software design sketching

posted by jack at 03:12 CET in / compute / programming

Peter Lindberg posted some thoughts about the lack of "sketching" in software development, which got me thinking a bit. The following was my emailed response to Peter:

Personally, I do a fair amount of software "modeling", in the form of prototypes. If an application calls for a new GUI component, for instance, I'll set up an empty application/shell/playground with some "scaffolding" to provide the component with its inputs, then start "playing" with it until I find something that feels right. Sometimes it will be a continual evolution of the design in the code, but sometimes I'll duplicate classes, and rename them with some sort of version ID in the class names, so that I can view several stages of the evolution at once.

The same applies to games I'm designing, or ideas I have for new applications, or, for that matter, changes I'm considering in the CSS code for a website. Seldom do I start off by mapping out "here's exactly what I want to implement" in my own projects; Almost always, in work that I'm doing for myself, I start off with an exploratory phase just to see what comes out of my fingers, and after a few iterations of coding, and trying out what I've done, and sometimes putting the project away for a few days or weeks, eventually things tend to settle into a zone that feels right.

In a group effort, this doesn't always work that well. When several people are involved from the beginning of a project, if everyone just spins off into an exploration of their own ideas, it can be harder to gather everyone back to some common point to get everything working together. Maybe that's why software design tends, as you say, to be focused on "producing construction plans" and defining APIs for how modules will work together.

NEWS FLASH: Republican Corruption!

posted by jack at 10:54 CET in / politics

OK, I can't say I'm surprised by corruption in the current U.S. administration that is being revealed more and more these days. Between Tom DeLay's money laundering, Bill Frist's stock dumping, and FEMA's no-bid contracts for Katrina cleanup, well, it's all pretty clear evidence of the philosophical bankruptcy of the republican party, and the end of the "Republican Revolution". In other words, no big surprise.

However, even I was surprised to read this seemingly clear-cut case of republican operatives' mob connections (including hitmen!):

The fraud allegedly committed by Abramoff and his business partner Adam Kidan involved a phony wire transfer they used to purchase a controlling interest in SunCruz from the company's founder, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, in 2001.

Abramoff and Kidan later fell out with Boulis in a bitter business dispute that turned violent. In February 2001, gunmen ambushed Boulis on a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., highway and shot him repeatedly. On Tuesday, Florida authorities arrested three New York men with mob connections for the Boulis killing. Two of the men - Anthony Moscatiello and Tony Ferrari - had received payments totaling more than $240,000 from Kidan and Abramoff. Moscatiello, a longtime associate of the Gambino Mafia family, and Ferrari were supposedly providing food and consulting services to SunCruz - or so Kidan claimed when questioned by prosecutors. There is no evidence, however, that Moscatiello and Ferrari provided any services to the company.

Connecting the dots isn't difficult here: Kidan and Abramoff want to get rid of Boulis, who won't go away. Kidan and Abramoff hire Moscatiello and Ferrari with SunCruz money. Moscatiello and Ferrari allegedly whack Boulis, without any motive of their own. If the Broward County state's attorney has sufficient evidence to win convictions for a capital crime, some people will probably be talking soon in hope of avoiding the hot shot.

Just to reiterate, let's repeat some of that last paragraph in big, bold bullets:

• Kidan and Abramoff want to get rid of Boulis.
• Kidan and Abramoff hire Moscatiello and Ferrari.
• Moscatiello and Ferrari allegedly whack Boulis, without any motive of their own.

Damn. I mean, damn! It's been clear for a while that Abramoff is a real piece of work, but this is just over the top. These are the kinds of murderous bastards that our man GWB is fronting for. Hooray for us, for putting this kind of thuggery in the White House, time and again. To quote Wanda Sykes, "You can't blame the blind man for wrecking your car when you're the one who gave him the keys."