Category: Programming

A big part of my work has to do with code. I’ve worked as system administrator – installing, patching, and configuring someone else’s code. I’ve worked as independent programmer, writing code on my own. I also programmed as part of the team. And on top of that, I worked as Team Leader and Project Manager, where I had to interact a lot with programmers. Programming world on its own is as huge as the universe. There is always something to learn. When I find something worthy or something that I understand enough to write about, I share it in this category.

Respond.js – media queries understanding for MSIE 6, 7, and 8

Masonry – cascading grid layout library

What is Masonry?

Masonry is a JavaScript grid layout library. It works by placing elements in optimal position based on available vertical space, sort of like a mason fitting stones in a wall. You’ve probably seen it in use all over the Internet.

Why is software engineering exciting?

Quora runs the question. There are some really inspiring and insightful replies. Have a look. Here are some bits to get you started. Robert Love said:

Software is the most malleable of media. With just bits—which are nothing, really—a software engineer can build castles out of thin air. Entire businesses, industries even, are created with nothing physical at all. Software’s substrate is the stuff of pure thought.

Other engineering disciplines are constrained by the surly bonds of the physical world. To design a new plane, the aerospace engineer may spend years designing a model. A model! A software engineer can go from idea to reality in a day. As an intellectual pursuit, software is enormously rewarding.

Martin Sarsale:

It’s like playing with Lego but the blocks are product of your mind.

Noam Lerner:

Creation. It’s my way to express my creativity. Some people create music, movies, paintings or pottery. I create software.

Briggitte Jellinek:

It’s exaclty like magic: with my spells (that are completely incomprehensible to muggles) I can make stuff happen!

And there’s more, of course.

slick – the last carousel you’ll ever need

Every system is terrible, if you look at it long enough

As I was reading through the rant on why your previous developer was terrible, I kept nodding my head in agreement. It’s all true.

It’s what I call the “curse of the present.” When you, as a developer, look at the choices used to build a particular application, you’re blown away at the poor decisions made at every turn. “Why, oh why, is this built with Rails when Node.js would be so much better?” or “how could the previous developer not have forseen that the database would need referential integrity when they chose MongoDB?” But what you may not realize is that you are seeing the application as it exists today. When the previous developer (or team) had to develop it, they had to deal with a LOT of unknowns. They had to make many decisions under a cloak of opacity. You are cursed with the knowledge of the present, so the system seems like a hackjob of bad decisions.

But as true as it is, it’s incomplete. It’s not only about the previous developer. It applies to pretty much all systems that you can access as a user. Things just constantly don’t make sense. And while there are many cases of a developer being inadequate, in many more cases IMHO what you are staring is a bunch of unknowns.

It is easy to assume that the guy who did this (this being anything at all) is just a stupid idiot. But that’s only because you don’t know or care. Who’s decision was it? You might think it was a developer, when in fact it was a clueless boss. Or maybe this was the most feasible approach. Or maybe it was the only possible one at the time. How much resources were allocated for this development? Anybody can do better you say, but could they be as good in 15 minutes only – cause that’s how much time was given. Do you know which technology was used and why? These are usually very transparent.

It’s easy to judge without knowing. And I guarantee you that any system can appear terrible if you stare at it long enough. But who needs all this negative energy? Nobody. Look around, try to understand, try to improve the system and learn something new in the process, and the world will surely become a better place.