97 Things Every Programmer Should Know

(Chris Devlin) #1

Contents xix


Refactoring and Code Care


Act with Prudence ...............................2


Before You Refactor ..............................12


The Boy Scout Rule ..............................16


Comment Only What the Code Cannot Say ...............34


Don’t Be Afraid to Break Things ......................48


Improve Code by Removing It ........................78


Keep the Build Clean ..............................84


Know Your Next Commit ...........................94


The Longevity of Interim Solutions ....................108


A Message to the Future ..........................116


Only the Code Tells the Truth .......................124


Own (and Refactor) the Build .......................126


The Professional Programmer .......................134


The Road to Performance Is Littered with Dirty Code Bombs ..148


Simplicity Comes from Reduction ....................150


Ubuntu Coding for Your Friends .....................174


You Gotta Care About the Code .....................192


Reuse Versus Repetition


Beware the Share ................................14


Convenience Is Not an -ility. ........................38


Do Lots of Deliberate Practice.......................44


Don’t Repeat Yourself ............................60


Reinvent the Wheel Often .........................144


Use the Right Algorithm and Data Structure .............178


WET Dilutes Performance Bottlenecks .................182


Schedules, Deadlines, and Estimates


Act with Prudence ...............................2


Code Is Design ..................................24


Know Your Next Commit ...........................94


Learn to Estimate ...............................100


Make the Invisible More Visible .......................112

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