Happiness, Lies and Rubocop

Ruby is optimized for happiness, but, are we all happy with the shared style guides and linting rules?

Finding the right balance between common conventions and individual coding style can be a delicate subject, specially for bigger teams.

In this talk we'll explore these limits and try to find a recipe for making sure that Rubocop makes us all happier developers

Transcript

1. HAPPINESS, LIES AND RUBOCOP
   JOSEP EGEA
   jes@josepegea.com
   

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2. KICK OFF!!
   

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3. THANKS FOR COMING!!!
   Thanks to members of Madrid.rb
   Thanks to people from outside of Madrid!
   Thanks to our Sponsors! We ❤️
   you!
   

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4. WHO'S JOSEP
   Software developer & Entrepreneur
   jes@josepegea.com
   https://www.josepegea.com
   https://github.com/josepegea
   

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5. BEFORE WE START …
   

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6. 🇺🇦 STOP THE WAR
   🇺🇦
   

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7. ABOUT TODAY
   

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8. THIS IS A RANT
   This is NOT Expert Advice
   This is NOT Objective
   This is NOT a Best Practice
   It is NOT likely that we agree
   

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9. EXPECTED TAKEWAYS
   Despite all that, I'd love that …
   You don't get bored!
   We all examine our convictions about code style
   Maybe, who knows, we'll agree on one item or two
   Hopefully, we'll have a fun talk (no monologue!!)
   

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10. WHY I WANT TO GIVE THIS TALK
    

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11. WHAT ABOUT THE TITLE???
    

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12. THERE'S A MOVIE FOR EVERYTHING!!
    "Sex, lies and videotape", by Steven Soderbergh
    1989 Cannes award best movie and best actor
    

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13. 1. HAPPINESS
    

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14. WHAT IS HAPPINESS?
    Credits: "Sex, Lies and Videotape"
    

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15. RUBY IS OPTIMIZED FOR DEVELOPER HAPPINESS
    

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16. DO RUBY DEVELOPERS AGREE?
    Credits: "Stack Overvflow Developer Survey 2017-2021"
    

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17. OR ARE WE IN IT FOR THE MONEY?
    Credits: "Stack Overvflow Developer Survey 2017-2021"
    

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18. HOW OPTIMIZES RUBY FOR HAPPINESS?
    

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19. THE CANONICAL EXAMPLE
    Ruby adapts to the developer
    Python wants the developer to adapt
    jes% irb
    
    irb(main):001:0> exit
    
    jes% irb
    
    irb(main):001:0> quit
    
    jes% irb
    
    irb(main):001:0> ^D
    
    jes%
    jes% python3
    
    Python 3.9.10 (main, Jan 15 2022, 11:40:36)
    
    >>> quit
    
    Use quit() or Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF) to exit
    
    >>> exit
    
    Use exit() or Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF) to exit
    
    >>> exit()
    
    jes%
    

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20. SO, HAPPINESS == CHOICE?
    

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21. WELL, SOMEBODY SEEMS TO DISAGREE…
    Random pieces of flair from Rubocop
    -------Convert `if-elsif` to `case-when`.----------------------
    
    --Do not prefix writer method names with `set_`.---------------
    
    ----------Gems should be sorted in an alphabetical order ...---
    
    ----Prefer `Regexp.last_match(1)` over `$1`.-------------------
    
    ---Prefer `each` over `for`.-----------------------------------
    
    ----------------Redundant `return` detected.-------------------
    
    -----------------------Redundant `self` detected.--------------
    
    ---Use `current_col.negative?` instead of `current_col < 0`.---
    
    ---------------Use `i.zero?` instead of `i == 0`.--------------
    
    

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22. AND THIS SHOW IN GIT COMMIT MESSAGES …
    Random commit messages from a real project
    -----`Disable rubocop`-----------------------------------------
    
    ---------------`Fix Rubocop complaint`-------------------------
    
    --`Make Rubocop happy`-----------------------------------------
    
    ----------`Fix Rubocop offences`-------------------------------
    
    -----------------`Rubocop fixes`-------------------------------
    
    -----`But this is shorter than disabling rubocop
    🤷
    `-----------
    
    ----------------------------------`Fix RuboCop`----------------
    
    ---`Rubocop complaining about class length on CI (only)`-------
    
    

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23. IS OUR MARRIAGE WITH RUBY A HAPPY ONE?
    

