CodeIt.Right Archives - Page 4 of 12 - Software Quality Blog

Using CodeIt.Right at Scale on Large Codebases

September 19, 2017Erik DietrichNo Comments

If you’ve worked with Visual Studio for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed an inverse relationship between convenience and performance. Visual Studio is powerful on its own. And it gets a whole lot more powerful once you start adding plugins. But sometime between that clean Visual Studio install and your 20th helpful plugin, a noticeable slowdown occurs. The user experience starts to suffer. Of course, this isn’t unique to Visual Studio. It applies to pretty much anything with a plugin ecosystem, such as a WordPress website or your browser. In all of these cases, you have to weigh the…

CodeIt.Right Rules Explained, Part 9

September 12, 2017Erik DietrichNo Comments

In what has become roughly a monthly affair, I’ll do another CodeIt.Right Rules Explained post today. This marks the ninth such post and roughly nine months of the series. In a now-familiar refrain, I’ll start off by citing my two personal rules about static analysis followed by a brief explanation. Never implement a suggested fix without knowing what makes it a fix. Never ignore a suggested fix without understanding what makes it a fix. It might seem I’m playing rhetorical games here. After all, I could condense this to say “learn the reasoning behind all suggested fixes.” But I say…

Some styles of code analyzer make use of the abstract syntax tree.

The Different Styles of the Code Analyzer

August 29, 2017Erik DietrichNo Comments

Perhaps you’ve heard of the concept of a source code analyzer before. I expect that many reading have, at least in passing. But I’d also be willing to bet that the term strikes you as somewhat vague and that everyone reading will picture slightly different things when they hear the term. So today I’ll do what I can to clear that vagueness up. Static Code Analyzer: the Backstory Let’s start with origin and motivation. As software developers, we automate things for a living. This gives us the unique ability not only to make others more efficient at doing their…

CodeIt.Right Rules Explained, Part 8

August 15, 2017Erik DietrichNo Comments

Today, I’ll do another installment of the CodeIt.Right Rules Explained series. This is post number eight in this series. As always, I’ll start off by citing my two personal rules about static analysis, along with an explanation. Never implement a suggested fix without knowing what makes it a fix. Never ignore a suggested fix without understanding what makes it a fix. This might seem glib. After all, I could just as easily say, “Learn the reasoning behind all suggested fixes.” But I say it the way I do to highlight the decision you face when confronted with static analysis warnings. …

Automated code review is going to be worth the time.

Are You Aggressively Trying for Automated Code Review?

August 3, 2017Erik Dietrich1

Not surprisingly, software development teams have a propensity to automate. After all, most of what we do involves automating formerly manual processes. Stop keying that data in by hand! Let’s write a script that loads it automatically. As software developers, we thus become connoisseurs of automation opportunity. Come on. Tell me you’ve never wandered around your office, observing others’ inefficient workflows. If you didn’t have a ton of things to do, you’d write a shell script that blew their minds. They’d have so much free time on their hands that they could take up knitting for part of the day….

There's an intense pressure to finish software quickly, which puts strain on manual code reviews.

Software Grows Too Quickly for Manual Review Only

July 27, 2017Erik Dietrich2

How many development shops do you know that complain about having too much time on their hands? Man, if only we had more to do. Then we wouldn’t feel bored between completing the perfect design and shipping to production … said no software shop, ever. Software proliferates far too quickly for that attitude ever to take root. This happens in all sorts of ways. Commonly, the business or the market exerts pressure to ship. When you fall behind, your competitors step in. Other times, you have the careers and reputations of managers, directors, and executives on the line. They’ve promised something…

Many things cause poor code quality, turning your code to spaghetti.

5 Things Responsible for Your Poor Code Quality

July 25, 2017Erik Dietrich2

All right. Let’s get the obvious thing out of the way right up front. One could easily argue that code quality (and poor code quality) is subjective. You use camel case while I use Pascal case, and we could argue about the “quality” of the code in those terms. But I have no interest in that. So instead, let’s talk about code quality in terms of observable outcomes. You may look at a codebase and, based on your experience, conclude that this unfamiliar code is of poor quality. Who wrote this, anyway!? But you do that without understanding outcomes. Does…

CodeIt.Right Rules Explained, Part 7

July 13, 2017Erik Dietrich1

Today, I’ll do another installment of the CodeIt.Right Rules, Explained series. This is post number seven in the series. As always, I’ll start off by citing my two personal rules about static analysis, along with an explanation. Never implement a suggested fix without knowing what makes it a fix. Never ignore a suggested fix without understanding what makes it a fix. This might seem like rhetorical cuteness. After all, I could simply say, “Learn the reasoning behind all suggested fixes.” But I want to highlight the decision you face when confronted with static analysis feedback. In all cases, you must…

CodeIt.Right Rules Explained, Part 6

July 11, 2017Erik DietrichNo Comments

Let’s do another installment of the CodeIt.Right Rules Explained series. Today we have post number six in that series, with three more rules. As always, I’ll start off with my two personal rules about static analysis guidance, along with an explanation for them. Never implement a suggested fix without knowing what makes it a fix. Never ignore a suggested fix without understanding what makes it a fix. It may seem as though I play rhetorical games here. After all, I could just say, “learn the reasoning behind all suggested fixes.” But I want to underscore the decision you face when…

Code Review Horror Stories

July 5, 2017Erik Dietrich3

In an ideal world, software developers look forward to peer code review. The practice helps them catch potentially embarrassing mistakes before they leave the dev environment. But beyond that, it also gives them an opportunity to showcase their work and to learn tips and tricks from peers. Again, in the ideal world, code review offers a uniquely efficient opportunity for personal growth. Lest I seem too cynical, I’d like to point out that this also sometimes proves true in the real world. In healthy, high-functioning groups, team members enjoy and appreciate code reviews. They learn from one another and consistently…