Skip to main content

Posts

TOMS - Designing the Object Model Before Building the Screens

In my previous post about this personal C++ project, I described why I had chosen table and seating organisation as the problem I wanted to work on. The next question was more fundamental: what are the objects? It is tempting when developing a desktop application to start with the visible parts. Create the main window. Add a guest list. Add a table editor. Put some buttons around them. Connect a few signals and slots, and very quickly there is something on the screen that looks like progress. I am deliberately trying not to begin there. Before concentrating on the screens, I want a reasonably coherent model of the problem itself. The user interface should eventually manipulate that model; it should not accidentally become the model. My first architectural objective is simple: model an event as a collection of meaningful domain objects before allowing the graphical interface to dictate how those objects behave. Starting with the domain rather than the...
Recent posts

Beer

 

TV Serie - The Chelsea Detective [UK] (2022) - Season 4

Log Episode 1 [Mon, Aug 3, 2026] - 2026-Sep-01 Episode 2 [Mon, Aug 10, 2026] - 2026-Sep-03 Episode 3 [Mon, Aug 17, 2026] - 2026-Sep-03 Episode 4 [Mon, Aug 24, 2026] - 2026-Sep-03

When Hierarchy Only Exists If You Believe in It

Based on a LinkedIn post originally published on 20 March 2026 A few years ago, while managing a DevOps team at a very large start-up, I was invited to attend a company-wide global event in San Francisco. My hotel was close to the venue. Thanks to jet lag, I was awake much earlier than expected and had nothing particularly useful to do. I decided to walk over and look around while the event space was still being prepared. At one point, I noticed an older gentleman sitting alone at a table. Apart from a few people organising the venue, there was almost nobody else around. I am naturally fairly extroverted, so I collected some breakfast—the food was already available—and joined him. We began talking. A conversation without titles He was funny, relaxed and easy to speak with. Our conversation had nothing to do with company strategy, technology or careers. We spoke about life, travel and whatever observations emerged naturally. I did not ask what position he held. He did not ask how senior...

TV Serie - The Chelsea Detective [UK] (2022) - Season 3

Log Episode 1 [Mon, Dec 16, 2024] - 2026-Aug-31 Episode 2 [Mon, Apr 7, 2025] - 2026-Aug-31 Episode 3 [Mon, Apr 14, 2025] - 2026-Aug-31 Episode 4 [Mon, Apr 21, 2025] - 2026-Sept-01

TV Serie - Sugar (2024) - Season 2

Log Episode 1 [2026-Jun-19] - 2026-Jun-24 Episode 2 [2026-Jun-26] - 2026-Aug-30 Episode 3 [2026-Jul-03] - 2026-Aug-31 Episode 4 [2026-Jul-10] - 2026-Aug-31 Episode 5 [2026-Jul-17] - 2026-Aug-31 Episode 6 [2026-Jul-25] - 2026-Aug-31 Episode 7 [2026-Jul-31] - 2026-Aug-31 Episode 8 [2026-Aug-07] - 2026-Aug-31

A Normal Morning in Chișinău — Until the Central Market Caught Fire

Today was supposed to be an entirely ordinary day in Chișinău. Instead, we found ourselves standing close to a major fire at the Central Market, watching firefighters work while a huge column of dark smoke rose above one of the busiest commercial areas of the city. It was one of those moments when something familiar changes character almost instantly. Chișinău's Central Market — Piața Centrală — is normally a place of noise, movement and commerce. People walk between stalls carrying bags. Traders call to customers. Cars compete for space around the surrounding streets. There are clothes, shoes, household goods, food, electronics, cafés, pharmacies and small businesses packed together in the dense commercial area around the market. Today there were all of those things. And then there was smoke. At first, the smoke The first thing that made the scale of the situation obvious was the smoke. It was impossible to miss. A larg...