5 BEST PRACTICES FOR DEVELOPMENT

5 best practices for (web/ software) development

ERWIN ELLING

@erwinelling

“passionate web versatilist”

5 BEST PRACTICES

1:MODEL VIEW

CONTROLLER

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wardofsky/2350781947/

we use the django framework (for python)

there’s also rails (for ruby)

and e.g. cakephp (for php)also other frameworks (non-MVC) save lots of time: ARP (for flash), jquery & prototype (for javascript), ...trend towards more and more abstraction and more human readable code

models

url dispatcher

controllers (called views in django; django prefers to call their framework: MTV)

view (template in django)

2: DO NOTREINVENTTHE WHEEL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/european_patent_office/3364865051

reuse the stuff that’s readily available

DJANGOSNIPPETS

django pluggables for code

google groups for help

do not develop it yourself when it’s already available: ning

wordpress

again frameworks: pinax, framework (combination of apss) on top of django

used pinax for jijmaaktgeschiedenis.nuwanted to add twitter...

someone else had done most of the work for me

hardly had to code myself: just added this; easy

3: DEVELOPMENT INFRASTRUCTURE & VERSION

CONTROL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11397615@N00/3306159672/

different environments in your infrastructureDevelopment, Test, Acceptance, ProductionIn Dutch OTAP: Ontwikkel, Test, Acceptatie, Productie

http://www.flickr.com/photos/parsingphase/3294364709/version control, e.g. SVN, git, mercurial

blame someone for mistakes! oops, i did it again

let the person who makes mistakes pay for the team’s beers!

4: AUTOMATEhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/denis_fox/3537539725/

think about how many repetitive tasks you perform!

this doesn’t look as much work, but i made some faults and have to do this 10 times a daynow i can do this with one command!

use shortcuts for repeatable tasks

capistrano (in ruby)e.g. for automating deployment and testingrollbacks when things go wrong

buildout, in python

automation is good for avoiding problems. letting people fool around while sudo’ing is dangerous

e.g. sudo rm -rfoops!

5: CLEAN CODE

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ezu/277341190/costs some time at first, saves lots of time later

comments

refactor, refactor, refactorno todo’s in codeget rid of ugly stuffno hacks to “solve” problems

how many fucks in google code?

DRY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/plinton/21543765220Don’tRepeatYourself

fat models, skinny controllers

pair programming, code reviews, read other’s code