The company SourceGear makes tools for software developers, mostly in the version control area. The company’s founder is Eric Sink. Based on his blog and book, Sink seems to understand both business and technical issues. In 2007, I saw a reference to their new advertising campaign styled as a comic book. At the time, they… Read More »
A couple of years ago, I wrote in The IP Goose about some effects that too strict an IP policy can have on developers. In the intervening two years, I’ve had some other insights that I believe are important. First of all, I stand by my original essay. Companies should be able to protect the… Read More »
I enjoy reading the Worse Than Failure site as an antidote for programmer arrogance. While a junior programmer might look down on the people who made the reported mistakes, those of us who have been in the business for a while can recognize many of the mistakes. They still make a good laugh. A few… Read More »
I have recently being seeing references online to the concept of Technical Debt. The concept is an attempt to explain to business and management types some of the downside of overly complicated designs, lack of testing infrastructure, and quick-and-dirty code written to meet a deadline. In the past, I’ve had trouble explaining the difficulties working… Read More »
I recently finished reading Eric Sink on the Business of Software. I had read many of the essays before and, in general, I like what Sink has to say. I’ll freely admit that he knows a lot more about the business of software than I probably ever will, and I’ll normally take his opinion over… Read More »
I probably shouldn’t be, but I’m surprised how often I have heard the statement We can’t do X in our environment… where X is one or more of the following: version control automated testing unit tests design testing object oriented programming bug tracking warning-free compiles In almost every case, the person has claimed to understand… Read More »
One of the problems with being a software developer these days is company Intellectual Property agreements. I understand that companies want to protect the time, money, and expertise that they have invested. But some of the agreements I have seen go way past reasonable concern. Some IP agreements take the position that any programming a… Read More »