Replace Temp with Query in Clojure
Lately I've been re-reading some of the classic books in the clean code / OOP genre and trying to apply their lessons with renewed...more.
Coding
What is a Bug?
A while back I wrote a little about bugs. I got a few questions and objections and the most common one goes something like...more.
When is a character not a Character?
Characters seem like an easy concept to grasp at first glance. Java has a primitive type char and an object wrapper Character, and these are...more.
Stable Sorting in Ruby
The process of learning Ruby has brought several surprises. Some of which are more pleasant than others. The latest I have encountered is that Array#sort...more.
The Repository Pattern
A recurring theme on the 8th Light blog is decoupling your applications from the implementation of details. A detail can be anything from UI elements...more.
An Open and Closed Case
I awoke this morning to see a twitter conversation about the Open-Closed Principle. The tweeter was complaining that it didn't make a lot of sense....more.
Help Prevent Session Hijacking
Keep your cookies to yourself
Browser cookies are a good way to provide a stateless protocol with some memory. Unfortunately, they're also good for hijacking...more.
Riak, MapReduce, and large numbers
The Riak database provides a great MapReduce framework allowing you to execute complex queries, leveraging the parallel processing power of distibuted systems. However, I...more.
How to be a great pair
The absolute best code I’ve ever written was when I’ve been most compatible with my pair.
It wasn’t that long ago, and I was relatively...more.
Migrating from RSpec Dynamic Mocks to Surrogate - Part 2
This blog is Part 2 of a series of blogs about migrating to Surrogate. Part 1 can be found here. If you are unfamiliar...more.
Migrating from RSpec Dynamic Mocks to Surrogate - Part 1
Here's the situation: You use RSpec. You like RSpec. But you want more confidence from your tests than you get with RSpec's dynamic mocks while...more.
How to use rails routing constraints: 2 use cases with code
I’ve been using routing constraints a lot lately.
Before I learned about constraints, my controllers were littered with data typing checks and filters, some of...more.
Protect Yourself From SQL Injection
Don’t trust outside data!
SQL injection attacks were once considered the greatest threat plaguing the Internet. They continue to be the source of many...more.
Don't Fail at Failure in Ruby
Silent failures are difficult to debug -- not only is the error not noisy and obvious, but it can introduce other errors downstream that may...more.
Reflections on Using Backbone.js
JavaScript frameworks like Backbone.js can provide the structure missing in ad hoc approaches but there are some common pitfalls.
Like many developers today my first...more.
Transformation Priority Premise Applied
At SCNA 2012 I entered into a kata battle against Aaron Bedra. The idea was that we'd both perform the Coin Changer...more.
Composition over Mixins
This is not the first post cautioning the use of modules on our blog. However, while I do mostly agree with the points raised...more.
Taking Password Storage Up A Notch
Protect your users, take password management seriously.
There are too many databases in the world with completely unencrypted passwords. Even when databases have encrypted...more.
Implementing and Testing the Singleton Pattern in Ruby
What is a Singleton Object?
The GoF identifies a singleton as a way to "ensure a class only has one instance, and provide a...more.
Applying DRY to Editing
Editing text can be tedious and mechanical; you are often required repeat the same sequence of commands several times. Keyboard macros are one way...more.
Welcome To The Gilded Rose (in Clojure)
There's a special sort of satisfication I get from turning absolutely awful code into a well-tested, well-factored program. Not only have I increased the...more.
Owning Your Dependencies
Dependencies are nearly unavoidable for non-trivial software projects. These can be large dependencies, such as web frameworks and databases, or smaller decisions, such as...more.
Adapting To Change
“The only constant is Change.”
— Heraclitus
While it was doubtful that Heraclitus was addressing developers, the sentiment certainly still applies....more.
Explicit Collections
Don't extract that method yet!
In programming, we tend to work with collections of objects quite often. For example, we may need to check to...more.
C++ is Not Slow
The last 2 weeks of 8LU were very interesting. Steven Degutis delivered 2 great talks on programming languages, covering the pros and cons...more.
The Classic Buffer Overflow
From time to time I solve levels of Smash the Stack for fun.
Here's how it works. On each level there's...more.
Dereferencing NULL Pointer, without a Seg Fault
We've all heard that Chuck Norris can count to infinity, twice. We've all heard that Chuck Norris can drown a fish. Chuck Norris can...more.
What do developers do all day?
