Eclipse is not the solution!
During the last couple of days, I’ve been updating my posting about cargo cult coding standards for PHP. There are some examples now. Thanks to Arturas Smorgun for retweeting it. I’m sure my post...
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The Clean Coder
I’m currently reading The Clean Coder by Robert C. Martin. Here are some of my favorite quotes: Caffeine “There is no doubt that some of us can make more efficient use of our focus-manna by consuming...
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About Passion
What does passion mean for a Software Engineer? Depends on the context. First, and that’s what start-up companies usually expect from their employes, it means you love the company, the business idea...
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Exceptions: Andrew Hunt/David Thomas vs Robert C. Martin
There is a subtle difference between what Robert C. Martin recommends in Clean Code and what Andrew Hunt / David Thomas recommend in The Pragmatic Programmer. Martin encourages you to always use...
View ArticleUsing SQL fixtures for database related unit tests
This is a short tutorial to show how to use fixtures for database related unit tests. The inspiration for this post came from a conversation I had at the recent PHP Unconference in Hamburg, Germany....
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Howto: Become a great Software Engineer
After working in the industry for over a decade, this is my personal summary of the key elements for a successful and satisfying career as software engineer (and a reminder to myself): Contribute to...
View ArticleNiklaus Wirth about complexity
On both sides of this fence, complexity has and will maintain a strong fascination for many people. It is true that we live in a complex world and strive to solve inherently complex problems, which...
View ArticleDavid Parnas: Most of the software we see or buy is ugly
Nevertheless, in spite of such helpful articles and many textbooks on software design, software jewels remain rare. Most of the software we see or buy is ugly, unreliable, hard to change, and certainly...
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What to document in agile projects?
A posting in the Agile and Lean Software Development group on LinkedIn inspired me to think about the amount and type of documentation that should be created in agile projects. It is a misconception,...
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Cargo Cult
If there is one work-related term that got stuck in my head it is “cargo cult“: In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes with lots of good materials, and...
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Written requirements in the age of agile development
Many of today’s agile software projects are characterized by a lack of written requirements and other documentation. The rationale behind this is that requirements change “too often” to be written...
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Why I’m using a separate layer for input data validation
While some developers seem to prefer to implement their user data validation rules directly in the model layer (or even worse, the ORM entity layer), this very often leads to problems as described by...
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Form Validation vs Model Validation
This is a follow-up on Why I’m using a separate layer for input data validation that explains the key differences between client-side, input value (form) and model validation. In general, model...
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My way of testing PHP code
When I’m writing unit tests, I don’t mock dependencies by default but use real objects and test doubles via dependency injection. Mocking is creating objects that simulate the behaviour of real...
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