In Ben’s post, he questions whether switch statements are cleaner than if-else chains. I contend they are, because they better express the semantics of the code, allow less room for errors, reduce […]
Why switch is better than if-else
Invented here syndrome
Are you afraid to write code? Does the thought linger in your brain that somewhere out there somebody has already done this? Do you find yourself trapped in an analysis cycle where […]
Essential code for lists and vectors in an interview
“Lists are perhaps the fundamental data structure in code. There’s virtually no program that doesn’t use lists. Interviewers love asking questions that involve lists, either intentionally, or just because almost everything uses […]
Stop waving the wand of magic numbers
37. You have no idea what that number is, do you? A number without context nor a label is a random value. It doesn’t tell us anything. Imagine walking by a billboard, […]
UI Layout: Working with Pixels, Points and Density
Devices have various physical resolutions and densities. One phone may be 10cm wide and have 800pixels across, while another may be 8cm wide and have 1200pixels across. A UI engine needs to […]
Should function arguments be reassignable or mutable?
Working on a defect in Leaf I had a question: should function arguments be reassignable within a function? Are they just like local variables, or should they be treated specially? It would […]
Are global variables bad?
We hear it often, “global variables are bad, avoid using them!” But is this actually good advice? Simplified blanket statements are already a bit suspicious, but if we get into the details […]
What is a closure?
You’ve heard the term, you’ve probably even used them, but what exactly is a closure? It’s a combination of data and code that have become a staple of modern programming. They offer […]
Why I’m not a fan of pair programming
Pair programming feels like a lingering ghost. Its adherents proclaim it to be the best approach to coding while the rest of us just continue to ignore it. I’ve only tried it […]
What is declarative programming?
Declarative programming is a paradigm that expresses the desired result, not how to achieve it. It uses rules and constraints to describe a user interface, the layout of a network, the structure […]
I’m proud to be a programmer
I’m a programmer. If you think that means I write code, you’re wrong. As a programmer, my job is translating ideas into a working computer solution. Beyond coding, this involves a myriad […]
What is event programming?
Communicating between components with events is one of the fundamental programming paradigms. One module publishes an event, and other modules respond via listeners. It’s an asynchronous model that provides an excellent separation […]
Writing software for a malicious world
How do we write software that survives in a world of malware? Is it just a matter of writing safer code or do some of our core assumptions need to be modified? […]
What is imperative programming?
Imperative programming is a paradigm that explicitly tells the computer what to do and how to do it. Unlike most other approaches it is a relatively concrete view on data and execution […]
