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Showing posts from September, 2017

How to approach a new technology

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Someone asked me to write a post about how I approach new technologies. There isn't really one way to do that and what works for me may not work for someone else. Having said all that let's explore the different options standing before any developer who wants to explore a new technology. TL;DR Put time in your calendar and go for it. Τα πάντα ρει, μηδέποτε κατά τ' αυτό μένειν - Everything flows, nothing remains the same - Heraclitus We are living in a world where you see a new framework or a new language pop all the time. It was less than a year ago that Angular took the web by storm and went head to head with its predecessor AngularJS and React and then VueJS popped it's head to say Hi. Who would have thought Python would become the go to language for cyber security, or that Go would become the next hot thing. So let's stop beating around the bush and get to it. Go Online When I started to plow my way through technology all we had was BBS message boards and

Time Travel Debugging!

Exciting news! We can now go back and forth in time without a Delorian with  WinDBG Preview for TTD! Hopefully a post with this will come soon! Update 25/10/2017 : Unfortunately Time Travel debugging works well only with C++ currently. Since there are quite a few blog posts on the subject of C++ I chose not to pursue the matter any further until a version for .NET comes out.

Unit tests and private functions: A real life dilemma

Always Test! There is no argument whatsoever that unit tests are essential to every software nowadays. Beyond their initial use they serve as regression tests during code changes. They are also used in build environments and CI/CD to ensure merges do not negatively affect your code. And sometimes they are considered as an alternative to QA on server side code. TL;DR "It depends" This is where I currently live, server side code, and unit tests are an essential part of every feature in every sprint.  I will not go into the textbook "what are unit tests" Q and A. I assume dear reader that you know it by heart. However in case you don't know this Wikipedia entry should get you started. Opinions on unit tests in OO languages In general unit tests are used to verify the correct behavior of a module, hence in C# only the public methods of a class should be tested. Some consider testing protected or private methods unacceptable. And then there is this quote fro

Code reviews and naming conventions (or when the obsession for naming conventions misses the point of the review)

The Past It has been well over 6 years since I had my code reviewed by my peers. As a development team leader I had reviewed the code of my developers, however most of the time they didn't review mine. This was due to either them being juniors or mostly uninterested. I had asked for reviewing and I always got a "A OK" answer. The organizations I worked for did not really enforce this either. They were busy releasing to customers and to damnation with technical debts (or tests but this is another story). TL;DR When in Rome do as Romans do What to look for in a code review My take on what to look for in a code review is quite simple. Abide to the overall design agreed Be more strict to juniors as they got a more detailed design hand-off. Be more lenient to reasonable changes by seniors or seasoned developers. Ask for the logic behind the change and maybe debate the change to a degree of common ground and understanding. Find bugs   Yes there may be tests and a