Professional Software Development. Can it be taught?

Transcript

1. Professional Software Development Can it be taught? Ivan Zimine PyConSG Edu Summit, 25 Jun 2019
3. 3 20 years ago… me X
4. 4 image data: multi-channel multi-slice multi-timepoint Need for custom GUI code
5. 5 Math, binary logic, and language syntax are the small and easy parts. Small programs are easy to create, but it’s hard to grow and maintain them. Spec/design first Lessons learned
7. 7 1995: Delphi 1996: html, (t)csh, emacs 1997: IDL, bash, latex 1998-2010: IDL, C/C++, bash, perl, python, php, sql, vim, svn/git 2010-2016: python 2016-now: python, ruby, js, java (+ TDD, BDD, CI/CD,…) programming experience (paid)
9. 9 professional == responsible for outcome
10. 10 http://disenthrall.co/complexity-is-easy/ Complexity == “software gravity”
11. 11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer AGC, 1969 ~100’000 SLOC 1400 person-years Space Shuttle, 1981 > 1’000’000 SLOC Windows NT 3.5, 1993 > 7’500’000 SLOC Mac OS X (tiger), 2007 > 86’000’000 SLOC
12. 12 0.1 MSLOC ~= 1.5m 10 MSLOC ~= 150m
13. 13 Invest in communication and social skills (working effectively in teams) Invest in simple tools and pragmatic development practices How to handle complexity?
14. 14 “ Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.” — Hal Abelson
15. 15 Proper naming (clarity beats cleverness) - use intention-revealing names - avoid disinformation - use pronounceable names
16. 16 hello FizzBuzz
17. 17 refactored FizzBuzz
18. 18 Linguistics is more important for programming than math! Communicate in code with others Listen to your own code
19. 19 Executable specifications are much more useful than requirements docs and architecture diagrams.
20. 20 Building the right product requires communication with all stakeholders
21. Working together: pairing
22. “For an idea to go from someone’s head into the computer it must go through someone else’s hands” — Llewellyn Falco Working together: mobbing
23. 23 Tools: plain text
24. 24 Tools: command line
25. 25 Tools: text editor
26. 26 dev practices: TDD
27. 27 Can it be taught?
28. 28 Can it be taught?
29. 29 Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival. — W. Edwards Deming Thank you ivan@odd-e.com