Gary Haran.com

Test Before You Write Code

Simple enough, writing a test allows you to officially describe what you you plan to write.

1. write a test
2. run it to see it fail - this means your test looks good
3. write the code to make the test pass
4. run the test to see it pass - this means your code works

Not only will you have better code because you put more thought into it but you will also have automated tests to prevent regression.

Code Atomically

A sailor must adjust the course whenever the wind changes. Sure if the changes are suddle he might be fine simply adjusting how tight the ropes are but if the changes are drastic he will have to do more than a slight adjustment.

Coding is the same except you are the sailor and all other programmers are the wind. Every time they make a change you potentially have to adjust course. How do you know? Well you have to checkin and update often to know.

1. reduce the time between each checkins - this minimizes the chances of conflicts and if you need to revert you don’t have as much wasted time
2. make each checkin fix a single problem - makes it easier to write commit message and track changes

Elegance Over Cleverness

Clever code is often too clever. It gives your colleagues a hard time when they need to read. Instead aim for elegance - less useless lines but more readable lines.

On Friday I was a spectator at the DemoCampMontreal4 meetup where my brother presented url_pipe, a project I find fascinating in many respects. There were some really interesting presentations and rather than explain in this post what those were I’ll direct you to a post on Montreal Tech Watch that does so much synospis of the night than I have the energy to do.

I forsee a problem with future DemoCamps and I’d like to throw out a question to the Montreal community who enjoys the event. I’d like to see DemoCamp continue to be the great event that it is but I’m scared that we’ll start seeing companies present products and services at the event rather than good software demos.

On the main DemoCamp site there is a quote that I think explains a lot about the spirit that makes the unconference so interesting:

It’s not about you and it’s not about your company - it’s about the DEMO

I think presenting great software is what DemoCamp should continue to be about. My question to us all is wether or not we should be clearer about what we expect at future DemoCamps?

As many of my readers know already I quit World of Warcraft a little over a year ago. When I quit a lot of people from my guild contacted me asking why I decided to leave the game. They too were fed up with the endless grinds, the drama, the immaturity and having to take days to get anything done.

They were so expressive to me in secret but kept their concerns very quiet before when we played together. You see they didn’t want to let any of their guild members down despite disliking the game more and more every day.

So I created wowdetox.com so that anyone could anonymously write their reasons for quitting the game. The first day I had about 20 posts. The second I had 400. The third I had over 900. Digg.com picked it up, so did slashdot, reddit and numerous guild web sites. My server kept up with the demand which was rather amazing to me.

In the last month as I was approaching 20000 posts I started receiving offers from marketers, gold selling companies and numerous other anonymous people but none would guarantee that the site would keep on going except one entrepreneur from Alberta. He can use the media attention the site gets to promote his online marketing company. I find this to be a smart way to leverage the site, something as a programmer I found difficult to do.

I’m quite glad the site is now in good hands and it leaves me more time and funds for future projects.

If someone would have told me a year ago that launching a site about World of Warcraft Addiction would generate so much traffic and make money I would have laughed at them. Turns out even trying to help out people can make you money. I love the internet.

There are plenty of ways to get people to give you money for a “Ministry”. This one which predates the year 2000 used the y2k bug to scare the money out of gullible pockets.

After the year 2000 went by without a hitch (save a few hangovers) these con artists turn to the mayan calendar to scare the bejeesus out of everyone.

I feel sorry for those who get caught in those shenanigans. We have so many other ways to use money to make this world a better place to live in. Sadly these con artists might be too good at what they do to let any of their victims any time to think. Fear is the tool of the devil.