How developers perceive and deal with architecture erosion
Let’s talk about architecture erosion, its causes and consequences, and how developers can identify and control it.
The Toilet Paper
The QAnon conspiracy theory, and how to counter it and others like it
In other news: conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks have reached the legal drinking age in the US today.
How to make your software engineering job advertisements gender-inclusive
This week’s paper presents a systematic method to detect gender bias in software engineering job advertisements.
Lead poisoning and death in the Roman empire
It’s not clear whether lead poisoning led to the decline of the Roman Empire, but it did lead to the decline of something within the empire.
Why snake_case is better than camelCase
There aren’t many reasons why you should choose snake_case over camelCase, but the ones that are there are pretty convincing.
Why camelCase is better than snake_case
Does it matter whether you use camelCase or snake_case for identifiers? Yes it does! Probably. Maybe.
A checklist for controlled program comprehension experiments
If you want to study the effect of something on the understability of code, you need a controlled experiment. What are things to do or avoid?
What is the best programming language for beginners?
This study attempts to provide a more nuanced answer than “JavaScript”, from an educator’s perspective.
The effect of servant leadership on the effectiveness of Scrum teams
To what extent do Scrum masters make use of servant leadership and how does this affect teams?
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy survey respondents
Researchers often use financial incentives to increase response rates for their surveys. How well do these work for online surveys?
Gender stereotypes are steering girls away from STEM
More female role models may help, but they’re merely a part of the solution.
Is there a time and place for single-letter variable names?
We are often told that variable names should be meaningful and avoid abbreviations, yet some variables are simply named “k”. What gives?
A gentle introduction to ensemble learning
What is ensemble learning? Well, it’s kind of machine learning’s version of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.
You really shouldn’t spend so much time working
Money might buy you a bit of happiness, but working for larger amounts of money will not necessarily make you happier.
How to use the System Usability Scale (SUS) in 2021
An updated guide on how to measure the usability of a product with the System Usability Scale (SUS).
For decision making, speaking is silver – but so is silence
Some people talk too much in meetings, others too little. Good leaders can foster high-quality conversations by creating safe environments.
Ghost writing providers for essays and assignments are cheap and plentiful
Ghost writers aren’t particularly scary, but there are still very good reasons to fear them if you are an educator. Happy Halloween!
How (not) to use the variance inflation factor
The variance inflation factor (VIF) is often used to find and remove multi-collinearity in a regression model. Does that make sense?
Casting doubt on the ability of tools to measure technical debt
Numbers produced by technical debt tools tell a tale, but it’s largely fictional.
A good centurion is worth their weight in a model
An agent-based model suggests that centurions in the Roman army had a pretty large impact on the outcome of battles.
How many hands make light work in computer science student projects
Group assignments are common in computer science programmes, but it’s not clear how well they work from an educational perspective.
What do regular expression bugs look like?
This study gives us a better understanding of the practical problems faced by developers when using regular expressions.
Why and how do developers tweet about GitHub projects?
The open source community is very active on Twitter, so what happens on GitHub doesn’t stay on GitHub.
You should be able to turn off your camera in virtual meetings
Online meetings are more tiring than face-to-face meetings, and it may be because video chats are more cognitively demanding.