Entries Tagged 'Programming' ↓

Recently I’ve been thinking about how productive I was at school compared to the current day. I am still amazed at the amount of different subjects I was juggling back during my GCSEs, carrying a backpack crammed with a bunch of textbooks and file blocks. Somehow I still managed to study, play computer games, play Gaelic and football for for 3 different teams and still find time for some telly (and the odd date!). Ok maybe I didn’t study as much as I should have but I still did well enough. Continue reading →

Lately I have had a lot of stuff on my mind and it is driving me slightly crazy. There are so many different things I want to do and I have so little time to share between them. So each night, I sit down and try to decide what do to that night, by the time I get round to deciding, its bed time. Whats a guy to do?!

What things I hear you cry? Well its quite a diverse list ranging from expanding my knowledge portfolio (thanks prag prog!), working on my current list of projects, fleshing out some of the ideas I have for new projects, getting myself fit, DIY work round the house, learning to play the guitar, my new hobby of amateur photography, gaming and spending quality time with the family. I am also considering touting for little bit of freelance work to supplement my craving for all things gadgety (Anyone need a part-time coder??).

Somehow I need to organise my thoughts and start to manage my time effectively. If I don’t, I will never get anything done!

I like to encourage programming best-practices where possible. I also would like to encourage discussion about what is good programming practice. What might seem obvious to some may be completely new to others. I also find that there is very little in the way of advice on how best to program, especially for our more inexperienced comrades. Besides, you are never to old to learn.

As such, I am going to start by offering small pieces of advice, mostly related to Java but much can be considered good practice for any programming language. You may find that you disagree with what I have to say. If so, great!! Feel free to share your opinions.

The first topic of discussion are comments. This might seem like a very trivial topic but I can assure you it is one of the most important for programmers but is sadly the most often abused. Continue reading →