Positronic Vibrations

OK, if you don't like my rants, stop reading now. I've been trying to write this entry for a while without sounding venomous, but I just can't do it. But, I'll start with what I call "Get 'Er Done" programming. Now, I'm sure you've seen the highly annoying "cable guy" comedian that utters this despicable phrase. But, it's what I hear when I see lazy code written until it works. It's maddening I tell you! Basically, writing code until you can get a simple example to work and stopping there is lazy. Failure to look at the big picture should be punishable. But, I see examples of it littered everywhere.

Alright, you might ask what does "look at the big picture" mean exactly? What I mean is do proper analysis. Think about your problem before you write any code. I'm not advocating huge up-front design here, just thinking before you burn up your keyboard. It might also entail asking a few questions about the problem to fellow team mates and the user. It all depends on what your coding and your understanding. Looking at the big picture also means in making your code to be able to have future extensions that you can't anticipate. You might think this is impossible, but it's not. If you make the objects small, each one has a single responsibility, have good intention revealing names, and make small methods, then you have made your code extensible.

The whole point of this blog post is don't be lazy and make life difficult for the person that has to come behind you. Think about what you're doing and make your code easy to read. Remember there is always someone coming behind you that has to learn what you did. Make it obvious and show that you cared by going beyond the simple example. Well, looking back this wasn't so bad was it? Sometimes rewriting and thinking about what you write works too.

I'll end with a piece of advice: always re-read your code once you have written it and it works. You would be amazed at what you catch (misspelled words, uncalled methods, unused variables, etc). Of course, with today's tool this is quite easy. In fact, Eclipse can flag most of these with a warning, but it's still a good habit to read your code before you check-in. Let's stop "Get 'Er Done" coding today. Besides, only idiots write code that way and I know you are not an idiot, right?

Labels: programming, rant

posted by Blaine at 7:42 AM |  4 comments |  Post a Comment