Kitchen Code

Kitchen Code - how to *not* cook software

Ah, the joy of writing a new program from scratch. Well, mostly from scratch. We use bits and pieces of other programs and mix it all together, season it just right. Poof ... perfection. That's what programming is all about, right?

Hardly.

Real programming means you're going to come back to a program later. Maybe you need to add a feature. Maybe you need to squish a bug. And maybe it's not as easy as the first time in that stew. This after-the-first-release kind of programming is not as exhilarating as "green field" work.

Other hands in the Soup

As if re-working your own code wasn't bad enough, turns out you sometimes have to work on someone else's creation. This can actually be a good thing. This can actually be fun, believe it or not. (You've surely heard about the wonder of Open Source Software. Lots o team work there.)

Coding as part of a team takes discipline. It takes more time at first. (But often takes less time in the fix-up and fancy-up phase.) It's more rewarding.

Working on multi-author code is better ... as long as all authors agree on standards. There are two dangers, problems, with team code that I call "Kitchen Code". Oh how I wish we could all be free from them.

A pot of Spaghetti

Spaghetti Code is the perfect term for a program which jumps around. If you've been into programming for any decent length of time, you have surely heard the phrase. You have probably even seen some spaghetti code. You may have even written some. You'll be forgiven. Just don't do it again!

I love lower level languages. Maybe that's why I love C. Some people call C a "glorified assembler". To me that'd be a compliment. But even C provides strong entry/return fencing. Get into real assembly language and there's real temptation.

Assembler provides the most efficient coding possible. It's also tedious. I don't know if it's the temptation to optimize or that coders tire of the tedium, but it's really common to ... heck ... just branch already! So efficient. So easy. But don't.

No! You must be strong padawan!

Dry-Erase board covered with Post-It Notes*

Noodle cooks have another tendency: disorganized data.

On the other wall from the stove with that spaghetti pot is the white board. There are sticky notes on it. The notes have little bits of information someone needs.

Notes are great. Scratchpads are awesome. But be sure to boil off the excess liquid and get something solid. By "solid" I don't mean one goopy blob of common storage. Organize it. Scope it. Don't expose the whole beefy lot of bits and bytes to every routine in your casserole.

Large structs with global exposure are like rum in the skillet. Someone gets burned.

But *do* use *real* Post-It notes (er, uh ... comments) to explain what you were thinking. They're like margin notes in your recipe book. Do it.

So remember: when it comes to software, avoid spaghetti and contain the data.

-- R; <><

*Post-It is a registered trade mark of 3M. But we like 3M and we trust they'll appreciate the free advertising and not give us crap for using their TM here.