Event-driven patterns in JavaScript shine light into the dustier corners of the language. This article explores customising the behaviour of the instanceof operator. A system I’m working on uses message-passing extensively. Each message has a “type” or “class”, and some associated properties. // 2 yoyos were added to the cart const…

McKinsey’s recent article promoting their productivity management framework has resulted in a mountain of aggrieved commentary in the tech community. A useful critical analysis by Kent Beck (and G. Orosz) exists here: https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/measuring-developer-productivity But, I also think the article has lots of good things to say. I’m grateful and excited…

Send and receive messages instead — Recap In the previous article we explored the idea of passing structured messages to objects: const nameMessage = { type: Name }; const spot = Dog(“Spot”); spot(nameMessage) And we simplified things using functions (with closures) instead of classes: function Dog(name) { const base = Animal(name); return message…

with examples in JavaScript — Object Orientation is often thought of as development using classes. Many languages these days have such a construct. Here’s an example in JavaScript. I’m showing JavaScript because it’s ubiquitous. Most languages will do. class Animal { #name; constructor(name) { this.#name =…

Here’s an experiment for Agile teams. It’s best for teams that are well established. I’ve used a version of this in various teams I’ve led over the years. The idea is to examine reliance on processes which have built up over time. This can benefit by discovering what is good…

Don’t leave your tests behind in the deployment pipeline — As software engineers, we’re taught that we should write tests. Tests to examine our software as it hurtles toward production. They stop us breaking things as we add or change features. As a technical leader, I value that testing code. I spend money making sure that it exists. But we’re…

The American author Joe Milazzo said: …readability is not strictly a matter of “clarity.” In my experience, without some more profound level of engagement — with the imagination — understanding is incomplete. Or, perhaps: more easily thwarted. But, readability tools and standards have proliferated. In both print and internet content…

This article is extracted from a series of articles about ChatGPT and technology leaders. The articles are based on interviews with ChatGPT over the course of several days. Toward the end, I asked some reflective questions about its impact. I also consider possible ethical consequences of the technology. How might Artificial Intelligence influence humans’ use of language? ChatGPT and…

This article is extracted from a series of articles about ChatGPT and technology leaders. ChatGPT claims to be able to assist with talent management. This includes pre-screening candidates. There have been several infamous incidents of training bias in AI models, including in the policing and recruitment sectors. …