Important: while I’m only talking about the Foundation books in vague details here, I will end up summarising a number of key points through the whole series. If you haven’t read them, and intend to, I recommend not reading this post, yet.| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
In my time in special-interest forums, I’ve come to learn that a “fan” of something is someone who doesn’t like it very much. This seems to crop up frequently in relation to long-running science fiction entertainment franchises, leading me to the theory that a “fan” is someone who enjoyed a kid’s show as a kid and is angry at the creators because they don’t enjoy a kid’s show as an adult.| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
While I have access to streaming services that offer most of the music that the labels the services deal with still publish, I also have a significant collection of music on physical media, and do most of my listening to prerecorded music by playing entire albums, in order, from a physical format. I recently shared a not-entirely-serious overview of the nostalgia for physical prerecorded audio formats with some friends, and here’s the annotated version. In what follows, the formats are pres...| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
Knowledge management—not just in software engineering and not just digital knowledge management—has long had to account for tacit knowledge: the things that people know, but never say.| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
In the last episode—Is software engineering a thing?—I (apparently controversially) suggested that software is the reification of thought, and that software engineering is thus the art of reifying thought, and that thus there can’t be any single one-size-fits-all software engineering … Continue reading →| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
In the title I’m kindof punning on the word “a” (it’s my blog, and I get to do what I want). Is there a single thing, software engineering, that all people making software should (or could, or would find to be beneficial) do?| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
Although I didn’t make any resolutions this new year, it’s still a time for change. That’s because I finally submit my D.Phil. thesis (if I’m on time, that will be before January 18th), so I’ve already been putting things in … Continue reading →| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
I’m currently reading Boethius’s writing on the consolation of philosophy. Imprisoned awaiting the death penalty in 523 (for treason against King Theodoric), Boethius imagined a conversation with the personification of Philosophy herself, a woman of variable height whose fine dress … Continue reading →| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
While it’s far from finished, my PhD thesis is now complete: there are no to-do items left, no empty sections, no placeholders. Now the proof-reading, editing and corrections continue in earnest. I look forward to poking my head out of … Continue reading →| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
There’s this paper from August 1970, called Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, that’s considered something of a classic (either for good or for bad, depending on your worldview). The discussion often goes something like this:| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers