Category Archives: Software Engineering

Software Engineering: Best Job in America

April 13th, 2006

MONEY Magazine and salary.com present a list of the Best Jobs in America. Software engineering is at the top of the list. The average annual income of a software engineer is $80,427. Other parts of the site state outsourcing as a worry of software engineers, and neck, wrist, and back pain are recognized as common […]

Polymorphism in PHP

December 8th, 2005

While thinking about a programming language deficiency, I rediscovered polymorphism. Overloading a function allows a function call to behave differently when passed variables of different type. I was trying to devise a method of simulating function overloading, because PHP does not support it. I considered implementing a function with an if-else statement ladder that tests […]

“Just Ship It!”

November 7th, 2005

An item on eweek.com references a supposed Microsoft developer’s blog entry, which conveys frustration with the decision to ship a product that is not ready for release. This developer’s sentiments are definitely shared among many developers in other software development pursuits. The developer’s attachment to the product and the dedication to minimize its faults is […]

Reverse Engineering Large Software

October 12th, 2005

I was reading through slashdot.org, and I found a post that asks members of the slashdot community how they “reverse engineer” large software. Numerous replies did not agree with the original poster’s use of the term, “reverse engineering.” Many people held the incorrect notion that reverse engineering is an illegal or unethical practice. I have […]

Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930-2002)

August 15th, 2005

In Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective, Dijkstra states: It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. It has been three years since his death, and it is obvious that I have not […]