Exploring Extreme Programming
In Greek mythology, Cassandra was cursed: her prophecies would be right, but nobody would believe her. Unfortunately, software teams are sometimes in the same position: they identify an upcoming problem, but can’t convince others that it needs to be addressed. Continue reading Cassandra Teams
Exceptions are one of the most complicated constructs in many languages. Because of that, testing exceptions is one of the harder tests to do. Consider the following code. Assume block1 through block3 are straight-line code, each ending with a statement Continue reading Testing Exceptions: Harder Than It Looks
A one-page summary of Refactoring is available in PDF. Refactoring is…? Changing the design of existing code without changing its observable behavior (per Martin Fowler). These changes include renaming, reducing duplication, rearranging code, and more. Even large refactorings are built Continue reading Refactoring, a Whole-Team Guide
Exceptions are complicated, so it’s no surprise that they can be misused. A “smell” describes potential problems; whether it’s really a problem is your judgment. Let’s look at smells you may find with exceptions. Empty Exception Handlers Java has the Continue reading Code Smells in Exceptions
How should we handle error conditions? We’ll look at the try-catch exception mechanism that’s similar across many languages, and a few patterns and pitfalls for working with it. Old-School One way of handling errors is for a method to have Continue reading Spooky Action at a Distance: Exceptions
Here are the the articles and videos I made last year. Key topics: user stories, refactoring, TDD, functional languages, and design. I’ve grouped them into these areas: My favorites: Want More?Have you found these articles useful or want more? * Continue reading 2021 Articles in Review
Operating System Principles, by Per Brinch Hansen. 1973. This is a classic book on operating systems – better than many of its successors. What I love about this book is that it comes just after an era of experimentation, when Continue reading Review: Operating System Principles
Immutability is the idea that once created, data never changes. Why might we want this? Avoid aliasing bugs: Aliasing occurs when there are multiple ways to access the same piece of data, and one piece changes it in a way Continue reading Immutable Objects
I recall a game design challenge where your only input is a pushbutton. What if your only input is a single textfield? Let’s look at what search engines have done under this limitation. That can give us ideas for intensifying Continue reading Intensifying Stories with Limited Input
Loop unrolling is a performance optimization where you repeat the inside of a loop to reduce the looping overhead. It’s also a way to get rid of loops, and we’ll look at an example from a test. While ⇒ If-While Continue reading Loop Unrolling: While ⇒ If-While