Unboxed Roundup: Our links for w/c 15th February 2016
Murray Steele
Feb. 19, 2016
Deadlock empire! - Murray S
https://deadlockempire.github.io/
An in-browser game that teaches you about the pitfalls of thread programming. You play the part of a scheduling wizard defending a realm against attack by the parralel wizard. Your only form of defense is to run the enemey code in such a sequence as to cause deadlock or thread exceptions. It's fun, fairly short, and a good exploration of how hard it is to write correct thread-safe code even with all the mutexes, queues, semaphores, and condition variables at your disposal.
Continues delivery standards and what's no longer good enough - Paula S
https://gojko.net/2016/02/01/potentially-shippable/
Thoughtful article about changes in software delivery and how 'potentially shippable' should be a minimum to reach and not the aim we look for at the end of each iteration.
puts debugging - Murray S
http://tenderlovemaking.com/2016/02/05/i-am-a-puts-debuggerer.html
This article from Aaron Patterson shows us some of the techniques he uses to debug software. Mostly it's a bunch of puts statements in the right places to track down where and why something is happening. He also describes it as an iterative process; drop in a puts where you think the problem is and then start digging from there. A great reminder that debugging is hard even for seasoned developers who are very familiar with a project. You don't need to be scared about modifying library code, and you don't need to learn complex debugging tools; you just need to dive in with some puts statements and let the code lead you to the problem.
Track of the Week - Tyrone T
This song picks me up no matter what mood im in and Bonham just owns the drums!