Timewarp

About a month ago I was asked to look at an application that has been
under active development and support for quite some time. Written in C
and C++ (my old stomping grounds for 20 years) I was really looking
forward to getting stuck into the code.

What I was not expecting was the lack of tool support. I sort of knew
that refatoring tools, tests and code coverage would be a bit of a
challenge but I did not think that it would be the challenge that it
turned out to be.

I have gotten used to being able to download tools, try them out and
if appropriate buy them and add them to my toolbox. Ideally there
would be an open source tool I could use instead to get the job
done. Moving back into the C++ world also took me back in time to an
era where evaluation downloads are not available. Instead I would have
to register my interest and someone would be in touch to talk to me
about the wonders of their application and to perhaps run the
application over my source code. Well first I tend to get about a bit
and at the time I was out of my home country and well away from the
tool vendors timezone. I was up against the clock in putting together
some initial findings and recommendations, and lastly it was not my
source code so I could not offer it up to someone else to go poking
around in anyway.

Strike one - keep on searching for someone with a little less of a
protectionist attitude.

Unfortunately this seemed to become a theme. Other suppliers had no
evaluations and insisted on money up front and land shipping. In a way
they may have been doing me a favour, if the software is so complex
that it needs to be demonstrated and the licencing enforcement so
strong that it becomes difficult to use (I have been hit before by
node locked liceses to machines that decide to die) then maybe this
approach has just saved me a lot of heart ache and pain.

On the plus side there are tools out in 'open source' land that can
help and there *are* a few companies that have moved with the times
and provide a more open licensing scheme. When I have time I will list
out the toolkit that I came up with.

Too many VMs

As part of my work life I regularly need to run windows development software on my Mac. Typically for a client engagement. This is a really convenient setup. I can take a snapshot before I start work on something new and then at the end roll back to the original state ready to work on the next project.

One of the downsides I have encountered recently is the need to keep all these machines up to date with patches and other software updates that seem to be part of everyday life.

Don't get me wrong I think its great that we have this steady stream of updates to make things better but when you start multiplying this up for the VMs I have on my machine the effort to keep them up to date starts to be become a bit of a pain.

I think it is time to start rationalising to a smaller number - just so I can keep them up to date.

Quietly Does it

I have had my eye on a pair of Bose headphones for some time but never managed to justify the cost. And to be honest I am not sure that I ever will. Except that they are truly fabulous and on my first tip with them on a plane left me feeling relaxed and comfortable. The noise onboard a plane seem to raise my tension levels but removing that noise really helped me enjoy the flight. I was told when I bought them that the batteries were fully charged and would each last 10 hours. I can only testify to 8 on one battery with almost continuous use. I will confess that I have tried a number of different headphones, both in and out of ear, with and without noise cancelling but nothing comes close to the peace that these phones bring with them. So maybe I have justified them :)

Toronto - Sunday

Today is my first day in Toronto, preparing for Agile 2008. After a surprisingly smooth and peaceful crossing from the UK, and an even smoother journey to downtown Toronto I find myself preparing some slides for my short experience report 'TeamPace - Keeping the build times down' on Thursday. I am staying at the Hilton just across the street from the conference at the Sheraton Centre for an early morning start.

Code is Poetry

On a recent visit to the Wordpress sight I was struck by their tag line "Code is poetry". I have been searching for some time for a phrase that would sum up how I feel about well crafted code; code that is easy to understand, read and generally feels 'just right'.

I am not completely convinced that code is poetry - but it comes pretty close.

Agile2008

Next week I will be in Toronto for Agile 2008 to present a short experience report, catch up with friends and immerse myself in all things Agile :)

Trains and WiFi

I am just returning from Leeds to London by train with power and free Wireless internet. Ok it is not the fastest link but works well - even for blogging