Company-Wide IRC Style Chat & Messaging

The big thing that I’ve missed at my current client is the lack of a company-wide IRC style chat or messaging system. I work in a team of 6 and we are all relatively new to the company. Even though we nearly all sit together, we still use IRC as a collaboration tool to simplify broadcasting those temporal messages like “I’m going to restore the database in 5 minutes” or “bouncing the XYZ service because its gone AWOL”. It also has that Channel 9 feel that helps promote transparency to our managers. But it’s only our team using it. Maybe other teams within the organisation have similar setups, but I have no way (that I know of) of finding out. Ideally we should all be tapping into the same IRC server and creating global technology and project level channels – exactly what was done at my previous client…

Mind you this system wasn’t in place when I joined it. The company was using email based “forums” (aka distribution lists) which are horrible to use - you post a question and get 2 answers and 500 Out-of-Office replies! The turning point was when the company dropped the email forums and pushed the IRC style client out to everyone (I believe it was optional before) making sure it ran on start up so everyone would notice. It quickly grew in popularity and even though I was unconvinced at first, I soon became a huge supporter when I discovered the global channels for everything from C++ to XML to Agile to D. Oh, and there was even an ACCU channel :-) In fact it was through the C++ channel that I found out all about the ACCU and ended up joining.

The main problem I’ve found with many Internet based forums is that the turnaround time on getting an answer was too long, and even then you probably ended up getting a n00b answer that missed the point. StackOverflow, which is a superb online resource that trumps nearly all others, is still not immune to this syndrome. The beauty of the company-wide chat was that you nearly always got an immediate response and you could explore the entire problem incredibly quickly because the time spent by all channel members was in the interest of the company. You also had the luxury of switching to the more old fashioned methods like the telephone or meeting face-to-face.

Even as a passive observer you got a real feel for what other teams in the company were doing, such as what tools they were using or what methodologies they were applying. In one particular case I was trying to get a more modern approach to unit testing the database code off the ground and I quickly found some allies trying similar ideas in other teams. We also used the chat tool to get a company-wide shared code repository off the ground to promote more reuse (or at least higher visibility) of in-house developed components.

Naturally there was one channel that was used for less business-like reasons, although it was carefully named so as to not appear to be for idle chit-chat, and by-and-large it wasn’t. The topics certainly weren’t about the business itself, but it was still mostly IT related and added value of a different sort – a much needed social element. We all knew that the channel content was persisted and that “The Powers That Be” could mine that information if needed, but that was probably all that was required to ensure conversations didn’t spiral out of control. That latter feature of persistence and the subsequent ability to find previous conversations through a web style service proved to be incredibly useful. Quite often you’d get similar questions and it was trivial to redirect that person to the search facility with a clue as to when and by whom it might have been discussed. Of course you’d have hoped they had done that first…

The main reason that I’ve sorely missed the company-wide chat at my current client is not to find out what the quality of the canteen is like but exactly because I’m working on a greenfield project and we have the ability to choose our technologies and practices. The “Email Fair Use Policy” is probably quite easy to find on the Intranet – assuming it hasn’t already been shoved in your face – but the details of what tools are proscribed for use in-house is often much harder to source. For example what SCM can we use? What version of Visual Studio? CruiseControl or Hudson? We wanted to find out what tool-chains other teams were using to ensure that there was a critical mass within the company of developers with those skills in case we got stuck. It’s also an excellent way to discover those people who seem to have their finger on the pulse and knowledge of what technical directions the company are pursuing.

I’m sure this isn’t an easy sell to the CIO/CTO as IRC doesn’t exactly have a good reputation – being lumped in with the other social networking pariahs like Facebook and Twitter - but I felt as though it made a significant difference to my work as I didn’t just have my own team collaborating with me but the whole company.

Why is C++ Getting Left on the Bench?

During my recent 6 month sabbatical I spent some time soul-searching. Not searching my soul mind you. Nope, I was trying to fathom out where the future of C++ lies, with respect to the corporate/financial world – the pond in which I swim. As I prepared to return to work again some 4 years after last looking for a new contract, there was a distinct lack of C++ roles. Well, duh!, there’s a global recession, which means there isn’t much of anything at the moment. But it felt like there were far less C++ roles than there should have been. To make matters worse I was interviewed for my current role on the premise that it was for C++ development, but before being made an offer it switched to being a C# role. I was still offered it, even though I have no previous C# experience, which is fortuitous for me as it gives me the opportunity to retrain in C#/.Net on-the-job.

