i.justrealized

I have done a few projects using CakePHP the past couple of years. CakePHP has grown to become one of the more popular PHP web frameworks, think of CakePHP as Rails-inspired PHP framework.

If you’re interested in CakePHP, you may like to check out CakePHP Application Development by Packt Publishing. This book covers lots of beginner topics such as installation and configuration. It is a good book to get started on CakePHP, it has a step-by-step guide that can be useful for starters. The book targets CakePHP 1.2 however, the book is written before CakePHP 1.2 is released so it does not have updated screenshots in it.

Generally the book’s concept is correct. The explanations are written as if someone is talking to you. If you do not like that style of learning, best you avoid this title. CakePHP Application Development covers a creation of a sample app — Quickwall — at the end of the book. Unlike typical tutorials that teaches you how to create a blog with XX framework, this goes into more depth on how best to use the inbuilt features of CakePHP.

My major grip on this book is its numerous errors in code, and a couple of quite unforgiving ones too. The books could have been better edited. Some of the codes did not appear to run and you have to look around to check for syntax errors. It isn’t often, still it’s a bad impression. The codes in the book are badly indented too. This makes the codes hard to read. It’s a good book to learn, but can be better.

Find out more about CakePHP Application Development here, you can also have a look at the book’s Table of Contents here.

Joe Armstrong, the principal inventor of Erlang, is quoted as saying:

“The problem with object-oriented languages is they’ve got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle.”

[via Wikipedia]

Quite true about OOP.

I haven’t exactly thought of programming as a chore. And I am always quick to admit that I am not a good programmer, it just so happened to be what I do better in.

Lately, programming has been turning into a tiny chore and I hope it doesn’t enlarge itself. I overcome it partially by adding interesting things to do into the project so it felt a little more fun and probably can gain myself a little more satisfaction. I define “interesting things” to be something I never done before and have a high chance of getting it right. However, these “interesting things” aren’t good for me because I ended up having to maintain these interesting things.

My work generally involves – development, maintaining. I think I am supposed to squeeze testing and planning in somewhere in the steps but I don’t give a crap about those management level definitions.

Development is always the more fun part. You make something in 10 hours and watch it work. However you may end up watching it work for 10 days leaving your eleventh day in front of the computer debugging for the next 5 hours. This process typically recurs and the base case is the termination of product.

I don’t have a good solution for it but I need a constant feed of “interesting things”. So during maintenance, I added in those “interesting things” which is really just a curse. These “interesting things” come back and haunt me; and I end up having to maintain these “interesting things”. And during the maintenance of these “interesting things”, I added…

Ron Burk discusses the psychology of incompetence. The Psychology of Incompetence – Ron Burk – Ignite Seattle 6 – 2009-04-29.

Not long after I am done with the Prolog assignment, I found myself stuck in yet another assignment. This time SML. I am using SML/NJ and it’s a shame the documentation is poor.

I almost given up on the assignment actually. What I at least found comforting is SML/NJ is opensource so that means…

Cenqua have partnered with Herman Miller, makers of the legendary Aeron, to produce the ultimate must-have for Extreme XPers: The PairOn. Read more about PairOn here. By the way the Aeron seems like a very nice chair.

Extreme Programming chair PairOn

Key Features:

• Fully unit-tested in our ego-free ergonomics lab
• Essential office furniture for any eXtreme XP Pair (XXPP)
• Fully adjustable via individual or pair control
• can be levered to standup-meeting height
• 40-hour-week alarm buzzer built in
• Available in a range of attractive colours

It sure is a little too extreme but what you need in extreme programming is not just two brains, it’s two chairs.

Extreme programming practices pair programming in which two programmers work together at one keyboard. One types in code while the other reviews each line of code as it’s typed in. The person typing is called the driver. The person reviewing the code is called the observer or navigator. The two programmers switch roles frequently (possibly every 30 minutes).

While reviewing, the observer also considers the strategic direction of the work, coming up with ideas for improvements and likely future problems to address. This frees the driver to focus all of his or her attention on the “tactical” aspects of completing the current task, using the observer as a safety net and guide. (Source: Wikipedia)

Here’s the calculator in Windows 7. It’s got 4 modes, basic, scientific, programmer and statistics:

(The different modes of Windows 7 calculator.)

I don’t know why there is “programmer” in the list. I thought “Programming” would probably be a better choice. Better yet:

1. Normal human
2. Scientist
3. Programmer
4. Statistician

This is how the normal human calculator looks like:

(Windows 7 calculator basic.)

Nothing new here for scientists. It just looks prettier but I add the impression that scientist don’t like pretty things.

(Windows 7 calculator scientific.)

The new “Programmer” mode. Displays 64 bits nicely for you:

(Windows 7 calculator programmer.)

And for the statistician, I am apparently not a statistician, I don’t know what I did to get the value. Perhaps someone can enlighten me what the orange-lit button meant:

(Windows 7 calculator statistics.)

It makes me happy to see the Windows 7 calculator. It’s an improvement from the age old Windows calculator design.