Collabsphere 2019 session by Devin S. Olson & Mike McGarel

1. Customer Story:
Next Level Coding
DEV 101

3. Presenter: Devin Olson
• azlighthouse works, llc
• Notes and Domino Developer since R3
• Also, Java, COBOL, Delphi, Pascal,
MASM, TASM, etc.
• Consultant, Educator, Mentor,
Curmudgeon

4. Presenter: Mike McGarel
• Senior Application Developer for Celina
Insurance Group
• Working with Notes/Domino since
version 4.6
• Working on the web since 1996
• CollabSphere site team member

5. What is
Next Level Coding?

6. Coding
as
Communication

7. Machines are
just your
initial audience

8. Your
next level audience
is
other programmers

9. What does my code
say to the person
reading it?

10. Who are these other programmers?
• Your team members
• Reviewers
• Testers
• Outside consultants
• Your supervisor
• Your future self

11. What is your audience looking for?
• Understandable
• Maintainable
• Modular

12. How you know
you’re doing it wrong
WTF?
WTF?WTF?!!!

13. The Whys of Leveling Up
• Faster fixes and changes
• Smoother testing
• Less code that everyone is afraid
to touch
• Better relationships with co-workers

14. The Hows of Leveling Up

15. Format to Communicate
• First impressions
• Language standards
• Company standards
• “White space” between functions
• Indenting
• Consistency!

16. Examples of Formatting Standards
• Constants in ALL CAPS
• Constants at beginning of a class or
library
• Braces starting on same line or next line
• Tabs or spaces? (You have to pick one)

17. Variable and Parameter Names
• Clear
• Meaningful
• Internal consistency

18. Examples of Variable Names
• quoteSubmittedDate
• quoteApprovedDate
• policyStartDate
• policyEndDate

19. Another Variable Name Example
The variable “result” as an internal
return value of a function
String getSomeStringValue() {
String result = “”;
// lots of way cool code here
return result;
}

20. Functions, Methods, and Subroutines
• Accurate, detailed and descriptive
names
• A function should either:
o One important thing
o Groups others together

21. Example of Function Naming
• Meh:
convertCity(city)
• Better:
convertCityName(city)
• Better Still:
convertCityNameToCityCode(cityName)

22. Example of Modular Functions
• getToNames()
• getCCNames()
• getBCCNames()
• getSubject()

23. Classes and Script Libraries
• Accurate and descriptive name
• Part of a consistent name pattern
• Related group of functions
• Small
• Single Responsibility Principle
• Tools in an organized toolbox
• Easy to describe (less than 3 lines)

24. Class Examples
InsurerPersonalInfoValidation
This class validates the insurer’s
personal information (name, address,
email, employer) etc. on the quote form.
InsurerVehicleInfoValidation
This class validates the insurer’s vehicle
information (make, model, VIN, etc.) for
each vehicle.

25. Error / Exception Handling
• Informative log messages with specific
error and source
(example: method and full path of class)
• Defensive coding
• Never pass nulls
• Tell the user what to do

26. Testing
• Modular code is easier to test
• Modular code is easier to troubleshoot
• Test Fail early
• Test often

27. Code Comments
• Goal is to make them unnecessary

28. Think
• Versioning
• Reducing Duplication
• Reduce dependencies on outside libraries
• List the ones you have up front
• Need balance between duplication and
dependencies.
• “Turtles all the way down”

30. Keep up with Modern Programming
• Time consuming but necessary
• Get familiar with design patterns
• Don’t recreate code – use free libraries
• Java examples: StringUtils
• JavaScript: jQuery, React, Vue
• Standard practices

31. Keep up with Modern UI
• Time consuming but necessary
• Device independence and proliferation
• Responsive layout frameworks
• Bootstrap, Foundation
• Icon Libraries
• Font Awesome, Google Material Design

32. Costs of Leveling Up
• Takes longer initially
• Different way of thinking

33. Costs of Not Leveling Up
• Wading through code takes more time
for everyone
• Technical debt

34. Takeaways
• Communicate intent with every name
• Be consistent!
• Plan your code’s structure
• Keep up with standards
• Long and Winding Road

35. References
• Clean Code by Robert C. Martin
• codinghorror.com (Jeff Atwood)

36. Thank You!