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Being Imperfect In A Perfect World

Abizer Nasir
September 21, 2016

Being Imperfect In A Perfect World

Just some thoughts on the choices we make about the patterns we use in development.

Presented at NSBarcelona September 2016

Abizer Nasir

September 21, 2016
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  1. !

  2. OUR WORLD ▸ Nothing works? ▸ Autolayout, View hierarchies, Threading,

    Networking, Dependencies... ▸ PC Load Letter?! (If you’ve seen Office Space, you know what this means)
  3. !

  4. !

  5. TEMPTATIONS ▸ I’m having problems with this, maybe I should

    try... ▸ My friend said X is awesome, I’m going to use it! These are not necessarily bad, but doing things in the heat of the moment is usually a bad idea.
  6. MY BACKGROUND ▸ I’ve been a professional programmer since 2010.

    ▸ I’ve always been a contractor. ▸ I’ve worked day rate and hourly. ▸ I’ve worked solo and in teams. ▸ I’ve spent 12 months pair programming.
  7. There is nothing wrong with doing things the easy way,

    as long as you do it by choice, not just because...
  8. !

  9. WE LEARN TO RECOGNISE SMELLS, WITH PRACTICE AND INTUITION ▸

    Repeated code. ▸ Leaky abstractions. ▸ UserDefaults used to store state. ▸ AppDelegate used as a Singleton.
  10. MVC

  11. MVC ▸ The first pattern we learned as developers ▸

    Used almost everywhere, but it is not the only pattern. ▸ Massive View Controller
  12. We don’t have to do this sort of thing. We

    can if we want to, but we don’t have to. This isn’t the Perfect World that was sold to us. Nothing is perfect. We have to find a way to live in the imperfect world.
  13. REMEMBER WHEN I SAID I WAS A CONTRACTOR? ▸ The

    code I’m working on is usually not started or finished by me. ▸ I don’t want to leave someone else with the constraints I’ve chosen. ▸ I tend to avoid clever code. I use what the system provides as much as possible. ▸ I started working on my own, not in a team, which is why I have opinions.
  14. I LIKE TO KEEP THINGS SIMPLE ▸ I use MVC,

    The observer pattern, façade, Dependency Injection. ▸ Probably a whole lot of other patterns that I don’t know the names of - I’m not Computer Science educated. ▸ I avoid third party omni dependencies. ▸ I try and use third party code that I understand and can fix. ▸ I sound like an Apple fanboi.
  15. TESTING MODELS AND VIEW CONTROLLERS? ▸ I use dependency injection

    and TDD. ▸ Swift is really handy for default parameters that allow injection for tests. ▸ I live without 100% test coverage.
  16. VIEW CONTROLLERS DO TOO MUCH? ▸ A view controller is

    supposed to control a view. ▸ Everything else can get passed off. ▸ Delegation (or even closures) for performing work related to views. ▸ Data sources don’t have to be in the view controller. ▸ Having separate subsystems makes them easier to test.
  17. TOO MUCH GLUE CODE FOR INTERACTIONS? ▸ Swift makes this

    easier with property observers. ▸ There’s also Key-Value Observing for NSObject based classes. ▸ The functional paradigm that made MVVM and Reactive attractive to me are now available in Swift. ▸ I use Core Data - plenty of change notifications there.
  18. When the time comes to learning them, remember they are

    just MVC in different clothes - there is a defined flow of data and responsibilities.
  19. If you work in a team, get them on board,

    make sure they are enthusiastic, or you’ll spend most of your time justifying your choices rather than using them.
  20. You don’t have to use them everywhere, You can use

    a different pattern for different flows - You have a nose!
  21. It’s a good idea to actually try them in a

    play project. Just remember - real apps live in an imperfect world.
  22. !

  23. THE GOOD ▸ No more breaking changes. ▸ Simpler, right

    now it’s not easier !. ▸ It’s the future. And I don’t just mean our platforms.
  24. THE BAD ▸ A lot of examples and blog posts

    are in the perfect world: ▸ JSON Parsers. ▸ Autolayout DSLs. ▸ Generics make code simple, harder to understand at first. ▸ Lot’s of new names, who do you believe?
  25. THE UGLY ▸ It’s still not done yet. ▸ Open

    Source, will we see design by committee? Forks?
  26. SUMMARY ▸ Code, examples, talks, all speak of a perfect

    world. ▸ Our daily work has to survive in the imperfect world. ▸ Don’t just believe the hype. You’ve developed engineering skills: use them.