Verity Stob is the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of a British satirical columnist. Stob is an anonymous

software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, Computer programming, programming, software documentation, documenting, software testing, testing, and Software bugs, bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applic ...

, the author of humorous and satirical articles about

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

, particularly

software development Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development invol ...

. Since 1988, she has written her "Verity Stob" column for ''.EXE'' magazine, ''

Dr. Dobb's Journal ''Dr. Dobb's Journal'' (''DDJ'') was a monthly magazine published in the United States by UBM Technology Group, part of UBM plc, UBM. It covered topics aimed at computer programmers. When launched in 1976, DDJ was the first regular periodical focu ...

'', and website ''

The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tec ...

''. Stob was described as "the author of the longest-running satirical column on computer programming" by her fellow

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

Andrew Orlowski Andrew Orlowski (born 1966) is a British columnist, investigative journalist and former executive editor of the IT news and opinion website ''The Register''. In 2021, Orlowski became a business columnist for ''The Daily Telegraph''. Journalism ...

Career

Stob has been a computer and web programmer since 1984, mostly using

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle ...

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

, and

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group ...

. In 1988, she started her pseudonymous "Verity Stob" column for ''.EXE'' magazine (now defunct). Later, she moved it to ''

''. Since 2003, her column has appeared in the British technology news and opinion website, ''

''. She lives and works in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

References

Bibliography

* Stob, Verity (2005). ''The Best of Verity Stob: Highlights of Verity Stob's Famous Columns from EXE, Dr Dobb's Journal, and The Register'',

Apress Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...

LP. .

External links

Articles

"How to survive a code walk-through"
(originally from ''

.EXE Magazine ''.EXE Magazine'' was a monthly computer software magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1986 to 2000. History and profile Founded in 1986 by Mark Adams, former co-founder of PR agency Text 100, .EXE (rhymes with 'not sexy' as the magazine ...

'') at JSquared
List of Stob articles
at ''

'' (since 2003)
List of Stob articles
at ''

'' (some articles require subscription)

Books

''The Best of Verity Stob''
at

(publisher)
''The Best of Verity Stob''
at ''

'' (review)

Other

"Aspect-Oriented Programming with AspectJ"
at ''

Slashdot ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evalu ...

'' 1963 births Place of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers 20th-century British journalists 21st-century British journalists British columnists British women columnists British satirists Women satirists {{UK-compu-bio-stub