For the past few weeks we’ve been experimenting with a variant of the Pair Programming theme. Conventional wisdom holds that pairs should be rotated frequently, i.e. several times per day. In our experience, this has been hard to sustain. Instead, we’ve experimented with having two team members bond together and take collective ownership of a […]
Most french-speaking professional programmers I’ve worked with will translate “Unit Test” by “Test Unitaire”. This is indeed the term used by the french translation of the Wikipedia article on unit testing. Forgive my obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I believe the proper french translation of “unit test” should be “test unité”, and not “test unitaire”. The english […]
I’m currently taking the Software Testing class on Udacity. The instructor spent a couple of videos discussing the pros and cons of leaving software assertions turned on in your production systems. Here is my interpretation:
If you pick two people at random and measure their heights, what can you say about the average height of the population? When dealing with small sample sizes (less than, say, 20) it’s generally not possible to assume that the sample variance is a good approximation of the population variance. There simply isn’t enough data, […]
For the past three years I’ve taught a freshman-level programming course at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Students are asked to form groups of 2 and to work on a semester project, consisting in the development of a simple library of numeric routines (e.g. square root function, integrals, etc). I then submit […]
From Neurobat’s website it is now possible to download a brochure with the 2012-2013 test results. It summarises the findings we published at the CISBAT 2013 conference, describing the energy savings that we have achieved on four experimental test sites. Of these four, one is an administrative office. Another included the (domestic) hot water in […]
I was happy to learn a few days ago that the Climate Charts & Graphs blog is being reactivated by its author. I used to subscribe to it back in the Google Reader days. In the current climate change conversation we need more blogs like CCG, where arguments can be conclusively settled with (preferably graphical) […]
The Thoughtworks Anthology: Essays on Software Technology and Innovation by ThoughtWorks Inc.<br/> My rating: 3 of 5 stars I read this first volume after reading its successor. Compared with the latter, I found the first volume to be slightly disappointing. Like its successor, it’s a series of essays from Thoughtworks employees, including Martin Fowler. Whereas […]
Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development by Craig Larman<br/> My rating: 5 of 5 stars Easily one of the best books on object-oriented design I’ve ever read. Through two case studies (a point-of-sale terminal application and a Monopoly game) the author goes through the entire process of […]
I live next to Geneva in Switzerland. If you come to Geneva, be sure to include in your visit the ramp leading up from the Parc des Bastions and running parallel to the edge of the old town. There you will find the longest bench in Europe, the last meters of which sit in the […]