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Re: Programming Mantras

by djantzen (Priest)
on Jan 21, 2002 at 06:45 UTC ( [id://140291]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Programming Mantras

"Hmmmm, Mountain Dew.... Hmmmmm,..."

Actually, I find myself reflecting a lot on what future maintainers of my code will think of what I'm writing. Every programmer has inherited code that's a nightmare to look at, and sometimes we get lucky and find an example of forward thinking design, where the author obviously thought hard about making the software flexible and clean in the knowledge that somebody else down the line would most likely have to augment or modify it.

I want to be the guy that future developers see as having made their jobs easier by coding thoughtfully. Conversely I don't want to be the guy that they think about and shake their heads, like the original (and long gone) programmer at my last job whom we roundly mocked for doing things like declaring every single damn member function virtual in some deeply misguided attempt to write flexible code.

I don't know that this translates into mantra per se, but it is a recurring thought that guides much of my work.

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Re: Re: Programming Mantras
by redsquirrel (Hermit) on Jan 21, 2002 at 08:17 UTC
    I relate a lot to fever's recurring thought. I have inherited tons of hacked-up, dangerously insecure, bloated Perl scripts, and I do not ever want to do that to anyone else.

    Like fever, I want to make future developers' jobs easier. But I want to make their jobs so much easier, they won't even realize it was easy. By designing systems, programs and scripts that anticipate future changes, future coders will be able to extend and modify without putting too much thought into the existing code and focus solely on what they're trying to do.

    Current mantra: What would I think of this code if I needed to make a change and I wasn't a Perl expert?

    Once my current mantra is absorbed into my subconscious sufficiently, I'd like my next mantra to be: Can I think abstractly enough about this task that I could write a CPAN-worthy module for it?

    --Dave

Re: Re: Programming Mantras
by digiryde (Pilgrim) on Jan 21, 2002 at 12:50 UTC

    I find myself thinking in similar patterns. I try to always be aware of the bigger picture the code is fitting into. I can not count the umber of times in twenty years I ran across code that prevented some function from happening in its current incarnation, or how often I found the same logic in multiple places using different code.

    I also try to remember who my future audience is by what platform they develop on (primarily). I tend to see things written differently by big iron, *nix developers and M$ developers.</p?

    I liken my thinking to: Is this all I am? Is there nothing more?

    Of course, this mantra does have a limit before it becomes a project killer. ;-)

    Digiryde

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