Balance Programming

Category: Review

  • Choosing Wren?

    One of my friends was thinking about Wren earlier in the year to run scripts in a game engine. It was created by Bob Nystrom who wrote Game Programming Patterns which I reviewed earlier. I thought Wren looked interesting so it went on my list of topics to explore. The language It describes itself: Think…

  • The Agile Manifesto

    I started with a brief history of Agile and now I’ll look in more detail at the big one the Agile Manifesto. My initial comments were that this was a process rather than a rulebook and it would need to involve the right set of people. The Agile Manifesto They have values: And some principles:…

  • Design Patterns

    Reviewing Game Programming Patterns inspired me to read the classic Design Patterns, Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. My guess going in was that it would be more complete but not as nice to read, that’s pretty much how it was. However there were some unique patterns in each book so, if you like patterns, it…

  • Functional Programming in C++

    I remember functional programming being a niche aspect of computing science. Software engineering didn’t consider it at all. Now you can find discussion and books about using it in any major programming language. I read Functional Programming in C# but, to me, this oversold the technique while it lacking practical advice for day to day…

  • Rust

    I heard about Rust’s unusual approach to memory management and thought have a look. Programming Rust from O’Reilly is chunky at about 700 pages and has taken a while to get through but does seem to cover all the bases. I’ve not gone as far as coding in this language so this will just be…

  • Game Programming Patterns

    I wanted to cleanse my palette and decided to read Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom. I’ve read it before so I knew what to expect. It’s a clearly written pattern book with simple example situation taken from the games industry. Don’t expect to get all the patterns here or advanced game programming knowledge. However…

  • Data-oriented design

    I read Data-Oriented Design by Richard Fabian but will mostly cover the methodology (DoD) not the book. Let’s get it out of the way and I’ll try not to belabour it: It’s about all the data Data-oriented design concentrates on the underlying data in any given system. Data tends to be stored in a very…

  • Clean Code

    I’ve heard of some people following the Clean Code methodology and some people reacting against it. It’s not been on my reading list before so I got hold of Clean Code by Robert C. Martin. I think it has some good ideas and a few bad ideas. My biggest problem is that these are often…

  • Historic programming style

    While researching one of my recent post I came across a reference to The Elements of Programming Style. It’s a study of programming style and it was first published 50 year ago. My dad recognised the book and he remembers when you had to make programs using punched cards! Despite it’s age a lot of…