http://programmingmatters.com My thoughts on all things technical, programming and otherwise Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:49:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I have been reflecting a lot on the age old question of the "optimal" programming language for a while now. First I'll issue the usual disclaimers about apples and oranges and how they need to be fit appropriately to the problems they need to solve. But more than ... http://programmingmatters.com/2007/06/21/programmer-paradigms-and-programmer-audiences/ Preface: Please read Programming Paradigms and Programmer Audiences for a more through explanation of the metaphor below. Driving: Freedom..... I know how fast I can safely drive and don't need a speed limit to govern this. I should be able to make a u-turn on the highway if I need to. If there are no oncoming ... http://programmingmatters.com/2007/05/22/programmers-as-drivers-on-the-highwaylisprubyjavascriptetc-vs-javaccetc/ If you haven’t read the first and second parts of this article, you’ll probably want to check them out here and here. So I was working with a company that did 3D development for games! It was 1998 and things were still fresh and new in that area. The ... http://programmingmatters.com/2007/05/15/24-years-of-game-programming-thrills-chills-and-spills-part-3-of-3/ With all the latest attention again on what does and doesn't make a good programmer, I couldn't help but put together my own top 10 list. Being a great problem solver. Being driven and lazy at the same time. Ability to understand other people's code Having a passion for programming Loving learning for the sake ... http://programmingmatters.com/2007/02/05/the-top-10-attributes-of-a-great-programmer/ Wonderful (web)blogs, evil sp(am)logs and now entertaining c(orporate)logs. We've come a long way since the .plan files that internet users made publilc to keep people up to date back in the day. Each popular thing evolves - this is the nature of technology and the net. And ... http://programmingmatters.com/2007/01/26/wonderful-blogs-evil-splogs-and-now-entertaining-clogs/ When the web was young, backlinks were the perfect way to measure a sites popularity. The sites with backlinks were more popular and the sites with backlinks from more popular sites were even more popular as you would expect. And all was well. But in today's world no matter ... http://programmingmatters.com/2007/01/19/how-seo-will-kill-google-or-the-problem-with-backlinks/ This concept really applies to much of life, however, computer science in particular. Why is is that new ways of doing things can have remarkable success when they are at "the discovery stage" and end up being useful but disappointing in the field? Object oriented programming turns into spaghetti class ... http://programmingmatters.com/2007/01/19/why-silver-bullets-tarnish-over-time-new-paradigms-getting-thrashed-in-the-field/ If you haven't read the first part of this article, you'll probably want to check it out here. 1995 - Legend Entertainment - My First Industry Years I was finally working full-time in the game industry at Legend Entertainment and couldn't be more thrilled! No more sandwiching game coding in between ... http://programmingmatters.com/2007/01/10/24-years-of-game-programming-thrills-chills-and-spills-part-2/ If you haven't read part one you really need to do that first. It's here. I got a lot of interesting feedback on part 1 of this topic and found I needed to further explain myself in certain areas. Two initial responses to issues brought to me from part 1: ... http://programmingmatters.com/2006/12/31/how-null-breaks-polymorphism-or-the-problem-with-null-part-2/ Originally I was thinking about calling this article 24 years of game programming: observations and lessons learned. Somehow the title seemed much too stuffy for an entry about something I've loved so much over the years. In this three part series I trace my 24 years of game programming. ... http://programmingmatters.com/2006/12/31/24-years-of-game-programming-thrills-chills-and-spills-part-1/