Author Archives: G Wade Johnson

Review of Joel on Software

Joel on Software Joel Spolsky Apress, 2004 This book collects some of the best entries from the Joel on Software website. Joel has an interesting view of the software industry based on three years at Microsoft, time spent at Juno, and now with his own company. This is a guy with quite a bit of… Read More »

Review of Perl 6 Now

Perl 6 Now: The Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5 Scott Waters Apress, 2005 I had mixed feelings about reading this book caused by my current views of Perl 6. Some of what I have heard about Perl 6 is exciting and I really can’t wait. Other things I have heard fill me with dread.… Read More »

3D Mice

Tim O’Reilly had an interesting little write-up called O’Reilly Radar > Report on visit to Sensors Expo over on O’Reilly Radar. Jonathan Gennick went to see this expo where companies were showing off some of the current advances in ZigBee based sensor technology. One of the devices was a small “three-axis accelerometer about the size… Read More »

Review of C++ Primer (Fourth Edition)

C++ Primer (Fourth Edition) Stanley B. Lippman, Josée Lajorie, and Barbara E. Moo. Addison -Wesley, 2005. Every now and then, someone asks me to recommend a book for learning the C++ programming language. Until very recently, I didn’t have a good answer. The book I learned C++ from went out of print years ago (and… Read More »

The Importance of Programming Play

For various reasons, I’ve recently been thinking on the importance of programming play, Those times when we tinker with code without any goal other than making something run on the computer. Sometimes this involves playing with a new language or a feature of an old language that we’ve recently discovered. Unlike projects for work, these… Read More »

Review of Eric Meyer on CSS

Eric Meyer on CSS Eric A. Meyer New Riders, 2003 Styling web pages with CSS allows for a very good separation of structure and presentation. In this book, Eric Meyer focuses on the design aspects of using CSS. Many other books describe individual features of CSS and even show how to generate particular effects with… Read More »