Go Ahead Make a Mess - myronmarston/conferences GitHub Wiki

From Gogaruco 2012

Presenter: Sandi Metz

Bio

Sandi Metz has 30 years of experience working on projects that survived to grow and change. During the daytime she writes software at Duke University, in the evening, builds bicycles, and in the wee dark hours of the early morning is finishing the final chapters of the book Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby.

Abstract

Software is always a mess. You can't avoid this mess, and if hubris goads you into attempting to achieve perfection, you'll just make things worse. Perfection is a distant, dim land on the unreachable horizon. You'll not be going there today.

What you can do, however, is use the techniques of object-oriented design (OOD) to make your messes manageable. OOD is good at messes. It understands their origins, predicts their courses, and foresees their outcomes. It shines a light down the dusty nooks and crannies of your app, showing you what to do and what to avoid.

This talk shows you how to use OOD to create the best kinds of messes, those that let you get software out the door today without regretting your actions tomorrow.

Notes

• Learn to understand the mess of a code base
• The source of the problem is objects having knowledge of other objects
• Controlling dependencies requires understanding stability of bits of knowledge
• OOD helps you write code that your future self will love.
• Design lets you stop worrying and learn to love the mess.
• Omega Mess: end of line, no dependencies, no dependents
  • Hides behind a message
• It's about the message
• What is the future cost of doing nothing now?
  • If it's the same cost in the future compared to now, then wait.
• Meta Knowledge: Knowledge about Knowledge
  • The domain of design
• Preference: send a message rather than implement behavior
• "What message should I send?" -- create the object if need be