Mondaymorningthoughts
Monday morning thoughts: looking back and forwards
In this post, I look back on the posts in this series, reflect upon the journey we've made, and think about what 2019 might hold for us. The holiday season is pretty much upon us, and for many it's a...
Monday morning thoughts: digging deeper
In this post, I think about the tools we use in our day-to-day activities, the feeling I have that I'm just scratching the surface with regards to their capabilities, and what I plan to do about it...
Monday morning thoughts: indirect influence
In this post, I think about how our work can directly and even indirectly influence those that come after us, and about what this means for how we should act. Last week's I attended SAP TechEd 2018 in...
Monday morning thoughts: learning media and mechanisms
In this post, I think about the different ways I learn, and wonder how that translates to how we learn in the SAP developer ecosphere. This will be a shorter post than usual*, as I've just arrived at...
Monday morning thoughts: rethinking like the web
In this post, I revisit some principles that help us "think like the web" and think about them in the context of today's SAP technology landscape and community. Last week I watched someone I...
Monday morning thoughts: longevity and loose coupling
In this post, I think about the importance of core technologies, and how the arrival of functions-as-a-service might be merely the next incarnation of an idea that's existed for a while. This weekend...
Monday morning thoughts: on starting blogging
In this post, I think about what it is that made me start blogging, and about the reasons to start blogging that might resonate with you, if you've not yet made that step. Deep down I'm a shy person....
Monday morning thoughts: exploring reuse
In this post, I think about reuse and extension, in the context of the Application Programming Model for SAP Cloud Platform, and mindful of Björn Goerke's SAP TechEd 2018 keynote message in Barcelona...
Monday morning thoughts: dynamic language
In this post, I think about a particular function definition in JavaScript, and how it represents beauty and practicality in equal measure. On Friday evening, I tweeted: Heading to the woodstore with...
Monday morning thoughts: big school and community
In this post, I think about my experience going from primary school to secondary school - "big school", how that parallels our collective move from on-prem to the cloud, and how the...
Monday morning thoughts: more on ABAP in the cloud
In this post, following my previous post on the subject, I think a bit more about the SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment, inspired by the conversations around the subject at SAP TechEd in Las Vegas...
Monday morning thoughts: impostor syndrome
In this post I think about the impostor syndrome, how it relates to me, and one of the possible causes. I'm in Las Vegas for the first SAP TechEd event of 2018 which starts in earnest tomorrow. Last...
Monday morning thoughts: growth is upwards
In this post, I think about how we grow, how we improve ourselves by adding to our knowledge and experience, and consider that our growth is sometimes uphill but almost always rewarding. I live to the...
Monday morning thoughts: Workflow Forms and the definition of a developer
In this post, I think briefly about the definition of a developer, and in that context look at the advent of Workflow Forms, a major new addition to the functionality of the Workflow service on SAP...
Monday morning thoughts: ABAP in the cloud
In this post, I think about the new SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment, what it is, what it isn't, and why I think it's a great move. A day or two ago this tweet appeared in my timeline, and it made...
Monday morning thoughts: considering GraphQL
In this post, I think about GraphQL, and its relationship with existing ideas for managing data and structured exposure to that data over a wire protocol. Update: This post is now available in audio...
Monday morning thoughts: a good blog post
In this post, I think about what makes a good blog post, and also what writing such a post does for the author, too. It's a bank holiday Monday today in England, and so of course it's raining*. I...
Monday morning thoughts: OData
In this post, I think about OData, in particular where it came from and why it looks and acts like it does. I also consider why I think it was a good protocol for an organisation like SAP to...
Monday morning thoughts: the cloud is the computer
In this post, I think about what the future of programming in an enterprise environment might look like, and realise that it makes sense to consider that the cloud itself is the new computer. Sun...
Monday morning thoughts: mainframes and message documentation
In this post, I think about mainframes and a message documentation aspect from the mainframe world that, while originally proprietary, is a big plus for operators and developers alike and something...
Monday morning thoughts: local http servers and containerisation
In this post, I look back on an idea surfaced by a hero of mine, and think about how that idea laid the path for today's containerisation initiatives. One of the periodicals I eagerly anticipated and...
Monday morning thoughts: what not how
In this post, I think about how we program, about the way we describe what it is that we want the computer to do for us, and look at what has become for me the canonical example of the difference...
Monday morning thoughts: abstraction
In this post, I think about abstraction, the power and facility it affords, and consider CDS as one example of a modern abstraction language. Last week I was chatting to some old friends. One of them...
Monday morning thoughts: curiosity and understanding
In this post, I think about how curiosity can lead to a better understanding of things, and give a specific example concerning CDS and the new Application Programming Model for SAP Cloud Platform. On...
Monday morning thoughts: developers and advocacy
In this post, I think about what it means to me to be a part of the Developer Relations team, and talk a bit about evangelism, outreach and advocacy. It's been just over four months since I joined...
Monday morning thoughts: programming models
In this post, I think about the idea of the programming model and consider the occurrence of such over the recent years in the SAP development ecosphere. Update (same day): I interviewed Rui Nogueira...
Monday morning thoughts: community engagement
In this post, I think about some of the basic ingredients of a good online community, and describe what I'm going to try to do to engage more with the SAP Community. I was re-listening to a great...
Monday morning thoughts: Core Data Services
In this post, I think about what Core Data Services (CDS) is, what it does, and why we should make it a priority to learn more about. Earlier this morning, while following a tutorial, I came across...
Monday morning thoughts: the learning continuum
In this post I contemplate the idea of the learning continuum, and think about the fact that we're all learning together, which is a good thing. On a run last week I listened to an episode of Scott...
Monday morning thoughts: programmers and identity
In this post, I look at how some programmers identify strongly with a particular language, consider the meanings of 'programmer', 'coder' and 'developer', and what it means for us as the SAP...
Monday morning thoughts: milestones
In this post, I look back at changes and developments that I consider milestones in SAP's technology history, and muse on some of the developments today that we'll consider milestones in the...
Monday morning thoughts: functions - what functions?
In this post, I think about the concept of functions-as-a-service, what it means, and what it's good for. Serverless, cloud functions, functions-as-a-service. Three terms that we're hearing more and...
Monday morning thoughts: containers and silence
In this post I think about the silence of workstations and what that represents to me, and the new ability to look at maintaining software and services in a completely different way - via...
Monday morning thoughts: editors and editing
In this post I look at how the editor environments that we come across in our daily work are different, and, as those differences might grow and expand as we become cloud native, how we bridge the...
Monday morning thoughts: upload / download in a cloud native world
This weekend I was exploring some Cloud Foundry features on the SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) and came across a pattern that is pretty much everywhere - not only within the SAP space but far beyond too. It...
Monday morning thoughts: a cloud native smell
Continuing on from my earlier random thoughts about what cloud native means to me, I was musing this morning on the nature of the web, and specifically URIs - or rather their specialisation that we...
Monday morning thoughts: cloud native
This weekend I discovered that one of my favourite online REPLs* - repl.it - has a new feature where you can build and publish a website on a repl.it subdomain: *REPL: Read Evaluate Print Loop - an...