Jeremy Mayhew

Jan 07

Anyone who has built a calendar application, looked at the iCalendar standard, or worked on any real-time system knows how tricky time can be for a programmer. Here’s an interesting read from the WSJ on calendars and the pain of changing them.

Jan 05

Design Rules for Programmers

Eric S. Raymond, summarizes the basic philosophy of Unix software design:

Rule of Modularity: Write simple parts connected by clean interfaces.
Rule of Clarity: Clarity is better than cleverness.
Rule of Composition: Design programs to be connected to other programs.
Rule of Separation: Separate policy from mechanism; separate interfaces from engines.
Rule of Simplicity: Design for simplicity; add complexity only where you must.
Rule of Parsimony: Write a big program only when it is clear by demonstration that nothing else will do.
Rule of Transparency: Design for visibility to make inspection and debugging easier.
Rule of Robustness: Robustness is the child of transparency and simplicity.
Rule of Representation: Fold knowledge into data so program logic can be stupid and robust.
Rule of Least Surprise: In interface design, always do the least surprising thing.
Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising to say, it should say nothing.
Rule of Repair: When you must fail, fail noisily and as soon as possible.
Rule of Economy: Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in preference to machine time.
Rule of Generation: Avoid hand-hacking; write programs to write programs when you can.
Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it working before you optimize it.
Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for “one true way”.
Rule of Extensibility: Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think.

Jan 04

The Spirit of the Tool -

Here is a brief and thought provoking article on the metaphor that I use when I am thinking of both the “off the shelf” applications and the tools, scripts, and “jigs” that I build out as part of my software development rhythm. Taking a look at both my Mac and Windows development environments, I rarely use tools and environments “as is.” I am often tweaking visuals (it is not just eye candy, you know) as well as piping and automating. My tool bench is a collection of fine axe handles and high quality adaptable tools.

Jan 03

“I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether only side…[But] there are some things, of course, whose side I am altogether not on.” — Treebeard, The Lord of the Rings

Jan 02

“Men have become the tools of their tools.” — Henry David Thoreau

Jan 01

Happy New Year!

A new year, and a new series…

I’ll be kicking off my posts on this blog with a series on the Mac desktop, PC desktop, cloud, and iPhone applications that I use to build out my software development toolbench. I’ll kick things off here in a few days.

Dec 31

“You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don’t have that kind of feeling for what it is you are doing, you’ll stop at the first giant hurdle.” — George Lucas (via minimalmac)

Dec 30

“To be “nobody-but-yourself” — in a world which is doing it’s best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” — E. E. Cummings