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24. 2. LIES
    

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25. IS OUR HAPPINESS REAL?
    Credits: "Sex, Lies and Videotape"
    

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26. WHY DO WE PUT UP WITH THIS?
    

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27. LET'S TAKE A STEP BACK…
    

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28. THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT DRAMA
    Credits: Introducing Agile Software Engineering in development (SAP Community)
    

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29. OR ANOTHER WAY TO SEE IT
    

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30. OR EVEN YET ANOTHER ONE!
    

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31. THIS IS SOMETHING WE'VE KNOWN FOR A LONG TIME
    

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32. AND IT DOESN'T SEEM TO GO AWAY
    Dilbert (c) Scott Adams
    

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33. IN THE END, WE HAVE …
    Unpredictable ETA's
    Bugs
    Longer development times
    More bugs …
    Refactors
    Bugs, bugs, bugs …
    Rewrite / Collapse (Sunset)
    

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34. THERE'S NO SILVER BULLET, BUT …
    We have sure tried
    😅!!!
    Methodologies: Let's plan ahead!
    Type systems: Let the compiler work!
    Modularity: Let's Divide and conquer!
    OOP: Let's message!
    TDD: Let's get a safety net!
    Design patterns: Let's square the circle!
    Style Guides and Linters: Let's normalize!
    

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35. LET'S FOCUS ON ONE …
    "Style Guides and Linters"
    

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36. 3. RUBOCOP
    

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37. LAWYERS AND COPS …
    Credits: "Sex, Lies and Videotape"
    

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38. WHAT IS LINTING
    lint was the name originally given to a particular program that
    flagged some suspicious and non-portable constructs (likely to be
    bugs) in C language source code.
    The term is now applied generically to tools that flag suspicious
    usage
    in software written in any computer language
    Stack Overflow
    

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39. SCOPE OF LINTING
    Initially, portability, security, performance …
    But then it expanded…
    Code formatting
    Code Style
    General Code Metrics
    

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40. LAYERS OF LINTING
    Layer Nice to have Somewhat useful Very useful Critical
    Security * * * *
    Performance * * *
    Compatibility * *
    Code Metrics * *
    Idioms *
    Formatting *
    Source: Me
    😇
    

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41. LET'S FOCUS ON THE LOWEST ONES
    Idioms
    Formatting
    

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42. IDIOMS
    

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43. WHAT IS IDIOMATIC RUBY?
    What the community likes?
    What makes us feel "in"?
    What makes DHH smile?
    

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44. WE, AS A COMMUNITY, HAVE DEVELOPED A SHARED TASTE
    We hide return
    But is it always more legible?
    We hide self
    Except for assignments
    We prefer 3.times do over (1..3).each do
    But it's "occupying" the Integer namespace
    What about if a < 0 vs if a.negative? ?
    And travel(3.days) vs
    travel_to(3.days.from_now) ?
    

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45. RUBY ❤️
    IDIOMS
    Ruby wouldn't be the same without idioms
    They also show that Ruby is alive
    Most likely, every idiom was first an aberration
    In a certain way, they are progress
    

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46. BUT IDIOMS CAN HAVE A DARK SIDE, TOO
    They can be used to tell apart "the real rubyists"
    

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47. RUBOCOP IS GREAT FOR LEARNING IDIOMS
    Let's use it as a guide
    But don't forget that idioms are subjective
    Let's not become a cult!
    

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48. CONSISTENCY (AKA FORMATTING)
    

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49. ARBITRARY FORMATTING RULES
    Tabs vs spaces
    Single vs double quotes
    Max line length
    Formatting of multiline expressions
    

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50. THERE'S NOT A BETTER CHOICE
    We can argue about them all we want
    We won't find a clear winner
    

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51. BUT WE MUST CHOOSE ONE, RIGHT!
    Of course!! For the sake of consistency!!
    

