Welcome to my Software Engineering Page!

Perspective

On this part of my site, I focus on the Discipline of Software Engineering. And the Art of Programming - which aren't quite exactly the same thing, although usually the same people do both. I know that for myself, sometimes I view my work as a structured, planned, development task. And othertimes I'm trying to execute a vision of a system that I imagined, trying to find a way to bring it out of my mind into concrete existence. That's existence as bits, not atoms, of course.

One of my concerns is the increasing centrality of computing to the general public. This will put the Software Engineering profession under scrutiny, and perhaps that's a good thing. This focus is brought about in large part by the Internet bursting through into public consciousness even to traditionally non-computer users. Also by the rare but high-impact software-related failures that impact much of the general public, such as the cascading failures of AT&T's telephone network due to bad software back in the mid-1990's. It happened once, but it was on every news outlet as a Software Failure.

Of course, we also have to include the public awareness (hyper-awareness?) of Y2k as a "computer glitch that could spell disater" a couple of years ago. Many reputable people in IT, including me, made a point of alerting the public to the possibility that there could be problems. Perhaps the general public took that differently than we professionals who are trained to think about "worst-case scenarios", disaster recovery, contingency planning. Whatever the reason, it gave the public two more reasons to distrust programmers: first, because Y2k was explained to the public as a "design error." So "all you programmers are sloppy." And then, because nothing much happened (because hard working programmers tested most everything and fixed what needed fixing), "all you programmers are full of hype". A real lose-lose scenario for the profession.

For all these types of reasons, the public and government will want to look more closely at how programmers are trained, are qualified, and what techniques they use. And we programmers, now that we are well-past the last century, could very easily fall back into "expedient" solutions with unintended consequences. So we may see a resurgence of interest in formal methodologies, certifications, oversight - something that perhaps the late 1990's "Internet Boom" had pushed to the background, before its own "dot-bomb" crash.

And perhaps we need to unblinkingly examine our own field to determine whether are we in truth "Professionals" in the same way the term is applied to physicians, architects, engineers, and (even) lawyers, among others.

So this page, as part of my overall software site, will be where you can find links to methodologies, tools and techniques if you're a professional in the field. Also, my commentaries and perhaps those of other developers. Including as to whether or not Software Development is yet truly a "profession" - or whether we're still working as "artists and cowboy coders". Personally I believe that there is a balance between those points, and over time hope for this site to be one of the places where discussions about finding that balance can occur.

Links and resources

Check back regularly for new and updated links, resources, and discussions...

• The ACM - Association for Computing Machinery - one of the few Professional Organizations in the field. But is their traditionally academic orientation to Computer Science truly relevant to the business practices of Information Technology? It's an open question, and they have become more business-oriented while not giving up their rigorous approach. One of the reasons why I decided to become an ACM Member.
• Slashdot - "News for Nerds - Stuff that Matters" one of the regular "watering holes" of the Open Source movement, and perhaps the opposite end of the spectrum from ACM?
• developerWorks - IBM's site for all sorts of neat Java, Linux, XML, and database knowledge, tools, tutorials, and free software. This isn't "your father's IBM" - not a blue suit in sight.
• alphaWorks - Even more cool stuff from IBM - code that isn't out of the labs yet, most of it freely available at least for evaluation use.
• Linux.com - a commercial Linux site that is the part of the Open Source Developers Network. Said network also includes Slashdot, SourceForge (code repository and service to Open Source developers), Freshmeat (latest code and related discussion).
• Not to be confused with Linux.org, another Linux site.
• Which in turn shouldn't be taken for this, the official Linux Kernel Archive.
• I'm an official beta tester for various new versions of Windows (such as Whistler/XP) so I should give Equal Time for Bill Gates among all this Linux stuff: Microsoft.com, and for technical support, Microsoft's Technet site.
• Need to update Windows: go to Windows Update! It's the quickest way to keep up with the various security and functionality patches coming out of Redmond. This site updates only one machine at a time, automatically.
• So if you support multiple machines, use Corporate Windows Update to get the actual files for distribution and installation on your network. Just don't try to go there from a Linux box or a non-MS browser though, even though the point of this site is to download patches, not to automatically install them. I guess a network admin using X on Solaris can't get patches for her users' Windows network...
• Perl (Programmed Execution and Report Language) is the the very popular interpreted language - used extensively for web applications as CGI programs. Most message boards run on Perl. It's used for many other purposes. CPAN (the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) is the home base for Perl. Get or update Perl, get added modules you need for new scripts.
• If you need Perl for Windows, go to ActiveState for ActivePerl. Their ActiveState Programmer Network ASPN has many other "pearls" for Perl on Unix/Linux too. Plus they are developing the very buzz-worthy Komodo development environment - a programming IDE based on the Open Source Mozilla browser engine Gecko. Currently working for Perl development, with a beta for XSLT (the Transform language for XML)

Visit my other Information Technology pages

• Client-server and Enterprise Software for "traditional" client-server and mainframe software links.
• Mercer Web Systems - my web development site. Info and resources you need to register and host your own site, recommendations about service providers. And my web development services.