About Programming

There is a lot to say about programming.

Dijkstra's remark is to me the most relevant:  I spend far more time reading and re-reading my program code than writing it.  Therefore it is very important how the program code looks to the author and how it is presented on the screen.

Three aspects are:

1. the layout and typography of the code at the statement level, i.e. the programming language,
2. the ways the author can navigate in the larger structure, i.e. the IDE (Integrated Development Environment),
3. the structure of the interface to the operating system (which includes the user interface) i.e. the API (Application Program Interface) & GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Programming should always be viewed as a combination of these three.  Aspect 1 has lost interest but is still the place where bugs are found most often and often the place where security problems are located.  Bugs on level 3 are sometimes called "features".

For smaller applications I have found RunRev to be the most effective environment in which to develop.  I have written some tutorials on RunRev.