SEARCH KEYWORD -- Good programmer

  Simplicity Oriented Programming

After few years on Warsztat (a Polish gamedev site) I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon. Every now and then there are Compos (programming competitions) organized in two different flavours. Some compos are single-run events that last only few hours, others are long-term (several days/weeks). And as an extra catch, the former are usually restricted to basic APIs (SDL, OpenGL etc) while the latter are free-for-all (all sorts of engines, UDK/Unity allowed). Now, results are somewhat shocki...

   Programming,Research,Advice,Time efficie     2011-08-04 01:55:40

  Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

Yes, even if you can't believe it, there are a lot fans of the 30-years-old vi editor (or its more recent, just-15-years-old, best clone & great improvement, vim). No, they are not dinosaurs who don't want to catch up with the times - the community of vi users just keeps growing: myself, I only got started 2 years ago (after over 10 years of being a professional programmer). Friends of mine are converting today. Heck, most vi users were not even born when...

   Linux,Vi,Vim,Advantage,History     2012-02-05 07:21:17

  Why PHP Was a Ghetto

Note: I wrote this over a month ago, but decided not to publish it until now.I was talking with the Co-founder of a pretty cool start-up in DUMBO the other day about why the non-PHP development world generally has such disdain for PHP and the community surrounding it. He brought up an interesting point that stuck with me, largely because I hadn’t heard it before.If you’re unaware of the usual beef most developers have with PHP, it tends to revolve around:Ug...

   PHP,Framework,MVC     2011-05-06 00:35:37

  Becoming a Better Developer, Part 2: Know Your Core Competencies

If you're trying to grow your startup you've come to the right place. Get my 170-page ebook on how to grow a startup and join thousands of self-funded entrepreneurs by subscribing to my newsletter at right. For years business consultants have instructed businesses to “know your core competencies.” What this means is “know what you do well and stick to it.” For example: Harley Davidson makes great motorcycles. But they’re probably not so good at making per...

   Developer,Tips     2011-06-29 08:40:10

  Never create Ruby strings longer than 23 characters

Looking at things through a microscopesometimes leads to surprising discoveries Obviously this is an utterly preposterous statement: it’s hard to think of a more ridiculous and esoteric coding requirement. I can just imagine all sorts of amusing conversations with designers and business sponsors: “No… the size of this <input> field should be 23… 24 is just too long!” Or: “We need to explain to users that their subject lines should be les...

   Ruby,Specification,String,Interpreter,Optimization,23     2012-01-05 07:58:07

  Learn How to Write iOS Apps

My friend contacted me on twitter and asked for advice on different sources on how to learn iOS apps. Since this paragraph will already exceed 140 characters, I'm posting here, instead. (Obviously, reading this blog regularly is a great way to pick up some iOS development tricks) To get started, some people buy a book or find some good online tutorials. I tried both approaches, and the online tutorials were definitely better. I found Stanford's class on iPhone Development, available for free...

   IOS App,Tutorial,Advice,Resource     2011-12-25 00:58:25

  Preprocessor magic:Default Arguments in C

This post is for programmers who like C or for one reason or another can't use anything else but C in one of their projects. The advantages of having default arguments is not something that needs convincing. It's just very nice and convenient to have them. C++ offers the ability to define them but C under the C99 standard has no way to allow it. In this post I will detail two ways I know of implementing default arguments in C. If a reader happens to know additional ways please share in ...

   C,Preprocessor,Default arguments     2012-02-19 06:17:04

  The Essence of Google Dart: Building Applications, Snapshots, Isolates

WÑ–th thousands of programming languages floating around, why is Google introducing Google Dart? What can it possibly add? The short answer: the Google Dart team wanted a language well suited to modern application development, both on the server and the (mobile) client. Some of Dart's features address problems that languages like Java or Javascript have long had. Dart's Snapshots resemble Smalltalk images, allowing (nearly) instant application startup and wi...

   Dart,Google,Client side,Web,Language,Snapshort,Isolate     2011-10-24 11:41:16

  What the Heck are Algebraic Data Types? ( for Programmers )

This post is meant to be a gentle introduction to Algebraic Data Types. Some of you may be asking why you should learn Algebraic Data Types and how will they change your world?  I am not going to answer that, but suffice it to say that Algebraic Data Types are the underpinning of the type systems to the ML derived languages, Haskell and OCaml included, and their construction and properties allow for the power (and inference) that accompanies these type systems.  They are cropping...

   Algebraic Data Type,Set,Operator,Programmer     2011-12-30 08:31:43

  Why do people hate Windows?

Windows brought us into PC era, it becomes the most widely used OS in the past 20 or so years. But unfortunately there are still many people hate Windows. Is it because we may encounter the notorious blue screen issue now and then?  People hate Microsoft Windows for the same reason they hate Comcast, United Airlines, or Paypal.Once Microsoft gained a dominant market position, it completely and utterly took its customers for granted. It became arrogant and complacent, causing customers to fe...

   Windows,Hate     2013-08-02 21:13:53

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