Protecting Developers from Powerful Languages
Microsoft’s forthcoming C# version 3 has some innovative features, as described in this blog. I give the C# team credit for pushing the boundaries of C#, in part because they have forced the Java...
View ArticlePhantom (Menace) Dependencies
We’ve been working on new course materials lately. The other day we were discussing the bad dependencies in code that can occur when the Interface Segregation Principle (ISP) is violated. We started...
View ArticleLiskov Substitution Principle and the Ruby Core Libraries
There is a spirited discussion happening now on the ruby-talk list called >Oppinions on RCR for dup on immutable classes (sic). In the core Ruby classes, the Kernel module, which is the root of...
View ArticleAOSD 2007 Conference
Last week, I attended the Aspect-Oriented Software Development 2007 Conference in Vancouver, BC, where I gave a tutorial on aspect-oriented design and a paper in the Industry Track, also about design....
View ArticleAOP and Dynamic Languages: Contradiction in Terms or Match Made in Heaven?
Consider this quote from Dave Thomas (of the Pragmatic Programmers) on AOP (aspect-oriented programming, a.k.a. aspect-oriented software development - AOSD) : Once you have decent reflection and...
View Article100% Code Coverage?
Should you strive for 100% code coverage from your unit tests? It’s probably not mandatory and if your goal is 100% coverage, you’ll focus on that goal and not focus on writing the best tests for the...
View ArticleWhat I've Learned from Master Chef Rino Baglio
If you want to learn Craftsmanship, you would be hard pressed to find a better mentor than Rino Baglio, the Executive Master Chef at Pazzaluna, in St. Paul, Minnesota. I had a chance to catch up with...
View ArticleAre "else" blocks the root of all evil?
So, I’m pair programming C++ code with a client today and he makes an observation that makes me pause. The well-structured, open-source code I’ve looked at typically has very few else blocks. You might...
View ArticleObservations on TDD in C++ (long)
I spent all of June mentoring teams on TDD in C++ with some Java. While C++ was my language of choice through most of the 90’s, I think far too many teams are using it today when there are better...
View ArticleApplications Should Use Several Languages
Yesterday, I blogged about TDD in C++ and ended with a suggestion for the dilemma of needing optimal performance some of the time and optimal productivity the rest of the time. I suggested that you...
View ArticleAnnouncement: Aquarium v0.1.0 - An Aspect-Oriented Programming Toolkit for Ruby
I just released the first version of a new Aspect-Oriented Programming toolkit for Ruby called Aquarium. I blogged about the goals of the project here. Briefly, they are Create a powerful pointcut...
View ArticleCJUG West 9/6/07: Aspect-Oriented Programming and Software Design
I’m giving a talk at the Chicago Java User’s Group West meeting this Thursday at 6:30 PM. The topic is Aspect-Oriented Programming and Software Design in Java and AspectJ. I’ll briefly describe the...
View ArticleWhy we write code and don't just draw diagrams
Advocates of graphical notations have long hoped we would reach the point were we only draw diagrams and don’t write textual code. There have even been a few visual programming environments that have...
View ArticleANN: OOPSLA Tutorial on "Principles of Aspect-Oriented Design in Java...
I’m doing a tutorial on aspect-oriented design principles with examples in Java and AspectJ at OOPSLA this year (October 21st). You can find a description here. I believe Friday, 9/14, is the last day...
View ArticleANN: Talks at the Chicago Ruby Users Group (Oct. 1, Dec. 3)
I’m speaking on Aquarium this Monday night (Oct. 1st). Details are here. David Chelimsky will also be talking about new developments in RSpec and RBehave. At the Dec. 3 Chirb meeting, the two of us are...
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Why you have time for TDD (but may not know it yet...)
Note: Updated 9/30/2007 to improve the graphs and to clarify the content. A common objection to TDD is this; “We don’t have time to write so many tests. We don’t even have enough time to write...
View ArticleTDD for AspectJ Aspects
There was a query on the TDD mailing list about how to test drive aspects. Here is an edited version of my reply to that list. Just as for regular classes, TDD can drive aspects to a better design....
View ArticleUnit Testing C and C++ ... with Ruby and RSpec!
If you’re writing C/C++ code, it’s natural to write your unit tests in the same language (or use C++ for your C test code). All the well-known unit testing tools take this approach. I think we can...
View ArticleWhat We Can Learn from the Ojibwe Language
Ojibwe (sometimes spelled Ojibwa; the last syllable is pronounced “way”) is one of the few Native American languages that isn’t immediately threatened with extinction. It is spoken by about 10,000...
View ArticleObservations on Test-Driving User Interfaces
Test driving user interface development has always been a challenge. Recently, I’ve worked with two projects where most of the work has been on the user-interface components. The first project is using...
View ArticleContracts and Integration Tests for Component Interfaces
I am mentoring a team that is transitioning to XP, the first team in a planned, corporate-wide transition. Recently we ran into miscommunication problems about an interface we are providing to another...
View ArticleThe Ascendency of Dynamic X vs. Static X, where X = ...
I noticed a curious symmetry the other day. For several values of X, a dynamic approach has been gaining traction over a static approach, in some cases for several years. X = Languages The Ascendency...
View ArticleAlways <tt>close()</tt> in a <tt>finally</tt> block
Here’s one for my fellow Java programmers, but it’s really generally applicable. When you call close() on I/O streams, readers, writers, network sockets, database connections, etc., it’s easy to forgot...
