Posts tagged with programming
Organizing code is a core skill for software developers and as with all skills the most effective way to improve is to reflect on your previous choices and the fallout from them. There are a wide array of different strategies for organizing code and learning to recognize both the useful and the dangerous ones is very important.https://medium.com/@msandin/strategies-for-organizing-code-2c9d690b6f33#.3fcr619nk
When starting out programming many developers are quite happy when their code just works. More seasoned programmers know that making working code is just a first step. Not improving your initial code will lead to professional suicide (not my phrasing, I'm sure I've read this in a book at some point).
In an article on his blog, Colin DeCarlo demonstrates how an initial solution can be vastly improved in just a few iterations.
From time to time a friend and I play a programming game that I consider to be a version of Code Golf. Typically, the goal of Code Golf is to solve some challenge using as little bytes as possible. In the version of the game we play however, the limitation is the use of certain language features. Specifically, we try to use as little variables, conditionals and explicit loops as possible.The focus in the article is on removing conditionals, and limiting the use of variables. Keep in mind that, in most cases, this shouldn't be your main goal. Maximizing the readabilty is what your should pursue. Don't try to be too clever or terse. In some cases limiting conditionals and variables goes hand in hand with improving readability, in other cases not. It all depends on context....
My method to accomplishing these challenges is to first write the algorithm in the simplest, most straight forward manner and then chip away at that solution until I’ve satisfied the challenge conditions.
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Matthias Noback posted the third part of his "programming guidelines series".
In this article we'll zoom out a bit and look at how to properly organize the lifecycle of our objects, from creating them to changing them, letting them pass away and bringing them back from the dead.https://www.ibuildings.nl/blog/2016/02/programming-guidelines-part-3-the-life-and-death-objects
Matthias Noback published the second article in his programming guidelines series. This time he explains why using null in a function isn't a good idea. In my opinion it's great advice that most devs can immediately apply in their projects.
It's certainly a good idea to get rid of the uncertainty and vagueness that null brings to your code. Besides, most of the time when you encounter an actual null value in your program, you probably weren't expecting it. You just call a method on it, thinking that it is an object and PHP will rightfully let your program crash.https://www.ibuildings.nl/blog/2016/01/programming-guidelines-php-developers-part-2-getting-rid-null...
Every particular null situation requires a different solution, but at least I'll list several common solutions for you.
Correctly naming things is the most difficult programming task (except for documenting). However, this is only because we often afford these tasks insufficient consideration. As with most things, the more we do it the easier it becomes. In this article we will discover how to choose correct names for our methods.http://codelegance.com/semantic-method-naming/
Phil Sturgeon, who has contributed to numerous valuable PHP related projects, is doing Ruby nowadays. In an article he wrote for Sitepoint compares Ruby with PHP.
... I thought it would be interesting to have a slightly more fair comparison, from the perspective of someone who really enjoys writing both PHP and Ruby, and has done so for years. The aim here is not to find out which is “better”, but to point out a few key things I like about Ruby and its ecosystem.http://www.sitepoint.com/php-vs-ruby-lets-all-just-get-along/
I present you with the taxonomy of terrible software developers, the ecosystem of software critters and creatures who add a whole new meaning to the concept of “defensive programming.”http://www.aaronstannard.com/the-taxonomy-of-terrible-programmers/At one point or another, every programmer exists as at least one of these archetypes – the good ones see these bad habits in themselves and work to fix them over time. The bad ones… simply are.
When I first made my transition from front-end development into back-end development in ~2002, I had two things to learn: a server-side language and how to talk to a database (SQL)http://alexking.org/blog/2015/05/14/web-development-now-complicated
Times have changed.
Is a million lines of code a lot? How many lines are there in Windows? Facebook? iPhone apps?http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/million-lines-of-code/
There are many falsehoods programmers believe about geography, about addresses, about names and about time.