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The Codist

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The Codist
What Is Software Quality? Everyone wants the software they work on to produce quality products, but what does that mean? In...
23 hours ago
4

What Is Software Quality?

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

23 hours ago
Everyone wants the software they work on to produce quality products, but what does that mean? In addition, how do you know when you have it? This is the longest single blog post I have ever written. I spent four decades writing software used by people (most of the server
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The Codist
Using Xcode's AI Is Like Pair Programming With A Monkey I've never used any other AI "assistant," although I've talked with those who have, most of whom are...
a month ago
20

Using Xcode's AI Is Like Pair Programming With A Monkey

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a month ago
I've never used any other AI "assistant," although I've talked with those who have, most of whom are not very positive. My experience using Xcode's AI is that it occasionally offers a line of code that works, but you mostly get junk
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The Codist
Giving Junior Engineers Control Of A Six Trillion Dollar System Is Nuts For some purpose, the DOGE people are burrowing their way into all US Federal Systems. Their...
a month ago
25

Giving Junior Engineers Control Of A Six Trillion Dollar System Is Nuts

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a month ago
For some purpose, the DOGE people are burrowing their way into all US Federal Systems. Their complete control over the Treasury Department is entirely insane. Unless you intend to destroy everything, making arbitrary changes to complex computer systems will result in destruction,...
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The Codist
What I Miss And Don't From Working As A Programmer I retired almost four years ago after nearly 40 years as a programmer. While I still write code...
2 months ago
31

What I Miss And Don't From Working As A Programmer

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

2 months ago
I retired almost four years ago after nearly 40 years as a programmer. While I still write code daily, I do so to support my generative art rather than get paid for it. Most of my career was spent building new applications, and no matter what my title was, I
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The Codist
How Many Hours Can You Code? How many hours a day can you write code, and at what point does the quality of your work go down?...
3 months ago
69

How Many Hours Can You Code?

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

3 months ago
How many hours a day can you write code, and at what point does the quality of your work go down? Even more important is how many weeks and months of that max effort you can still be effective. In my life, there have only been three periods where I
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The Codist
My Art And Color-After Tiling I make generative art with Swift and use tiling in many pieces. Truchet tiles are generally arranged...
5 months ago
59

My Art And Color-After Tiling

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

5 months ago
I make generative art with Swift and use tiling in many pieces. Truchet tiles are generally arranged randomly and contain everything appearing in the final image. What I do differently is to separate the layout of tiles from colorizing the image. I call this technique...
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The Codist
How I Defeated An MMO Game Hack Author In the late 2000's, I worked at a niche MMO game company. We had a small team, not a lot of money,...
5 months ago
61

How I Defeated An MMO Game Hack Author

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

5 months ago
In the late 2000's, I worked at a niche MMO game company. We had a small team, not a lot of money, but a loyal audience. It was a game of skill without any of the usual powerups and unreality, and the players enjoyed the challenge. Then, one
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The Codist
Why I Use Swift To Make Generative Art Now that I am retired from programming for a living, I make generative art (not AI; see my post What...
5 months ago
55

Why I Use Swift To Make Generative Art

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

5 months ago
Now that I am retired from programming for a living, I make generative art (not AI; see my post What Is Generative Art?) every day. I belong to a discord community of generative artists, yet I stick out because I am the only person using Swift as my chosen language.
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The Codist
How Talking Over A Wall Changed My Direction As A Programmer I started my programming career in October 1981 at a large defense contractor (GD). At the time, my...
6 months ago
54

How Talking Over A Wall Changed My Direction As A Programmer

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

6 months ago
I started my programming career in October 1981 at a large defense contractor (GD). At the time, my goal was to work for a couple of years and then continue my education with a Ph.D. in Chemistry (I had already been accepted). The office I worked in was a
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The Codist
How To Know When It's Time To Go I retired in 2021 at 63.5 after about four decades as a programmer. What made me do this was not...
8 months ago
61

