Software development processes

The ideal software development process is -

1. The customer says exactly what his requirement is.
2. The developer creates software that exactly match the requirements.

The problem is, both the customer and the developer are human. That is why we have more complicated processes. But then, if we add a process every time there is a human error, we eventually end up with too many processes.

If you want to know whether any document or any step in your process is really required, ask yourself -

1. Does this clarify the requirements?
2. Does this build the product?
3. Does this verify that the product matches the requirements?

Contentment and Farmville

Have you stopped playing Farmville yet? 

If you have as much in real life, as you have on your farm in Farmville, you should be content...

Diet for Body Builders

Tigers are muscular.
Bulls are muscular.

Tigers eat meat.
Bulls eat grass.

It doesn't matter what you eat.

Perforce commands for developers

p4 edit filename
p4 add filename
p4 opened (Show files which are edited or added)
p4 revert filename
p4 submit

p4 filelog filename (Show a files revisions)
p4 diff filename (Show the changes that you have made to the file after a p4 edit)
p4 diff2 filename#5 filename#6 (Show the differences between two revisions of a file)
p4 print filename#4 (Print revision #4 of filename)

See the P4 manual for details.

Perl and English

English is a funny language.
Perl is like English.

Perl is a funny language.

How to keep your client happy

Your client has a boss. Keep her happy.
Your client has clients. Keep them happy.

Your client has a job. Make it easy.

What Perl needs

I know of two languages which have made waves - Java and Ruby.

Java is created and marketed by Sun, a big company with a lot of marketing muscle. They also had something new, called Applets which were then the next big thing. Applets made it possible to put the same application on Netscape and on IE, and everyone wanted to use it.

Ruby has Rails in place of java applets. It was the cool new way to make web applications. It made it really easy to start developing and to prototype a web application. Rails is created and marketed by 37Signals, not as big a company as Sun, but still very good at marketing.

So here is what Perl needs
1. A breakthrough application
2. A company which is really good at marketing

Why no cover?

I was buying milk this morning, and I told the shopkeeper "Cover nahi chahiye". He looks at me like I'm from outer space.. then he cleans up the milk covers, gives me the change and says "Thaili kyon nahin?".

I started saying "Kyunki.. " and I wanted to say "plastic bio degradable nahin hai". But then I realised that it wouldn't make much sense to him.. and it would take for ever to explain what 'bio degradable' meant.