7. The Many Faces of Steve
(and Bob, and Mary, and Bill, and Jane,…)
• You are not a single person, but a constellation
of personalities unique to you
• This is the normal condition, not a disorder
And in no way invalidates disorders labeled after
multiple personalities
• It is a model, of course, but a convenient one
• Each personality has different strengths,
weaknesses, methods of learning, and goals
• How well we understand and integrate them is
key
8. Perl Personalities
• Some personalities are common
• And are dominant at different times
• Personalities we likely have in common:
The Perl Parser
The Impatient Coder
The Glory Hunter
The Good Samaritan
• Of course, YPMV
• And there are others
9. The Perl Parser
• A very primitive personality
• Parses code and performs simulated
execution
• Limited stack space
This is why we require programs to be more
readable than perl needs
And why variables should be declared in
innermost scope possible
And why functions and methods should fit in a
screen
10. A Beautiful Algorithm…
for my $index ( 1 .. $pop->Count ) {
my $head = $pop->Head( $index );
if ( head_okay( $head ) ) {
my $body = $pop->Body( $index );
my $msg = quot;$headn$bodyquot;;
if ( msg_okay( $msg ) ) {
deliver( $msg );
}
}
}
11. A Beautiful Algorithm… Uglified
for my $index ( 1 .. $pop->Count ) {
print quot;Fetching message: $indexnquot;;
my $head = $pop->Head( $index );
if ( head_okay( $head ) ) {
print quot;Passed header check...nquot;;
my $body = $pop->Body( $index );
my $msg = quot;$headn$bodyquot;;
print quot;Length: quot;, length( $msg ), quot;nquot;;
if ( msg_okay( $msg ) ) {
print quot;Delivering...nquot;;
deliver( $msg );
}
}
}
12. Enter Smart::Comments
for my $index ( 1 .. $pop->Count ) {
### Fetching message: $index
my $head = $pop->Head( $index );
if ( head_okay( $head ) ) {
### Passed header check...
my $body = $pop->Body( $index );
my $msg = quot;$headn$bodyquot;;
### Length: length( $msg )
if ( msg_okay( $msg ) ) {
### Delivering...
deliver( $msg );
}
}
}
13. With Syntax Coloring
for my $index ( 1 .. $pop->Count ) {
### Fetching message: $index
my $head = $pop->Head( $index );
if ( head_okay( $head ) ) {
### Passed header check...
my $body = $pop->Body( $index );
my $msg = quot;$headn$bodyquot;;
### Length: length( $msg )
if ( msg_okay( $msg ) ) {
### Delivering...
deliver( $msg );
}
}
}
14. The Perl Parser
• It can actually be smarter than perl
use constant MAX_USERS => 54;
Readonly my $WINDOW_WIDTH = 640;
… “Optimized away”
• Needs to be integrated with: The Impatient
Coder
15. The Impatient Coder
• Wants to code now, sees no value in
preparation
Loves: Impatience as a virtue, Extreme
•
Programming
Hates: Design, documentation, planning,
•
meetings, teamwork
Needs to be integrated with: The Perl
•
Parser, The Good Samaritan
Especially for picking identifier names
•
16. The Glory Hunter
• Thrives on attention
• Wants to create works of art that will be
admired throughout history
• Dislikes sharing credit
• Needs to be integrated with: The Good
Samaritan
17. The Good Samaritan
• Wants to make the world a better place for
everyone
• Wants to be needed
• Enjoys teamwork and helping people
• Needs to be integrated with: The Impatient
Coder, The Glory Hunter
18. Why Test First Took So Long
• Programmers have historically been
dominated by the Glory Hunter personality
Because the discipline was largely an arcane
priesthood
And their code was tested by other people
• Now the Good Samaritan personality is
ascendant
• Integrating this can actually satisfy the
Glory Hunter as well
19. Key Lessons
• Get to know yourselves
• Be smart enough to know when you’re not
• Negotiate and balance
Within yourself
On a team
• Glory Hunter conceives project and
ensures its completion
• Good Samaritan enlists cooperation
• Impatient Coder gets the job done
• Perl Parser ensures it’s comprehensible
20. Mind Like Water
• Minimize the distractions
• From the mundane…
Get your editor to do its share
(defconst cperl-hairy t)
21. … to the Sublime
• Use safety nets
Automated tests:
http://qa.perl.org/test-modules.html
• Factor out the boring rote stuff
Automated bootstrapping with
module-starter
(CPAN: Module::Starter)
Anything repetitive likely already has a
module for automating it
22. The Behavioral Cycle
• Beliefs shape Attitudes
Especially unconscious beliefs
Attitudes drive behaviors
•
But it works the other way around too
•
Behaviors change attitudes
•
Attitudes can change beliefs
•
We can do this consciously
•
It’s called discipline
23. Productive Perl Behaviors
• Adopt best practices (wax on, wax off)
Whether or not you believe in them
Neatness
Precision
• Program within your comprehension limits
And within those of the others who must read
your code
• Adopt large system methodologies for
large systems
Largeness is in what it does, not how long it is
24. Secrets of the Masters
Dominus
•
Damian
•
• brian d foy
chromatic
•
25. Excerpted Wisdom - MJD
• Programming is not (always) a matter of
personal taste.
