The Pragmatic Craftsman
:: Simplicity from complexity ::
The Pragmatic Craftsman
:: Simplicity from complexity ::
|
The best software designs look simple, but it takes a lot of hard work to design a simple architecture.
–Grady Booch
in OOAD with Applications |
|
|
Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.
–Albert Einstein
|
|
|
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
–Edsger W. Dijkstra
1930-2002, Dutch Computer Scientist |
Simplicity always wins, in my opinion. The following two quotes from Programming Pearls (book I’m reading now) need no further comment: they nail it.
|
|
A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but wen there is no longer anything to take away.
–Antoine de Saint-Exupery
the French writer and aircraft designer (quoted in Programming Pearls) |
|
|
More programmers should judge their work by this criterion. Simple programs are usally more reliable, secure, robust and efficient than their complex cousins, and easier to build and maintain.
–Jon Bentley
in Programming Pearls |
|
|
When a single change to a program results in a cascade of changes to dependent modules, that program exhibits the undesirable attributes that we have come to associate with “bad” design. The program becomes fragile, rigid, unpredictable and unreusable.
|
|
|
[Programming] There is no such thing as straight and level. Even if things seem to be going perfectly, you don’t take your eyes off the road. Change is the only constant. Always be prepared to move a little this way, a little that way. Sometimes maybe you have to move in a completely different direction. That’s life as a programmer.
Everything in software changes. The requirements change. The design changes. The business changes. The technology changes. The team changes. The team members change. The problem isn’t change, per se, because change is going to happen; the problem, rather, is the inability to cope with change when it comes.
–Kent Beck
in Extreme Programming Explained |
|
|
If you don稚 have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
–John Wooden
basketball coach |
This is true in sports, but especially true when developing software. Ask yourself that question constantly and you’ll do a better job.
|
|
A critical ability in OO development is to skillfully assign responsibilities to software objects
–Craig Larman
author, Applying UML and Patterns |
Can’t agree more with Larman. To be a good OO developer, to truly understand what object oriented means, you’ve got to treat classes as objects with responsibilities, and be knowledgeable on how to assign them. Larman’s book is classic in this category.
Here’s what Martin Fowler had to say on the subject.
|
|
Understanding responsibilities is key to good object-oriented design.
–Martin Fowler
quoted in Applying UML and Patterns |
|
|
The critical distinction between a craftsman and an expert is what happens after a sufficient level of expertise has been achieved. The expert will do everything she can to remain wedded to a single context, narrowing the scope of her learning, her practice, and her projects. The craftsman has the courage and humility to set aside her expertise and pick up an unfamiliar technology or learn a new domain.
–Dave Hoover
in article on StickyMinds.com |
This is a great definition of a software craftsman: the best I found so far. The article by Dave Hoover on StickyMinds.com is a very good one, link below. Especially if you want to find out who a craftsman really is.
What can you learn from this? Be humble. Be curious. Be eager to learn new technologies. And be lazy. 
ReferenceExperts, Craftsman, and Ignorance by Dave Hoover
Related PostEvery Craftsman is Dump and Lazy
|
|
The reason you write a spec is not to solve every possible problem in advance: the reason you write a spec is to solve as many problems as you possibly can in advance so that you minimize the number of surprises that come up during development.
–Joel Spolsky
- talking about Copilot.com spec |
Reference:Blog entry about The Project Aardvark Spec by Joel Spolsky
Related:The original spec (pdf) by Joel Spolsky
