Sharpen the Saw is a somewhat delayed repost of a mostly weekly newsletter of information for the professional development of software developers. While targeted primarily at developers working with the Microsoft technology stack, content will cover a wider range of topics and may be of interest to people who work with developers.
To subscribe, send me an email and I’ll put you on the list. Membership is moderated.
31 Jul 2021
sharpen-the-saw
In today’s post: An obsession with primitive types can be a problem; Ways to refactor to introduce semantic types; WSL now supports GUI apps and it’s wonderful; Lessons from Japanese martial arts; How to prepare to break a habit; Spam blogs; Why your sleep excuses are wrong; Morning habits and happiness; and Phil Haack’s most excellent CodeMania 2012 keynote.
3 Jul 2021
sharpen-the-saw
In today’s post: Building a better UI by decomposing CRUD screens; check your certificate expiries in your CI builds; Windows 11 is coming; Visual Studio 2020 is 64 bit; INVEST in your backlog; 7 virtues of software design; PHPs Git server was hacked; Malware targeting Windows containers; FreeBSD’s close call; Space X torment; and What’s new in C# 9.
5 Jun 2021
sharpen-the-saw
In today’s post: Avoiding shotgun surgery; why too many parameters is a bad thing; upgrading to .NET 5; Creating a DSL using a Source Generator; Common sense practices to avoid; Why people write bad code; Rethinking passwords; The curious case of the Great Suspender; The importance of checking in with people; and how reviewing a Strangers’ Code can make you smarter.
6 Jun 2020
sharpen-the-saw
In today’s post: Reducing the scope of each pull request; rules for better powerpoint presentations; a welcome to C# 9.0; Chrome has a new feature to manage your tabs; we’re all bad programmers; five ideas for eliminating bad code; thunderbolt ports are insecure; an unattributable data breach; kudos for Ashley Bloomfield; and The Clean Code Talks.
5 May 2020
sharpen-the-saw
In today’s post: How to choose between a static factory method and a constructor; What not to do with async; Meeting with Skype for free; How to stop wasting your time; What you don’t know about names; New static analysis features in GCC prove their worth; Making your C# more functional; Coding bootcamps for veterans; and, How to crash an airplane.
7 Mar 2020
sharpen-the-saw
In today’s post: Why Code Katas are important and how do do them well; the new Microsoft Edge is available now and coming to a PC near you; Yori is CMD reimagined; improving email one message at a time; why some people are chronically tardy; Intel patches CSME only for researches to find it’s still broken; the consequences of undocumented features; improving your CLI Prompt; and a talk on Unit Testing.
1 Feb 2020
sharpen-the-saw
In today’s post: how to write better git commit messages; a cool debugger trick for Visual Studio; a new approach for producer/consumer programming in .NET Core 3.0; how to focus in on a part of a data structure; an alternative to a regular to-do list; how to apologize; protecting users against poor password choices; the NSA does the right thing; the day when someone discovered they had too many interfaces; a Java programmer discovers GoLang; and a Ted Talk on why privacy matters.
4 Jan 2020
sharpen-the-saw
In today’s post: The story of the Visual Studio Code team turning on strict null checking; Eric Lippert talks about why null is not false; Analyzers for Fluent Assertion users; the PowerToys for Windows are back; Make sure you have five reasons to do anything; Remember IDEAL CHALK when writing code; how to choose a good password generator; retailers need to take responsibility for data breaches; more on programming fonts; fixing your inconsistent sleep schedule; and unit testing at Google.
7 Dec 2019
sharpen-the-saw
In today’s post: Why the repository pattern needs to be abandoned; a tool for troubleshooting assembly load issues; giving effective instructions; making your email hacker-proof; the tiny details are important; and, the computers of the Voyager space program.
2 Nov 2019
sharpen-the-saw
In todays post: Enforcing the Liskov Substitution Principle, C# language versioning, reminders for better meetings, making money from 2FA, the Curta mechanical keyboard, and Crypto 101.
5 Oct 2019
sharpen-the-saw
In todays post: Jon Skeet lies to his compiler; the Visual Studio Code team talks about strict null checking and why they turned it on; more information about nullability in C# 8; the 10 commandments of code reviewing; blocking the worst passwords with HIBP; new Surface hardware for Christmas 2020; and Mariana Atencio talks about what makes you special.
7 Sep 2019
sharpen-the-saw
In todays post: Value objects for self documenting code; default implementations in C# 8; how to jump start any meeting with a question; lessons for securing an important persons account that you should use yourself; a Braille font; and, understanding procrastination.