solve specific needs. If people can have tools to build themselves specific programs it can expand the space, not necessarily shrink it for traditional programmers.

Dan Rather interviewed Ben Barnes

Dan Rather interviewed Ben Barnes 09/09/2004 04:40 PM
he told 60 Minutes .. four Bush memos

cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/08/60II/main641984.shtml
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Jon Johansen Interviewed

Jon Johansen Interviewed 04/05/2005 11:26 AM

Joe Trippi Interviewed

Joe Trippi Interviewed 07/22/2004 09:59 AM

I'mn being interviewed at The Well

I'mn being interviewed at The Well 03/15/2003 09:43 AM
I'm the subject of an open interview at The Inkwell.vue. We're mainly talking about Small Pieces and I'm braying like a puffed-up, vacuous ass. Come join the fun!...

Microsoft Ad for PHP Programmers

Microsoft Ad for PHP Programmers 04/07/2005 09:28 AM

An interesting Google ad appeared on the site today. It may still be there:

That's probably wise, to go after people "working" for the competition. I wonder what their CTR is and how they qualify a "successful conversion."

Programmers So Far Underwhelmed by JSF

Programmers So Far Underwhelmed by JSF 03/08/2004 11:16 PM
Some developers say the latest Web application specification needs third-party vendor tools before they will use it.

On the generosity of programmers

On the generosity of programmers 03/28/2005 08:44 AM

1/2/02: "Of course there's nothing wrong with financiers, we need them to get our stock public. But as a group they did something really stinky to the software industry in the last part of the last decade -- they helped promote the myth that programmers work for free. In their folklore we're so selfless that we're willing to write new software and fix bugs, without being paid to do so. Another way of looking at it -- they get to keep all the money and programmers get nothing."

SAP to add 500 programmers in India

SAP to add 500 programmers in India 05/07/2004 05:39 PM
ZDNet May 7 2004 9:13PM GMT

Vi for programmers, part 1

Vi for programmers, part 1 07/26/2004 05:37 AM
CNET Jul 26 2004 10:26AM GMT

UI Design for Programmers

UI Design for Programmers 06/02/2004 04:14 AM

I rather enjoyed reading Gadgetopia's informal review of Joel Spolsky's book User Interface Design for Programmers.

WEB DEVELOPERS/ PROGRAMMERS

WEB DEVELOPERS/ PROGRAMMERS 06/12/2004 06:40 PM
Kingsport Times News, TN - 11 hours ago ... A background in HTML, PHP, UNIX and CSS are important considerations for this rewarding position that include a weekly salary, health, 401K and paid vacations. ...

Programmers Are Idiots

Programmers Are Idiots 08/02/2004 01:32 PM

So I'm out here in Boston (home of the Free Speech Zone) at a seminar on distributed enterprise application development. The instructor is Pinku Surana, who certainly seems to know his stuff. I found this interesting article in his blog, where he argues that programmers are idiots, and I have to say he makes a pretty good case.

I occasionally teach IT programmers. I've taught over 100 people now and I can honestly say I've met maybe 5 good programmers. The rest are dangerously incompetent. In fact, they are so profoundly ignorant of computer science and programming that they actually believe they are fairly good. This is the perverse effect of ignorance: because they don't know what they don't know, they think they know everything. Brookes' Mythical Man Month described the uberprogrammers who are mysteriously 10x more productive than the average. I would go further and say the uberprogrammers aren't really so uber; rather, the average is abysmal.

He goes on to say that if non-IT companies want effective software, they should ditch their programmers and demand flexible software from vendors.

I agree with him on the first point. We, as programmers, are not nearly as good as we think we are. I think it probably stems from the fact that even a novice programmer knows more about computers than nearly everyone he knows, and they all praise him for being "so smart" when he fixes their printer or gets rid of their virus problem. My mechanic is "so smart" about replacing my car's water pump. Noone really praises him for it because cars have been around a long time and there's not much magic to them. I don't think I'd have my mechanic build me a new car from scratch, though.

I disagree with Pinku on the idea that you can solve your software problems by demanding configurable and interoperable software from vendors. It's a great idea in theory, but when you start dealing with vendors in reality, it quickly breaks down. We already demand these things from vendors, and they either don't deliver, or don't deliver as expected. Most programmers dislike vendor solutions because they're crappy in some way and hard to integrate with. That's because the vendor's programmers are idiots, too. The vendor's programmers spend a lot of time griping about how the customers write crappy architectures that are hard to integrate with their "well-written" solution. So, which is more dangerous, the idiot you know or the one you don't?

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Vi for programmers, part 2

Vi for programmers, part 2 07/26/2004 05:37 AM
CNET Jul 26 2004 10:27AM GMT

Programmers Notepad

Programmers Notepad 01/04/2004 01:14 PM
PN2 0.5 "mingus" released

Primates as Programmers

Primates as Programmers 12/31/2003 10:43 AM
Primates as Programmers. New firm breaks the mold. Hires primates as programmers leading to significant cost savings!

