Category Archives: code review

Code review #10: No emailed code questions

Posted on February 12, 2014 by patrick

[Update #1: below is added in response to Hersh’s comment] Developers have this: “I am too busy to comment” “Comments are a waste of time because no one reads them” “What should I say? (read this previous post about commenting … Continue reading →

Posted in code review, self improvement, technical | 2 Comments

Code Review #9 : The importance of doing the small things right

Posted on January 24, 2013 by patrick

Do the small things right. Make sure your craftmanship shows pride. The code “working” is not enough. The craftmanship. The attention to detail is equally important. Part of the way that Steve Jobs made Apple great is his insistance on … Continue reading →

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

Posted on April 7, 2011 by patrick

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 →

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How to do a redirect after POST

Posted on January 25, 2011 by patrick

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 →

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Code Review #8: When to comment

Posted on March 16, 2009 by patrick

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

Posted on March 16, 2009 by patrick

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

Posted on March 14, 2009 by patrick

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 … Continue reading →

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

Posted on March 4, 2009 by patrick

[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 | 7 Comments

Not commenting code is dangerous to your career

Posted on March 4, 2009 by patrick

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

Posted on May 6, 2008 by patrick

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