Comments for eCrane Blogging

Comment on Kindle by Bea Crane

Bea Crane — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:32:38 +0000

That’s no way to talk about my Kindle! But I do agree with you:-)

Comment on Developer Productivity by suzy wandson

suzy wandson — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:16:25 +0000

I saw your blog while searching Google. Very interesing article I must say. I will now share it with my facebook friends.

Comment on Enjoying Work and Being Productive by admin

admin — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:08:21 +0000

I have seen plenty of times that two men have disagreed and worked together respectfully to find a resolution that worked for everyone. I have also seen women who refused to listen, compromise or back down from their own position, even in the slightest. I don’t think that ego is a male thing. But I think that in general you are right that guys tend to be a bit more blustery and argumentative. If I didn’t concede at least that, you could reply that this response was just another case in point.

Comment on Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation by admin

admin — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:30:36 +0000

At my last job I worked on a Management Reporting project. It took data from a data warehouse and presented aggregate numbers to management. You could argue that it made the management more aware of what was going on, more productive, whatever … and that those things, in the end, made the company more profitable. But it would be hard, or impossible, to calculate the profitability of those reports.

Another example is the project I am working on now. It is a web application that customers will use. They don’t pay for the software–they pay for a service. And it is doubtful that we would gain or lose a single customer on the basis of the software alone. It might be a factor among many in gaining or losing customers. It is something we need to have to run the business, but it is very hard to tie it directly to profitability.

Comment on Line Width by admin

admin — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:17:47 +0000

You are right that my analogy breaks down pretty quickly. But I’m not talking about code being readable by a compiler. I’m talking about something that is read by another person. Lots of code needs to be maintained by someone other that the original author. When we write code, we should write not only for the compiler, but also for other developers to be able to read. So having a standard on how you align your curly braces in Java or C# is common; or the use of tabs for indentation and conventions about how lines are indented. These all to go readability of the code, but make no difference whatsoever to the compiler. Line width is another one of these in my opinion. That’s really all I was trying to say.

Comment on Line Width by amy wilson

amy wilson — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:34:52 +0000

You seem to infer that writing code is equal to writing prose. Clearly they are not. When coding, the compiler takes care of grammar and punctuation. All programming languages have an implicit syntax. Without following such a syntax you are not programming.

If we are talking about OO programming we are talking about objects as nouns, methods as verbs, and the various grammatical syntaxes of defining classes and methods. When you see a method definition you know it’s a method definition. That is tacit knowledge. I don’t see how this:

public void DoSomething(int myVariable1,
int myVariable2)

public void DoSomething(int myVariable1, int myVariable2)

The only objective items in programming are constrained by the compiler. Everything else is subjective. If you believe otherwise I’d like you to give me an example directly related to programming.

Comment on Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation by amy wilson

amy wilson — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:22:50 +0000

I find that interesting. I’ve never worked in a place where software as a product or software as a service was not profitable. Can you give me an example of software that is written for a company that is not tied to profit. I am curious.

Comment on Enjoying Work and Being Productive by amy wilson

amy wilson — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:20:21 +0000

As per #2, yes it is possible to disagree gracefully. Forgive my sexism, but the only time that is the case is when both participants are not men. Men have very strong, yet fragile egos. I would akin them to glass. Sometimes all that is needed is a womans moderation. I pride myself on this ability.

Comment on Line Width by admin

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:01:06 +0000

There may be subjective elements to readability, but there are also objective ones. Take a newspaper with water drops on it. Does the smeared ink make it less readable than a newspaper without water drops? Does correct grammar and punctuation make something more readable? These are objective, not subjective things. The same goes for code. Does having a consistent formatting standard make source code more readable? Most developers think so.

As to line length, studies have been done about optimal line length. Just do a google search for “reading and line length”.

Comment on Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation by admin

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:51:33 +0000

Many businesses don’t generate revenue from software. Most of the software that I have written has been part of an IT budget or has been in an operational unit of the company. My last several jobs have involved software that the customer uses as part of a service. The service generates the revenue, not the software. A customer might leave if the software isn’t good enough, but would rarely sign up just because of the software. In cases like this, profit is impacted by many factors more significant than the software.