Could you (as a software developer) delete all of the code you wrote in a day and rewrite it in around an hour? Chances are...more.
Test Your Rails Application Configuration
A Rails application has many configuration options. Learn how to test one of them.
Why?
Well, what are the consequences of an...more.
On Obsession, Primitive and Otherwise
Primitive Obsession is bad stuff. But it's bad, not because primitives are bad, but because obsession is bad.
From Merriam-Webster:
ob-ses-sion, noun:...more.
Quoting Without Confusion
Many Lisp beginners find quoting to be a foreign concept. My own confusions around quote and friends began with my first ventures into Scheme,...more.
Be a Relentless Programmer
Before I came to 8th Light, I didn’t write code all the time. I took some CS classes in college and I enjoyed programming...more.
Deliberate Practice
“Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.”
— Napoleon Hill
We all know...more.
Ruby Accessors Considered Pernicious
One Ruby feature I fell in love with is the ability to define methods like foo and foo= which are used like simple variable...more.
Polymorphism in Clojure
“polymorphism is a programming language feature that allows values of different data types to be handled using a uniform interface” -Wikipedia
...more.
Warming Up
Many of us admire other professionals, such as musicians and athletes. We even emulate them in our own profession by practicing. What about that...more.
Things You Should Know About JavaScript
I know some people cringe at the idea of writing JavaScript. They opt to write CoffeeScript instead and make every attempt to avoid looking...more.
Modules called, they want their integrity back
TL; DR
Rather than including modules and hooking into .included, write a method that adds the behaviour (even if the method just includes and extends).
The Barbarians are at the Gates
There’s a revolution coming. I wonder if anyone has noticed. It’s not subtle. It won’t be sublime, or easy to integrate. Indeed, it’ll probably muck...more.
Mind Your Own Business Rails
Putting extensive business logic in Rails controllers is bad and you should stop doing it.
I suppose I should demonstrate why that's true with...more.
Why I Pair Program
Recently, I was pairing with Steven. We were wrapping up work on a feature. While reviewing our changes and running our acceptance test...more.
Three Reasons To Roll Your Own Mocks
I've spent the last several months writing my own mock objects, but for the code I'm currently working on, we were mostly using RSpec's built...more.
That's Not Yours
My first exposure to mock objects was in C++, where they are practically indecipherable to the TDD newbie, so I didn't use them. That...more.
Out of Controller
In the beginning of using rails it was amazing at how fast everything was compared to my previous java web experiences. I could finally...more.
Inconsistent APIs Are Costly
Imagine that you're nearing the end of a productive day. Just a little more work to do to finish a feature. Then, your customer...more.
Testing Code That's hard to test
So if you're like me, you're 5'10" and sport a ruggedly awesome beard. And if you're really like me, you swallowed the T/BDD pill years...more.
Pointers, Schmointers
I'm writing this blog from the train, my head hung in shame.
I'm taking a course in Game Optimization and today something...more.
Go Interfaces and DIP
The new language Go by Google brings a few orthogonal features to the table which work powerfully together. A heavy hitter in its arsenal...more.
The future of Lisp
I’ve been thinking about existing Lisps a lot lately and where we’re headed. In particular, I’ve been considering the possibility of writing another Lisp...more.
Winning at Consistency
Do you use validates_uniqueness_of in Rails? Do you feel confident that it works to prevent duplicate records? If you’re like most of us, you...more.
Fast-Talking ActiveRecord Migrations
Most migrations do very little and run very quickly. Add a column or two; run in a second or two. Other migrations need to...more.
Clean This Code
If you follow me on twitter @paytonrules you’ve probably seen me griping at various times about writing a testing framework for Objective-C.
...more.Clojure Mad Science: An Evil Threading Macro Experiment?
You are a mad scientist, and you’d like to perform an experiment on your mysterious test subjects. You want half of the subjects to...more.
Jenkins, RVM, and Selenium
I have been working on migrating half a dozen 8th Light projects to our continuous integration server last week. Barring one open-source gem...more.
That‘s Not In My String!
We encountered a strange spec failure today in our continuous integration build. It’s a Rails project, we’re using RSpec, and this was the failing...more.
Clojure Libs and Namespaces: require, use, import, and ns
Whenever I’m showing a newcomer to Clojure how to bring in code from other namespaces, I find myself apologizing that it’s a bit complex...more.
