How to code in the XXI century without

losing your head@rene_olivo

The problem with programming today

Noises that stop you from delivering a

quality product

Quality Product

● Uses the Agile methodology to meet the product needs in a series of timely deliveries

● Can be easily reproduced in dev and production environments

● The codebase is well written and organized which allows changes to be implemented with ease

● Is resilient to changes through testing

● Is built with the precise amount of craftsmanship that suits the product scope

Types of noise

● Your programming language sucks

● If you are not using this new framework you are doing it wrong

● Your code is not optimized

● Your code editor and keyboard layout suck

● TDD is dead

● OOP is dead, long live Functional

● Tabs, 4 spaces, and semicolons are the work of the devil

● If you don't know math you are a bad programmer

"Your programming language sucks" noise

● People will always be chewing on you because of your programming language choice. Block that noise.

● Learn when to use the appropriate language for the appropriate task.

"Out with the old, in with the new" noise (p1).

● Implementing new technologies makes you a digital frontier pioneer.

● Less resources.

● Less tutorials and documentation.

● Harder to put together a team of experts.

● There won't be any "best practices" available.

"Out with the old, in with the new" noise (p2).

● Unknown challenges after moving on from the "todo" example.

● What's good for Google, Facebook, or Microsoft may not be good for your project or startup.

"Optimization" noise

● Don't over-invest on optimization.

● Learn about cache, load balancing, replication, and other High Availability techniques.

● Learn about queuing systems and how to connect apps through messaging pipes.

"Your code editor sucks" noise

● Code is not meant to be written at the speed of light, it's meant to be read with ease.

● Don't fall for the console editors hype, your code editor is fine.

● Learning a new keyboard layout will take time and will yield nothing.

"TDD is dead" noise

● Stop being lazy, testing is necessary.

● More unit testing, some integration, less E2E.

"OOP is dead" noise

● People have been killing OOP since the 90s, it's not going to die. OOP has its flaws, but it's the best we have.

● Use functional where it makes sense, don't overuse it.

"Tabs VS Spaces" noise

● Use a linter and a code editor that supports lint files.

● Find a lint file that suits your project and team and stick with it.

"Math Envy" noise

● Programming has more to do with Cervantes and less to do with Newton.

● Mastering math helps you solve math problems with ease.

● Math tasks are sparse.

● Data structures are heavily used.

● Algorithm knowledge is more helpful.

Thanks for listening.