Coffee Notes: A Better Word for Software Craftsman

I ran accross this post by Krishna Kumar today discussing how the goal of the Software Craftsman is great but that programmers today don’t care. He notes that many of today’s programmers are in it for the paycheck and not interested in being the best they can be. Kumar discusses how the term Software Craftsman can be perceived as elitist and unapproachable for programmers just in it for the job. I thought this was an interesting point. We want our developers to best the best the can be but are we providing options that are approachable and interesting enough for what they are really focused on.

Krishna continues on noting that organizations need to foster this growth as well. Its one thing thing to have an interested and driven individual, its another to have an organization that fosters and nurtures growth and development rather than simply factory style, assembly line code.

Good read with multiple points. Take time to read the whole thing.

http://java.dzone.com/articles/get-better-word-software

 

What REST is really about

I stumbled across a break down of Roy Fielding’s thesis by Bob DuCharme. In his distillation, Bob notes what many technologists believe when first exploring REST, that REST means easily accessible via HTTP. In truth REST is much more than that. It’s a structure and pattern of interaction. It’s the HTTP Object Model. Its much more than just easy access over HTTP.

Coffee Notes: 7 IT Career Rules Worth Breaking

Here’s a great quick read about some career myths that maybe you should avoid.

Dave Willmer really hit the nail on the head with these 7 tips. More than one I need to work on still :)

7 IT Career Rules Worth Breaking via CIO.com – Continuing Education by Dave Willmer <info@cio.com> on 8/1/10

Sometimes sticking to the status quo can actually hinder your career success. Dave Willmer offers some suggestions to help you keep your IT career moving forward.

Coffee Notes: 10 Effective Ways to Become a Good Programmer

Here’s a nice top 10 list. I really like #7 and #10.

“Working as a software programmer in IT industry, one thing that drives us daily to the work place; is that fun and passion lies in programming. But to make that programming a fun and to get an eternal elation out of it, one needs to learn and adhere to some basics which make you a good programmer.” -Ashish Arya

http://java.dzone.com/articles/10-effective-ways-become-good

Coffee Notes: Art of Development – Refactoring

“Entropy always wins. Eventually, chaos turns your beautifully imagined and well-designed code into a big mess of spaghetti. At least, that’s the way it used to be, before refactoring.” -James Shore and Shane Warden

Refactoring is such an important part of developement but too many developers either shy away from it or mistake refactor with rewrite.

James Shore has written multiples books on software development practices. In his book with coauthor Shane Warden titled The Art of Agile Development, they discuss a wide variety of development practices.

Shore has posted excerpts of the book online and a Fantastic discussion on refactoring.

I highly recomend reading James Shore’s article on Refactoring