As if you really cared

Here is my current personal working environment:

XP
Firefox
MinGW
MSYS
VIM
Bazaar
QT
Winamp

I'm working to fill in more tools for UML, project management, etc.

Bazaar/Git comparison

This is a great quick comparison between Bazaar and Git:

http://info.wsisiz.edu.pl/~blizinsk/git-bzr.html

It shows several tasks you would do with distributed source control.

Pill #2

Effective C++: Prefer consts, enums and inlines to #defines

Long story short, avoid #defines where you can. I don't really use them much but it's great to know why not to use them and what the better alternatives are.

C++ Coding Standards: Compile cleanly at high warning levels

I'm guilty of not compiling cleanly, but I am taking a stance to make sure I do from this point forward. Mainly I've had unused variables, so I don't feel too bad.

Design Patterns: Builder

I like this pattern. I have this issue with how I handle my database schema version upgrades and I think this pattern is the key.

Pill #1

Effective C++: View C++ as a federation of languages
This is an interesting point of view. It really changes the way I approach each aspect of C++ and when I should use what convention. I think I need to really read "Design and Evolution of C++" (amazon) to find out how the language got here.

C++ Coding Standards: Don't sweat the small stuff
This item title is a little off. It should be more like, be consistent and know when to draw the line with standards. But, it wouldn't be as short or catchy. I'm a big offender of this because I can be inconsistent and I over analyze what standards I should use. I now know why Herb and Andrei put this one first.

Design Patterns: Abstract Factory (wikipedia)
This is a great pattern. It's really interesting to see so many languages and toolkits use this pattern. It looks like a lot of GUI toolkits use this pattern to enable cross platform capabilities.

By the way, I love how Addison Wesley attaches a cloth strip bookmark to their hardbound books. In my opinion, they are the best software development book publisher.

One a day and podcasts

Like vitamins, knowledge needs to be absorbed on a frequent basis to insure we continue to grow mentally. So I'm creating my own knowledge pill that I will take daily. Basically I am going to take one item from each book and read it daily, then I will post about the items to reinforce the information. Because I'm addicted to C++, they will center around that subject.

Books:
Effective C++ (amazon)
C++ Coding Standards (amazon)
Design Patterns (amazon)

I will take one item from Effective C++, one standard from C++ Coding Standards and one pattern from Design Patterns, roll them up into a nice little pill and take daily.

You can follow along if you like, but always remember to eat your vegetables.


By the way, I found a great podcast site with a decent range of tech subjects here.