5 BEST PRACTICES FOR
DEVELOPMENT
5 best practices for (web/ software) development

ERWIN ELLING

@erwinelling
“passionate web versatilist”

5 BEST PRACTICES

1:
MODEL
VIEW
CONTROLLER
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wardofsky/2350781947/

we use the django framework (for python)

there’s also rails (for ruby)

and e.g. cakephp (for php)
also other frameworks (non-MVC) save lots of time: ARP (for flash), jquery & prototype (for javascript), ...
trend towards more and more abstraction and more human readable code

models

url dispatcher

controllers (called views in django; django prefers to call their framework: MTV)

view (template in django)

2: DO NOT
REINVENT
THE WHEEL
http://www.flickr.com/photos/european_patent_office/3364865051
reuse the stuff that’s readily available

DJANGOSNIPPETS
django pluggables for code

google groups for help

do not develop it yourself when it’s already available: ning

wordpress

again frameworks: pinax, framework (combination of apss) on top of django

used pinax for jijmaaktgeschiedenis.nu
wanted to add twitter...

someone else had done most of the work for me

hardly had to code myself: just added this; easy

3: DEVELOPMENT
INFRASTRUCTURE & VERSION
CONTROL
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11397615@N00/3306159672/
different environments in your infrastructure
Development, Test, Acceptance, Production
In Dutch OTAP: Ontwikkel, Test, Acceptatie, Productie

http://www.flickr.com/photos/parsingphase/3294364709/
version control, e.g. SVN, git, mercurial

blame someone for mistakes! oops, i did it again

let the person who makes mistakes pay for the team’s beers!

4: AUTOMATE http://www.flickr.com/photos/denis_fox/3537539725/
think about how many repetitive tasks you perform!

this doesn’t look as much work, but i made some faults and have to do this 10 times a day
now i can do this with one command!

use shortcuts for repeatable tasks

capistrano (in ruby)
e.g. for automating deployment and testing
rollbacks when things go wrong

buildout, in python

automation is good for avoiding problems. letting people fool around while sudo’ing is dangerous

e.g. sudo rm -rf
oops!

5: CLEAN CODE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ezu/277341190/
costs some time at first, saves lots of time later

comments

refactor, refactor, refactor
no todo’s in code
get rid of ugly stuff
no hacks to “solve” problems

how many fucks in google code?

DRY
http://www.flickr.com/photos/plinton/21543765220
Don’t
Repeat
Yourself

fat models, skinny controllers

pair programming, code reviews, read other’s code