Monthly Archives: October 2012

Email Testing Mode

One of the most challenging aspects of implementing a real system which connects to the email system is being able to test sufficiently.  There is a simple trick which can be immensely helpful: email testing mode.

Posted in Coding | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Trasparency Advantage

This is an example of some open source software that I had difficulty using and how to improve it.  A common principle is that of transparency: when something goes wrong, don’t hide it.  Don’t cover it up.  Don’t attempt to … Continue reading

Posted in Coding, Poor Error Msg | Tagged , | Leave a comment

#31 Factor Expensive Expressions out of Loops

If you are are calling a method on an object, it is not always clear whether it is an expensive operation (takes a long time, lots of CPU power) or an inexpensive operation.  If you have a loop, and you … Continue reading

Posted in Coding | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Proper Module Initialization

Given a module that is designed to be re-used across many applications, what is the correct way to initialize it, and why?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Use Realistic User Scenarios

So many times I see programmers create user scenario stories that are entire abstract. If you want to know if the software will work for a real use, you need to consider real scenarios.

Posted in Design | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Is the UI Team Broken?

How can you tell if your User Interface (UI) team is broken?  There are some indicators if the programmers implementing the UI are approaching things in a way that is likely to give you a good UI as a result.  This is a … Continue reading

Posted in Design, practice | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Keep JavaDoc with Java source

This should be obvious, but the advantage of documenting your API directly in the Java source file using a mechanism known as “JavaDoc” is that it is far easier to keep the documentation and the source in sync.   If … Continue reading

Posted in Coding, practice | Leave a comment