Category Archives: code review

Use Subclasses and alternative interface implementations to reduce “future” bugs

One of the little-appreciated consequences of subclassing or alternative implementations of Java interfaces is to reduce or eliminate “future bugs”. “Future bugs” are bugs that are currently not wrong, but will cause problems in the future. Every conditional ( if, … Continue reading

Posted in code review | Leave a comment

How to do a redirect after POST

Continuing an StackOverflow answer: Its a little non-obvious but: create a keyed-object in the user session. the value is a Request + java Future for the result return immediately with a client-side redirect. while the client-side redirect is being handled, … Continue reading

Posted in code review, technical | Leave a comment

Code Review #8: When to comment

The last ? in a series of posts about commenting. See “the why”. See “not commenting is career threatening”. And the comment that started this off! This post should have really been the second one I wrote. The first post … Continue reading

Posted in code review, management | 1 Comment

Why and when to wrap external library classes

At some point, every developer starts using an external library. They then have to decide if that external library should be wrapped in their own custom interfaces and classes. If the external library would be pervasively imported in throughout the … Continue reading

Posted in code review, hibernate, technical | Leave a comment

Interfaces vs. abstract classes

Sigh … some people just don’t get it…. Interfaces rock! Below is my comment from stackoverflow.com, a question about how to handle the “interfaces v. abstract classes” interview question in an interview. First, the “only one super class” answer is … Continue reading

Posted in code review, technical | Leave a comment

Code Review #7 – Comment the “why” not the “what”

[This post continues the response to Mike.] Clean “good” code is good but not enough. Code needs comments — but the right kind of comments. “What” comments are useless and the most quickly out-dated. An example of a what comment … Continue reading

Posted in code review, management, technical | 6 Comments

Not commenting code is dangerous to your career

There is this myth that code can be self-documenting and that comments are not necessary in good code. Michael recently comment on an earlier blog post advocating the idea of self-documenting code. “Self-documenting” code is a career-damaging concept, because: Your … Continue reading

Posted in code review, management | 3 Comments

Code Review #6 – ‘Too smart’ aka scared of being dumb

One of the biggest failing junior developers have is that they are too ‘smart’. ‘Too smart’??? How can someone be ‘too smart’? Actually pretty easily. ‘Too smart’ is when the person spent hours looking at a problem. And the next … Continue reading

Posted in code review, management, technical | 1 Comment

Code Review #5 – splurge on reporting configuration errors

Configuration problems when deploying a new build are high on the “high anxiety” list. The pressure is high to hurry up and get the build deployed. Often times, the deploy happens late at night when the deployer really just wants … Continue reading

Posted in code review, technical | Leave a comment

Code Review #4: Always read the documentation/code – a.k.a. java.net.URL is evil

The Setup Before I plunge into my rant, lets review a little-ole documentation. Under java.lang.Object, for equals() we have this: It is consistent: for any non-null reference values x and y, multiple invocations of x.equals(y) consistently return true or consistently … Continue reading

Posted in code review, technical | 5 Comments