Becoming a Pragmatic Programmer

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Becoming a Pragmatic Programmer
Terry Cheng Nov 18, 2004
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• Why do I choose this topic
• What to expect for todays seminar
• What is a pragmatic programmer
• Why is becoming a pragmatic programmer so
  important
• The keys to becoming a pragmatic programmer

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What is a pragmatic programmer

• Useful, workable, and practical
• Care about you craft
• Think about your work

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Why is becoming an pragmatic programmer so
important

• What I have seen in the pass two years
• My view of Chinas Software Industrial
• Impact of quality of code in software development
  life cycle.
• Quality of code is not just no bugs
• It is important to your career

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The keys to becoming a pragmatic programmer

• Attitude and philosophy
• Practical tips for you day to day work
• Two main principles of writing good programs
• Other helpful hints
• It is all in your head

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Attitude, Style and Philosophy

• You have to care about what you produce
• You have to be proud of your work
• Willing to take responsibilities
• Attention to detail, yet have the big picture.
• Power of AND

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Behavior Tips

• Care about your craft
• Think about you work
• Provide option do not make excuses
• Do not live with Broken window
• Be a catalyst for changes

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Behavior Tips (cont.)

• Remember the big picture
• Think long term
• Make quality a requirement issue
• Invest regularly on your knowledge
• Critically analyze what you hear and read
• Not just what you say, also the way you say it
• Always think about maintenance and performance

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Programming tips,Avoid duplication Code, doc, data

• Imposed duplication
• Project Standard, Multiple platforms, Language,..
  
• Use of Macro, filter, code generator,.
• Documentation in code, only lowest level
• Document and code
• Language Issue

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Programming tips,Avoid duplication Code, doc, data

• Inadvertent duplication
• Mistakes in design, modeling
• Normalize data, avoid derived data
• Isolated duplication to the inner layer
• Example

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Programming tips,Avoid duplication Code, doc, data

• Inter-developer duplication
• Large team, parallel development
• Communication, centralize documentation,
  frequently low level design review.
• Just ask for it.

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Programming tips,Avoid duplication Code, doc, data

• Impatient duplication
• Laziness, taking shirt cut
• Resist temptation, keep big picture and long term
  view.

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Programming tips (Be orthogonal)

• Eliminate effects between unrelated things
• Gain productivity
• Reduce risk
• How to maintain orthogonal
• Design independent, well-defined components.
• Keep code decoupled
• Avoid global data
• Avoid similar functions, refactor when it is
  necessary
• Validate with unit test

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Design and planning

• Trace bullet
• Prototype
• Unit test
• Push decision to runtime

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When you code

• Code need to be easy to test
• Little accumulate can become huge
• Do not program by coincidence
• Do not assume, if you do not have choice, assume
  worst and doc them
• Do not be slave of history
• Refactor early, often. Make sure you have test
  before refactor
• Finish what you start
• Decouple wit balance

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Few important believes

• Quality is number 1. 1,10,100 rule
• 1,10,100 rule apply to everywhere
• Maintenance cost is higher than development
• Chinas software future is in you hands, start
  with be a Pragmatic Programmer

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QA

• Before we start, 2 direction of your career