I'm currently reading Steve McConnell's Code Complete (for the first time - yes, I know that's somewhat worrying) and there was one section was disturbed me a little. For those of you with a copy to hand, it's in section 4.3, discussing the difference between programming in a language...
Ian Griffiths mailed me about macros, and explained how LISP macros were very different to C/C++ macros, working at a language level instead of at a text level. I won't pretend to understand all about what would be possible and what wouldn't, but Ian gave a good example: query expressions in...
For those of you who aren't aware, JetBrains is the company behind IntelliJ IDEA, the Java IDE which I've heard amazing things about (I've tried it a couple of times but never got into it - I think I need an expert sitting beside me to point out the cool stuff as I go) and ReSharper, the...
So, Groovy in Action has been out for a little while, and I'm missing it - or rather, book writing. I'd like my next project to be a solo effort, almost certainly on Java. However, I'm interested in hearing what you good folks think would make a good Java book. I've got some ideas myself, but I'd rather...
Updated 7th August 2006 - It looks like closures aren't meant to require K&R bracing after all. Hoorah! Examples changed appropriately. One of my tasks at work is to investigate new languages and technologies and report back what use we might make of them, where they fit in with what we're doing...
I've recently started working with Subversion (a version control system) and FitNesse (the Fit acceptance testing framework based in a wiki). FitNesse has a primitive version control system built into it, where it builds zip files of previous versions of pages. It's all a bit messy though, and it's not...
I often see people in newsgroups saying how wonderful Visual Studio is, and they often claim it's the "best IDE in the world". Strangely enough, most go silent when I ask how many other IDEs they've used for a significant amount of time. I'm not going to make any claims as to which IDE is "the best"...