Ask HN: How’d you go from a noodler to writing large well structured programs?

Definitely have come along way from the first web app I wrote. Can't say it was not without a lot of writing echo 'test'; to see exactly where the error was, though of course, most frameworks tell you exactly where the error is now, but it helps with testing and debugging.

I do a lot more brainstorming in the beginning, designing of the web app, and then actual coding. It's really just practice. Learning how to keep your code organized and understandable for yourself. Write as if someone is looking over your code and isn't as smart as you :P

Look at structural and behavioral patterns on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_design_pattern

Facade, strategy , adapter, etc.

Also think about "levelization" John lakos explains that clearly.

This point cannot be underemphasized.

There's no end of stuff you can read online about better practices, these days. But those experience I had working with people who, without so much taking "pity" on me, took me seriously, despite my obvious naivete in certain areas - I'm not sure whether I would have gotten anywhere at all without them.

After having them read the book and then following up with code reviews from a senior developer they improved their code significantly in just a few months.

"Refactoring" is also a good book, but a lot of time it is too advanced for people who copy and paste code all over and don't use functions, etc.