View ArticleThe Seductions of Scala, Part I
(Update 12/23/2008: Thanks to Apostolos Syropoulos for pointing out an earlier reference for the concept of “traits”). Because of all the recent hoo-ha about functional programming (e.g., as a “cure”...
View ArticleThe Seductions of Scala, Part II - Functional Programming
A Functional Programming Language for the JVM In my last blog post, I discussed Scala’s support for OOP and general improvements compared to Java. In this post, which I’m posting from Agile 2008, I...
View ArticleThe Seductions of Scala, Part III - Concurrent Programming
This is my third and last blog entry on The Seductions of Scala, where we’ll look at concurrency using Actors and draw some final conclusions. Writing Robust, Concurrent Programs with Scala The most...
View ArticleTag: How Did I Get Started in Software Development
Micah Martin tagged me a while ago: How old were you when you started programming. I was around 15. How did you get started programming. This was in the mid-70’s. In school, we had access to a...
View ArticleThe Open-Closed Principle for Languages with Open Classes
We’ve been having a discussion inside Object Mentor World Design Headquarters about the meaning of the OCP for dynamic languages, like Ruby, with open classes. For example, in Ruby it’s normal to...
View ArticleThe Liskov Substitution Principle for "Duck-Typed" Languages
OCP and LSP together tell us how to organize similar vs. variant behaviors. I blogged the other day about OCP in the context of languages with open classes (i.e., dynamically-typed languages). Let’s...
View ArticleConfiguration Management Systems, Automated Tests, CI, and Complexity
I’m working with a client that has a very complex branching structure in their commercial CM system, which will remain nameless. Why is it so complex? Because everyone is afraid to merge to the...
View ArticleUser Stories for Cross-Component Teams
I’m working on an Agile Transition for a large organization. They are organized into component teams. They implement features by forming temporary feature teams with representatives from each of the...
View ArticleTraits vs. Aspects in Scala
Scala traits provide a mixin composition mechanism that has been missing in Java. Roughly speaking, you can think of traits as analogous to Java interfaces, but with implementations. Aspects, e.g.,...
View ArticleA Scala-style "with" Construct for Ruby
Scala has a “mixin” construct called traits, which are roughly analogous to Ruby modules. They allow you to create reusable, modular bits of state and behavior and use them to compose classes and other...
View ArticleUpcoming Speaking Engagements
I’m speaking this Friday at RubyConf on Better Ruby Through Functional Programming. I’ll introduce long-overlooked ideas from FP, why they are important for Ruby programmers, and how to use them in...
View ArticleVideo of my RubyConf talk, "Better Ruby through Functional...
Confreaks has started posting the videos from RubyConf. Here’s mine on Better Ruby through Functional Programming. Please ignore the occasional Ruby (and Scala) bugs…
View ArticleAdopting New JVM Languages in the Enterprise (Update)
(Updated to add Groovy, which I should have mentioned the first time. Also mentioned Django under Python.) This is an exciting time to be a Java programmer. The pace of innovation for the Java language...
View ArticleOrganizing a Chicago Area Scala Enthusiasts (CASE) Group
I’m organizing a group in Chicago for people interested in Scala, called the Chicago Area Scala Enthusiasts (CASE). If you’re interested, join the google group for more information.
View Article1st Ever Chicago Area Scala Enthusiasts (CASE) Meeting Tonight
Tonight is our first meeting, at the ThoughtWorks offices in the Aon building downtown. If you’re going and you haven’t RSVP’ed, either send a tweet to @chicagoscala or reply here ASAP! Hope to see you...
View ArticleTighter Ruby Methods with Functional-style Pattern Matching, Using the Case Gem
Ruby doesn’t have overloaded methods, which are methods with the same name, but different signatures when you consider the argument lists and return values. This would be somewhat challenging to...
View ArticlePat Eyler Interviews Dean Wampler and Alex Payne on "Programming...
Pat Eyler posted an interview with Alex Payne and me (Dean Wampler), which we conducted over email. We dish on Scala, Functional Programming, and our forthcoming book Programming Scala.
View ArticleIs the Supremacy of Object-Oriented Programming Over?
I never expected to see this. When I started my career, Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) was going mainstream. For many problems, it was and still is a natural way to modularize an application. It...
View ArticleBay-Area Scala Enthusiasts (BASE) Meeting: What's New In Scala 2.8
This week is JavaOne in San Francisco. The Bay-Area Scala Enthusiasts (BASE) held their monthly meeting. Martin Odersky, the creator of Scala, was the special guest. He discussed what’s new In Scala...
View ArticleRich Hickey on Testing
It was an interesting week at JavaOne, with lots of talks and hallway discussions about new languages on the JVM. One of those languages is Clojure. Rich Hickey, the creator of Clojure, gave a talk at...
View ArticleA Milestone for "Programming Scala"
My co-author, Alex Payne, and I hit a major milestone today for Programming Scala. After a feverish holiday weekend of writing, we finished all the remaining sections of the book. This morning, we...
View ArticleQCon SF 2008: Radical Simplification through Polyglot and Poly-paradigm...
InfoQ has posted the video of my talk at last year’s QCon San Francisco on Radical Simplification through Polyglot and Poly-paradigm Programming. I make the case that relying on just one programming...
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"Programming Scala" Is Now Available
Programming Scala is finally available online at Amazon, O’Reilly, Safari, and hopefully at other online and physical bookstores, too. If you have trouble finding it, just memorize the ISBN,...
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