Mike Clark mentioned my Ant dependencies article on Pragmatic Automation last week. For a low traffic site such as Exubero, it's easy to look in the referrer logs to see how that reference has spread to various other blogs. I was relatively surprised about the effect that social bookmarking has on propagating ideas. I haven't … Continue reading Pragmatic Automation and Social Bookmarking
Multiple Assertions
I've updated the JUnit AntiPatterns article with a new anti-pattern: Multiple Assertions.
Project Dependencies Using Ant
I've written a new article on managing Project Dependencies using Ant. From the overview: This article discusses a technique for managing the build order of separate sub-projects in a large software system purely using task dependencies within Ant scripts. Unlike other solutions, this technique for managing dependencies does not need any external tasks to those … Continue reading Project Dependencies Using Ant
JUnit AntiPatterns
JUnit AntiPatterns is an article on JUnit worst practices that I have written, in response to some scary examples of software "engineering" that I encountered during code reviews. Feedback is always welcome!
Joeys Forever
It's been a while since I left, but they're trying to pull me back to school. Not quite kicking and screaming, though, as it's the 15 year reunion of the Class of 1990 in May. I really would like to go, but unfortunately I'm currently on the wrong side of the world to be able … Continue reading Joeys Forever
The Politics of Process Improvement
Lately, I have been pondering the politics of process improvement in a large software organisation. This relates directly to me being invited to join my employers' Software Engineering Process Group (SPEG). This committee is also known as the Software Process Improvement Group (SPIG) in other circles. I attended my first SEPG meeting yesterday. After seeing … Continue reading The Politics of Process Improvement
AFP Renderer 1.1.0 Released
(The following announcement is taken from the release notes) The AFP Renderer development team (that's Pete and I) is pleased to announce the release of AFP Renderer 1.1.0. This latest release can be downloaded from http://afp-renderer.sourceforge.net/download.html. The important changes since the last release (1.0.2) are: added support for outline fonts added sample fonts with distribution … Continue reading AFP Renderer 1.1.0 Released
Process Versus Product
I am a very enthusiastic champion of life-cycle processes and development techniques that can produce better software products. My view is that improving process methodology in key process areas can give enormous benefits in terms of quality and time to market for software development. However, too much process change in the short term can have … Continue reading Process Versus Product
Curriculum Vitae Online
It's taken two years, but I've finally updated my Curriculum Vitae. After dusting it off and reading over it again, I'm surprised by how many different technologies I've managed to play with so far in my career. I still have the sneaking suspicion that I won't be stopping learning new things yet, and the holes … Continue reading Curriculum Vitae Online
Introduction To CruiseControl
I've been preparing a slide show to present to the "Best Practice" group at work. I was looking for a simple way to do the presentation, when I came across Eric Meyer's Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System (S5 for short). I'm really impressed with how simple and easy it was to create a new slide … Continue reading Introduction To CruiseControl
Renaissance Developer 