"Simple Ways To Be A Better Programmer' as presented at OSCON 2007 by Michael G Schwern. The audio is still out of sync, working on it. Downloading will be available once the sync is done.

1. Simple Ways
To Be A
Better Programmer
Michael G Schwern
schwern@pobox.com

2. Discussion Session
D135 @ 5:30pm

4. #!/usr/bin/perl -s
$;=$/;seek+DATA,!++$/,!$s;$_=<DATA>;$s&&print||$g&&do{$y=($x||=20)*($y||8);sub
i{sleep&f}sub'p{print$;x$=,join$;,$b=~/.{$x}/g}$j=$j;sub'f{pop}sub
n{substr($b,&f%$y,3)=~tr,O,O,}sub'g{$f=&f-1;($w,$w,substr($b,&f,1),O)[n($f-$x)+
n($x+$f)-(substr($b,&f,1)eq+O)+n$f]||$w}$w=quot;40quot;;$b=join'',@ARGV?<>:$_,$w
x$y;$b=~s).)$&=~/w/?O:$w)ge;substr($b,$y)=q++;$g='$i=0;$i?$b:$c=$b;
substr+$c,$i,1,g$i;$g=~s?d+?($&+1)%$y?e;$i-$y+1?eval$g:do{$i=-1;$b=$c;p;i
1}';sub'e{eval$g;&e}e}||eval||die+No.$;
__DATA__
if($j){{$^W=$|;*_=sub{$=+s=#([A-z])(.*)#=#$+$1#=g}}
@s=(q[$_=sprintf+pop@s,@s],q[
if($j){{$^W=$|;*_=sub{$=+s=#([A-z])(.*)#=#$+$1#=g}} #_The_Perl_Journal_#
@s=(q[%s],q[%s])x2;%s;printquot;nquot;x&_,$_;i$j;eval}
])x2;$_=sprintf+pop@s,@s;printquot;nquot;x&_,$_;i$j;eval}$/=$y;$quot;=quot;,quot;;print
q<#!/usr/local/bin/perl -sw
if(!$s){>.($_=<>).q<}else{@s=(q[printf+pop@s,@s],q[#!/usr/local/bin/perl -sw
if(!$s){>.(s$%$%%$g,tr=[=[===tr=]=]=||&d,$_).q<}else{@s=(q[%s],q[%s])x2;%s}
])x2;printf+pop@s,@s}
>

7. Beyond syntax

8. Tools for the
toolbox

9. Easy To Do

10. Hard To Screw Up

11. Independent

12. You can do them
alone

15. Computer Science
+
People
=
Software Development

19. Why learn?

21. Cross-training is
sexay

25. know

26. Don’t know

27. Don’t know you
don’t know

28. “I don’t know”

29. “Tell me about it”

30. Why

31. New things
mean failure

37. New versions

38. Hang out with
other folks who
learn

39. Join the
community

40. Broadcast your
problem

41. Go be stupid

42. Learn a really
different
language

44. Look it up
yourself

46. Wikipedia

47. Relevant blogs

48. Tech-specific
search sites

51. > Thank you for your note. Opera is
> not a supported browser.

52. Why not? I see absolutely no reason to
exclude Opera from the list of
supported browsers.
When I tell Opera to ID as Firefox, it
works as expected. No patches needed.
So please get back in sync with the
real world and also enable Opera.

53. Topic for #eve is: Corp meeting on Vent: Saturday 14th and 21st
at 16:00 EVE time. All hands on deck! :-)

54. <wibble> Announcing quot;all hands on deckquot; without announcing *why* is not
useful.
<wibble> I get enough shit from work, I certainly don't need any more
from a corp on Eve.
<wibble> just irritated at people telling me what I *have* to do.

55. On Wed, May 09, 2007 at 08:34:52PM -0700, Michael G Schwern wrote:
> I'm sorry, but that's the automated failure report from CPAN::Reporter.
> I was doing an automated install.

