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glenatronI inherited an old and decrepid Dell server yesterday and this afternoon I have managed to replace it's Windows 2000 operating system (which I didn't have the password for) with a nice clean Debian install - I'm still amazed by the miracle of apt-get - so it is now running as a helpful Subversion server for all my version-control requirements. I've been meaning to get this sorted for ages as although it is possible to run a solo development project without version control of some kind ( running a team project this way is asking for disaster ) the ability to find out what changed when and recreate past versions makes life a whole lot easier. There is even a plug-in for Emacs - as I become more competent at software development I am starting to warm to the use of Emacs as a very powerful general purpose text editor. I use it for Ruby and PHP development at the moment as well as general text file work and it just gets better as you get the hang of using it.
Since I started working for me I've been doing bits and bobs of reading on good practice and coding technique - I'm currently reading Code Complete which is good but not revelatory - I wish I had read it about five years ago, though, because much of the stuff I know that's in there, I learned the hard way. The book that impressed me most was The Pragmatic Programmer - absolutely full of excellent advice on becoming a better programmer in every respect but I think you need a bit of commercial experience to gain the full benefit.
I've also learned a lot from a few programmers' blogs, especially the brilliant Coding Horror and Steve Yegge's rants. There is something heartwarming about the shocking incompetence of The Daily WTF as well. It could be worse.
Then again, there is only a little bit of worse left between me and my overdraft limit. You'd think if I was so good at my job that I'd be able to afford to buy food.
Since I started working for me I've been doing bits and bobs of reading on good practice and coding technique - I'm currently reading Code Complete which is good but not revelatory - I wish I had read it about five years ago, though, because much of the stuff I know that's in there, I learned the hard way. The book that impressed me most was The Pragmatic Programmer - absolutely full of excellent advice on becoming a better programmer in every respect but I think you need a bit of commercial experience to gain the full benefit.
I've also learned a lot from a few programmers' blogs, especially the brilliant Coding Horror and Steve Yegge's rants. There is something heartwarming about the shocking incompetence of The Daily WTF as well. It could be worse.
Then again, there is only a little bit of worse left between me and my overdraft limit. You'd think if I was so good at my job that I'd be able to afford to buy food.
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Date: 8 Mar 2006 01:36 (UTC)- Crump
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Date: 8 Mar 2006 03:28 (UTC)no subject
Date: 8 Mar 2006 06:47 (UTC)no subject
Date: 8 Mar 2006 07:10 (UTC)