Category Archives: Software Engineering

An Introduction to Object Oriented Programming, 3rd ed

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Jacques Chester

I’ve had Timothy Budd’s textbook on object-oriented programming on my bookshelf for some time. It was a textbook in one of my undergraduate courses and, at the time, it only received a fairly cursory inspection (though not before becoming the … Continue reading →

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Notes towards a set-objective language.

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Jacques Chester

Discovered while searching for something else on my computer is this jibber-jabber from 2009.

Posted in Software Engineering, Technical Notes, Thought Bubbles | Comments Off

To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Jacques Chester

So, it’s been a while since I wrote a book review. And I have, in fact, been reading the odd book here and there. I read everyone’s favourite late-noughties manifesto The Lean Startup, which was a few good insights smothered … Continue reading →

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The Psychology of Computer Programming: Silver Anniversary Edition

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Jacques Chester

I’ve had a Kindle DX for about 3 or 4 years now. In fact I’ve had two, I broke the first one by dropping it from a bench top. And I’ve been very happy with it. But it’s funny that … Continue reading →

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Practical Software Project Estimation (3rd Ed)

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Jacques Chester

My current focus is to develop an estimation tool. Not just for software, but for a wide range of industries. Software estimation is, of course, closest to my heart, given that my line of work is software. This is where … Continue reading →

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Waltzing with Bears

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Jacques Chester

Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister are probably best known for the book Peopleware (unreviewed). It’s a justly famous book in my industry, containing as it does generous lashings of both wit and wisdom. Sadly, it is a book more honoured … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Software Engineering, Systems | 2 Comments

A not-so-brief aside on reigning in chaos

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Jacques Chester

Everything that humans touch eventually becomes complex, whether we like it or not. (Blog posts too. This one started out as a comparison of three competing software system alternatives and subsequently bloated into a discussion of chaos in computer systems.) … Continue reading →

Posted in Robojar, Software Engineering, Systems, Technical Notes | 27 Comments

Does Leadership Matter?

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Jacques Chester

Below is an essay I wrote for a software engineering course taught by Professor Terry Woodings. It’s already dated, in the sense that since I wrote it, Steve Jobs has died. I’ve mentioned it a few times on forums such … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Software Engineering, Studies | 2 Comments

Cooking and Coding

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Jacques Chester

Sometimes, when we programmers sit down to explain programming, we resort to the hoary old cooking metaphor. “Programming is like cooking”, we say. “We write recipes, and the computer carries them out”. And sometimes methodologists apply it to our work … Continue reading →

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Agile plans

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Jacques Chester

One of the books I have going at the moment (I tend to multi-task books) is Mike Cohn’s Agile Estimating and Planning, a fairly concise take on how to obtain these qualities from agile projects. I think that the central … Continue reading →

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