Articles

System design is inherently about boundaries (what's in, what's out, what spans, what moves between), and about tradeoffs. It reshapes what's outside, just as it shapes what's inside.

Good Boundaries Make Good Systems

In this article we will focus on the implications of taking autonomy as our North Star in module design. What are the practical implications? As always, what goes in and what goes out?

Parnas was right, and I was wrong. I am now convinced that information hiding, today often embodied in object-oriented programming, is the only way of raising the level of software design.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Modularity

This is the second of three articles discussing modularity patterns in Ruby. In this article we will look at how modularity helps us manage complexity.

when every node in your system can talk to any other Metcalfe's Law becomes Metcalfe's Curse regardless of code quality

Complexity is the Thing

This is the first of three articles discussing modularity patterns in Ruby. In this article we will start by defining the problem modularity is trying to solve.

Cookie Queue

Implementing an abstract datatype for managing cookie jars. :) Or, three solutions to a playful problem.

diagram of hanami routing object for seven restful routes

Adventures in Hanami - Router Rumpus

How finding a bug in the Hanami router led to a adventure in learning.

Technical Debt, A Metaphor Run Amok

Technical debt is, of course, a metaphor. Like a picture, a good metaphor is worth a thousand words.

ruby code using ROM to upsert player list into the players table

UPSERTing with ROM and Sequel

Imagine that you have a parent entity, say a baseball Team, that has-many Players. I want to have an edit page for the Team that includes the Players on the Team.