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  What programming languages should I learn?

Since I started this blog, I have gotten quite a few emails asking me “What programming languages do you recommend for X?” I often finding myself writing something along the lines ofI would honestly recommend python. Something about me being biased because I know and love it.  Usually say something about the competing technology with a back handed insult. Also if they are starting out I would recommend a language that enforces better OO (Object Orientated) practic...

   programming language,Popularity,Java,Tre     2011-09-23 13:11:57

  I'm not good enough to work on open source software

Actually, that's not true - I've produced plenty of open source software over the years.  However, in a sense, it is true: only the very best actually get paid to work on open source software full time, and I'm not one of them.  People like Linus Torvalds.  People like Guido van Rossum, although even he supposedly divides his time, and does not work on Python full-time. Think about that.  Python is a hugely popular programming language used by many companies and ind...

   Open source,Free,Money,Full-time     2012-04-16 13:27:35

  Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

Yes, even if you can't believe it, there are a lot fans of the 30-years-old vi editor (or its more recent, just-15-years-old, best clone & great improvement, vim). No, they are not dinosaurs who don't want to catch up with the times - the community of vi users just keeps growing: myself, I only got started 2 years ago (after over 10 years of being a professional programmer). Friends of mine are converting today. Heck, most vi users were not even born when...

   Linux,Vi,Vim,Advantage,History     2012-02-05 07:21:17

  Why I Use Vim

I've been using MacVIM as my editor of choice for a couple of years now, yet in many ways I still feel like a beginner. Every day I am learning more and more about my editor, but it takes a conscious effort to become proficient with an editor like Vim. Here's why I make that effort. Editors are something that are very personal; they have to fit with your own work flow approach to programming. If you have ever stopped to think about it, the way each person goes about editing text is quite differe...

   Vim,Editor,Feature     2012-01-11 12:03:35

  A Hello, World Servlet

Servlets are the pure Java solution to handle web requests. Many application will use servlets instead of JSP and others will use servlets in conjunction with JSP. Experienced JSP programmers use servlets in conjunction with JSP to create clearer and simpler applications. The servlets handle Java processing: form handing, calculation and database queries. JSP formats the results. Servlets belong in WEB-INF/classes. On this machine, the source is in Java source in /var/www/hosts/www.caucho.com/we...

   Web.xml,Tomcat,Servlet,WEB-INF     2011-05-08 10:31:39

  Why programmers are not paid in proportion to their productivity

The most productive programmers are orders of magnitude more productive than average programmers. But salaries usually fall within a fairly small range in any company. Even across the entire profession, salaries don’t vary that much. If some programmers are 10x more productive than others, why aren’t they paid 10x as much?Joel Spolsky gave a couple answers to this question in his most recent podcast. First, programmer productivity varies tremendously across the profession, but...

   Productivity,Salary,Efficiency,Programmer,Not match     2011-11-16 08:12:00

  Linux Command Line tips that every Linux user should know t

Below is the collection of Linux command line tips which I’ve found useful for Linux users. To get more information about the command mentioned below just open your terminal and type man <command>.Things a Linux user must learnLearn bash: No need to refer a lengthy bash guide or something else. Just read the complete man page of bash (man bash).Learn vim: You might be using Emacs or Eclipse for your work all the time but nothing can compete vim.Learn ssh: Learn the basics of passw...

   Linux,Unix,Command line,Tips     2012-03-21 09:27:03

  10 Questions with Facebook Research Engineer – Andrei Alexandrescu

Today we caught up with Andrei Alexandrescu for a “10 Question” interview. He is a Romanian born research engineer at Facebook living in the US, you can contact him on his website erdani.com or @incomputable. We will talk about some of the juicy stuff that going on at Facebook, so let’s get started. Hello Andrei, welcome on Server-Side Magazine. 1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? Where and what do you work? Who am I? Ah, the coffee breath of one talki...

   C++,Facebook,PHP,Future,Machine learning     2012-02-06 08:08:12

  I hate cut-and-paste

Me, I blame the IDE's.Coding used to be hard. Not because programming itself was overly hard, but mostly because editors absolutely sucked. How much the typical development environment in the 70's and 80's sucked is hard to convey (except for a very lucky few, and those would have likely been using DEC and WANG gear). I got in on the tail end of the punch card era. Punching your own program is lots of fun. Once. And if you drop a deck you get to play with the sorter, which is also lots of fun (o...

   IDE,Editor,Cut and paste,Shortcut,Blame     2011-10-24 11:33:46

  Lessons Learned while Introducing a New Programming Language

I've used a lot of languages (professionally) over the years: (off the top of my head) Cold Fusion, HTML, Javascript, php, SQL, CSS, ASP(classic & .net), C#, Ruby, Flex, Java, & Clojure. Each language has pros and cons. Being a programmer, it's easiest to discuss the cons - and in general I believe it was best said:I hate all programming languages - Matt FoemmelI think it's important to start with this in mind. At some point you're going to hate what you're advocating, so imagine h...

   Experience,New language,Tips,Risk     2012-03-05 05:13:59

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