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What has happened to the perception of programming being a science, an engineering discipline, or even art? Today’s students seem to think programming is nothing but copying code snippets from some dodgy sources, renaming variables (if they can even be bothered with that) and hoping that by magic this conglomeration of code odds and ends will produce the desired result. This approach is certainly not science or engineering. One might see an artistic spirit in it, but to me it mostly resembles guessing, gambling, and hoping that the parser will highlight & correct some syntax errors … and when the code compiles it surely has to be correct. 

The AISB is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an impressive array of symposia. The new web site gives all information and is updated with all the news around this special event. Stay tuned and come back for more details at: http://aisb50.org

Straight after holding our 2nd-year degree students’ induction event, I will be travelling to Warsaw tomorrow to present a paper on a layered agent framework for smart home environments at Concurrency, Specification & Programming (CS&P 2013). The work presented is joint with my PhD student Jack Betts.

I have started an espresso subscription. Starting this week, I will receive a delivery every week. The first roast I received is:

• Tiamo (roasted on 28/6/2012)
  • Roaster’s description: Bursting with floral aroma, and some hints of Lavender and Jasmine, this is a juicy, bright, clean cup with a light and luxurious mouthfeel. Medium body with a deliciously sweet aftertaste.

  Tasting notes: 15/7/2012 nice, smooth with plenty of crema, a good morning roast

From Drury in London I got some Prime Honduras beans. Very exquisite taste, though not a dedicated espresso roast. Will surely be returning for more …

Next week I am going to be in Hamburg for LAM’12 and Petri Nets 2012.

I will be travelling to Germany again in late August for Dagstuhl Seminar 12342: Engineering Multi-Agent Systems.