| Pronouns | he/him |
| Open Source | https://firsttry.software |
| Blog | https://the.codegardener.com |
| Speaker Profile | https://sessionize.com/aridlehoover |
If your codebase were an automobile, what kind would it be?
A sports car?
A minivan?
A pickup?
Regardless, if you let complexity sneak into your codebase, you'll be driving with one foot on the gas, and one on the brake. The more complex, the harder you're pushing.
Simplify your code. Take your foot off the brake.
"Red, green, refactor" promotes premature abstraction.
Ward Cunningham once answered the "how do you convince management to refactor?" question with: "I don't. I give them two estimates—time to make room for the feature, then time to add it."
He refactors before starting the next user story, not after. The last responsible moment.
Some-teen years later, I connected the dots. I wrote about the workflow I use instead: https://the.codegardener.com/red-green-premature-refactor/
"Red, green, refactor" promotes premature abstraction. I had all the information to come to this conclusion 20 years ago. I'm embarrassed to admit how long it actually took. What makes me say that? Well, sometime between 2003 and 2005, I met Ward Cunningham at a Seattle Extreme Programming Users Group
@benjamineskola
I’ve personally used Claude to build working software in a day that would have taken me a week alone, because I would need to go learn a specific skill.
I’ve used it to make things I didn’t know were possible before I started chatting with it.
I’m not saying it’s perfect. But when did you last use AI?
@benjamineskola
Are you familiar with NASA’s transition from human to digital computers circa 1960? Dozens of mathematicians were laid off. Others thrived for decades. The key? Domain expertise. The computer could calculate. It could not formulate.
How does that relate to today? AI does the typing faster. It does not know your domain. It also needs the same kind of code quality guardrails as humans. That’s where our domain expertise and standards come in. AI needs us.
Are you a builder who prioritizes shipping software? Or are you a craftsperson who prioritizes well designed code?
It’s a false choice.
You get more done with well designed code and tests than you do without. Craftspeople move faster than Builders who eventually grind to a tech debt induced halt.
@zenspider Hey, Ryan!
I use coverage (line+branch) to tell how safe it is to refactor, not how safe I am from bugs. I use flog to tell how bad I need to refactor. I use churn to tell whether or not a class is open/closed.
Try being that nuanced with an exec who only cares about Sev1 reduction. You’ll see why I answer that way.
Have you ever been told by an executive that test coverage past 80% produces diminishing returns?
Have you asked them which 20% you should not test?
Have they ever given you an answer?
Tim Johnsen