Category Archives: Banter

Ag, you know, just banter

Readme

Have I mentioned that I love GitHub? When you put a readme file into a folder that file is formatted and presented nicely through GitHub’s file browser. For example: https://github.com/visionmedia/uikit Scrolling down a little we can see a nicely formatted readme file.

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RL Reloaded

I’ve been worried for quite a long time. Robotlegs 1 is small and simple but a little difficult to extend. I want Robotlegs 2 to be flexible without becoming overly large or complex. Timing To extend any framework you need to be able to hook into that framework’s initialization process. That Damned Context The Robotlegs 1 context class was, to be frank, rubbish – it set defaults, configured dependencies and controlled initialization. Worse, to hook into the initialization process or … Continue reading

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Unit Testing: My problem with assertThat()

I write “ass” a lot while I’m coding.

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Commit Messages

When reviewing a commit I’m not interested in what you did. A commit is a codebase transformation. I’m interested in what will happen to my codebase when I apply your commit. Bad “I did this” form: I had a cup of coffee, went for a walk, and changed some code.   Better “This commit does this” form: Adds unmap() to the command map API. A commit message should describe the commit, not the process you went through to create it … Continue reading

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Unit Testing: Why I prefer assertThat()

Consider: [Test] public function null_criteria_should_not_match():void { assertFalse(“passing null should return false”, instance.match(null)); } When reading the test above I have to do a lot of scanning.

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Too Much Of A Good Thing

As an enthusiastic programmer I tend to get overly excited when I discover a new technique – nails, nails everywhere for my shiny new hammer! It’s not a bad thing. I’ll abuse my newfound technique until I fully understand where it is and isn’t appropriate. Sometimes this takes a while. 

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Why Ruby Is Fun

Some little things I enjoy about Ruby:

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Linking to your GitHub code

It’s pretty easy to link directly to a line of code in your GitHub repo: robotlegs/robotlegs-framework/blob/master/src/org/robotlegs/core/IContextProvider.as#L16 Don’t do that you naughty sausage! Your codebase will evolve (if all goes well), and line 16 will be replaced by a newer, shinier string of characters. Or, in this case, it’ll point to something that no longer exists. This, on the other hand, is more likely to stick around to haunt its author (me): robotlegs/robotlegs-framework/blob/v1.1.2/src/org/robotlegs/core/IContextProvider.as#L16 Select a tag before you link to your … Continue reading

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Clean Code

I recently purchased @unclebobmartin‘s awesome book: Clean Code. What a book! I’m going to echo a sentiment that often ripples through the Twittersphere: If you are a programmer and you haven’t read Clean Code you are doing your fellow programmers (and yourself) a great disservice. Seriously.

Posted in Banter, Code, Inspiration | 4 Comments