XML Is Too Hard For Programmers

XML Is Too Hard For Programmers 03/19/2003 10:25 PM
Tim Bray: "The notion that there is an 'XML data model' is silly and unsupported by real-world evidence. The definition of XML is syntactic: the 'Infoset' is an afterthought and in any case is far indeed from being a data model specification that a programmer could work with. Empirical evidence: I can point to a handful of different popular XML-in-Java APIs each of which has its own data model and each of which works. So why would you think that there's a data model there to build a language around?"

XML Keeps Programmers Regular

XML Keeps Programmers Regular 03/19/2003 10:24 PM
...using regular expressions, that is. In response to Tim Bray's dirty little habit of parsing XML with regular expressions, Jon Udell writes:

If the XML gods are resorting to Perl and Python hackery to shred documents, are we just spinning our wheels? I don't think so. But this is, perhaps, an unusual case. ... I can, however, make excellent use of the text stream underlying XML abstractions. So, which way to regard a document becomes a kind of Necker cube puzzle. The bad news: it's confusing. The good news: it's useful.

When the suggestion of XMLizing Blosxom templates came up a week or so ago, I (calmly) dared the proponent to install any number of Perl XML modules under Mac OS X. After all this time, it's still horrid stuff. And then there are those who, at the mercy of their ISPs, don't even have the choice of installing an XML parser.

That said, XML parsing has become a regular part of the modern programmer's nutritious breakfast. There're mouthfuls of RSS to consume, the Google Web API to Google, and the breadth and depth of the Amazon to explore. What's a happy parser-less hacker to do?

I just co-authored a book, 1/4 of which relied heavily on the availability of not only an XML parser, but a SOAP stack. Faced with the reality that more than a handful of readers wouldn't have either at their disposal, I wrote a hack sure to turn the stomach of any XML purist while turning many a hacker frown upside-down... "NoXML, Another SOAP::Lite Alternative" for the Google Web API.

XML jockeys might well want to avert their eyes for this one. What is herein suggested is something just so preposterous that it just might prove useful -- and indeed it does. NoXML is a drop-in alternative to SOAP::Lite. As its name suggests, this home-brewed module doesn't make use of an XML parser of any kind, relying instead on some dead-simple regular expressions and other bits of programmatic magic.

Elegant? Depends on your definition. Pure? As the driven beach sand. Work? You betcha!

For Perl Programmers : only

For Perl Programmers : only 03/19/2003 10:25 PM
Brian Ingerson's curious new module allows you to specify which version of a module you want Perl to load - and even to install multiple versions at the same time. Let's hear about it from the man himself!

Usability for Programmers

Usability for Programmers 01/22/2003 04:20 AM

Katie Jones Interviewed

Katie Jones Interviewed 08/06/2004 11:54 AM

'Hostage-taker' interviewed on TV

'Hostage-taker' interviewed on TV 09/05/2004 08:30 PM
Russian state TV airs an interview with an alleged hostage-taker, as two days of national mourning begin.

SleepTracker Inventor Interviewed

SleepTracker Inventor Interviewed 04/15/2005 09:59 AM

The SleepTracker watch has been a total success from what I can divine. We actually called to get one in for review because so many people were asking about it and the company said they didn't have a single review unit to spare (I probably should have turned off Unskinny Bop while calling). Gear Live has an interview with Lee Loree, the inventor of the watch that helps you wake up at the optimal time.

The next night I allowed our dog back into our room.  3 times she woke me to where I sat up in bed and was visibly disturbed (I video tape the nights I run tests).

Kinky, but that's science for you.

Interview with Lee Loree, SLEEPTRACKER Inventor [GearLive]

interviewed on Fox News Channel

interviewed on Fox News Channel 05/26/2004 07:25 AM
FoxNews interview .. �§© †Šˆ

foxnews.com/video2/real/0,3782,9351:300,00.ram
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interviewed some of the Convention
bl0ggers

interviewed some of the Convention
bl0ggers 07/26/2004 03:50 AM
Wall Street Journal .. free link

online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB109045054755870333,00.html?m od=todays_free_feature
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Jakito's Creators Interviewed

Jakito's Creators Interviewed 07/21/2004 09:30 AM

Roland Piquepaille sat down with the CEO and CTO of Novinit, the French firm behind the Jackito "Tactile Digital Assistant" (the one you use with just your thumbs). Although the company appears to have realized many of the errors they initially made in the product announcement, there's still enough tomfoolery to dispell any confidence that I might have that the Jackito's designers are in touch with the rest of the PDA world (or that they even want to be).

What I still don't get is why I should have to pay upwards for $700 for a crappy PDA when its major claim to fame is something that could just as easily be done in software on an established platform, like Palm or Windows Mobile. It's not like you can't turn a Palm on its side and use your thumbs on it.
Read - Exclusive Interview With Jackito's Makers [TechnologyTrends]

Related
Jackito: Tactile Digital Assistant [Gizmodo]

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The Pragmatic Programmers Interviewed

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