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Legacy Code

Like I mentioned on my previous post, I'm going to share here the introduction of one of the chapters in The Cucumber Book. I was really struck with the whole intro that I couldn't resist bookmarking it and sharing.  So here it is:

In the real world, you don’t always get the luxury of working on shiny new code. Reading a book like this can be a little bit frustrating because the examples all deal with nice, simple problems, usually in a new codebase.

We all know that software development isn’t really like that.

Even in the best teams we’ve worked on, there have always been a few dark and ugly corners of the codebase where nobody really wanted to go. People would sometimes disappear into there for days at a time and emerge exhausted and confused, blinking in the bright sunlight.    

Like an old abandoned mine, those areas of the codebase are dangerous. The code is fragile, and the slightest change can cause other parts of the code to collapse and stop working. Everyone knows this, and that’s why people are reluctant to go in there: it’s stressful work.

If you had to go down an old mine tunnel, what would you do to make it safer? You’d probably build some scaffolding to hold the roof of the tunnel up so that it didn’t collapse—just enough to help you get in and get out again safely.

You can think of automated tests like this. When you have to make a change to an area of the code that you know is brittle, it’s scary. What is the thing that you’re most afraid of?

Breaking something.

It speaks the truth!haha This just really hit home for me :)

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The Cucumber Book

Long time no post! I'm just going to share with you what I've been up to recently.

Going Green with Cucumber!

Our team decided to use cucumber for our Automated tests so it was my pleasure to read, "The Cucumber Book: Behaviour-Driven Development for Testers and Developers" by Matt Wynne and Aslak Hellesøy.

This book was fairly easy to follow and introduced alot about the inner workings of Cucumber and how everything is wired up in the project. The  book uses Ruby for the actual step definitions but the book says that you don't need to learn Ruby to follow the book. Indeed, I was able to follow the samples in the book even with no experience in Ruby :)

Quotable Quotes

As always, when I read books, I always jot down some text from it that struck me the most. So, here they are:

When writing scenarios, here’s a really important concept you need to grasp: 'Each scenario must make sense and be able to be executed independently of any other scenario.'

When writing a scenario, always assume that it will run against the system in a default, blank state. Tell the story from the beginning, using Given steps to set up all the state you need for that particular scenario.

Each scenario must be capable of being run on its own and should not depend on data set up by other scenarios. This means every scenario has to include enough Given steps to set up all the data it needs.

Cucumber features are all about communicating with business users in their language, and it’s important that we don’t force them to sound like robots.

It’s better to aim to make your examples illustrative or representative than exhaustive.

If subfolders are the chapters in your book of features, then tags are the sticky notes you’ve put on pages you want to be able to find easily.

When the state of the system is not reset between tests, we say that they allow state to leak between them. This is a major cause of brittle tests.

When one scenario depends upon state left behind by another earlier scenario in order for it to pass, you’ve created a dependency between the two scenarios. When you have a chain of several scenarios depending on each other like this, it’s only a matter of time before you end up with a train wreck.

If that first scenario, the one that happens to leave the system in just the right state for the next one to pick it up, is ever changed, the next scenario will suddenly start to fail.

fixing things becomes a habit, rather than something you put off to do someday later when you’re not in such a hurry.

Cucumber might just seem like a testing tool, but at its heart it’s really a collaboration tool.

The most common use of Before and After hooks is to clear up any residual state left in external systems like databases so that each scenario starts with the system in a known state.

In the real world, you don’t always get the luxury of working on shiny new code.

That's about it. I also liked a whole introduction of one of the chapters in the book. The last quote actually came from it but I'm going to post it separately :)

Have you tried Cucumber already? :)

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...programmers seldom place a high priority on user documentation.

Roderick W. Smith, Linux Essentials

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That Unspoken Agreement

For me, a programmer’s desk is sacred. You can’t just move things on his/her desk for fear that you will disturb the peace of these sacred grounds. Even if the desk is haphazardly covered with scratch paper, a mug that used to hold coffee that now houses a new form of species and the potato chip wrappers and toys, still, you are not to touch anything without the programmer’s consent. It is FORBIDDEN O.O

Yeah, just being random and exaggerating things. Mind you, I don’t have a desk like that. But I did use to have an officemate who tried to grow something in an unwashed coffee mug… -_-

Just wrote something random because the scratch paper I used that contained my notes were thrown away when I looked for them on my desk this morning. Now my notes are gone and I had to remake them that I got from researching. Even though it’s really my fault that I get a proper notebook for my notes, I still couldn’t believe that someone decided what was ‘trash’ on my desk without my consent. I feel like my desk was violated. You just don’t do that!o.o

random ramblings~ Can any of you relate?

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Thinking of Learning a PHP Framework

Before being an iOS dev, I used to do Web Development. I decided to focus on Mobile Development instead because it was new to me and it got me curious.

The Mobile platform in itself, is very interesting to me because they deliver almost all services that are done in a computer. Not only does it deliver these services, it has also provided an extension of the user experience with new interactions like interacting with touches. And with it's pocket-size convenience, it also provides a plethora of applications that helps users with everyday life where portability is an advantage. An example of which would be real time map applications where the user's current geographic location is needed.

Anyway, aside from these applications, social networks are still very important in mobile applications.There are many apps out there that have implemented social network features such as Facebook and Twitter into their apps. There are even mobile applications that started their own social network even without a website (think Instagram)! Given that social networks are still quite important in mobile platforms, I take it upon myself to learn a PHP framework. Well at the very least, learn how to write Server-side scripts myself. That way, I'll possess skills for developing both the Client and Server side.The reason why I thought of learning PHP was because I just recently thought of a Social App :) 

I don't know when I'm going to start working on the app but for now, I think I'll just start learning the framework. Even if I don't get to make the app, at least I've gained a new skill and expanded my horizons :) Oh, and if you're wondering what framework I'm planning to learn, it's CakePHP.

photo credit from CakePHP's github page.

