Posts Categorized: Software engineering

Why I love Google Maps

Posted by & filed under IT & the Internet, Software engineering, February 27 2007.

I spend a lot of my time working with and developing Geographic Information software, especially graphical mapping applications. Recently I have been working a lot with the mapping data and JavaScript API provided by the Google Maps service, and I am very impressed with it. It’s very simple to use, and makes adding mapping capabilities… Read more »

The 80:20 and POGE software engineering rules

Posted by & filed under Software engineering, February 23 2007.

There is a well-known ratio in engineering; 80:20. This ratio crops up in software engineering too and refers to several rules-of-thumb that sound a bit flippant but in my experience are valuable real-world guides when managing software development projects. This is also called the ‘Pareto Principle‘.

In defence of Cowboy Coding

Posted by & filed under Books, Software engineering, February 22 2007.

At the organisation where I am a software engineer, discussions and debates about software development methodologies and tools (such as UML, Agile, XP etc) has gone on for a long time. There is a general feeling that these are a Good Idea, and that we should embrace them, but variety and complexity seem to be… Read more »

When Java goes wrong

Posted by & filed under Software engineering, February 21 2007.

In the software team where I work there is a strong focus on using Java as the language of choice for building web-based applications. Now, Java has many strengths. In an environment where many software engineers are working on the same code, and the purpose of that code is to interface with diverse data sources… Read more »