Search Results for: python

On my LinkedIn profile, I list one of my skills as “thought-driven development”. This is a little tongue-in-cheek; software engineering over the last few years has developed a lot of “XDDs,” such as test-driven development, behavior-driven development, model-driven development, etc. etc. “Thought-driven development” doesn’t actually exist, but by it, I simply mean: perhaps we should … Continue reading XDDs: stay healthily skeptical and don’t drink the kool-aid

I came across this wonderful piece of historical retelling by David Beazley, one of my favorite Pythonistas and the author of Python Essential Reference. Here is a man who conquered C++ in just about every way, but ultimately found himself trapped in its byzantine complexity, only to escape by way of Python. Swig grew a … Continue reading The C++ trap

I’ll start off this post with a somewhat controversial claim: I invented Dropbox. I’ll show why this claim doesn’t matter later, but for now, I’ll assure you that it’s true. How many of you out there use Dropbox? If you don’t, you should — it’s an excellent tool. In its free version, it provides you … Continue reading Persistent Folders: Or, why ideas don’t matter, and execution does

This post is only intended for those who actually run GNOME and Linux, just a warning 🙂 I just replaced network-manager on my Ubuntu Jaunty desktop with wicd.  See wicd here: http://wicd.sourceforge.net/ What's so great about wicd?  I used to think nm-applet and NetworkManager were the best thing since sliced bread, but have grown increasingly … Continue reading For Linux/GNOME users: tired of nm-applet? Try wicd

Today, I decided to finally sit down and upgrade my Ubuntu Intrepid installation to Ubuntu Jaunty. I torrented the live DVD last night (causing my roommates to complain of major Internet hoggage — it was downloading at 1.2MB/sec!). I then performed a full system backup to a remote hard drive, and then repartitioned my drives … Continue reading Ubuntu Jaunty installation process

I attended PyCon 2009 this year, which was a whole lot of fun. Quite a few people have asked me which talks I liked, so I decided to put together my “top 5 talks” list, in ranked order: A Whirlwind Excursion through Writing a C Extension. This talk by Ned Batchelder (author of coverage.py and … Continue reading Favorite PyCon 2009 talks

I am teaching a technical course on the popular and ubiquitous version control system, Subversion, this Monday. I thought it might be fun to give my class a little “extra credit” reading from the O’Reilly book, Beautiful Code. In it, one of the original authors of Subversion, Karl Fogel, shares what he considers to be … Continue reading Beautiful Code and a Beautiful Bug

I just got back from San Francisco. This wasn’t my first time to the west coast, but it was my first time to Northern California. Overall, I had an amazing time.

The following post has been sitting in my “drafts” section of WordPress for a good while. I don’t know why I never posted it — it’s been there for more than a year. I think I just thought the article deserved such careful attention that I never sat down to really edit it and prepare … Continue reading Common Criticisms of Linux, parsed and analyzed

Note: this post was written in January 2007, but it has stood the test of time. The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, … Continue reading Solving “accidents” and “essences” of programming with better languages