Blogs
Course review: Git key …
Last month I followed a course about Git. The name of the course was "Git key user" and it was organized by TMC.
Obviously Git is a tool that you learn by doing, and indeed the lesson of the day was the following: "Do not afraid to experiment".
In general Git behaves as a purely functional data …
Obviously Git is a tool that you learn by doing, and indeed the lesson of the day was the following: "Do not afraid to experiment".
In general Git behaves as a purely functional data …
Book review: Seven …
That's a really nice book. From the seven databases that are covered I was familiar with PostgreSQL and only briefly with Neo4j. So the book gave me the chance to explore some more databases and find out about their strengths and weaknesses. In the following paragraphs I'll …
Joy Of Coding 2015 Review
Like last year, Joy of Coding 2015 was a great conference. This year the conference took place during May, for once again in Rotterdam. The organisation was similar to that of last year: A few common talks, but also parallel talks and workshops.
The conference this year started with a keynote by …
Book review: Pragmatic …
This was my first JavaScript book and I consider it a good overview covering the pros and cons of the language. The author gives good advice regarding which features of pure JavaScript are fine to use and for which features a framework should be preferred to avoid browser …
Playing with …
The last training course that I followed was about programming microcontrollers. The course was given by Leon van Snippenberg, who has very good expertise in microcontrollers.
For the practical part of the course we used the Microchip dsPIC33F, a 16-bit architecture 40 MHZ microcontroller (system on …
For the practical part of the course we used the Microchip dsPIC33F, a 16-bit architecture 40 MHZ microcontroller (system on …
On writing a book
After reviewing two books about Python, people from Packt asked me if I was willing to write a Python book. I'm glad to see that my first book, Mastering Python Design Patterns is published!
As I expected, writing a book is much tougher than reviewing one. Especially if you have a full-time job, like …
As I expected, writing a book is much tougher than reviewing one. Especially if you have a full-time job, like …
Course review: SQL …
Update: Markus was kind enough to comment on my review. Regarding the "minimise the number of tables to limit joins" he said:
it is often the best approach to store some attribute redundant (e.g. normalised as before plus wherever needed). Maintenance of this redundancy should be …
Course review: Language …
Last week I followed a two-day course called "Language Engineering with MPS". The course was given by Markus Voelter.
MPS is a free software (using the Apache 2.0 license) framework built on top of Intellij IDEA. Both MPS and Intellij IDEA are actively developed by JetBrains. MPS can be used for …
MPS is a free software (using the Apache 2.0 license) framework built on top of Intellij IDEA. Both MPS and Intellij IDEA are actively developed by JetBrains. MPS can be used for …
Two less common tricks …
Recently I faced an SQL performance issue. What I wanted to do was rather common: Apply the (set) difference operation on two tables.
In relational algebra, the difference operation applied on two tables A and B gives as a result a new table C that contains all the elements that are in table A but …
In relational algebra, the difference operation applied on two tables A and B gives as a result a new table C that contains all the elements that are in table A but …
Book review: SQL …
In SQL Antipatterns, Bill Karwin does a great job in explaining how to make efficient use of the relational model, instead of abusing it like it's usually done. Many developers abuse relational databases using antipatterns such as ID required, entity-attribute-value, index …