But, why should a Greenfield project, and one which many would consider in the past to be perfect C++ fodder (distributed computing), change direction? I experienced a similar effect during my last role. There was, for a brief period, a concerted drive to try and implement as much as possible in C# instead of C++ because it was perceived that they could deliver value so much quicker. Of course the comparison was largely the usual apples vs oranges affair, as they were comparing the time it takes to make changes to a “10 year+ waterfall developed legacy C++ system with 0 unit tests” against a “Greenfield agile developed C# based web service designed with testability in mind and a full unit test suite to boot”.

A recent thread on an ACCU mailing list has furthered my concerns about the potential future markets for C++. It was actually a question about why so much development continues in straight C, when C++ is “clearly” a better choice. Although I’ve never worked in the embedded market, I gather from the various discussion threads that tooling plays a significant part in its lack of adoption, especially with respects to the more heavyweight features like RTTI, exception handling and template meta-programming. But there also appears to be a level of paranoia that surrounds C++ code, no doubt due to the same heavyweight features, that I can see plays a part in the embedded world – but not for desktop or server-side applications. From what I’ve heard Linus Torvalds hasn’t exactly helped the cause by openly criticising C++ development; and having seen some shocking code myself I can see where he’s coming from.

Still, just because a feature is available, doesn't mean you have to use it - you can still write procedural code in C++. The most complex templates I’ve ever written are for smart pointers, oh, and some truly dreadful generic collections back in the early part of my career. However I’ve used boost::function (a non-trivial component) on many occasions. You don’t have to be David Abrahams to be productive in C++. At an absolute minimum you could write in C, but take advantage of C++’s greatest strength, RAII, and at least take the pain out of the resource management. RAII is an incredibly simple concept to understand, cheap to implement, and clarifies code by removing the need for the ugly Single-Entry-Single-Exit style so often demanded in C based projects.

As a distinctly non-polyglot programmer I have absolutely no credentials for claiming that you can be as productive in C++ as you could be in, say, C# or Java. As a language, I believe you probably could be, but the distinct lack of standard libraries means that you need to buy or build the moment you step outside of “Hello World” and into even meagre requirements like XML processing or TCP/IP communications. C++0X goes some way to alleviating the common ailments like threading and lambdas but is it too little too late? The stock answer to the anaemic library problem these days is often “Boost”. Yes, it’s full of goodness, and pretty stable, but F/OSS still doesn’t sit well in many institutions.

C++ definitely has an image problem. A lot of mud has been slung over the years and unfortunately some of it has stuck pretty solid. An old colleague of mine who was a C# developer often used to quip “Don’t you have some memory to manage or leaks to plug?”. The answer of course, was no. I haven’t had to deal with memory (or any kind of resource leaks) in my code for years. Probably the better part of a decade. RAII (which is described in exquisite detail in Matthew Wilson’s Imperfect C++) means I don’t think about it any more than a C# or Java programmer. In fact probably less so! Granted, techniques like Expression Templates are seriously complex and require real brainpower – but only if you’re going to implement them; as a consumer of these techniques do you really need a PhD in Software Engineering?

The tune from the recruitment consultants about the demise of C++ in the Windows based Finance world where I dabble only confirms my suspicions. .Net is king and no longer just client-side - it’s also encroaching on the server-side where performance is not measured solely in computations-per-second. That pretty much leaves just the quant style number crunching domain, which is not really my bag, or maintenance work on aging legacy systems that are limping along until the rewrite goes live - no doubt written in C#. “Keeping The Lights On” is fun for a bit, until you realise that you have absolutely no chance of making any significant contribution to the mass of Technical Debt.

Maybe the problem lies with the decision makers? Are Today's Managers just Yesterday’s C++ programmers who had such bad experiences in the ‘90s that they feel morally obliged to protect their workforce from such abuse? Once bitten twice shy and all that? OK, pretty unlikely. How about excellent marketing from the other camps? Good PR probably helps to kick-start a revolution, but developers are a pretty savvy bunch and not afraid to point out when the Emperor is dressed in his Birthday Suit - I don’t think anyone could pin the phrase “Passing Fad” on Java or C# these days.