A Leiningen Tutorial
Leiningen, a project by Phil Hagelberg , has become one of the most contributed to Clojure projects, and also one of the...more.
JavaScriptness.prototype = new Class( ); From Classical to Prototypal
JavaScript is a very misunderstood language. It has gotten a bad rap because most people that use it don't look for its brighter side....more.
TDD in education, they're doing it wrong
This blog post originally appeared on a blog I maintain for my current game development class. Generally speaking my posts over there are pretty...more.
Walk and Code
A few years ago when we were buying furniture for the first 8th Light office I came across a piece called the WalkStation. It...more.
Reflection on Hangman
Last week concluded the Hangman Ruby Sparring Tournament. Unlike the previous Battleship Tournament, I put the effort in to write a competitive...more.
Hangman Tournament
Several months ago, I hosted the Ruby Battleship Tournament. It was an all-round fun event where craftsmen sharpened their claws and pitted...more.
Announcing chiPhone
It’s with great pleasure that I announce the creation of chiPhone, the Chicago iPhone developer’s group, with our first meeting on July 23rd at...more.
Meta-programming Comes Naturally to Intern
We have a couple of interns in the office this summer. They are kind of like Jr. Apprentices and are distinguished mostly by the...more.
A Functional Refactoring in Scala
Many of us have heard a lot of talk about functional programming and its benefits, especially when it comes to highly concurrent applications where...more.
TDD and iPhone—NSTimer
TDD on the iPhone is a challenging experience, especially when you’ve been spoiled by Ruby like I have been, but it...more.
Dependency Inversion Principle and iPhone
While working on the slides for our upcoming talk on TDD for iPhone I asked Eric Meyer why we need the...more.
Copyrights Conundrum
Here’s the situation. You’ve spent days working on an open source project. Your sweat, blood, and tears have been poured into thousands of lines...more.
Selenium on Rails Released, Again
Quick announcement, Selenium on Rails has been released, now supporting Rails 2.2 and with the latest Selenium Core. Numerous bug fixes are in this...more.
Embedded Ruby Talks Morse
I’ve been working with Ruby on embedded systems for a couple of weeks now. The final pieces have fallen into place and I’d...more.
Embedded Ruby Sings Sinatra
Last Time I got ruby up and running on my Arm based embedded development platform. Here is a quick summary of what Santa...more.
Embedded Ruby—First Steps
I spent the beginning of my career working on embedded systems for some audio company. These embedded systems were my first love in...more.
Kata: Langston's Ant in Ruby
I’ve recorded my Langston’s Ant kata for all to see. This particular kata, with slight variations, has been in front of an audience...more.
Simon
You remember the classic Simon game, right? The one where the electronic devise will blink a color and make a sound that you have...more.
Limelight 0.3.0 Released
This release of limelight contains many new features and stability. Perhaps most notably, Limelight will no longer eat 95% of your CPU (ouch)! I’m...more.
Limelight Tutorial: Tic Tac Toe Example
Welcome to a Limelight production. I am going to go through a step by step introduction to limelight development using a tic tac toe...more.
Some Random RubyCocoa stuff
I went to WWDC last week 1, and while I was there I got a chance to talk to a couple of their...more.
Active Record migration dependencies
We had a new developer join our project recently, and he needed his computer to be setup so he could run the application.
...more.Code Less: A Language Keystroke Experiment
When I first started writing code in Ruby, it was a breath of fresh air after writing C# code for a year. Ruby had...more.
Erlang and the OCP
OCP was defined in 1988 in Bertrand Meyer’s book “Object Oriented Software Construction” as follows: “Modules should be both open (for extension and adaptation)...more.
Bowled Over by RubyCocoa
Last year I wrote a RubyCocoa tutorial that’s been aggregated in a few places and referenced a couple times. By my standards it was...more.
Rinda and setting up Rindlets
Jim Suchy recently laid down some basics of Rinda in his blog Rinda 101. I would like to build on that and talk...more.
Rinda 101
When building a software system composed of multiple decoupled components, the need typically arises for interprocess coordination and communication.
As an example,...more.
Want clean code? Stop using the editor.
Recently I was adding some accessors to a ruby class on the fly, and I kept getting confused by a certain code block.
...more.Un–Rubify
Often times while writing meta programming code, I am using the eval function and doing manipulation on method/class/variable names.
Today I needed...more.
