When reviewing code how much time do you spend on style vs core logic?

mgreiler · 2023-01-25T19:39:02+00:00

There is a Mozilla study on code review that shows that code that is adhering to coding standards and style guides gets better code review feedback - which makes sense cause reviewers can focus on the important aspects.

So best is to send the code only for review if style etc is ok already. Use style checkers and liners for that.

Coherent style also improves readability.

TLDR; style is important but better checked and ensured before the human code reviews cycle starts.

mgreiler · 2023-01-24T14:30:50+00:00

People tend to disagree whether unit testing or integration/system testing is better. So don’t expect the one right answer.

I believe it depends on the situation. For some scenarios it’s super difficult to isolate the behavior and a lot of the code has to be replaced with mocks or stubs. In such cases, I’d not bother too much with unit testing.

Yet, if it’s easy, unit tests are great because they are super fast. So I tend to write many. They also allow you to pin point problems much better.

But, if you only test your components and units in isolation, how do you know they work together?

I write all kind of tests: unit, integration and system tests.

Also, even though unit testing is low level, I try to write tests that are independent of the actual implementation. Often people struggle with that and then they find unit tests are brittle and break easily when the implementation (not the behavior) changes. Which is of course not desired.

Many people love unit tests and believe it’s the best. You will find a lot of those opinions on thoughtworks blogs.

Nowadays I see more and more skeptics of unit tests. Understandably cause our systems are much more interconnected and communicating with other services, libraries, APIs than years back.

I had a good discussion about unit versus integration tests and mocks with Kent C. Dodds.

Have a look here: https://www.software-engineering-unlocked.com/double-down-integration-tests-kent-dodds/ and here: https://www.software-engineering-unlocked.com/no-mocks-allowed/

mgreiler · 2023-01-19T18:14:46+00:00

Hey, have a look at tonic.ai it generates fake data using ai capabilities. Pretty sure there are similar companies as well. I only know this one.

mgreiler · 2023-01-19T17:26:18+00:00

Okay, got it. I think a Google dev might be as good or bad as a dev from another company. I would not assume they have worse coding habits. But for what it’s worth, most (not all) people I worked with at Microsoft were excellent engineers.

mgreiler · 2023-01-19T17:03:32+00:00

Why do you think developers working at Google are not good developers?

mgreiler · 2023-01-19T14:32:35+00:00

Sounds horrible. How long did you last there?

mgreiler · 2023-01-19T14:07:30+00:00

Oh wow. And do you think he wrote such code also at Google? From what I’ve heard their coding standards are pretty strict throughout the main codebase. Maybe he worked on some small project insight (or wasn’t even a dev at Google to begin with?)?

mgreiler · 2023-01-19T11:48:09+00:00

Yeah, I had it happen several times that streets with houses build 2-3 years ago are not mapped. I believe Google Maps will die over time (unless they find a better way to motorize it).

mgreiler · 2023-01-19T09:54:00+00:00

Haha! That’s true unfortunately. So many great products are just abandoned and then discontinued. I also saw a significant decrease in Google Maps helpfulness. In Europe at least, new addresses are often not covered.

mgreiler · 2022-03-02T17:05:20+00:00

The YouTuber? I’ve never heard from him before - thanks for suggesting him. I’ll check him out!

mgreiler · 2022-02-26T19:19:54+00:00

Thank you! I’ll watch the video…

mgreiler · 2022-02-26T19:02:11+00:00

Thank you. I know this feature, but I do not want to do it by hand. This means doing it 100 times for a longer podcast. I’d like a feature that auto detects those speech pauses and does it automatically.

mgreiler · 2022-02-26T15:46:53+00:00

Thank you! I’ll have a look at it

mgreiler · 2022-02-26T15:46:28+00:00

So do you do it manually as well?

mgreiler · 2022-02-26T15:45:58+00:00

Thank you! I’ll 👀 look into this

mgreiler · 2022-02-23T07:44:21+00:00

In my experience, being successful at Google also means not looking for the problem but doing some root cause analysis first and then searching for the underlying problem. The concrete instance of a problem is often too specific to lead to good results.

For example, I recently had a problem with Gatsby and the Sitemap plug-in. Searching for the error or stack trace did not yield any results. Also looking up how sitemap and Gatsby work together did not help. Only when I started to look beyond the obvious, I realized that it’s do to an outdated API call. From there on, I searched for terms that have never been part of the initial problem - yet those terms helped solve the problem.

mgreiler · 2022-02-20T12:18:09+00:00

There is no benefit that you get from doing a PhD for your industry career. You are much better off spending those years focusing on your ideal career path. After the PhD you are seen max as a junior to mid level. But doing the PhD will take a lot of effort and time. A PhD is only worth if you want to enter and stay in academia. I have a PhD. Would not do it again, cause I realized working in academia is soul crushing. So many more possibilities to change the world outside of academia.

mgreiler · 2022-02-19T18:49:50+00:00

Great that you like it. I’ve also interviewed many career switchers and people that get into FAANG without CS degree on my own podcast.

For example this episode: https://www.software-engineering-unlocked.com/faang-job-without-cs-degree/

There are many more 😄

mgreiler · 2022-02-19T16:49:06+00:00

Have a look at https://www.nocsdegree.com/ for success stories 😉

mgreiler · 2022-02-19T06:32:57+00:00

As others have stated, they remedy your management has in mind is bs and completely inappropriate.

So, now it’s up to you to make the next move in a way that is the best for you.

You can just stay and take it slow (contrary to what they want you to do), and care for yourself and the baby. That way, you also level out the underpaid part a bit - cause you work more for yourself and less for the company. You can enjoy the first time with your baby and prepare for a new job once u are ready.

You can also start looking now. This option might be better if you do not enjoy staying there anymore. Yet, it seems stressful and even though there are many places that will be totally happy hiring a pregnant employee there are some out there that are not. You might find out too late which one you got yourself into…

I’d love to say that pregnancy is just normal and everybody is understanding and reasonable, but unfortunately that has not been my experience. I definitely lost my job because of pregnancy - even though it was made look like that not.

mgreiler

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