Recently at Sergata we had several customers with an already deployed live production
system who needed our consulting. We started to notice recurring theme among those
production systems:
1. They all hired freelancer developers to do a POC/Demo/phase1 version who later
evolved into their production systems in order to reduce cost.
2. Their existing code base might have been ok for a POC but in production system it
simply didn’t provide the reliability and maintainability a production system should
have.
3. There was a direct correlation between features/bugs ratio and the implementation
of “very well known” best practices.
So I decided to make a short “10 trivial commandments” list for all the eager developers
out there.
The 10 commandments for the eager developer
Think
1. Before writing code spend some time thinking about what you are going to do - the
time spent should be in direct correlation with the scope of the problem you are about
to solve - don’t over or under analyze.
Don’t write code if you don’t have to
2. Don’t write code - no code contains no bugs and takes no time to write
The more code you write the more bugs you will have the more time you will spend
reading your code later on - this piece of code you just wrote thinking you will never
have to read again will hunt you in the future - you have been warned.
Before writing code make sure it’s needed to be written; a short trip to Google can
save you from reinventing the wheel and finding out it has to be circular…
3. Code duplication
No code should be written twice, period. - factor it out.
4. Gold plate when you have gold
Adding this cool animation to entertain the user while using the latest and greatest
Core Animation framework is fun and educational just make sure you have everything
else in order before delving into the land of gold.
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Put stuff where they belong
5. Divide and conquer
In the real world encapsulation and compartmentalization comes naturally - when
coding chaos tend to creep in - refractor if needed.
6. Hard coding
Hard coding is the root of all evil, everything that is not logic shouldn’t be in your code
that includes - most strings, magic numbers, user default settings etc.
7. MVC - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller
Logic and GUI go really well together - until you will have to change your code…
Remember
8. Comment where needed
Generally speaking in few weeks time when you will have to read your code you will
remember way less than you think you will - write comments - at least for your
modules and functions.
This elegant creative algorithm you just wrote might not look as elegant in few weeks.
9. Add logging to your application - it helps during development and saves your butt
when your application/web service is in production.
10. Version control
Control your versions - (I.E. http://subversion.tigris.org)
The author is a Project Manager at Sergata Ltd.
Sergata is a software company specializing in the development of innovative
technologies, with an emphasis on the web environment and the video field.
The company provides solutions for all project aspects, beginning with the concept
definition and the system requirements specification, through the design,
development, QA tests and launching to end users.
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