2011 Retrospective

I was going to end this blog one year ago.




Prog21 was entirely a personal outlet for the more technical ideas kicking around in my head, and it had run its course. Just before Christmas 2010, I sat down and wrote a final “thanks for reading,” essay. I’ve still got it on my MacBook. But instead of posting it, I dashed off Write Code Like You Just Learned How to Program, and the response made me realize my initial plan may have been too hasty.




In 2011 I posted more articles than in any previous year—thirty-two, including this one. I finally gave the site a much needed visual makeover. And I’m still wrestling with how to balance the more hardcore software engineering topics that I initially wrote about with the softer, less techy issues that I’ve gotten more interested in.




Have a great 2012, everyone!




Popular articles from 2011:




Don’t Distract New Programmers with OOP


If You’re Not Gonna Use It, Why Are You Building It?


Caught-Up with 20 Years of UI Criticism


Living in the Era of Infinite Computing Power


The Nostalgia Trap


It’s Like That Because It Has Always Been Like That


Papers from the Lost Culture of Array Languages


Things That Turbo Pascal is Smaller Than




Others from 2011 that I personally like:




Accidental Innovation (three parts).


Follow the Vibrancy


Impressed by Slow Code


Constantly Create


8-Bit Scheme: A Revisionist History


Greetings from the Bottom of the Benchmarks


Adventures in Unfiltered Global Publishing


Photography as a Non-Technical Hobby




(There’s also a retrospective covering 2007-2010.)