Archive

I find the whole meta-blogging thing a bit tiresome, really, but I thought I should probably do a quick update as CodeBork is moving home! There are two main things you will notice:

1. it should be much snappier than it was before, having the full benefit of a fatter pipe than an "up to 8Mbps" ADSL connection
2. Some of the images have disappeared. They've been transferred successfully, I just need to win an argument with Drupal to get them to display.

As you may have already gathered from my Twitter feed, I've been working recently on ReelCritic, a new blog catering solely for my film reviews. For a sneak peek at the design of the new site, pop on over to http://www.reelcritic.co.uk/. Everything you find at that address is a non-functional mock-up, so please don't try to leave comments, etc. There's only one review available, Rachel Getting Married. I'm currently working to port this design over to Drupal's theme engine so that I can get the blog fully up and running.

An excellent and intimate portrayal of internal conflict, addiction and loss, featuring a superb lead performance from Anne Hathaway.

Rachel Getting Married: Left to Right: Anne Hathaway as Kym, Rosemarie DeWitt as Rachel.
Photo by Bob Vergara © 2007 Sniscak Productions, INC. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics. All Rights Reserved.

Amazon Product: 

Rachel Getting Married [DVD] [2008]

I’ve heard many good things about Windows Live Writer as a blogging tool, so I thought I’d give it a go.  Drupal’s great an’ all, but entering HTML manually to format your post is so 2001.  So, here’s my first post from Live Writer!

{ Insert Obligatory Image Here }: Image © 2007 MichaelMaggs

This mongrel transcends the vampire genre, but the final descent into unmitigated gore ruins an otherwise interesting premise.

Daybreakers: We're the ones holding the crossbows

This bleak and, at times, disturbing revenge flick sees Michael Caine deliver another strong performance in a story that might be considered over-egged.

Harry Brown: Even in his 70s, Michael Caine is still bad-ass

This post represents the second instalment taken from chapter 6 of Code Complete, entitled "Working Classes". This post covers the issues to consider when designing class interfaces, illustrated with code samples. An important piece of information to keep in mind when reading this post is that McConnell is talking in terms of the public interface exposed by a class through its public members. While an interface (as defined in Java or C#) also fits this bill, some of the advice given here is specific to the idea of a class interface, and not a standalone interface.

If you're after the executive summary (this is quite a long post, after all), there are only two things you must build into your class interfaces: good abstraction and good encapsulation. Read on to find out more.

Another day, another Code Complete blog post. I might even clear two today, looking at the number of notes I have for this one.

The last post rounded off the contribution to the discussion around the problems of designing software. A new chapter means a new topic, and chapter 6, titled "Working Classes", deals with tips on, and the issues around, creating classes in your program. First up is the topic of Abstract Data Types: what they are, why you should be interested, and how you should use them.

Wow, it's been quite a while since I updated my Code Complete series, and I've got quite the backlog to wade through now! Looking at the last save date on this post, it's been sat around for three months waiting to be written, so I'm sorry for being so slack, and I'll get on with writing it now...

This post covers some key design practices, and is the last post on Chapter 5, Design in Construction.

This moving story of a teenager growing up in 1960s London charms, startles, amuses, shakes and delights in equal measure.
An Education: L-R Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Peter Saarsgard, Carey Mulligan