1. A Good BASH Script Template

    Mon 09 February 2015
    By John Mark Schofield in Technology

    I start out all my BASH scripts with the following boilerplate:

    #!/bin/bash
    set -e
    set -o pipefail
    set -u
    

    Let's talk for a minute about why each one of those lines is a good idea.

    set -e: Exit immediately if a simple command exits with a non-zero status. If …

    Tagged as: Bash Programming
  2. Basic Python Logging

    Thu 01 April 2010
    By John Mark Schofield in Technology

    I was listening to the A Little Bit of Python podcast and heard them discuss the difficulty of logging with the standard Python logging module. I was a little surprised, because I don't think it's THAT hard to use. The logging module, quite frankly, requires a lot of boilerplate code …

    Tagged as: Programming Python
  3. Writing Software Is Hard (Duh!)

    Wed 03 October 2007
    By John Mark Schofield in Technology

    Great article by Kyle Wilson on why software is hard to create:

    Talking about a software development schedule more than a year out is like talking about where we go after we die.  Everyone has some idea where we'll end up, but those ideas differ wildly, and there's a lack …

    Tagged as: Programming
  4. 50% of What You Know Becomes Obsolete Every 18 Months

    Fri 07 November 2003
    By John Mark Schofield in Technology

    As a guy who gets paid only because of his computer knowledge, the following paragraph is a bit of a comfort to me:

    One of the many consequences of the exponential power-versus-time curve in computing, and the corresponding pace of software development, is that 50% of what one knows becomes …

    Tagged as: Programming
  5. Good Stuff

    Fri 24 October 2003
    By John Mark Schofield in Technology

    First off, Robert X. Cringely wrote a recent column on the comparative strengths of Linux and Windows. Here's a neat quote from the article attributed to Linus Torvalds:

    "Because the software is free, there is no pressure to release it before it is really ready just to achieve some sales …

    Tagged as: Programming

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