The Developers code - What real programmers do

The Developer’s code - What real programmers do

• Follow metaphors with care - Metaphors/analogies are good for understand things in more familiar way. But taking it too far can lead to bad decisions. Something that works really well in some other area/field might not work in software. Hence, when you talk of analogy or somebody uses metaphor to describe things, be very careful.

• Don’t get clutched in planning - In fields like construction, cost of redoing something is high and that of a mistake is much higher. But in our field cost of redoing is much less and that of a mistake depends on area of work. Hence, it is not required that everything be sorted beforehand. Don’t hesistate to experiment with things and find out a practical and legitimate solution for a problem.

• It makes sense for architect to involve in development activities - One can think of best design patterns, best architecture, best practices, but myraid of real challenges uncover only when you are deep into code. Hence, defining an architecture/design shoud be an ongoing activity where you need to refine OR redefine your architecture/design from time to time depending on problem horizon. At worse, you may also have to update your spec in corner cases.

• Make work exciting by avoiding duplicacy - Automated build tools, code sanitizers, code format checkers, code generators, sanity testers and many more can be invented to make work more fun doing.

• Don’t keep commented code - You can always get back the commented code from version control.

• Specialization matters - Though you may know various adjacent areas of technology, keep one or two area of specialization as key.

• Imperfection is a bliss - Always strive for excellence, not perfection. Perfection is an endless pursuit of a illusional goal.

Author doesn’t have much experience in variety of fields. It doesn’t seem to be worthy to read it completely.