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 »
Refactoring Pro-Tip: Terrible code is not a good excuse to be mean, because terrible code is not well-correlated with having been written by terrible people. Look, y’all, it’s me, here. I love a good rant as much as the next Old Testament prophet, surely you know this. But . . . but . . .
Refactoring Pro-Tip: Terrible Code Doesn’t Mean Terrible People Read More »
I’ve made mention here and there of "the whole geek". I’d like to take a little time and lay out the idea. (There’s a video coming, too, expect it to be strange.) In our conversations about geek culture, I’ve tried to make my sense of its thinness as clear as I can. One of the
Bring The Whole Geek! Read More »
Refactoring Pro-Tip: "Easiest Nearest Owwie First". When facing especially weak code, it’s easy to feel daunted; there just seems so much wrong with it. To get my mojo on, I find the simplest infelicity to fix, I fix it. Then I do it again. Everyone encounters code from time to time that she does not
Refactoring Pro-Tip: Easiest Nearest Owwie First Read More »
The geek trades suffer from an extreme paucity of culture, and a great many of the issues we see are the direct result of that cultural thinness. Culture is the air we breathe. Though we’re often quite unaware of it, it surrounds us, it shapes what we see & think & feel, and it is
Culture Starch: Thick and Thin Redux Read More »
Pro-Tip (Refactoring): Prioritize reading the code over learning about the application domain. Not so long ago, I worked with a team that was hacking a humongous (>3mloc) perl codebase with their main focus being performance. I set out to show them that the crazy crap I was showing them about TDD and refactoring would be
Pro-Tip (Refactoring): Prioritize Reading Code Read More »
TDD Pro-Tip: What we TDD most rigorously and faithfully is our branching logic. This is the insight one needs to start gaining TDD’s massive productivity benefit. All three terms are important, "our", "branching", and "logic", so let’s take them one at a time. Remember as we forge in to this: there is no free lunch,
Pro-Tip (TDD): Focus on Our Branching Logic Read More »
Working with people who don’t code very well is always a big anti-pairing boogeyman for folks, but working with people who don’t people very well is very much more difficult. Is there a skill-factor in pairing well? Sure there is: it’s the skill your mom invoked when she said, "Use your words, honey, use your
Coding Well And Peopling Well Read More »
