Software, Business, and Life
Oct 19 2008
In the past I’ve installed MediaWiki, ruwiki, git-wiki, and several other Wiki implementations (Perl, and Java implementations), with varying degrees of effort. For example, ruwiki required considerable gymnastics to get the right Ruby libraries in place on the machine I hosted it on, MediaWiki required a database, etc. Ruby libraries, databases, JVMs, and the like [...]
Oct 12 2008
This afternoon I rebuilt OasisDigital.com using Webby, stripping out hand-coded HTML and replacing it with much more maintainable Markdown. The site looks about the same as before (which is to say, mediocre), but under the hood it is much easier to update. We intend to use this new ease, to move forward in improving it. [...]
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Aug 26 2008
Test Driven Development doesn’t seem to be in style today to the extent it was a few years ago. I think that’s a shame, because TDD is among the most powerful ideas I’ve come across to boost the quality of the software we deliver. At Oasis Digital we even use it in unusual places, like [...]
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May 26 2008
I have often given the advice to start each project with an end to end working first draft, also known as an evolutionary prototype, and sometimes I have even followed this advice myself. My own projects have been most successful when following it, such as in three projects that come to mind: A 6+ year [...]
May 25 2008
I recently heard from a developer who worked on a project here for about one year, several years back. I won’t name or quote him directly; the essence of his message was: He learned a lot during that year. This learning was a turning point in his career. What he learned has proved lucrative. Of [...]
May 21 2008
I’m writing this up as advice to a rhetorical “you”, but it’s really written to a younger version of me. Imagine that you are working on a project for a customer (or employer), who has a weekly or monthly budget limit. You are paid by the hour, for up to N hours per week; or [...]
