Monthly Archives: February 2013

File Path Manipulation

Three guidelines that make sense when handling files and paths. Never Use Backslash in File Paths Don’t use File.pathSeparator Converting slashes from the user

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26 Hints for Agile Software Development

I collect nuggets of wisdom on various topics. Recently I have been going over the topic of Agile software development; what really matters?  Below is a list of 26 key principles to guide an agile software development team.

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Exceptions Speak about the Context they are Thrown From

Programmers often make the mistake of assuming that an exception being caught will be an exception that they have seen during testing.  Programmers often underestimate the large variety of exceptions that might occur.  Based on this misunderstanding, programmers will make … Continue reading

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Catch and Continue @ Apache Chemistry

Guideline #14 is “Never Catch and Continue” referring to the bad habit of catching an exception and then continuing processing as if nothing ever happened.  I ran across some particularly bad examples in the example code at one of the … Continue reading

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Gathering Error Report Information

In the last post, I clarified the Purpose of Error Reporting is to give user/administrators information to solve the problem that they have encountered.  This post outlines a way to gather the best information together for that error message.

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The Purpose of Error Reporting

Error messages are part of every user experience, but too often these messages are poor, cryptic, and insulting.   Too often programmers do a half-hearted attempt at writing error messages, mostly because they mistakenly assume that users will never see them.  Too … Continue reading

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Essential CVS

I wrote up these cheat notes about 10 years ago, and I still use them today.  Just a short, brief, introductory instructions to using the CVS source management system.  Essentials that you need to get started.

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Don't Suffer Poor Names

You know the problem: you write a method for one purpose and give it a name.  Later, it become useful for something else, or maybe you change it slightly to accommodate another use, or maybe some names change elsewhere making … Continue reading

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