Archives
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Refactoring example in C# and VB.NET
Our very own Bryant Smith has revamped his conversion of Martin Fowler's refactoring example (originally in Java) to now cover both C# and VB.NET.
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Whitespace is a code smell
Do you space out your code so there are line breaks between the pieces of logic? Why do you think this is necessary? Typically this is done to separate chunks of logic so that they can be easily distinguished. If it is a complicated enough chunk, then it may even make sense to put a comment at the top of the chunk. At this point, the Agile police will jump on you and tell you to turn your comment into a method name and perform an Extract Method refactoring. This is great practice (fellow Agile police member here!) and it makes a lot of sense since it abstracts the concept and makes the code more self describing.
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Pair Programming improves your communication skills
Many developers in our industry prefer a dark corner to the presentation podium. This is often explained away with references to introverted personalities and geekish tendencies. While this may be true for certain individuals, there are definitely many benefits to breaking away from this stereotype. One of the best ways to progress in the business world is to develop strong communication skills - customers want to be understood and the combination with technical ability provides a powerful skillset when understanding problems and providing solutions. As with so many things in life, excellence in communication can be achieved through lots of practice.
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Writing "good" code: How do you understand code?
John Morales has a great post on understanding complexity and how to think about difficult concepts.
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Code Review - Standing on the shoulders of smart people
A very intelligent person once said:
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."
The person in question, is of course none other than Sir Isaac Newton. He was able to go further with his discoveries because others had solved some of the details already and provided a layer of abstraction for him to improve upon. -
Live Writer
This is my second post with Live Writer and so far it seems pretty good. We have been using BlogJet for a while and really like the intuitive interface although it seems like Live Writer has most of the same features. Being able to easily pull up an earlier blog post to make a correction is such a great feature for me since I always spot typos or missing links after the post goes out. I was also very impressed with the easy configuration of Live Writer - I simply pointed it to my blog url, gave my username/password, it prompted me for a blog engine type and then suggested a post URL and it all just worked!
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Code Camps, Code Camps, Code Camps.
I presented on Pair Programming at the Maryland ColdFusion User's Group on Tuesday and was very pleased to tell everyone about all the upcoming Code Camps in our area. I also promised to post the links to the group, so here they are: