Systems Development on Kind of Idea

Ruby as a First Programming Language!

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, this may sound a little strange to some people, especially the more traditional ones, but that is what I am proposing in this post.

My first experience with a programming language was in 1997, with Pascal, a language created in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth, whose main goal was to encourage the use of structured code, especially for teaching.

Here is a small example of a logical test in Pascal:

    program Testelogico;
       
    var a,b:integer;

    uses crt;

    begin
     clrscr;
     writeln ('Digite um número para A');
     readln (a);
     writeln ('Digite o número para B');
     readln (b);
    
     if (a = b) then
        writeln ('A é igual a B')
     else
        if (a &lt; b) then
              writeln ('B é maior que A')
        else
              writeln ('A é maior que B');
    end.

We can see that this code requires learning several concepts related to the language’s structure itself instead of focusing on the problem. For example, it requires parentheses and a semicolon at the end of a block, as well as the classic rule that you do not put a semicolon before else, because the semicolon is used to end programming blocks.

Extreme Programming and Collective Intelligence

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the third edition of “Think about it!”

The July 2007 issue of National Geographic Brasil featured an article about Collective Intelligence. It discussed the behavior of birds, bees, ants, and fish, which was being studied and applied in the workplace, at airports, and on the internet. I would add that it can also be applied to software development to make processes easier and more efficient.

An ant colony can solve problems that are impossible for any individual ant, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source. Individually, they may be stupid; collectively, they are agile and efficient. This phenomenon is called “swarm intelligence.”

Windows vs. Linux, or Spielberg vs. Chávez?

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome, everyone, to the second episode of the “Think about it!” series.

For several years I have been following discussions about which operating system to use. In this post, I will try to offer a different point of view that might serve as a reference for IT managers making decisions. My only goal, though, is to encourage discussion and reflection.

Before getting to the topic, take a look at the image below:

Extreme Programming Is Definitely Not a Hack!

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

In this first installment of “Think about it,” I’ll tell you about something that happened to me as I was leaving my postgraduate course. I got a ride, and in the car a few students and professors continued discussing software best practices and RUP, which had been a subtopic in a software engineering talk. But without any technical arguments, they simply equated XP (Extreme Programming) with a hack, and even mentioned POG (programming-oriented-gambiarra).

In Search of Simplicity

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Hi, my name is Valério Farias. I have worked in web development since 2003, and I’d like to tell you a little about my story.

I started out with table-based layouts, using WYSIWYG editors. I thought they were simple because I didn’t have to get lost among the countless trs and tds. But one day I needed to put a large report, which was in spreadsheet format, into HTML. With my naïve idea of simplicity, I exported it straight to HTML—a kind of spreadsheet CASE tool. The result was a page that was extremely slow and impossible for a human being to view. I was discouraged and puzzled, so I faced the beast. I combed through the code and was shocked by the amount of repetitive formatting it contained. I cleaned it all up, leaving only the necessary code, until, to my relief, I was able to publish the file on the web. That was my first major challenge, and I came away with the lesson that it is important to clean under the rug, too.