My spouse and I share an Apple ID. But we also maintain separate Apple IDs. Paradox.
Why? Because nearly a decade ago, it took us all of fifteen minutes to realize that we were purchasing the same songs multiple times from our separate computers.
That realization—and the subsequent decision to share an Apple ID for purchases—has made each new Apple software upgrade increasingly complex over the years. So I made a chart!
All metaphors break down with sufficient mileage.
[And they often break down quite quickly, like that car metaphor I just made.]
Because metaphors break down, it's worth pondering the fact that most of humanity only comprehends software through the use of metaphors.
The metaphors most users experience are graphical user interfaces (desktops, folders, round-rect app icons, back buttons, etc.) The metaphors our friends and family hear include our own attempts to describe how writing software is actually quite a lot like crafting sturdy Amish furniture The metaphors conveyed to business people—at least, the ones that pay to have software developed—are as boundless as they are inane (and they're usually quite inane) The metaphors that software developers themselves are steeped in are perhaps too complex to ever escape.
Prologue First things first: let’s square up terminology. For the sake of facilitating sane discussion on this topic, I’ve adopted the terms used in Gerard Meszaros’ XUnitPatterns book. He drew a complex table for this, but I’ll quickly summarize here:
Test Double — a generic term to describe an artifical stand-in for code (usually an object) upon which the subject code you’re specifying depends. Mocks, spies, stubs, fakes, etc. are all specific subtypes of test doubles.
This post is partly in response to to this tweet, and partly a follow-up to a teaser I tweeted earlier this week.
We humans are suckers for suggestion. If you need evidence of this, consider something as seemingly innocuous as the order in which we ask people questions.
If I were to ask you: 1. Does the following web site load properly in your browser? Make sure all the pictures load: cuteoverload.
When someone applies to Pillar, we invite them to submit a code example that solves a particular problem. We review the code as an input early in the interview process.
It’s a helpful component of getting acquainted with a candidate, but a few things aren’t ideal:
For any toy project, the domain is going to be trivial enough that it isn’t likely to be very representative of a larger “real” project As I review more and more submissions which solve the same handful of problems, I’m finding it harder to evaluate each with a fresh set of eyes Ultimately, the code doesn’t have any utility—its lifecycle ends as soon as it has been reviewed and discussed.
Hypothetical: you find what seems to be the perfect prospective client. You’ve collaborated to develop an idea with the potential to realize outstanding value. They’ve decided they trust you to capitalize on the opportunity and achieve that value via some new software system.
*But!*
But the prospect makes a point to tell you they don’t want to be trained or changed (and that you can forget about “transformed”). They compensate by emphasizing that their only objective is to produce that set of value-creating widgets the two of you dreamed up in the (much cozier, in hindsight) first paragraph.
Ron Jeffries just posted a terrific case for clean code, and decoupled a recently-emerged “code can be too clean” meme from a question that has actual merit, “can we spend too much time making code clean?”
Upon discussing the post with Kevin Baribeau this evening, an anecdotal correlation was identified between folks who’ve said things akin to “code can be too clean” and folks who tend to succumb to the pressure to rush development of features.
Over the last year, I’ve made an effort to better identify the styles, idioms, and smells I encounter when reading and writing new Java code. [And, already, a takeaway point! To some of my more successfully sheltered rubyist friends, it may be sorry news to hear that there continues to be new Java code written.]
In any case, I’ve made a concerted effort to internalize habits that I find valuable and to develop a reflex to resist those which I do not.