Why Aren't Programming Language Specifications Comprehensive?

I’ve just released I’ve just released pizauth-1.0.6pizauth-1.0.6 which introduces one notable new feature: support for HTTPS redirects. New features sound good, but what does this actually mean? My experience is that the way OAuth2 works is sufficiently counter-intuitive that people often struggle to make sense of what it’s doing. which introduces one notable new feature: support for HTTPS redirects. New features sound good, but what does this actually mean? My experience is that the way OAuth2 works is sufficiently counter-intuitive that people often struggle to make sense of what it’s doing. Here’s a very quick, simplified, summary of what OAuth2, and pizauth do Here’s a very quick, simplified, summary of what OAuth2, and pizauth do [1][1]. OAuth2 lets you.... OAuth2 lets you...

What happens if you listen to 60 seconds of your favourite radio station / audiobook and then 60 seconds of a random non-professional podcast? The former will be pleasant to listen to, with good intelligibility — it’s easy to understand everything the speakers say. The latter, however, are often somewhat unpleasant to listen to and have poor intelligibility. To add insult to injury, different episodes of the same podcast will often vary in quality and volume. Fortunately, it...

Recent posts Blog archive Following “What Factors Explain the Nature of Software?”, a number of people have asked me: “aren’t the circular specification problem and the observer effect the same thing?” I take the blame for not making this clearer previously. In this...

I sometimes find myself asked to give advice on how organisations should go about creating software, but often my advice doesn’t gel with those who sought it. Sometimes that’s because only one answer was ever considered acceptable; sometimes I am ignorant of important wider context and my answer is unworthy of consideration. But, most often, I...