Debug and Rebug: The Records of a Developing Developer

Defactoring, factoring, prefactoring, and refactoring! (just kidding...still factoring.  always factoring.) In software, "refactoring" means changing the design or structure of code in order to make some improvement (speed, memory, flexibility, etc) but not change the functionality.  Keeping the same "what it does" but improving (hopefully) the "how it does it." Leaving aside the meanings of "factoring" which involve mathematics (finding the factors of prime numbers, for instance), we can also say that "factoring" (without the "re-") means the initial designing of the code.  It's first complete implementation. And, continuing to play with the words, "defactoring" might mean several things.  A quick Google search finds that "defactoring" is not as commonly used as "refactoring".  Which makes sense.  The plainest meaning should mean something like "taking away design or structure".  Wh...

Telling Rocks What To Think First post on this new blog format.  I'm establishing this medium for recoding my professional (coding) experiences, impressions, problems, plans, and solutions. Erin Spiceland said "Coding is the art of telling rocks what to think."  It's metaphorical, but not by much.  Digital computing mostly relies on silicon working its logic and magic.  You talk to it in painfully specific code.  You need all the material, semantic, and verbal components just right.  If you get it right, then it talks back.  Get it wrong, and you have just found a "bug". I named my blog "Debug and Rebug" to indicate two key principles of my approach to coding.  First, "debug": When you write your code, it will never work perfectly, as you envision it.  Perfect running never happens; it's an inevitable consequence of entropy, human lateral thinking, and logic's inexorable conflict with our wants.  Those are some fancy words, all ri...