So Raganwald said that Java is the right answer to the wrong question, Ruby is the wrong answer to the right question, and Benjamin Stein responded that the right question was How confident are you, the programmer, that the change you just made will work?

I think I agree with both of them, and I’d like to offer up the answer: which is that there is no one right answer.

This shows up most distinctly, I think, in the static typing vr.s unit testing debate. There are people on both sides who say their side is the only answer you need, that it solves all problems, and if you use one, you don’t need the other. Both sides are wrong- it’s not an either/or case. Strong static typing can detect many errors (including many more than most people suspect), but it can’t catch them all. The same goes for unit testing.

And the list doesn’t stop there- testing at all levels is necessary, as is code review (and/or pair programming), documentation (one of my favorite debugging techniques is documenting my code- it’s surprising even to me how many bugs I’ve found by adding comments that say “this code should do X” and then noticing that no, it doesn’t do that), careful design, etc.

We programmers need all the help we can get to produce correct code- because it’s so hard to do so. It’s never a case of either-or, we need both. Paranoia- it’s not just an occupational hazard for programmers, it’s a job requirement.

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http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2007/09/rituals-pop-stars-and-conspiracy-theory.html

But not much more.

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As soon as I finish my port of my Perl libraries to Ruby, I’m going to head into setting up the podcast. And I’m going to let some of the other projects slide (particularly JConch). I’d love to do both, but I just don’t have time: Mr. Nutter’s probably right, and I’m probably going to be a technological poseur soon. But the podcast seems like more fun than hacking on code right now.

In addition to the guests mentioned before, Ben Edwards (of Refactr and MinneBar fame), the band Avenpitch (okay, one particularly gracious member of it), and some people over at MPR’s “In The Loop” have expressed interest/willingness to be on.

I’ve got feelers out to a few more people, but haven’t heard back. Stay tuned for head’s up.

I think I’m going to try for a series on Freemasonry for non-Freemasons. I’d like to get someone from the Masonic Restoration Foundation, the Almoner from the Mpls Valley of the Scottish Rite, someone from the U of MN Masonic Cancer Center, someone from Grand Lodge, and maybe an episode with some popular masonic podcasters and bloggers talking about modern communication of Masonic ideas.

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CouchDB seems to be the implementation of the Project Brian Doesn’t Want To Do.

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I’m thinking that I might spin off an EnfranchisedMind podcast. For a while, I’ve been trying to figure out how to engage more of the blogging community, and generally do some cool stuff with EnfranchisedMind. I’ve been getting big into podcasts, though, so I thought that’s worth a shot.

So far, I’ve talked to Brian, and he’s not keen on recording his voice. But maybe he’ll change his mind when he founds out Reg Braithwaite — Raganwald himself — is willing to do one with us. And Shawn from “Decently and in Order” is offering some technical advice and is willing to join me for one podcast, too.

There isn’t really a single unifying theme or idea behind the podcast. It just sounds like fun. Given that, you can be pretty sure the topics on the podcast are going to be about as random as the posts here. In all honesty, it’s basically an excuse to talk to people from the blogosphere.

Keep an eye out. I’m aiming to get something done the second weekend in October. That’s the first weekend I’ve got free to do anything.

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