best practices

Programming in the zone

Much has been written and said about programming in “the zone”. Most articles give you tips on how to get in the zone and keep there. I haven’t found any article though that challenges the usefulness of ‘being in the zone’ (If I

Acceptance Testing

Running SpecFlow Acceptance Tests in parallel on BrowserStack

Automated acceptance tests play a vital role in continuous delivery. Contrary to unit tests though, they’re quite hard to get right. This is not only because end-to-end testing is harder than testing single units, but also because of the way they need to

best practices

Simple code: a sample app

In my last few posts I have hammered a lot on simplicity in software. In my first post (Simplicity in software) I explained what the difference is between easy and simple code (or hard and complex code). On the basis that introducing frameworks and

best practices

Using partial application for dependency injection

In my post on how to simplify code by using composition instead of an AOP-framework I showed a way of substituting attribute based programming with a more composable paradigm. The result of that transformation will be my starting point for today’s post. For

best practices

How to use Pure DI

In my previous posts I talked about how you can decrease dependency on external libraries and frameworks while making your code simpler (not easier, simpler). In this post I want to continue on the same thread and show some of the benefits of Pure

.NET

How to ditch your ORM

In my previous post on how to simplify code by using composition I talked about how we can reduce complexity by removing an AOP-framework (or annotations-based programming). In this post I want to continue on the same line and talk about how we can

.NET

Simplify code by using composition

In my post about software simplicity I talked about how we introduce complexity in software without realizing it. In this post I want to discuss a pattern that allows you to get rid of the complexity introduced by using annotations or aspect oriented concepts.

best practices

Simplicity in software: what you see is not what you get

As software developers we put a lot of focus on simplicity. And rightly so, because making code readable and understandable keeps it from becoming a maintenance nightmare. Simplicity is often confused though with how many lines of code there are. When you use lines

.NET

Automated acceptance testing with Cucumber for .NET and JAVA

One of the biggest problems in software development is communication. Although we have a lot of technology at hand, the more complex a project is, the harder it is to communicate efficiently. In order to improve the interaction between clients, project managers, analysts and

.NET

Flexible and expressive unit tests with the builder pattern

Unit tests become more valuable if they are expressive and flexible. A good unit test should not only test your code, but also document it. Creating expressive and flexible unit tests is not always easy however. The reason of this is that there’s

AOP

A brief comparison of fundamental AOP techniques

In my previous post “Why choose DI Interception over Aspect Oriented Programming?” I explained my preference for DI interception over AOP. I received a lot of comments on this (especially on reddit) which pointed out some errors. In this article I want to reiterate

.NET

Why choose DI interception over aspect oriented programming?

Note: I have posted a follow-up post with some corrections to this post, thanks to some comments made on Reddit: A brief comparison of AOP techniques Let me start with saying that in this post I will explain why I think Dependency Injection is

best practices

The N-layer myth and basic Dependency Injection

Dividing an application in N layers is considered a standard and a best practice. It is often thought that this automatically creates a decoupled application. However, just creating layers doesn’t make your code loosely coupled. A typical N-layer application Let’s take a

best practices

Javascript Namespaces and Modules

Namespaces In most programming languages we know the concept of** namespaces (or packages)**.****Namespaces allow us to group code and help us to avoid name-collisions. In c# for example you have this declaration namespace MyNameSpace { public class MyClass { } } If you want to use MyClass,

best practices

Javascript hoisting explained

Often I see problems arise when people try to tackle Javascript. Taking a certain behavior for granted can get them frustrated. Javascript has little differences but they can cause unexpected results if not taken into account. One of those differences is the way it