Double Entry Programming
In high school I remember my first encounter with double entry accounting. It was tedious extra work with no real benefit. On my first assignment I “lost” nearly half my money. If a professional accountant makes a similar mistake in the name of efficiency, the losses could reach into or past the millions. … Read more
My Experience with Play! Scala
A few months ago I experimented with the Play! framework, which at the time was only available in Java. I had originally intended to do a blog post on Play! but never got around to it. In summary, it wasn’t good. The Java version of Play! actually uses an internal compiler which adds magic … Read more
Resisting Progress
Summarized in an Image Why fly when a car will do? Don’t get me wrong, I drive regularly. Occasionally I even take long trips by the pavement when the tarmac is too pricey. However, there’s a limit. Flying is faster, safer, and more convenient. When cost (both price and time-overhead) allows, I’d prefer … Read more
And then I realized… Java is Frustrating!
Lately I’ve been slowly learning the Scala language in my spare time. It’s an interesting experience, and it’s incredibly exciting to learn while hearing buzz such as the rumour that Quora is moving to Scala. With other major players using the language, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare (just to repeat @yaaang’s non-exhaustive list), its … Read more
ScaLearning 7 – Distributing Concurrent Tests
Like many developers who make the journey from Java to Scala, I often find myself amazed at how much easier it is to do some things, or how much easier it is to express myself in Scala. “ScaLearning” will be a series of short blog-posts just documenting little tidbits I find interesting, confusing, amusing, or … Read more
ScaLearning 6 – DSL Exploration & Operator Interpretation
Like many developers who make the journey from Java to Scala, I often find myself amazed at how much easier it is to do some things, or how much easier it is to express myself in Scala. “ScaLearning” will be a series of short blog-posts just documenting little tidbits I find interesting, confusing, amusing, or … Read more
ScaLearning 5 – DSL Exploration & Operation Precedence
Like many developers who make the journey from Java to Scala, I often find myself amazed at how much easier it is to do some things, or how much easier it is to express myself in Scala. “ScaLearning” will be a series of short blog-posts just documenting little tidbits I find interesting, confusing, amusing, or … Read more
ScaLearning 4 – DSL Exploration & Operator Notation
Like many developers who make the journey from Java to Scala, I often find myself amazed at how much easier it is to do some things, or how much easier it is to express myself in Scala. “ScaLearning” will be a series of short blog-posts just documenting little tidbits I find interesting, confusing, amusing, … Read more
The Fallibility of Tests
Recently I posted about Test Flow and Method Contracts. The key takeaway was that we can use tests to prove the contracts our system lives up to. We all create a logical representation of our software in our minds in order to reason about it. Tests (either manual, or automatic) allow us to prove the … Read more
ScaLearning 3 – Is Scala Hard to Learn?
Like many developers who make the journey from Java to Scala, I often find myself amazed at how much easier it is to do some things, or how much easier it is to express myself in Scala. “ScaLearning” will be a series of short blog-posts just documenting little tidbits I find interesting, confusing, amusing, or … Read more
