Programming – Page 2

Python Logger

By chad June 29, 2015Doing Things Better, Programming, Software Engineering, Technology, TipsNo Comments

The Scenario This scenario illustrates two possible mistakes people make when using the python logging module. Analyze the following code and look for issues. try: ... except SomeException as e: logger.error("Some meaningful error message. message={0}".format(e.message)) So what is wrong with that? First and foremost, the code fails to use the…

Not Invented Here, Not Written By Me, and Reinventing The Wheel

By chad May 17, 2015Doing Things Better, Key Concepts, Programming, Software EngineeringNo Comments

Not invented here and not written by me are both driving factors in reinventing the wheel when developing software. We limit ourselves if we do not build upon the achievements of others. - Chad Dotson Not Invented Here I'm sure everyone has encountered developers that would prefer to implement everything…

C-Style Unions And Python

By chad May 8, 2015ProgrammingNo Comments

So, you're creating a C Union (used to create a variant type) and writing it to a file, socket, etc and want to read that in Python. There are two ways to deal with this. Assume the following union definition in C typedef union { int i; unsigned int u;…

Decisions in 1 Pomodori

By chad April 17, 2015Doing Things Better, Programming, UncategorizedNo Comments

All programmers suffer from analysis paralysis at some point in their career. The trick is bringing it to a swift conclusion. Try this to move forward next time. Give yourself 1 pomorodi (25 minutes) to analyze the problem. After that make a decision and go with it. Whatever falls out…

On Software Engineering

By chad March 23, 2015Hobbies, Key Concepts, Photography, Programming, Ramblings, Software EngineeringNo Comments

Spring Writing from the patio on a much deserved day off. What a day, sunny and 68 this 3rd day of spring. It sometimes makes it real hard to work inside in a windowless box. It's been a busy day of a different sort, but dang I could get used…

Node.js vs Python vs PyPy – A Simple Performance Comparison – Updated

By chad December 30, 2014Programming, Software Engineering, Technology, Uncategorized5 Comments

Some History This is a followup to my original post: Node.js vs Python vs PyPy - A Simple Performance Comparison. This article corrects a discrepancy caused by a slight difference in the JavaScript implementation which skewed the Node.js results. The Algorithm As stated in the previous article, I've attempted to…

Notes On Writing Testable JavaScript Vol 1

By chad November 6, 2014Programming1 Comment

When writing JavaScript, I am a big fan of minimizing functionality and variables exposed publicly, which we all know to be good practice. However, this leads to anonymous functions and functions hidden within closures. So.... How Do You Test That? How exactly do you test private methods in JavaScript? To…

Make It Easy

By chad October 18, 2014Key Concepts, Programming, Software Engineering1 Comment

Building a successful product is usually complicated business. With any luck a project will have an automated deployment process. This however is only part of the equation. Another significant part would be an automated build process. Long Term Success Long term success means making it easy for new people to…

My Swift App – An Ongoing Experiment

By chad October 2, 2014Programming, Software Engineering2 Comments

Work is progressing on my first iOS app written in Swift. I think that I might have a rudimentary alpha product ready to start testing in a few weeks. Based on my experience with it so far, here are some of my thoughts, observations, and concerns. Developing in Swift is…

Swift – A Quick First Impression

By chad September 22, 2014ProgrammingNo Comments

Swift and Xcode 6 Late last week Apple released Xcode 6 to the general public. I've been waiting for the opportunity to try out Swift, so I started working on an idea I've had. General Thoughts This is probably a general iOS development comment, but the way you link items…