Modern Software Development

Slides: http://bit.ly/msd-workshop

Introduction

What makes a good software
How to prototype fully functional software quickly
Utilise free and OSS tools to make them do your work for you

Programming Myths

Programmers sit all day and write code
Most important skill for a programmer is knowledge of programming language
Testing is not a programmer’s job, it’s a tester’s job
What you learn in college is mostly obsolete

15m

Collaborating with stakeholders and colleagues is where large chunk of the time is spent
Programmers spend more time reading existing code and thinking than writing/changing new code.
Most important skills for a programmer are communication skills closely followed by logic and reasoning.
Programming is communicating in a way - writing precise instructions for computers that take every instruction of yours literally.
Learning new programming language is relatively easy once you know one of them. Learn new languages. Will expand your horizons.
Testing is important part of the programming feedback loop. Only way to make sure what you wrote works as intended.
Software testers are responsible for finding gaps in implementation details rather than making sure your piece of code works.
Most important things you learn in college are fundamentals. Data structures, algorithms, operating systems, networks, compilers, design patterns etc.
The “gap” is because of continuous change in programming paradigms. For instance, nowadays programmers are more of assemblers of code than writers of them.
Depend on third-party modules, and open source software to boost productivity

Programming is like Writing

Documentation -> Humans. Code -> Computers.
What makes a good writer?
- Knowledge of English?
- Ability to type fast?
- Knowledge of MS Word/Google Docs?

No.

20m

All of the above are necessary, but not sufficient to be a good writer.
Most people focus on languages, tools, and frameworks instead of patterns and processes
Like a well-written story, well-written software is art.

What makes a good programmer then?

Understanding and modeling the right problem: Solving a wrong problem is more detrimental than not doing anything.
Communication - working on a team requires communicating your ideas and understanding other people’s ideas
Data Structures, Algorithms, and Design patterns - Data structures are like vocabulary. Many smart people before us have worked out efficient ways to solve certain problems. Why reinvent the wheel? “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”.
Simplicity of solution - The best code is no code at all

Prerequisites

Node.js (http://nodejs.org/en/download)
Visual Studio Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/download)
Git (https://git-scm.com/downloads)

git

Revision Control

Collaboration
Accurate version tracking, and restoring to previous versions
Code Archeology - Auditable history of who did what, and why.
Backup - more than one copy of code and its history

Git

Distributed - all history and files travel with checkouts
Immutable - Nothing can alter historical commits, increasing auditability.
Fast
Widely used, popular
Flexible workflows

Workshop Template

Create a github.com account
Visit https://github.com/improwised/emi-calculator, and hit “Fork” button
Log into CircleCI using Github, and add the above fork as a project to enable automatic builds.

Clone the codebase from your fork

Open git bash

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/emi-calculator.git
cd emi-calculator
npm install

Getting Familiar With The Code

(Both the workshop codebase and VS Code)

Unit Tests

Does it work? Is anything missing?

Negative test case

git checkout -b <branch-name>

Add new test case to tests/emi.test.js

test('Should throw an error on negative interest rate', () => {
  expect(() => EMI.Loan(10000, -1, 10)).toThrowError('wrong parameters: 10000 -1 10')
});

Run tests

npm test

Negative test case

Commit

git add tests/*.test.js
git commit -m "Add test to validate whether Loan() allows negative values"

Linting

npm run lint

Remove extra semicolons, and commit again
```
./node_modules/.bin/eslint --fix .
```

Fix code

js // function Loan if (!amount || amount <= 0 || !installmentsNumber || installmentsNumber <= 0 || !interestRate || interestRate <= 0) { throw new Error(`wrong parameters: ${amount} ${installmentsNumber} ${interestRate}`) }`

Commit and push

git add src/emi.js
git commit -m "Disallow negative value for all parameters"
git push origin <branch-name>

Contributing Back

Create a Pull Request from <branch-name> to master
Watch CI job run and succeed

Open Source Software

OSS Projects are not just Software, they are also communities
Opportunity to learn from code written by world-class developers
Learn how big software is built and managed.
All of the above, for free!
Try your hand at contributing to existing OSS Projects
- https://firstcontributions.github.io/
- https://github.com/MunGell/awesome-for-beginners

Open Source all your projects

You learn from each other.
You get to practice how to build software the way startups and large companies build it.
You get to use state-of-the-art tooling. For free!
It’s like a resume. Your work speaks for you.

Project Tips

Address a need. Build something that you wish existed.
Don’t jump directly to writing code. Understand the problem.
Use Github and other free tools. Some of the most useful ones are:
- Zeit Now (Build Previews and zero-config Serverless Deployments)
- AWS/GCP/Azure has free tier/credits for new registrations
- Firebase (Mobile app backend)
Use frameworks/boilerplate wherever feasible.

Thanks!

Rakshit Menpara

CTO, Improwised Technologies Private Limited

improwised.com

Feedback: http://bit.ly/sd-workshop