I know it’s a massively overused quote but those immortal lines from Uncle Ben in Spiderman are the closest thing I have to an answer “with great power comes great responsibility”. C++ welds great power, but potentially at an extremely high cost and I don’t think enough developers are willing to take on the responsibility of learning how to use it safely. They want to focus on delivering value to their customers and not getting bogged down trawling the internet for vendors or F/OSS libraries because their language doesn’t even provide a facility to search a folder for files. And rightly so. I love C++ to bits and I feel sad to have switched to another language after nearly 15 years of it. But the reality is that it just isn’t moving fast enough to fill even the basic needs of what a general purpose programming language has to provide today for a General Purpose Programmer like me.

Two Book Reviews Published in This Month’s C Vu Magazine

The current issue of C Vu (Volume 21, Issue 6 - one of the journals published by the ACCU) has two book reviews from yours truly. The first is for the 3rd edition of UML Distilled by Martin Fowler, and the other is for The Old New Thing by Raymond Chen. Neither book is exactly new and the latter I read some years ago, but I noticed a couple of gaps in the book reviews on the ACCU website (which are searchable by non-members as well as members) and thought I’d fill them in. Both books get a big thumbs up from me*. Of course if you want to read the reviews you’ll either need to subscribe to the ACCU so that you can download back issues of C Vu and Overload, or wait for them to be published on the website.

*Given the name of this blog and the contents of my very first post I don’t think this will be much of a surprise to anyone.

So Long and Thanks For All the Onions

A couple of days before Christmas my father passed away. Even though he was in his 70’s and had recently been in hospital, we all thought he was on the mend and so it was still somewhat of a shock. Yesterday was his funeral at which both myself and sister spoke. I’m not sure if a blog is the right medium to publish something as personal as a eulogy, but I believe it’s because of the last 9 months of blogging that my writing skills have improved to the extent that I’ve been able to attempt to write a piece that would do him justice. This blog may just be a temporary affair, but he will be with me always…

For as long as I can remember people have said to me “you’re getting just like your father” or “you sound just like your dad”. This is usually said in jest and I’ve always tried to shrug it off. But is that such a bad thing to be?

As some of you will know I work in IT as a computer programmer, and it’s here that one of the most dominant of Dad’s genes shines through. He had a strong sense of logic, which was often put to good use solving Sudokus and cryptographic puzzles in the newspaper. But it also had a somewhat perverse side that meant that an argument could be taken to ridiculous extremes. Normal people would call it being bloody-minded, and I can personally testify that it’s a trait that doesn’t go down well with your partner - no matter how useful it might be for your choice of career.

Although we shared a similar gift for numeracy, he honed his ability to do mental arithmetic and eschewed a calculator in favour of pen, paper and grey matter, come to think of it, did he even own one? No doubt this is also the reason that he had a love of cards, and Bridge in particular. The only card game he would shy away from was Rummy because he was unable to beat mum at it. The one time he finally did, we made him a certificate. To most of us a game cards was largely a game of chance, but to him it was more like Chess. He was always thinking three hands ahead of us and loved to analyze the outcome of each hand – something I appreciated, but I’m not so sure the others always found it quite so interesting. Isaac and Millie - my two eldest - are both card sharks in the making and will definitely miss the free lessons.

Dad was one of those people that read a newspaper from back-to-front. I say front, but I think in reality after digesting the sports pages and neatly separating the puzzles for later, he just skimmed through the actual news. There is no denying that he was a lover of sport. And not just the usual mainstream stuff such as

Football, Cricket and Tennis. Oh, no, he also followed Darts, Snooker, Athletics, Swimming, Golf, etc. In fact pretty much anything the TV was showing. Or for that matter was being reported via Teletext. In the days before he had managed to convince his neighbour Pete to let him watch Sky round his place, he would just watch the game results page on Teletext. He didn’t even have radio 5 on in the background with the commentary!

