Thursday, March 19, 2009

I need to try this

We called it the Rubber Duck method of debugging. It goes like this:

1) Beg, borrow, steal, buy, fabricate or otherwise obtain a rubber duck
(bathtub variety)
2) Place rubber duck on desk and inform it you are just going to go over
some code with it, if that's all right.
3) Explain to the duck what you code is supposed to do, and then go into
detail and explain things line by line
4) At some point you will tell the duck what you are doing next and then
realise that that is not in fact what you are actually doing. The duck
will sit there serenely, happy in the knowledge that it has helped you
on your way.

Works every time. Actually, if you don't have a rubber duck you could at
a pinch ask a fellow programmer or engineer to sit in.

Andy

Andrew Errington src

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

So thats why Java ME is so popular

I have to hand in my EWT (Emerging Web Tech) assignment tomorrow.

Part of the assessment is a look at Development platforms in the mobile space. Until recently native was a dirty word as it usually involved device specific C code. Java has always been fairly popular, but i've always dismissed it for it's non native look and feel.

However, after exploring java ME some more i can see why it appeals to many developers.

The Hello world application is fairly simplistic compared to iPhone, Andriod and especially symbian equivalents.

But we all know that it doesn't hold a candle to the Palm Pre. I would demostrate how amazing the Palm Pre is, however i don't have one yet!

Now if i could just work out how to install the thing in OSX we might be on to a winner!

Lastly the 3 iteration of the iPhone SDK was released today. It's good to see apple can still pull some magic out of the hat. I call it magic, because only in the world of apple can cut and paste be termed as a feature on a smartphone in 2009. FYI i've been cutting and pasting on my E61 for 2 years!