Simo Virokannas

Writings and ramblings

Category: Programming

  • Software project management method obituaries considered harmful

    Software project management method obituaries considered harmful

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    Simo
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    I’ve noticed a recent increase in project management method “obituaries” – Agile is dead, waterfall is dead, scrum is dead. I believe this sort of negativity should be considered harmful. Why? Every method was born out of necessity It’s only natural that in the early days of programming, in the 1950s and 60s, most projects…

  • A Monolith, Perhaps?

    A Monolith, Perhaps?

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    Simo
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    In the context of this article, the word “monolith” is used to represent monolithic development: a software or environment that lives in one source code repository and has one versioning scheme. This does not necessarily mean a single binary executable, or even a system that runs on a single computer. Almost every project starts as…

  • Just some pointers

    Just some pointers

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    Simo
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    The book “Machine Code for Beginners” (by Usborne, 1983) likened computer memory to a shelf or a cabinet with lots of tiny little drawers, all of which can hold just one byte of information at a time. The pictures had robots carrying the information in and out of them, on little pieces of paper. One…

  • The Information Problem

    The Information Problem

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    Simo
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    There’s a lot of information available for software developers. On one frequently updated list of free programming books on GitHub, there are several thousand books listed for different programming languages and subjects, in almost 50 languages. And these are just free books, one list. Amazon returns over 40,000 results for the search “programming book”. Reading…

  • The Three-Axis Problem

    The Three-Axis Problem

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    Simo
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    Generation X, Gen-Y (or millennials), Gen-Z. These are terms we use in everyday language to categorize the last three generations that form the majority of global workforce. What are they? Where did the labels come from? Why is this article amidst software development articles? First, investigating these labels, or boxes people are put in, can…

  • What is Software Salvage

    What is Software Salvage

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    Simo
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    Summary This article describes the method for software rewrites when the original source code is unavailable – or unstable, of questionable quality or otherwise the product of a beautiful mind. Background One part of what I do is software salvage. I’ve had the joy of working on bringing life back to abandoned codebases, extend them…

  • Transference of Complexity

    Transference of Complexity

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    Simo
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    Summary Programming languages have evolved in accessibility, complexity and readability in the past six decades. The overall internal complexity of a single software application has grown exponentially, while the amount of code lines written to achieve a specific end result has decreased. This naturally occurring transference of complexity brings about completely new kinds of problematic…

  • Compiling Pixar’s USD natively on Windows 11 / VS 2022

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    Simo
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    If you’ve tried it, you’ve probably run into the endless catch-22 that is getting everything to behave when trying to compile the Universal Scene Description on a newly setup Windows machine. NOTE: if there’s any way for you to avoid this in your life, don’t look back, rejoice. Prerequisites You’ll need to install at least…