Programming

I'm an absent-minded engineer; my mind wanders and so does my wallet I'm an absent-minded engineer; my mind wanders and so does my wallet

I fear I lack common sense in life, and this affects my performance.
By Cary Tennis Jul 24, 2008

  • Why Johnny can't code

    BASIC used to be on every computer a child touched -- but today there's no easy way for kids to get hooked on programming.
    By David Brin September 14, 2006

  • "Dude, did I steal your job?"

    "Debugging Indian Computer Programmers" is a lighthearted, first-person look at a touchy subject.
    By Andrew Leonard January 24, 2005

  • The Shlemiel way of software

    Author Joel Spolsky talks about what Microsoft has in common with his grandparents and what Isaac Bashevis Singer has to do with code-generating schemes.
    By Scott Rosenberg December 9, 2004

  • The global market at work

    Bangalore resident Rachna Asirvatham has a 56K modem, a bookcase full of software manuals ... and a bunch of American clients.
    By Katharine Mieszkowski April 6, 2004

  • Why software still stinks

    Programming must change -- but how? At a reunion of coding pioneers, answers abound.
    By Scott Rosenberg March 19, 2004

  • Warning. Warning. Warning. Fatal error. Stop.

    Ethan Levin wasn't worried. Programming mistakes were inevitable. He'd fix it, and move on. An excerpt from Ellen Ullman's new novel, "The Bug."
    By Ellen Ullman May 16, 2003

  • Bugged out

    "The Bug" author Ellen Ullman talks about the Gothic terrors that lurk between the rational lines of computer code.
    By Scott Rosenberg May 16, 2003

  • Lessons in consumption

    Only by immersing our children in marketing can we teach them to choose.
    By Nick Gillespie March 6, 2000

  • Code critic

    John Lions wrote the first, and perhaps only, literary criticism of Unix, sparking one of open source's first legal battles.
    By Rachel Chalmers November 30, 1999

  • The music man

    MTVi's Nicholas Butterworth says he wants the audience to do the programming.
    By Janelle Brown November 29, 1999

  • Who needs the NEA, anyway?

    Announcing ... the Your Town Here Arts & Lectures fall season, featuring Anglo-Saxon-American jazz puppet theater!
    By Sarah Vowell September 22, 1999

  • Will RealAudio kill the radio star?

    Commercial radio will have only itself to blame if the Internet ends up eating its pablum lunch.
    By James Poniewozik May 24, 1999

  • The end of the road for Pascal?

    A venerable language falls victim to changing programming fashions.
    By -- Peter Wayner May 7, 1999

  • The free software story

    Complete Salon Technology coverage of Linux, the open-source movement and free software's ideas and personalities.
    May 4, 1999

  • Glory among the geeks

    For serious programmers, contributing code to Linux pays off not in dollars but in respect.
    By Peter Wayner January 28, 1999

  • The ecology of Java

    It's not just Sun vs. Microsoft anymore -- as the success of little Transvirtual shows.
    By Peter Wayner January 5, 1999

  • The joy of Perl

    How Larry Wall invented a messy programming language -- and changed the face of the Web.
    By Andrew Leonard October 13, 1998

  • The dumbing-down of programming

    Part Two: Returning to the source. Once knowledge disappears into code, how do we retrieve it?
    By Ellen Ullman May 13, 1998

  • The dumbing-down of programming

    Rebelling against Microsoft and its wizards, an engineer rediscovers the joys of difficult computing. First of two parts.
    By Ellen Ullman May 12, 1998

  • sliced off by the cutting edge

    A software engineer despairs at keeping up with every new techno-trend. Second excerpt from Ullman's 'Close to the Machine.'
    By Ellen Ullman October 16, 1997

  • 21st: Elegance and Entropy

    Ellen Ullman talks about what makes programmers tick.
    By Scott Rosenberg October 9, 1997

  • Disappearing into the code

    A deadline brings programmers to the place of no shame. The body melts away, the mind races. Only one thing matters: Can you fix that demon bug? First of two excerpts from Ullman's "Close to the Machine."
    By Ellen Ullman October 9, 1997

  • Java's a year old. Can it walk and talk yet?

    Java's a year old. Can it walk and talk yet?
    By Scott Rosenberg May 20, 1996
Salon Directory › p › Programming (24 stories)

From Salon's blogs