In my last post discussing testing and QA development, I went into depth about a project I was working on last year. I was developing an app that was supposed to track one’s financial history. It was the first project I had ever worked on that gave me free liberty to do whatever I wanted. I explained that it took a lot of my time and I ran into a lot of issues regarding the organization of the code, for the most part, I was most concerned about making something that worked rather than making something that worked effectively. Recently, I read a blog from Thesoftarch discussing how to write object-orientated code effectively.
The blog “Simple & Effective Way to Write Object Oriented Code” basically explains that most developers, like me, will only look to write code to reach functional requirements and not advocate for the technical quality of the code. The blog post explains that writing code to be functional can be acceptable during initial releases but can slowly turn complex if not managed correctly. So, it is important to maintain quality so that in the long term we can avoid struggling with maintaining the application. Different ways of writing effective, approachable code include making it simple to read, easy to test/verify, and having a low cost of change. The blogger goes by explaining the three basic steps of writing effective and well-designed code.
First, they go on to say that writing is easy but writing effective code is not easy, especially when you don’t have an approach. There are many design principles that developers go through in order to design good code. This includes SOLID, DRY, Design to Interface, and many more.
The second step is Unit Testing, as explained in my last blog post, it’s important to ensure that the code written works as intended. it’s best to write unit tests every time a method or class is created instead of writing the unit tests all at once.
The third and final step is to refactor. Refactoring is an activity to improve the quality of code without affecting its behavior. Making this a habit will help “maintain the code in the long run without adding much effort or risk.” As the blogger puts it, the coder should be able to identify “smells” in the code, refactor code to remove the smell and fix unit tests. Smells are certain structures that indicate violations of fundamental principles and negatively impact quality.
While reading this blog I’ve been able to keep note of what I need to do and look out for when it comes to developing a program. If I had read these steps last year, I think I would have had a better time developing my phone application. Reading this over I realized that there is a lot that goes into the development process and simply writing the code isn’t enough. It’s like baking a cake, everyone can follow the instructions to bake one but if key details are left out then it might not taste good, software development is the same way. It’s important that the code is designed in a way so that it can last. In my next project, I want to focus on refactoring for the most part. Code quality is very important and being able to make quality code will save me time and prevent any struggle.
Link to “Simple & Effective Way to Write Object Oriented Code”:
From the blog CS@Worcester – FindKelvin by Kelvin Nina and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
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