(Editor’s Note: The title is presumably supposed to refer to Return to Pooh Corner, but the author did a terrible job of setting this up.)
Taking a course in software engineering a few years ago may have saved my academic and professional career. Before the Fall 2011 semester, I had finished much of the work necessary for my undergraduate degree, but there was nothing that I found any deep interest in. Part of this was intentional – I wanted to remain open to all possibilities and I still find most of the subfields of Computer Science enjoyable to some extent – but it was troubling to have a general interest in Computer Science yet not be able to point to one specific thing that I liked doing. Software engineering changed that; it helped me rediscover my enjoyment of programming and provided opportunities to display what I was capable of accomplishing.
Now, I think it is time to delve back into the domain of software engineering. Admittedly, I never really left – I have used many of the tools and techniques that I learned previously at school and work – but much has changed since 2011. While the general concepts likely remain the same, the specifics have changed. For instance, Git has almost completely superseded SVN as the configuration management system of choice, and although this seems like an entirely irrational decision it is necessary to adapt to this shift.
Of course, just stating that I am going to start looking at software engineering again will probably produce the same results as my annual promises to learn how to use LaTeX – that is to say, none. This site will record my experiences in exploring the current state of software engineering, in part to force me to express my thoughts in a vaguely intelligible form rather than becoming too engrossed in the work itself to understand what I am doing, but also as a form of accountability as the eight or so people who read this in the next decade will be able to verify that I am in fact following the plan laid out above. This perceived examination of everything I write here should help me to continue working on software engineering rather than letting this devolve into a series of cat pictures.
I do not know what exactly I will start with, but I should begin consistently adding postings here on a moderately frequent basis soon.