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How to be a better programmer in 6 minutes

secretgeek.net

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Re: How to be a better programmer in 6 minutes

#11

Post by scott_s »

ktharavaad wrote: post #3

One thing that really helped me when I code is to switch to a real "coding font". Wile the default monospace font on OSX (monaco) is fine, I find that my eyes adjusts better to the "proggy clean" fonts (avaiable for free here: http://www.proggyfonts.com/ ). With good coding fonts, you are able fit more into the screen, distinguish between 1 and l, 0 and o more easily..etc. Here's a discussion on programming fonts a w…

I thought Monaco was atrocious until I anti-aliased it. It's like an entirely different font - one that I prefer over all others now.

Re: How to be a better programmer in 6 minutes

#17

Post by ewiethoff »

tolmasky wrote: post #13

Bigger text size is also good for not going blind. I've been coding with bigger text for a few months now, fewer headaches too.

A bigger font is better for your upper back, too. Take a look around you and notice how many of your fellow developers--or anyone working with text at a computer--slouch forward every few seconds to peer at the monitor. Then notice yourself doing it. Bye, bye, chiropractor.

Re: How to be a better programmer in 6 minutes

#18

Post by jaxn »

olavk wrote: post #6
bprater wrote: post #2

All very good tips. I prefer a smaller font when hacking because I like to be able to scan more of the codebase, but I can see how it could force a person to tighten up the scope of their methods/functions.

One good font-related tip: Make comments stand out (dark, bold) rather than fade into the background. Forces me to write better comments, and prevents comment from getting out of sync with the code.

The article inspired me to start tweaking my TextMate settings. I found that making hard coded strings stand out is not helpful to me (I write a fair number of queries).

But I got to tweaking and realized that making comments stand out is amazingly helpful. I completely agree that it makes me want to write more comments and makes commented out code a glaring problem.

Re: How to be a better programmer in 6 minutes

#19

Post by nikron »

Niten wrote: post #10

I'm supposed to master an obscure language element, read through the source code of an open source project, refactor a method, run a static analysis tool, and do all the rest--all within six minutes? I do like the idea for making hard-coded strings stand out, however.

Maybe he meant incrementally increase your coding abilities, you know, master a new keyword in 6 minutes, read the source code of an open source project in 6 minutes, run a static analysis tool in 6 minutes, ..., and write a compiler in 6 minutes.

Re: How to be a better programmer in 6 minutes

#20

Post by nikron »

notaddicted wrote: post #16

Use a bigger font size. I am a violator here. I have emacs set to 6x10 on a 25" monitor, the result is 104 lines on a screen. And I like it.

Yeah, I fail at this too, but I use my console for coding. So, increasing the font size of my console hurts me when I'm using the shell, so I don't feel like increasing the font size. It also limits the amount of code you can see; really you should just cap your functions at some arbitrary length 25-50.
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