This is the 3rd in a short series of articles around my 4-decade+ career in software development — for your amusement, edification, and to capture a bit of computing history. They also bring back some memories for me, fond and otherwise. I wanted to be a chemist. At Eleanor Roosevelt…

This is the 2nd in a short series of articles around my 4-decade+ career in software development — for your amusement, edification, and to capture a bit of computing history. They also bring back some memories for me, fond and otherwise. Shortly after starting my undergraduate program at the University…

This is the first in a short series of articles around my 4-decade+ career in software development — for your amusement, edification, and to capture a bit of computing history. They also bring back some memories for me, fond and otherwise. I attended the University of Maryland in College Park…

One February about a dozen years ago, I joined a small out-of-state software company as one of about 25 remote employees in a multi-hundred-person company. Things went well for the rest of the year as we strove to figure out how to make remote work more effective. Wednesday morning of…

A quick web search reveals numerous articles that describe how programming is like writing. Some of these articles talk about how your paragraphs should be concise and do one thing, as should your methods. And how good languages — computer or human — let you to organize and express statements…

Realities of the PR Process — In the prior article PRs: Shift Left, Please (Part 1), I made the claim that the pull request (PR) process itself is inherently ineffective and inefficient. Its emphasis on minimizing human interaction puts the PR process rightmost on a scale from favoring individuals and interactions to favoring tools and processes:

Individuals and Interactions Matter When Reviewing Code — The pull request (PR) process seems an ideal way to ensure that our systems retain high code quality. Using pull requests can “promote cooperation, participation, and collaboration” within teams using it. …