• I try to read and learn things that people around
me are not reading and learning, because that
tends to enable me to solve the problems that
people around me are not able to solve.
• I find myself saying that I don’t know and that I’m
not sure a lot more than most programmers I
know.
• I read a lot of code written by other people and
think about how it was done and why.
• It seems like an awful lot of people […] don’t
recognize that it would be a benefit to them to
become less ignorant.
26. Excerpted Wisdom - Damian
• I believe that it’s critical to work on what you
love […] It increases my productivity
enormously.
• Often I simply will not admit failure […] I think
most people throw in the towel too quickly […] I
don’t assume a priori that something is
impossible […] the limits in your mind are
generally far below your actual limits.
• Design from the users’ perspective, not from
the implementers’. Design for the users’
convenience, not for the implementers’.
27. Excerpted Wisdom - Damian
• Larry Wall has been a very important role model
to me […] I’ve come to admire and respect his
patience. I always want closure on a job… it’s
been very enlightening to watch [him] leave
things undone, and come back to them when the
time was right.
• I try and do something that stretches me as a
coder [every day].
• Why do so many people seem to think that it’s
easier to struggle to complete a job using only
their existing tools/knowledge/skills, rather than
first improving [those things] and then getting the
job done more efficiently…?
28. Excerpted Wisdom - brian d foy
• I work with the language the way it is instead of
fighting it to make it more like something else […]
Everything is the way it is for a reason. It
doesn’t have to be a good reason, but there is a
reason.
• I’d rather go for the long term payoff than the
short term satisfaction.
• Ask more questions than you answer, and listen
to the answer […] Don’t like the answer you get?
Wait a week. The world will be different. Most
things work themselves out. Don’t get impatient.
29. Excerpted Wisdom - brian d foy
• If I come up with a way of thinking that
seems to work, I try to apply it to
something else to see if it still works.
• The most puzzling thing is that people
don’t simply try something.
• I’ve learned quite a bit from Randal. He
pokes his head into just about everything
and brings back whatever he learns to his
Perl programming.
31. Excerpted Wisdom - chromatic
• I try to experiment with new ideas and code
regularly.
• I’m really picky about small details in a lot of
ways. […] I’ve grown to rely on very consistent
formatting. I even spend a lot of time trying to
find good identifier names in almost-throwaway
programs[…]
• I find that rigorous discipline helps me keep
good habits.
• I appreciate how Ward Cunningham makes
almost everything good in software look
effortless.
32. Excerpted Wisdom - chromatic
• It is painful to wake up early to exercise every
morning, at least for the first few weeks, but after
it becomes a habit, it’s painful not to do so. The
same goes for good development practices,
such as testing and working in small, reversible
steps.
• If I need to make a big change to a system, I try
to make the change [that way]. In part, that
means relying on effective testing and working
as simply as possible.
• I wonder why it’s easier [for many other people]
to ask, in public, “Can I do task X in this way”
than to write a five-line program to see.
33. Common Wisdom
Extend yourself; try new things
•
Learn at every opportunity
•
Experiment; be curious
•
Integrate lessons from other fields
•
Persist
•
Use discipline to free yourself for important
•
tasks
Even when it appears superfluous
• Be patient
