What’s the shortest program for which we can’t tell if it stops?
Here’s a 10-line Python program. Nobody on Earth currently knows whether it ever stops. The halting problem is the question of whether, given a program, we can tell if it […]
Software Development
Logarithmic Fibonacci
Code: https://github.com/ikriv-samples/logarthmic-fibonacci. Fibonacci sequence is defined as a sequence starting with 0, 1 where each subsequent member is calculated as fib(n) = fib(n-1)+fib(n-2). This yields an infinite sequence 0, 1, […]
Unity container: when it is too much magic
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” Athur C. Clarke While reviewing some code, I stumbled upon a class that receives an ObservableCollection<ILogFormatter> in the constructor. I discovered that this […]
Why constructors must be simple
Recently I’ve got another reminder why constructors should be simple. The situation in a nutshell: class BaseHandler subscribes to an observable in its constructor. The handler is virtual, class DerviedHandler adds incoming […]
WCF vs .NET Remoting
Remoting is about distributed objects, while WCF is about services. Remoting is capable of passing object instances between the client and the server, WCF is not. This distinction is much […]
How to paint yourself into a corner with custom modifications
One large company that shall remain nameless runs a 4-year old version of Git, TortoiseGit, and a lot of other tools, and can’t upgrade. Being a large company, it can’t […]
In uniformity we trust
Big corporations love uniformity: things are much easier to manage if they are all alike. But then they may also fail all at the same time, with catastrophic consequences. Remember […]
Fragility of modern source code or why semver is evil
TL;DR Dynamic “semver” versioning is evil, because it makes it too easy to break things on a global scale. With semver versioning the builds are not-repeatable: you may get one version […]
666
Just found this in production code: var fa = new FileAsset { Hash = tempFile.Hash, Length = tempFile.Length, CreatedOn = DateTime.UtcNow, Data = tempFile.Data, CompressedLength = tempFile.Length, Name = tempFile.FileName, […]
Thank G-d for Unit Tests
If anyone tells you unit tests are a waste of time, send them to this post. I am in the middle of some major refactoring of our bills generator. Billing, […]