How To Know When It's Time To Go

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

8 months ago
I retired in 2021 at 63.5 after about four decades as a programmer. What made me do this was not failing ability in any way, but after a year of consideration, I realized I didn't care to do it anymore. Everyone will eventually reach a point at
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The Codist
My Address Doesn't Fit, And Other Complaints So today, I decided to renew my driver's license online, like any modern person would. I started the...
9 months ago
72

My Address Doesn't Fit, And Other Complaints

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

9 months ago
So today, I decided to renew my driver's license online, like any modern person would. I started the process by going to my state's driver's license website. The first page is to verify my home and mail addresses. Since nothing changed, I hit "
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The Codist
Yet Another Post On Scrum, But Different Everyone hates Scrum, or at least it seems so, except for management. I did as well, but a...
10 months ago
94

Yet Another Post On Scrum, But Different

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

10 months ago
Everyone hates Scrum, or at least it seems so, except for management. I did as well, but a difference is that I started my career in 1981, long before the hordes of Scrums took root. 1981, you say, so you must have done Waterfall, so you are old and have
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The Codist
Career Retrospective: Being Interviewed I'm starting a series on what I learned during my four decades as a working programmer. First, I...
12 months ago
62

Career Retrospective: Being Interviewed

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

12 months ago
I'm starting a series on what I learned during my four decades as a working programmer. First, I will describe my experience of being interviewed. Interviews are part of being a programmer; every time you find a new job, you will go through interviews, which allow a prospective
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The Codist
If You Don't Give A Crap, This Is the Shit That You Get Being retired after four decades as a programmer, there is nothing more irritating than seeing...
a year ago
30

If You Don't Give A Crap, This Is the Shit That You Get

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
Being retired after four decades as a programmer, there is nothing more irritating than seeing broken or poor functionality in web and mobile apps. I always cared about what we were putting out, even if it was sometimes unimportant to my employer. When I see things that are easy...
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The Codist
A Programming Career By The Numbers As I continue to recover from some health issues that kept me from writing, I thought it might be...
a year ago
34

A Programming Career By The Numbers

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
As I continue to recover from some health issues that kept me from writing, I thought it might be interesting to describe my long career with numbers. If you wind up working for four decades, your experience may vary. Years Active: 1981-2021, totaling 39.5 years. Irrespective of...
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The Codist
My Wikipedia Entry For Trapeze Maury Markowitz wrote up the story of Trapeze (covered earlier in this blog) on Wikipedia. It sure...
a year ago
16

My Wikipedia Entry For Trapeze

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
Maury Markowitz wrote up the story of Trapeze (covered earlier in this blog) on Wikipedia. It sure seems like a long time ago.
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The Codist
I Am Happy Not To Be A Web Developer Anymore I wrote my first single-page web app in Javascript in 2005, right after learning about...
a year ago
20

I Am Happy Not To Be A Web Developer Anymore

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
I wrote my first single-page web app in Javascript in 2005, right after learning about XMLHttpRequest and before any serious frameworks existed. I left professional web development behind around 2009 (I started in 1997 with WebObjects) and spent the final decade of my career...
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The Codist
Good Programmers Can Be Anyone, But Not Everyone In my four decades as a programmer, I've worked with hundreds of programmers, and I can say that no...
a year ago
15

Good Programmers Can Be Anyone, But Not Everyone

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
In my four decades as a programmer, I've worked with hundreds of programmers, and I can say that no single type of person is good at programming. I've seen young people who could do amazing work and those without a clue. I've seen programmers
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The Codist
Looks Good To Me: When Code Reviews Go Awry Code reviews can effectively improve code quality in large or mixed teams with experience...
a year ago
16

Looks Good To Me: When Code Reviews Go Awry

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
Code reviews can effectively improve code quality in large or mixed teams with experience differences. They can also be useless if not done correctly or if management does not support the time to do them. A code review is a modern invention, as the technology to do them easily...
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The Codist
Learn Something New Every Day You can't stay relevant for over 40 years without learning new things. In my first job in the early...
a year ago
17

Learn Something New Every Day

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
You can't stay relevant for over 40 years without learning new things. In my first job in the early 80s, learning new things was a fundamental requirement to being a programmer—almost everything you did was new, both to you and often to everyone else. I started
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The Codist
Why Are People Still Using C? C is second in the latest TIOBE list of the most popular languages. I find it hard to understand...
a year ago
16

Why Are People Still Using C?

