Blog harvest, Christmas 2009

This is the Christmas special edition of our blog harvest. Granted, there is nothing really “special” about it other than the release date. But some of the collected articles are too good to wait until 2010. Be sure to check out the video link at the end, it’s a great presentation.

• 7 Computer Books I Enjoyed in 2009 – Even if it isn’t my list, I’m glad for this summary of enjoyable books by Freddy Daoud. The first entry on the list is my current programming language book, so I might be somewhat biased.
• For a fistful of dollars: quantifying the benefits of TDD – A very balanced article about test driven development, backed up by studies. What do we need more? Oh yes, literature! See the links and the last paragraph for this. And grant John Ferguson Smart some self-marketing for his wonderful posting.
• Remote Pair Programming – Pair programming, like TDD, is a valueable practice. But pairing always requires physical presence. Keith Brophy explored the possibilities of modern software to nullify this requirement. The comments, mentioning Crucible, are also noteworthy.
• Java 7 chapter 1: The Virtual Machine – The last few years, there was this announceware, nicknamed “Dolphin”. Every few months, blog entries pop up to tell us about the latest and greatest feature of Java 7. Harals Kl. wrote a mini-series that sums it up really nice and doesn’t conceal the dropped features like the Swing Application Framework. Be sure to read all articles of the series.
• Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem – While the context to place this article right here is purely coincidential and this isn’t exactly hard computer science, it’s a worthwhile story about a failed project (and the most successful vaporware ever). We grew up with Duke Nukem 3D, it’s a hard loss for us (ok, we will get over it).
• The Law of Unintended Consequences – This article talks about coincidence, too. Justin Etheredge describes sources of negative side-effects and what software developers can do against it. The introductory example of heatless traffic lights won’t do for developers, because we all know the joke: “How many software developers do you need to change a light bulb?” (*).
• A Pictorial Guide to avoiding Camera Loss – As this already tends to be humorous: Andrew McDonald talks about another hardware problem – losing a digital camera and how to regain it. Let me warn you about the 16th picture of the guide.

This was the article side of this harvesting. Let’s continue to have fun by watching the promised video and reading about a real misadventurer:

• Five Considerations for Software Architects – Kevlin Henney gives you five well formulated considerations. He contributed to the book with nearly hundred valuable advices. The book is worth every penny/cent you pay for it, and Kevlin wrote some articles that are perfectly broadend in this video. Think of it as a felicitous screen adaption of programmer literature.
• The worst job ever…and I mean ever – Another story that would make a good (horror) movie. It has a happy end (well, sort of). The comments are entertaining, too. Chris Hardin has my condolence for this.

Thank you for reading through this last blog harvest in 2009. See you again in 2010!

(*) “How many software developers do you need to change a light bulb?”: None, it’s a hardware problem.