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52. IS THAT ALWAYS TRUE?
    

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53. SOME TIMES, CONSISTENCY IS OBJECTIVELY BETTER:
    Some inconsistencies would be a hell for the team
    Mixing tabs and spaces
    Mixing LF with CR/LF
    

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54. BUT IS IT ALWAYS SO?
    

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55. THE CASE OF SINGLE AND DOUBLE QUOTES (MY PET PEEVE)
    Even the Ruby Style Guide doesn't take sides
    And according to Rubocop's own survey:
    Single-quoted strings 58%
    Double-quoted strings 39%
    Other 3%
    Credits: Rubocop Defaults Survey, May 2020
    

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56. IS IT THAT IMPORTANT THAT WE'RE CONSISTENT?
    Reading code, there's almost no mental overhead
    Writing code, It's the last thing you care about
    But … when you get the error in Rubocop …
    There goes the flow
    🤯
    

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57. BUT, YOU CAN JUST CHANGE YOUR HABITS!!
    Retrain your muscles and you'll be done… right?
    Ok, but …
    Who works just in a single project??
    Murphy says the next one will change!
    🙃
    

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58. OK, THEN APPLY FORMAT AUTOMATICALLY
    Do we want to mass-process our source code?
    What could possibly go wrong?
    Even if it always works …
    It feels imposed
    😬🔫
    

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59. AND IT TAKES US FROM …
    

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60. … TO
    

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61. … OR EVEN
    Credits: Apple's 1984 Super bowl commercial
    We have created … a garden of pure ideology …
    Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any
    fleet
    or army on earth …
    We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause …
    We shall prevail!
    

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62. COULDN'T WE JUST AGREE TO DISAGREE AGREEABLY?
    Style/StringLiterals:
    
    Enabled: false
    
    

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63. ON THE OTHER HAND …
    

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64. WE CAN ALWAYS GO THE PYTHON WAY
    Source: https://github.com/django/django/pull/15387
    

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65. GETTING BACK TO LIES …
    

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66. THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM
    

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67. THE CAUSES IN OUR MIND …
    Tech debt
    Coupling
    Inconsistencies
    

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68. REALITY IN MOST CASES …
    Business changes
    External stack changes
    People leaving
    Developers getting bored
    Can't hire developers
    

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69. LET'S BE HONEST!
    Maybe we're giving too much credit to consistency
    When the value of Ruby is beyond that:
    Expressiveness
    Flexibility
    Great community
    Powerful Gem ecosystem
    and…
    why not…
    

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70. HAPPY DEVELOPERS!!
    

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71. LET'S KEEP THEM HAPPY!!
    

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72. LET'S KEEP US HAPPY!!
    

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73. RECAP
    

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74. TAKEAWAY
    We take happiness in Ruby for granted, but it's our
    job to keep it there
    We run the risk of throwing the baby of happiness
    with the bathwater
    of consistency
    Rubocop is an outstanding tool, and very valuable,
    but you don't
    have to blindly say "yes to all"
    Use Enabled: false with good judgement and be
    happy!
    

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75. DID I DO MY JOB?
    Did you get bored?
    Did you examine your convictions about code
    style?
    Did you agree with me, at least on something?
    Was this a monologue? Let's see now, during the
    questions
    

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76. REFERENCES
    Sex, Lies and Videotape, the movie
    Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Most Loved
    The Rails Doctrine (about happinness)
    "The Mythical Man Month" and "No Silver Bullet", by Fred Brooks
    Rubocop Defaults Survey, May 2020
    Django: PR to reformat codebase with Black
    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098724/
    https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#technology-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted
    https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted
    https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted
    https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted
    https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2017#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted
    https://rubyonrails.org/doctrine#optimize-for-programmer-happiness
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Silver_Bullet
    https://metaredux.com/posts/2020/05/26/rubocop-defaults-survey-results.html
    https://github.com/django/django/pull/15387
    

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77. BIG THANKS!!
    Hope you had some fun!!
    |
    jes@josepegea.com www.josepegea.com
    

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