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PhilNITS Review Progress 01

Just thought of posting random pics on my review progress. I should also mention that I bought their FE Review Books. It’s a set of 5 volumes and I think it cost me Php 2,600. I thought it was a good bargain because we never had our own textbooks in college. And these 5 books basically squeezed a typical Computer Science course. There were even topics that I didn’t encounter in college.

Currently on the first book. I’m now tackling IEEE floating point representation format. It’s one of those topics that we didn’t learn in college so it’s a bit hard to understand. Brain is dying now.

That’s enough studying for now…will continue next time!

Gnyt! :)

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MOOCs - OpenSource Education

MOOC stands for Massively Online Open Course. It’s basically like e-learning except that it holds a different kind of philosophy. The MOOCs philosophy is similar to OpenSource software where it believes that code and software should be open to the public.

Now, what makes this different from e-learning or educational stuff being posted around the internet? The difference is that MOOCs offers courses from a variation of fields like Computer Science, Engineering, Biochemistry, Physics, Astronomy, etc. Which, to attain these higher forms of study, you'd have to enroll in universities. MOOCs provide these courses and materials for Higher Education like college and graduate studies. Even elite universities like Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Yale, Stanford, etc. You can taste what these students are studying at these schools in your own home, and pace. The best part of it is, it's free!

Mostly, the materials that will be provided are Lecture Videos, Slides, Quizzes, and Problem Sets. You can just download these from their websites.

Here are a few links:

MIT - http://ocw.mit.edu/help/get-started-with-ocw/

Stanford - https://class.stanford.edu/

edX Website - https://www.edx.org/

I recommend the edX website as it acts like a portal for the online courses of the "world's best universities". This project was founded by Harvard and MIT. Description from their website:

"EdX is a non-profit created by founding partners Harvard and MIT. We're bringing the best of higher education to students around the world. EdX offers MOOCs and interactive online classes in subjects including law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and artificial intelligence (AI)."

It's also worth mentioning that aside from websites, there's this app in the appstore called iTunes U. Universities have also been posting their course videos there and you can view/download them for free!:D

I've already subscribed to an iOS programming course collection by Paul Hegarty from Stanford. That's what I've been up to lately and I have to say these videos are awesome! They really help shed a light on some areas for me like properties and memory management :)

That's all I can post about it. As you can tell, I haven't really done much research haha. But these links and the gist of MOOCs is enough for now :)

Have you also tried MOOCs? If so, please share some links, references and experiences with it! :D

Till next time! :)

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Excerpts from "The Clean Coder"

Read this book earlier this year and loved it! (Is it weird to say that on a technical book?haha)

"The Clean Coder" by Robert C. Martin talks about a code of conduct on professionalism for developers. It demonstrates very clear examples on software development pitfalls by fault of the developer not adhering to professional ethics and discipline. This book is a must read for any to-be or experienced professional developers out there! You will also love Robert's style of writing because it's entertaining and told as if he was telling a story. He also shares MANY of his personal experiences in the software development industry and you'll see that he has gone through a LOT! And when I say experiences, he also shared both the good and the dirty; all of which are entertaining, informative, and inspiring! Here are some excerpts from the book that truly struck me.

"Years of experience have taught us that breaking disciplines only slows us down"

"Working while distracted creates waste"

"I remember thinking that working at 3am is what serious professionals do. How wrong I was!"

"Don't write code when you are tired. Dedication and professionalism are more about discipline than hours. Make sure that your sleep, health, and lifestyle are tuned so that you can put in eight good hours per day."

"The hours I spent away from my usual problems, while being actively stimulated by challenging and creative ideas, results in an almost irresistible pressure to create something myself."

"It is unprofessional to remain stuck when help is easily accessible."

"Why don't you fix bad code when you see it? Your first reaction upon seeing a messy function is 'This is a mess, it needs to be cleaned.' Your second reaction is 'I'm not touching it!' Why? Because you know that if you touch it you risk breaking it; and if you break it, it becomes yours."

"No professional developer should ever follow a discipline when that discipline does more harm than good."

"When the business actually sees what they specified running in a system, they realize that it wasn't what they wanted at all."

"In the end, the more precise you make your requirements, the less relevant they become as the system is implemented."

"Professional developers understand that estimates can, and should, be made based on low precision requirements, and recognize that those estimates are estimates. To reinforce this, professional developers always include error bars with their estimates so that the business understands the uncertainty."

"I once heard from Tom DeMarco say, 'Ambiguity in a requirements document represents an argument amongst the stakeholders.'"

"...acceptance tests...written by a collaboration of the stakeholders and the programmers in order to define when a requirement is done."

"Acceptance tests should always be automated. There is a place for manual testing elsewhere in the software cycle, but these kinds of tests should never be manual. The reason is simple: cost."

"The cost of automating acceptance tests is so small in comparison to the cost of executing manual test plans that it makes no economic sense to write scripts for humans to execute."

"These tests will prevent you from implementing the wrong system and will allow you to know when you are done."

"Kent Beck once told me something profound: 'Any argument that can't be settled in five minutes can't be settled by arguing.'"

That's about it. I hope you enjoyed reading the quotes. I also hope that you'll get the chance to read the book! And if you have read the book, please share some of your favorite texts or thoughts on it by leaving a comment :)

P.S. It's been almost 2 months since my last post and I still haven't posted the one regarding MOOCs. Been really busy lately with work but rest assured, I'll post it soon (hopefully). I also want to research more on this so I can provide helpful references :)

Till then!:D