From what I gather he wasn’t half bad at playing sport either in his younger days. I remember going to watch him play cricket at Ifield Court and we even shared a pitch together once. He always came to watch me play Football, Rugby & Cricket and of course was instrumental in my Swimming career. His skills with a stopwatch were legendry and as 1500m was my race of choice it gave him ample opportunity to provide various statistics about each 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m section - all timed to the same degree of accuracy as the pool’s electronic timing!

That kind of precision and attention to detail was reflected in other parts of his life too – from folding a sweet wrapper to the placement of the stamps in his collection. Yes, Dad was quite literally a train-spotter. Although I’ve never really shared his passion for trains or stamps, I am nonetheless also a geek, but mostly of the computer variety. I also have a full catalogue of all my vinyl records and CDs and I’m sure my passion for music comes from him. How could a boy not marvel at the reel-to-reel tape deck that was dusted off during each phase of decorating? I wasn’t a fan of the decorating but I did enjoy being in a room full of music – after all who doesn’t the like Beatles? He had a pretty wide taste too, covering most things from classical to modern pop. During my teens I often caught him listening to some of my tapes – Frankie Goes to Hollywood was definitely a favourite.

So is there anything missing from my DNA sequence that I wish I had been given? I have absolutely zero interest in gardening so I’m not going to complain there. Fortunately Charlotte is covering that angle and I’m sure the success of this and any subsequent year’s harvest from our back garden will in many ways be down to the advice given by Dad. Let’s face it, he had enough practice! He certainly had a much better grasp of DIY than I do. Although he left the hardcore stuff like electrical or plumbing work to the professionals, he built the garage the sits to the side of the house and the retaining wall and rockery at the foot of the garden - a considerable achievement by anyone’s standards.

I’m sure my wife would wish for me to have inherited his frugal nature, at least regarding money management. In some respects he was way ahead of his time as he tried to minimise his carbon footprint by switching off unnecessary lights and sockets, closing doors to minimise heating expenditure and recycling A4 paper in post-it note size chunks. He’d even rather save the last cup of tea from the pot and later reheat it in the microwave than throw it away and make a fresh brew. The one tip of his I did adopt during my cost-conscious student days was to drink light-and-bitter, which is supposed to be half a pint of beer and a similar sized bottle of light ale, but the barman would often pour up to the bulge in the glass so you got more than a pint you see.

Fortunately we’re not carbon copies of our parents which gives us an escape hatch to avoid some of their foibles - not that I think Dad had many. If the worst memories I have of him are when he used to wake me up with a cold flannel to go swimming (of course I was really awake and I’m sure he knew that) or that we had to be quiet whilst we were eating then that that’s probably not a bad benchmark. Going to University was certainly quite an eye opener as it seemed everyone else in the flat belonged to a broken home and their parents had divorced. I realised that any grievance I might have against my parents was somewhat petty in comparison.

That said, of all his attributes, the one I hope our children have inherited most is his morale compass. Some may regard his fondness for formality to be old-fashioned, and I remember how surprised he was to find out that we don’t address our superiors at work as Sir or Madam. His experiences with eBay certainly tested his patience (even if he got mum to do the dirty work) as he wanted everyone to behave as ethically as he did. He was a firm believer in fair play and instilled politeness in us as children and never swore or used bad language either. In these respects he was quite the gentleman.

Ok, actually that’s not entirely true as I do remember him swearing a couple times during an evening playing snooker when he was working for the Snooker firm. It was very late and the brandy had been flowing freely. He missed an absolute sitter and exclaimed… Well I don’t think I’ll repeat what he actually said, but the entire room stood aghast, not sure they could believe the words that had just been uttered by their supposedly respectable bookkeeper. This is probably why he could get on with almost anyone as he was equally comfortable hiding behind the curtain entertaining the grandchildren as he was talking shop with customers.

So you see, being “just like your father” isn’t so bad after all, in fact I should consider it a compliment. I reckon Mother Nature has dealt me a pretty good hand and I’ve come to realise that I should not see it as a curse, but embrace those hereditary genes as they make me a better person.

And remember, if you see me weeping in future; don’t automatically assume it’s down to the loss of my father. Yes, he’ll be greatly missed by us all, but it may just be that we’ve unearthed a few more of his onions…