How to secure a credit card number
Merchants who take credit cards over the Internet for payment need to get rid of the number the microsecond after…
So you’ve just been hired by an IT department…
and it’s your first job. Here’s what they didn’t teach you in college. Nobody knows what they are doing The…
So you’ve just been given your first programming assignment, now what?
Knowing the scope of the problem is more important than knowing how to solve the problem, because you can try…
How to design a computer program
This tutorial assumes you’re designing a standalone computer program that runs with a conventional GUI or command-line interface, but many…
Better Software Through Syntax
Take three trends and think about them: Extrapolate from this an idea: to write better software, first create better syntax.…
Clever ideas that failed
The cleverness of an idea is proportionate to its odds of failure. Brian Kernighan once said that “debugging is twice as hard as…
How to write computer programs
You only need to learn five things to write computer programs: Everything else in computer programming is built out of…
How to avoid writing bugs
All of the systematic techniques for writing high-quality code are controversial, because they require discipline plus a concession from the programmer…
Habits I’m Glad I Have, Habits I Wish I Had
Habits I’m Glad I Have Habits I Wish I Had Habits I Managed To Control
Basic Literacy
I think that basic programming skills will become as important to everyday people as reading and writing skills. Not because…
Naming Tips
Choosing the right name is everything. The correct naming of things makes it easier to learn a system, resolves ambiguities, dissolves…
How to Become a Better Programmer
The history of this site goes back to a document I prepared at work called “Mind your Ps and Qs”,…
