Is Javascript the New Assembly?
When I first started building websites I learned Javascript and the DOM and that's what I programmed with for client-side browser functionality. When AJAX began to be more broadly known I wrapped my...
View ArticleLaziness Inspires Innovation
I got a personal reality today of why Larry Wall says the first virtue of a great programmer is laziness. A couple days ago I had the task of slightly changing the format of some CSV files by hand so...
View ArticleMultiple Programming Language Implementations - This Annoys Me the Most
I've been reading books on Ruby. I want to know the language really well. I'm that kind of programmer. I love to know the exact details of a language as much as possible. By far the thing I like least...
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Newsconomy Reaches 1000 Items
My bookmarking website, Newsconomy, has recently reached over 1000 links to cool things on the web. Mostly things about programming. I think the top 15 most popular tags give a good reflection of the...
View ArticlePower and Complexity in a Programming Language
I've been reading the new Coders at Work book. It is great. I'm reading it straight through and I'm in the middle of the interview with Joshua Bloch. One really interesting subject that has been...
View ArticleHow to Know if a Programming Candidate is a Good Programmer
It seems like I've read a lot about the question "How do you know if someone is a good programmer or not?" And I've been surprised by the answers. I've read good programmers saying that they can't...
View ArticleAm I Wrong, Is this How Digital Circuitry Actually Works?
I'm currently working on the logic design of the ALU in the book The Elements of Computing Systems. It has occurred to me that in this ALU and in all combinational circuits or chips that all...
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When Someone Says, "Why would you want to do that?"
I love the introduction in the book Assembly Language Step-by-Step: Programming with Linux, entitled "Why Would You Want to Do That?". From the introduction: Note well: When somebody asks you, "Why...
View ArticleLand of Lisp!
"Simple but refined, guaranteed to blow your mind." "Land of Lisp" "Minimal and sleek, but still so clever you'll freak." Land of Lisp the book Land of Lisp the music video
View ArticleDescription of Why to Learn Functional Programming
From the Pure Primer: Learning and practicing the art of functional programming and term rewriting is a refreshing intellectual experience that forces us to develop a totally different coding strategy...
View ArticleProgramming Interviews at blueparen.com
I have been having fun at blueparen.com, a new website that has interviews with authors of programming tools and technologies. I posted an Interview With Andy Lester - Author of Grep Replacement Tool...
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For Me, Why Clojure?
I like a language to allow me to say just what I want to say and lisp in general is geared toward that. The capability of macros is exciting and lends itself towards this as well. I like the core data...
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A Lot Has Changed
Since I last posted on my blog I got married, had a baby girl, and quit my job. I've started a programming consulting business and I am working on a kickstarter project to interview 50 creators of...
View ArticleFree Job Board Written in Clojure
As a side project I just released a simple free job board here: blueparen.com/jobs. I wrote it in Clojure and MongoDB. The source code is here: https://github.com/mudgen/jobboard
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How I Started Web Programming
This is an example of how someone learns Web programming on their own. My first exposure to programming was in high school. I learned to program using QBasic. How fun was that. My programs ranged from...
View ArticleHow My Programming Career Began
From 2004 to 2006 I had a job finding, researching, writing/editing technology news stories about state and local governments for www.govtech.com. I would post at least 3 news stories a day. We also...
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My First Full Time Programming Job
I moved back to Sacramento and got a Web development job at Minnick Web Services in 2007. This was really my first full time programming job. I had been programming a lot for fun in the last few years....
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Inductive Automation's Ignition
For the last three years I worked at Calmetrics, the sister company of Inductive Automation. Inductive Automation develops the product Ignition, provides training on it, technical support for it, and...
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