SPA 2011

Along with some other friends from Caplin, I went to the SPA2011 conference at the beginning of this week. JavaScript turned out to be very popular this year and the first session I ...Read More

Secrets of Automatic Code Translation

I've recently spent a few dev days at Caplin investigating the possibility of generating code in a number of languages from one source language. The business costs of maintaining multiple code bases (and their associated documentation) are obvious, ...Read More

Javascript: Elements of Style

I recently read Farhad Manjoo’s polemic on slate explaining that using two spaces after a full stop is flat out wrong. Of course things are never that simple and Manifest Destiny has an ...Read More

Software Craftsmanship 2010

Yesterday I went to Software Craftsmanship Conference 2010 at Bletchley Park. The program consisted mainly of hands-on type sessions with occasional time out to visit the rebuild of Colossus and look at some of the history ...Read More

SPA2010 Report

I was at the Software Practice Advancement conference (SPA) last week, here are a few of my thoughts from some of the sessions I attended: Phil and I presented Kwwika in the ...Read More

Inadvertantly Abstract

Yesterday you may have seen the @CaplinTech tweet about Zed Shaw's essay which complains that programmers too often muddle the concepts of indirection and abstraction. In particular he bemoans that this confusion often results in programmers designing bad APIs. ...Read More

Portlets and Ajax

Developing portlets can be a frustrating experience, especially if you are used to technologies with lots of helpful information out there on the web.  While lots of people are using portlets, it seems that few are writing about them. What should ...Read More