Dr. StrangeCode, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Makefile

 Posted on 2023-07-29  |  3 minutes  |  531 words  |  Robert Melton

Reflecting upon the past, I recall a period when the mere utterance of ‘Makefile’ would inspire a chill, a sense of unease. I cleverly avoided it, favoring the modernism of other build tools, the simplicity of their abstractions, the comfort of not having to grapple with a seemingly ancient entity. However, the echo of ‘make’, persistent and enduring, refused to fade into obscurity. As the echoes grew louder, I found myself at a crossroads. [Read More]
build tools  software development  Makefile  programming  automation  software engineering  coding  dependency management 

The Quick and The Dead: AI Pressures Reshaping Teams and Architectures

 Posted on 2023-07-23  |  3 minutes  |  623 words  |  Robert Melton

It was once hyperbolically suggested that cities would be built around Segways, a claim that was absurd given the lack of an overarching, essential need for such a shift. When we pivot to the realm of software development, we encounter a compelling counter-narrative. Teams and system architectures are presently being overhauled to incorporate AI as a significant player in the developmental landscape. This transformation is not capricious, but rather a direct response to a dire need: a massive drive to cut development costs and create software that is more attuned to user needs. [Read More]
artificial intelligence  software development  ai integration  team restructuring  functional programming  incremental delivery  innovation  industry transformation 

Introducing the Rivera Matrix

Introducing the Rivera Matrix

 Posted on 2023-07-11  |  2 minutes  |  422 words  |  Robert Melton

The coding world can be challenging, with developers constantly wrestling with a mounting to-do list and limited time. It’s often necessary to decide where to focus attention and resources. The Rivera Matrix, proposed by Henry Rivera, a Team Lead at Digital Turbine, provides a practical solution to this predicament. Drawing inspiration from the Eisenhower Matrix, the Rivera Matrix presents a unique perspective on coding, categorizing tasks based on their frequency of interaction with humans and computers: [Read More]
Rivera Matrix  Henry Rivera  coding priorities  software development  coding strategy  task management  coding optimization  decision-making 

Language Sprawl Considered Harmful

 Posted on 2022-10-28  |  2 minutes  |  389 words  |  Robert Melton

It’s a common scenario in software development: a new project is starting up, and the team is faced with the decision of which languages and tools to use. While it might seem like a good idea to let every team choose their own technologies, the long-term costs of this approach can be significant. One of the main drawbacks of letting every team choose their own languages and tools is the lack of flexibility it creates within the organization. [Read More]
programming language  sprawl  software development  technology choice  team collaboration  organizational impact  technology stack  developer productivity 

Lie 3: Software Is the Platform

 Posted on 2022-06-02  |  2 minutes  |  268 words  |  Robert Melton

Truth: hardware is the platform “Software does not run in a magic fairy aether powered by the fevered dreams of CS PhDs” – Mike Acton (2014 - CppCon) Instruction sets: Different hardware architectures have different instruction sets, which are the set of basic operations that the processor is capable of performing. For example, an x86 processor has a different instruction set than an ARM processor, so code that is written to run on an x86 processor may not be compatible with an ARM processor without modification. [Read More]
three big lies  data oriented design  software development  hardware platform  instruction sets  memory architecture  endianness  performance characteristics 

The 3 Big Lies Introduction

 Posted on 2022-03-28  |  1 minutes  |  139 words  |  Robert Melton

The Lies Code is more important than data. Code should be designed around a model of the world. Software is a platform. Data-Oriented Design (DOD) is a software development approach that focuses on optimizing data structures and algorithms for performance, rather than abstractions or code size. In a 2014 talk at CppCon, Mike Acton identified “three big lies” that can lead to suboptimal design decisions: the assumption that abstractions are free, the belief that memory is always slow, and the idea that smaller is always better. [Read More]
three big lies  code vs data  data-oriented design (dod)  abstractions  memory optimization  performance  scalability  software development