I’ve been having fun this week watching some conference talks about my current favourite language, Elm, at Elm Europe 2017. And I enjoyed seeing an important idea discussed—important not just … Continue reading Always build for real people’s real problems
Are you looking for a better front-end coding experience? I’ve just spent several weeks completing my first project with the Elm language. This is my experience. (Spoiler alert: It’s pretty … Continue reading Discovering the Elm language
A software developer friend of mine has good advice, which he repeats solemnly: “You have to keep up to date aggressively .” I agree. He is specifically talking about software … Continue reading Keeping up to date aggressively
I’ve always been a fan of statically typed programming languages for my own work, simply because it makes my life easier. My mother always told me “the compiler is your … Continue reading Static typing as mistake-proofing
There is more to a legacy system than meets the eye. When we think about legacy systems we typically think about the old technology it’s built with, and how painful … Continue reading Legacy systems hide business knowledge
In the ideal world a technology will be selected on its own merits alone. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and every technology has to work in a … Continue reading Choosing a technology because it’s popular
Last week I wrote how automated systems build (e.g. Puppet, Chef and Ansible) improves quality as well as speed. By coincidence, this week I’ve been involved a great demonstration of … Continue reading Automation ensures quality beyond tech
Here’s another example of improving both speed and quality. A while back I talked about how productivity tools improve software quality. The same is true of automation and productivity tools … Continue reading Automation improves systems quality
The Year of Code is good, but digital literacy is more fundamental, more valuable, and more embracing. Once upon a time our schools in the UK taught our children how … Continue reading From Year of Code to digital literacy
How much do we really understand the tools and techniques at our disposal? The other day I found myself explaining to someone that a particular project sponsor didn’t understand Agile, … Continue reading Do you really know your toolbox?
