In 1991 I asked Bob Hieb (Kent’s Chez Scheme buddy then, and my co-researcher on theoretical stuff) what the most frequent annoying bug was in the code. He ranked an accidentally omitted else branch among the top three. Indeed, he said that because of this, they had agreed to use WHEN and UNLESS exclusively for [...]
What does it mean, exactly? It’s basically the diminutive form of belligerent. Someone who’s scrappy manages to be both threatening and undignified at the same time. Which seems to me exactly what one would want to be, in any kind of work. If you’re not threatening, you’re probably not doing anything new, and dignity is [...]
Want something to blow up? Tell the world about it on a Tuesday morning. Avoids the Monday avalanche people face and gives you the rest of the week to get play. Want something to fade away? Tell the world about it on a Friday afternoon. It’ll fade into the weekend. Obvious, but had you thought [...]
Here is a copy of Joe’s post on r6rs-discuss: What’s the point of a Scheme standard? I can think of a number of uses. A guideline for new Scheme implementations. A touchstone to distinguish a “real” implementation from a wanna-be. A reference point for academic papers so they don’t need to devote an appendix to [...]
A few days ago my friend and I were talking about the software development market and how as you pass multiples of 10 years of age you tend to face “new concerns” at work. For example, when you turn 30 you get promoted to lead developer, when you turn 40 you get promoted to manager, [...]
The word ‘want’ is a verb that, when used with an object, indicates their desire or interest in said object. For example “I want dinner”, or “I want to be happy”. In order to achieve that object, one must take some ordered steps. For example if ‘I want dinner’ some logical steps might be to [...]
You are not beneath anyone. And there is no task that is beneath you. – Eddie Dotson (via latimes)
It might be interesting for groups who promote agile software development practices to start introducing transparency, gently and slowly, simply by including a single number on their web page: the percentage of their projects that are successfully building, and nothing more.
Here is some entertaining discussion about implementing an OOP system in Scheme. They are discussing this post. Easy, of course, is a loaded term! :)