Coding Philosophy

A collection of 102 posts

Coding Philosophy

Normalize Paying For Open Source Tools

If we want our favorite Open Source tools to continue to be maintained we need to start supporting the maintainers.

Coding Philosophy

The LabVIEW Experiment

You may have heard rumors that I started a podcast. "The LabVIEW Experiment" is a place to discuss how to improve our craft and make coding fun again.

Coding Philosophy

Be The Developer Everyone Wants On Their Team

How can you become the developer that everyone wants on their team? Here are a couple ideas.

Coding Philosophy , Legacy Code

Thoughts On Rewrite Vs Refactor

Rewrite or Refactor? Every developer has faced that choice. What should you consider in making your decision?

Coding Philosophy

Maxims to Code By

Maxims are little phrases that we use to remind ourselves of what is important. Here are some that I use when writing code.

Coding Philosophy

Effective Time Management

As coders, we often like to work in large blocks of time, but that's not the only way. Here are some other techniques that can help.

Coding Philosophy

What does being a software architect mean?

I was recently asked: "What does being a software architect mean?" Here is my answer.

Coding Philosophy , Conferences

Improving the Human Experience

We don't write code for the compiler or the CPU. We write it for other human beings. Both user and developer experience are crucial.

Coding Philosophy

Tackling Problems From Both Ends

The best way of tackling a problem is often from both ends, ie top-down and bottom-up.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy , DevOps

Thinking in Systems

This book is a recipe for social and organizational change. It is about predicting and influencing the complex systems we've built.

Coding Philosophy

The importance of common language

In order to see things, it is important to have words to describe them. Words are how our brains categorize and store knowledge.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy , DevOps

The Phoenix Project

The Phoenix Project is a must-read book for anyone who works in technology. If you have ever worked in a larger company you will immediately identify with the situation described at the beginning of the book. You have an overworked IT department that seems disorganized and is always behind on

Coding Philosophy

Small Steps in Context

I've written before about breaking changes down into smaller chunks to make things more manageable, but we still have to take into account the context.

Coding Philosophy

The Arc of a Developer

In my recent interview for Legacy Code Rocks, I talked about the arc of a developer. I feel like there is this trajectory that people that go on over their careers. It's the learning and growth path that developers tend to follow.

Coding Philosophy

It's OK to Cringe

Cringing at your old code is actually a good thing. It implies that you've learned something. It is something to celebrate.

Interviews , Coding Philosophy , Legacy Code

Legacy Code Rocks

I was recently interviewed by Scott and Andrea of Legacy Code Rocks. We had a really great conversation about software engineering and dealing with legacy code. We hit on some important topics. It is worth taking a listen.

Sam On Joel , Coding Philosophy

Painless Functional Specs Part 1

This Joel article came out after the Joel Test. One of the aspects of the Joel Test is having a spec. Apparently, Joel got some pushback on that so he launched into a series of articles on Painless Functional Specs. This is the first. A Product of It’s Time

Coding Philosophy

Do we really need more features?

Adding features adds complexity to our program. Is this new feature really worth it? We should be asking this question more often.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy

XP Explained

This book is considered a classic for a reason. It’s inspired a lot of coders over the years. I think the first time I had heard about it was from Stephen Loftus Mercer talking about pair programming. I’ve heard a lot about XP over the years since then

Software Engineering , Coding Philosophy

Premature Reuse

Premature Optimization Premature Optimization is a phrase that is often heard in software engineering. It’s where you envision some potential performance bottleneck, so as you are writing the code, you go out of your way to create the most optimum code (ie written in a way that the compiler

Coding Philosophy

Its Already Hard, Don't Make It Worse.

I was ice climbing with a buddy once in the Adirondacks We had hiked up to the bottom of Multiplication Gully, which is a very popular climb. It was 25 degrees out, but it’s a steep approach and we were carrying heavy packs so we hiked up in long

Coding Philosophy

Rituals

Rituals are an important part of humanity. We’ve been performing them for years. They serve a purpose. They help us to form good habits. As everyday examples, you probably have rituals around brushing your teeth or around washing your hands. There are certain triggers that you use to tell

Coding Philosophy

Probably Are Gonna Need It (PAGNI)

YAGNI Software engineers like acronyms. It makes it easy to remember and refer to certain ideas. You’ve likely heard the acronym YAGNI, which stands for “You Ain’t Gonna Need It.” The premise behind this is that as software engineers, we have a tendency to overengineer things. We often

Unit Testing , How to , Coding Philosophy

How I use Test-Driven Development (TDD)

A lot of people out there are very dogmatic about Test Driven Development. There’s a lot rules and a lot of very strong opinions. If you don’t believe me, go check out Twitter. While on Twitter, I saw GeePaw Hill’s Ten I statements about TDD. It inspired

Coding Philosophy , Legacy Code

Fixing Legacy Code: Missing The Forest For The Trees

Sometimes I wonder if we are missing the point by fixing legacy code. It’s not that we shouldn’t fix bad code when we encounter it, but it’s more a feeling of we’re missing an important opportunity. Let’s start with something that you may be familiar