I've just finished overhauling the blog pages on Exubero, to make them more consistent with the other blogs about. The major new feature: there is now an Atom feed for those of you who prefer your readings to via an aggregated feed. Just to give myself more work, I hand-rolled the entire thing myself without … Continue reading Atom, Ruby and ERB
YARC
It's time to confess, I've become Yet Another Ruby Convert. I've been interested in the language for a long time now. My Perl background gives me a lot of sympathy for scripting languages in general. My C++/Java background gives me a keen desire for good OO languages. Ruby gives me all of this and more, … Continue reading YARC
Center for Antimatter-Matter Research
Over the last month, I've been working with the fine group of scientists at the ANU on a design for their new website. Well, we've finally reached a stage where we can let everyone take a peek. Presenting the new website for the Center for Antimatter-Matter Research! There is still a number of tweaks to … Continue reading Center for Antimatter-Matter Research
Version Control for Non-Developers
There have been a number of occasions in the last few weeks where I've been explaining to non-developers the benefit of using a version control system. Unfortunately, many of them don't understand what a version control system does, or how they can be useful. I think that the time is ripe for version control systems … Continue reading Version Control for Non-Developers
Moving Swiftly Onwards
After working nearly three years at Legal and General, I finish my notice period there tomorrow, and will be moving swiftly onwards. It's been a fun few years, and I think I've managed to meet a lot of interesting people and extend my skills in many useful areas. For those (soon to be ex-) colleagues … Continue reading Moving Swiftly Onwards
Renaissance Developer
I've read a couple of articles in the last couple of months that have resonated with my beliefs and aims with regards to development. One of these is Renaissance Developer, a blog entry by Charles Cook. The gist of his post is the following: If you only concentrate on what satisfies your immediate career needs, … Continue reading Renaissance Developer
JUnit Antipatterns Doppelganger
Recently spotted via Google: IBM developerWorks has recently published a new article on... JUnit Antipatterns! The article is quite a good read, as it covers different ground to the Exubero JUnit Antipatterns article. I'll probably update the Exubero article at some stage to refer to the developerWorks article, and possibly adapt some of its content.
Sesquipedalian
I came across the My Favourite Word website while I was browsing del.icio.us, and I had to submit an entry for sesquipedalian: This word makes me laugh, because it can be used to describe itself, as well as anyone who uses the word. It's like a self referential joke. This has been my favourite word … Continue reading Sesquipedalian
JUnit AntiPatterns Update
I've updated the JUnit AntiPatterns article after receiving a number of emails giving feedback on suggested improvements and new anti-patterns. I've made the following changes: Added sections for Misuse of Assertions and Redundant Assertions, and reorganised the anti-patterns that relate to assertions. Anti-pattern examples and the refactored solutions are now styled differently.
When to Change Jobs
On the subject of changing jobs, here's a few points I've been considering: I'm in a stress free but relatively low-paid job as a software engineer in an insurance company. Three miles from home to the office is very handy, especially considering I often have to pick up children from nursery. However... I'm generally frustrated … Continue reading When to Change Jobs
Renaissance Developer 