56. What can I do to force automated junk mailers
to follow my policy of bug reports?

57. Speak with the CPAN::Reporter folks about what you would like to see in the
failed install report. Perhaps they can add in the Makefile.PL and make
output to the automatic report. This would be helpful, especially for
complicated builds like yours. Perhaps you could change your test
files so they automatically output the diagnostics you want on failure rather
than rely on the user to sift through the INSTALL docs to find the special
instructions

59. “You’re right”

60. someone screwed up the plan in
one of Encode's tests.

63. +1
0
-1

65. Bitching
is not
doing

66. Means

67. Ends

68. Be Available

70. Design <-> Code

71. Interface -> User

75. Get it out of
your head

76. Documentation

77. Wiki

78. Tickets

81. How are you?

82. Having fun?

83. Feel ok?

87. Fear-based Programming

88. Fear of change

89. Fear of bugs

90. Fear of getting fired

91. Small Chunks

92. Testing

93. Test first

94. Test during

95. Test automaticly

96. Stay at 100%

97. Effective
Version
Control

98. Code

99. Test

100. Commit

101. How much?

102. One Thing

103. One Source Of Breakage

104. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
r32185: schwern | 2007-06-29 18:22:55 -0700
Need a blank line preceeding POD directives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
=== local/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Builder.pm
==================================================================
--- local/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Builder.pm (revision 32184)
+++ local/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Builder.pm (revision 32185)
@@ -983,6 +983,7 @@
# I'm not ready to publish this. It doesn't deal with array return
# values from the code or context.
+
=begin private
=item B<_try>

105. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
r27706: schwern | 2007-03-16 15:19:55 -0700
Add a test to ensure an object can lie about being an IO::Handle.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
=== local/Test-Simple/t/is_fh.t
==================================================================
--- local/Test-Simple/t/is_fh.t (revision 27705)
+++ local/Test-Simple/t/is_fh.t (revision 27706)
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
}
use strict;
-use Test::More tests => 10;
+use Test::More tests => 11;
use TieOut;
ok( !Test::Builder->is_fh(quot;fooquot;), 'string is not a filehandle' );
@@ -34,3 +34,15 @@
unless defined *OUT{IO};
ok( Test::Builder->is_fh(*OUT{IO}) );
}
+
+
+package Lying::isa;
+
+sub isa {
+ my $self = shift;
+ my $parent = shift;
+
+ return 1 if $parent eq 'IO::Handle';
+}
+
+::ok( Test::Builder->is_fh(bless {}, quot;Lying::isaquot;));

106. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
r27705: schwern | 2007-03-16 15:10:39 -0700
Comment about the nature of the filehandle in is_fh() was backwards.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
=== local/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Builder.pm
==================================================================
--- local/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Builder.pm (revision 27704)
+++ local/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Builder.pm (revision 27705)
@@ -1025,8 +1025,8 @@
my $maybe_fh = shift;
return 0 unless defined $maybe_fh;
- return 1 if ref $maybe_fh eq 'GLOB'; # its a glob
- return 1 if ref $maybe_fh eq 'GLOB'; # its a glob ref
+ return 1 if ref $maybe_fh eq 'GLOB'; # its a glob ref
+ return 1 if ref $maybe_fh eq 'GLOB'; # its a glob
return eval { $maybe_fh->isa(quot;IO::Handlequot;) } ||
# 5.5.4's tied() and can() doesn't like getting undef

107. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
r26467: schwern | 2006-12-24 12:36:01 -0800
Typo
----------------------------------------------------------------------
=== local/Test-Simple/Changes
==================================================================
--- local/Test-Simple/Changes (revision 26466)
+++ local/Test-Simple/Changes (revision 26467)
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
0.66 Sun Dec 3 15:25:45 PST 2006
- - Restore 5.4.5 compatibility (unobe@cpan.org) [rt.cpanorg 20513]
+ - Restore 5.4.5 compatibility (unobe@cpan.org) [rt.cpan.org 20513]
0.65 Fri Nov 10 10:26:51 CST 2006

108. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
r17879: schwern | 2006-09-04 01:15:12 -0700
* Made most of the error messages report in the caller's context.
[rt.cpan.org #20639]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
=== local/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Builder.pm
==================================================================
--- local/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Builder.pm (revision 17878)
+++ local/Test-Simple/lib/Test/Builder.pm (revision 17879)
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
$$data = ${$_[0]};
}
else {
- die quot;Unknown type: quot;.$type;
+ die(quot;Unknown type: quot;.$type);
}
$_[0] = &threads::shared::share($_[0]);
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
${$_[0]} = $$data;
}
else {
- die quot;Unknown type: quot;.$type;
+ die(quot;Unknown type: quot;.$type);
}
return $_[0];
@@ -247,8 +247,7 @@
return unless $cmd;
if( $self->{Have_Plan} ) {
- die sprintf quot;You tried to plan twice! Second plan at %s line %dnquot;,
- ($self->caller)[1,2];
+ $self->croak(quot;You tried to plan twicequot;);
}
...

109. Task branches

110. BDUF

111. Refactoring

112. JIT Design

113. Rename

114. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $arg = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$argquot;>/;
}
if ( my $arg = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($arg eq 'text') {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
$content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$argquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

115. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $arg = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$argquot;>/;
}
if ( my $arg = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($arg eq 'text') {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
$content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$argquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

116. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
$content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

117. Extract

118. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
$content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

119. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
$content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

120. if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
$content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}

121. if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
$content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}

122. method _content_as_text ($content) {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
my $formatted_content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
return $formatted_content;
}

123. if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
$content = $self->_content_as_text($content);
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}

124. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
$content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

125. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
$content = $self->_content_as_text($content);
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

126. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
$content = $self->_content_as_text($content);
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

127. method _format_content ($format, $content) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
return $self->_content_as_text($content);
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}

128. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
$content = $self->_content_as_text($content);
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

129. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
$content = $self->_format_content($format, $content);
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

130. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
$content = $self->_format_content($format, $content);
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

131. method _check_unhandled_parms (%parms) {
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
}

132. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
$content = $self->_format_content($format, $content);
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

133. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
$content = $self->_format_content($format, $content);
}
$self->_check_unhandled_parms(%parms);
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

134. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
$content = $self->_format_content($format, $content);
}
$self->_check_unhandled_parms(%parms);
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

135. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
$content = $self->_format_content($format, $content);
}
$self->_check_unhandled_parms(%parms);
}
return $content;
}

136. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
if ($format eq 'text') {
require HTML::TreeBuilder;
my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
$tree->parse($content);
$tree->eof();
$tree->elementify(); # just for safety
$content = $tree->as_text();
$tree->delete;
}
else {
$self->die( qq{Unknown quot;formatquot; parameter quot;$formatquot;} );
}
}
for my $cmd ( sort keys %parms ) {
$self->die( qq{Unknown named argument quot;$cmdquot;} );
}
} # is HTML
return $content;
}

137. method content () {
my $content = $self->{content};
if ( $self->is_html ) {
my %parms = @_;
if ( exists $parms{base_href} ) {
my $base_href = (delete $parms{base_href}) || $self->base;
$content =~ s/<head>/<head>n<base href=quot;$base_hrefquot;>/;
}
if ( my $format = delete $parms{format} ) {
$content = $self->_format_content($format, $content);
}
$self->_check_unhandled_parms(%parms);
}
return $content;
}

138. Revealing Reuse

139. refactoring.com

140. Simplest Thing

141. Optimizing

142. Rule #1

143. Rule #1: Don’t!

144. Complicates

145. Wastes Time

146. Rule #2

147. Rule #2: Don’t do it yet!

148. Does it work?

149. Is it tested?

150. Is it documented?

151. How fast?

152. Throw Hardware

153. Rule #3

154. Rule #3: Profile First!

155. Rule #4

156. Rule #4: Better Algorithm

157. Rule #5

159. Estimating

161. Feedback

162. Mini Milestones

163. • Get account activated
• Make simple test purchase
• Handle invalid expiration date
• Handle invalid address
• Record transactions
• Associate item with purchase
• Simple user form

164. Quatloos

165. Get Out Of
Technical Debt
NOW!

166. Form

167. Functionality

168. Separate

169. People

170. Small Chunky Pieces

171. Thank You

172. Gabrielle

173. Candy

174. Selena

175. Keith

176. Everyone I pestered

177. Discussion Session
D135 @ 5:30pm