Chapter 6. While You Are Coding

Conventional wisdom says that once a project is in the coding phase, the work is mostly mechanical, transcribing the design into executable statements. We think that this attitude is the single biggest reason that many programs are ugly, inefficient, poorly structured, unmaintainable, and just plain wrong.

Coding is not mechanical. If it were, all the CASE tools that people pinned their hopes on in the early 1980s would have replaced programmers long ago. There are decisions to be made every minutedecisions that require careful thought and judgment if the resulting program is to enjoy a long, accurate, and productive life.

Developers who don't actively think about their code are programming by coincidence the code might work, but there's no particular reason why. In Programming by Coincidence, we advocate a more positive involvement with the coding process.

While most of the code we write executes quickly, we occasionally develop algorithms that have the potential to bog down even the fastest processors. In Algorithm Speed, we discuss ways to estimate the speed of code, and we give some tips on how to spot potential problems before they happen.

Pragmatic Programmers think critically about all code, including our own. We constantly see room for improvement in our programs and our designs. In Refactoring, we look at techniques that help us fix up existing code even while we're in the midst of a project.

Something that should be in the back of your mind whenever you're producing code is that you'll someday have to test it. Make code easy to test, and you'll increase the likelihood that it will actually get tested , a thought we develop in Code That's Easy to Test.

Finally, in Evil Wizards, we suggest that you should be careful of tools that write reams of code on your behalf unless you understand what they're doing.

Most of us can drive a car largely on autopilotwe don't explicitly command our foot to press a pedal, or our arm to turn the wheelwe just think "slow down and turn right." However, good, safe drivers are constantly reviewing the situation, checking for potential problems, and putting themselves into good positions in case the unexpected happens. The same is true of codingit may be largely routine, but keeping your wits about you could well prevent a disaster.