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
C is second in the latest TIOBE list of the most popular languages. I find it hard to understand why, unless there is a lot of existing code to support, I can't fathom why anyone would start something new in 2023 in C. I first learned C in
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The Codist
I Am Not Betty, And I Can't Do Anything About It At some point around 2016, a person named Betty, in the town I used to live in, gave my phone number...
a year ago
16

I Am Not Betty, And I Can't Do Anything About It

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
At some point around 2016, a person named Betty, in the town I used to live in, gave my phone number to someone (either by accident or a random number), and it became associated with her name and address. Her home sits atop a giant gas field, and she gets
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The Codist
My Compensation Over Four Decades As A Programmer It's a lie, as I don't remember exactly what I made in every job, and it changed during each job....
a year ago
17

My Compensation Over Four Decades As A Programmer

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
It's a lie, as I don't remember exactly what I made in every job, and it changed during each job. Also, I never worked for a big tech company (other than Apple briefly, but that was when they were going out of business) and only a
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The Codist
The Unreasonable Ineffectiveness of Estimates In my long career, I've dealt with many different kinds of estimating, from the early days in the...
a year ago
15

The Unreasonable Ineffectiveness of Estimates

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
In my long career, I've dealt with many different kinds of estimating, from the early days in the 1980s when there was no estimating because no one had any idea how to do it to my last job where estimation was always demanded but never actually relevant. In
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The Codist
Puzzled Why Instagram Fails on Safari I wanted to look at Instagram to see if every art hashtag was still overwhelmed with terrible AI...
a year ago
16

Puzzled Why Instagram Fails on Safari

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
I wanted to look at Instagram to see if every art hashtag was still overwhelmed with terrible AI art, but today on Safari, all I get for every page is: It works on every other browser I have. But why? In the console are two errors, found and placed there
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The Codist
Has Anyone Noticed How Bloated The Internet Has Become? I was on a cruise recently, and trying to read anything online was painful since thousands shared my...
a year ago
10

Has Anyone Noticed How Bloated The Internet Has Become?

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
I was on a cruise recently, and trying to read anything online was painful since thousands shared my internet connection at sea. Reading a relatively lightweight site like Google News generally gave me time to get an ice cream cone before the page appeared. Has everyone abandoned...
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The Codist
I Learned How To Program 50 Years Ago In the fall of the 1973-1974 school year, my public high school offered a class in computer...
a year ago
17

I Learned How To Program 50 Years Ago

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
In the fall of the 1973-1974 school year, my public high school offered a class in computer programming. This class was rare for its time, as there were few computers in the world accessible for students, and most people had no idea what they could do other than seeing HAL
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The Codist
I Have To Fix Broken Things Call it a character flaw or a character benefit—I hate being around broken code, processes,...
a year ago
15

I Have To Fix Broken Things

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
Call it a character flaw or a character benefit—I hate being around broken code, processes, products, or UI. If it's broken, I want to fix it. If I can't, it grates on me. After I graduated from college, my parents, a friend, and his
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The Codist
Working At Home Over The Decades When I started in the early 80s, working at home was never an option—in fact, it took decades to...
a year ago
15

Working At Home Over The Decades

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
When I started in the early 80s, working at home was never an option—in fact, it took decades to become practical, even though I occasionally could do it under limited circumstances. In my last year working before I retired, I spent the entire Covid year working at home.
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The Codist
Twitter Was An Awesome Idea But Never A Viable Business Twitter was the best communications system ever invented, providing low-barrier-to-entry...
a year ago
15

Twitter Was An Awesome Idea But Never A Viable Business

from The Codist [alt+shift+b] in programming

a year ago
Twitter was the best communications system ever invented, providing low-barrier-to-entry communications in real-time to people worldwide, creating self-organizing circles of common interests, allowing for easy discovery, and supporting an instant source of information. But, there...
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