TDD Pro-Tip: Before I write the first test in a new context, I usually design until I get to a state of "Nervous Optimism". A couple of days ago, I was party to some drinking geekery with my colleagues at a hookah bar restaurant dance club. It was the end of a long day, and […]
TDD Pro-Tip: Design Until Nervous Optimism Read More »
Sitting here, listenin’ to my playlist, thinking about temporality and how it relates to the kind of geekery I want to write and talk and teach and geek about. Over the last 10 years or so, the topics deriving from systems theory, from complexity theory, and so on, have wormed their way slowly into our
Culture Starch: We Haven’t Grasped Complexity Yet Read More »
Who’s to blame? I notice how many folks seem to believe geeks are in charge of what software gets written in the world. When software is revealed to be immoral, I notice how reluctant they are to blame folks who are senior executives, boardmembers, or majority shareholders. The majority of working software developers who are
Plenty Of Guilt To Go Around Read More »
TDD Pro-Tip: I stay very aware of my testing context’s data, and specifically of what data is opaque and what data is transparent. Those terms, transparent and opaque, need a little explanation. Sometimes the code I’m testing doesn’t vary based on the entirety of its input. A trivial example, the function that validates the date
TDD Pro-Tip: Stay Aware Of Testing Data Read More »
Refactoring Pro-Tip: When I’m scanning, I’m not just reading fast, I’m feature-detecting, something the unconscious part of me is very good at doing, especially when the code helps. Part of the made, the making, and the maker as a guiding theme for me is the idea of "leaning in" to the strengths of my maker
Refactoring Pro-Tip: Scanning Isn’t Just Fast Reading Read More »
Refactoring Pro-Tip: I optimize my code for scannability, readability, and writeability in that order. I won’t argue my case in detail, there’s a video if you’d rather watch me make it instead of reading it, and I’ll just sketch the case briefly here in the muse. http://geepawhill.org/optimizing-a-program-and-programming/ When I’m coding, I notice that I spend
Refactoring Pro-Tip: I Optimize Scannability, Then Readability, Then Writability Read More »
A thing that happens to me a lot. I want to say, "Yeah, that’s not how that works," about some over-simple explanation, usually something around using inorganic reasoning about humans. But when I go there, I know we’re gonna go instantly to vast areas of study & insight that most folks aren’t comfortable with. And
The Whole Geek: Geekery Is Just The Tip Of The Iceberg Read More »
Refactoring Pro-Tip: When I tackle a long method, the first thing I do is make my local variables maximally local. Consider this psuedo-code. It’s basic stuff, I’m betting virtually any geek can read it, but if not, lemme know. longMethod( int y ) { int x; x = 0; // … // IRRELEVANCY #0: 87
Refactoring Pro-Tip: Making Local Variables Maximally Local Read More »
Refactoring Pro-Tip: I use naming, isolation, and noise-filtering as strategies to keep the coder’s intention at my fingertips. (I’m actually jonesing to write some geeky material in this series, but I’ve got one more of these pesky abstract philosophy things before I can get there.) First, a silly line from a silly movie, Airplane, which
Refactoring Pro-Tip: Naming, Isolation, and Noise-Filtering Read More »
Refactoring Pro-Tip: The triggering events for refactoring vary, but the reason we refactor at all is the same each time, regardless of occasion: we refactor to enable change. The most obvious and direct occasion for a refactoring is this: I want to add new functionality and preserve old functionality, and it will be easier to
Refactoring Pro-Tip: Refactor to Enable Change Read More »