Ruby and the Art of Computer Programming
Recently, I started reading Knuth’s Art of Computer Science. To spice up the exercises, I am writing them out in Ruby....more.
Sockets Enable Multi-Lingual Applications
As we work with our clients to delivery new features to them quickly and with high quality code, we are finding that the fastest...more.
Micah's General Guidelines on Ruby require
Ruby files have to require other files. There’s no avoiding it. Techniques to manage require statements are numerous and varied. Having tried most of...more.
RubyCocoa Tutorial
Admit it, you’re new to Rails. You just got your new spiffy Rails job, and they gave you a Mac, formerly the computer of...more.
Something new, every day
Last December I went to to StarEast in Orlando because my fiancee is a tester and I well, I like sun. While there I...more.
Pair Me Up
I am a better pair than solo developer. For me, software is a collaborative art from the start of a project to the end....more.
Ruby DSL Blocks
There’s a common pattern I’ve seen for developing DSL in Ruby. It’s used in RSpec, the Statemachine Gem, and Unclebob’s Clean...more.
Lost in Portland, and Thinking
Did I say I was tired yesterday? That wasn’t tired, this is tired. I’m currently training for the marathon, and today I was scheduled...more.
Day Three At RailsConf
Well it’s day three and I’m exhausted. As you may have noticed I posted at 3 AM last night, and getting up at 8...more.
Day Two At RailsConf
Hello again from RailsConf. I’ve gone through five presentations. I don’t have any enormous revelations, and no good pictures yet, but I do have...more.
Test Driving Module Methods
Recently I had the pleasure and frustration of working the net-sftp gem for Ruby. Pleasure because it’s a well written library, with an easy...more.
Test, Code, There Is No Step Three!
Occasionally even great developers fall into bad habits, and the rest of us do it more than occasionally. This is especially true when under...more.
Understanding Statemachines, Part 4: Superstates
Often in Statemachines, duplication can arise. For example, the vending machine in our examples may need periodic repairs. It’s not certain which state the...more.
Sharing a Database Among Multiple Rails Applications
A sign of the success of Ruby on Rails is the size of applications being written with it. Currently, we are working on a...more.
Storing Binary Data in Postgres? Beware!
If your situation matches the following conditions, beware!
- You’re working in rails.
- You’re using Postgresql.
- You’re storing binary data in the database.
...more.
Understanding Statemachines, Part 3: Conditional Logic
If you’re doing any significant amount of work with statmachines, you will most certainly encounter some conditional logic in your Statemachines. Take our vending...more.
Clean as You Code
In my younger days I was a Line Cook at the Olive Garden. In case you’ve never worked in the food industry, Line Cooks...more.
Three Reasons to Use FitNesse
Using FitNesse allows you to communicate with the customer up front. Before a line of code is written, you can have all the...more.
Getting started with Rails and FitNesse
This is intended to be a tutorial to get you started using FitNesse with ruby on Rails. There is some explanation needed about FitNesse,...more.
Understanding Statemachines, Part 2: Actions
Part One demonstrated how to build states and transitions. If you go ahead and add some actions to that and you’ll have a truly...more.
Understanding Statemachines, Part 1: States and Transitions
I consider Statemachines to be a programming gem. An invaluable tool for the software craftsman’s toolkit. It’s not everyday that a Statemachine comes in...more.
Rails Migrations and Subversion
In rails, migrations are generated in such a way that they create a numbered migration with an up and a down schema direction. This...more.
Ruby and Human Compilers
In Paul Graham’s Book, Hackers and Painters, he talks about patterns and Human Compilers. I started to think about how some traditional Object-Oriented patterns...more.
Smalltalk Bowling
I’ve been meaning to learn Smalltalk for years now. Recently Dave Astels and I have a had a few discussion on the topic. They...more.
Pre–Factoring
Pre–factoring is when you see a piece of code which the story you are working on which has a re–factorings which would make your...more.
IList, IComparable, ICarumba!
This IConvention is an interesting one: “Let’s prefix all interfaces with a capital I.” Who thought of this? Why did they think it was...more.
Delegates Vs Command Pattern
Delegates: one of the few unique aspects of .NET. How useful are they? Here’s a delegate declaration. The syntax can take some getting used...more.
Buffer to the Rescue
Recently I was working on FitNesse to solve the problem of large file uploading and downloading. Previously when a file was downloaded FitNesse would...more.