Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer

Post by mosselman » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 6:34 PM UTC

lmm wrote: post #168

dbingham wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I would add this whole comment to the list of "absolute truths" juniors unlearn as they get more experience. And I would also point to the original post's point that types of experience matter - just because you're early 30s doesn't necessary mean you've had the right experience. If you still believe this, then - to be brutally honest - I would question the quality of the teams you've worked with. Comments…

> If you still believe this, then - to be brutally honest - I would question the quality of the team's you've worked with. To be equally brutally honest: right back at you. I would trust the quality of those I've worked with over those who believe in comments, any day of the week. My point was simply that I started as a believer in comments when I was more junior, and became anti-comment through experience. So even i…

Post by polyterative » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 6:38 PM UTC

Gibbon1 wrote: post #257

mbreese wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me, any code that I wrote more than 3 weeks, I forgot. That's why I comment the hell out of my code. I couldn't agree more. A while back I got in the habit of trying to write code for "me, six-months from now". So, if I think I can explain it to "future me", then I'm happy. Ever since I started doing that, I've been much happier with "past me"'s code. In addition to comments (particularly around hard to grok co…

I write notes to my future self all the time. Meta comment: This is bullshit and has problems with this that and the other thing. But to fix that I'd have to refactor this other module and I'm not going to do that now. And the other thing I'm drawing a blank. Meta comment2: I don't think the code needs to do this here. But I can't prove it right now. Meta comment3: We absolutely need to do this exactly as it is. Beca…

Post by JamesBarney » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 6:39 PM UTC

lmm wrote: post #111

docker_up wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Understood as senior: Legacy code that I wrote myself is hard to read. For me, any code that I wrote more than 3 weeks, I forgot. That's why I comment the hell out of my code. The younger programmers have routinely told me "commented code means the code isn't very good." I chuckle and ignore them and wait for them to hit their mid-30s and older.

Early 30s here and I've realised that comments are worse than useless most of the time. Nothing enforces that the comment is correct, so a significant proportion of comments will be false, so no comments can be relied upon. Descriptive types, clear tests, and sensible variable names are much more effective strategies for making code understandable. Comments should be a last-resort stopgap.

Post by jdewald » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 6:42 PM UTC

CuriouslyC wrote: post #182

taneq wrote: post #7

The big one for me was the realisation that the code doesn't matter . I mean sure, it does, to us. It's what we do. But really, code doesn't matter. To the end user, what matters is that we solve their problem. We let them do their job, and we make that job as easy as possible. And that's what they pay us for. And to the company we work for, what matters is that we solve the end user's problem, and that we do so in a…

Uh, the code does matter in almost all circumstances. That's because in most cases you're not so much solving something unsolved as providing a lower cost solution via software. The cost of the software (both in terms of initial development and ongoing maintenance) is a factor. If your problem domain is totally mapped out, maybe any solution that is quick to implement will work. If your problem domain is in any way n…

Post by jiveturkey » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 6:44 PM UTC

reymus wrote: post #260

edw519 wrote: post #150

Excellent article! Thank you, Monica. You just put into words a whole bunch of stuff that I always "sensed" but never "said". After spending 7 million years (it sure seems like it) cleaning up the most vile garbage code you could possibly imagine, I'd like to elaborate on this: Architecture is more important than nitpicking. While a small line of code could be improved, the stuff that tends to cause bigger problems d…

> - early exits to hell that can only be fixed by rewriting What do you mean by that?

  if (a) {
    do_something();
    return;
  } else if (b) {
    do_something();
    if (something_else() == -1) {
      return;
    }
  }
  
  do_other_things();
  
  maybe_exit_here();
  
  maybe_keep_going();