Refactoring: be eager, not reckless »
Created at: 19.10.2011 19:54, source: has_many :through, tagged: agile refactoring
The illustrious Chris Eppstein recently tweeted:
If some code should be refactored, stop what you are doing and refactor it.
I was about to respond, but realized I had more to say than would fit in a tweet. (Waiting for someone to fix that problem!) (Then I got distracted and didn't finish this article for a few days, oops.)
Now, Chris is really smart and probably doesn't mean exactly what he said, but it's easy to misinterpret his advice. I'll agree with him that you should be eager to refactor code when you discover the need. Don't let that technical debt accrue interest longer than necessary! However, you shouldn't be reckless about it.
Please keep this in mind:
Don't do a refactoring in the middle of making another change.
If you are working on a story and in the middle of making a code change when you discover the need to refactor something, make a note of it (I usually create a chore in Pivotal Tracker) and forget about it until you're done with the change in progress. After you complete the change, come back and do the refactoring. Make sure all tests are green before starting to refactor, and are green when done. The refactoring change should be a separate commit in git (separate checkin in SVN, etc).
OK, I'm pragmatic and realize that that approach doesn't work all the time, but it's a good ideal to shoot for. I considered discussing cases where it would be OK to refactor something in the middle of another change, but on second thought I think I'll leave that be for now. You'll learn that for yourself better than by following someone else's advice on the subject.
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Launching Ruby on Rails projects, the video »
Created at: 11.11.2009 20:00, source: Robby on Rails, tagged: Business Ruby on Rails PLANET ARGON Projects agile development clients presentation conference rubyonrails video
For those of you who didn’t make it to Rails Underground in July to witness my mind-blowing talk, Launching Ruby on Rails projects , it appears that Skills Matter has finally posted a video of it online. :-)
The sound levels are really low… but hopefully you’ll find it helpful.
You can also view the slides.
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Planet Argon Podcast, Episode 3: How We Manage Bugs »
Created at: 11.11.2009 19:46, source: Robby on Rails, tagged: programming PLANET ARGON agile bugs lighthouse planetargon podcast collaboration clients
Earlier this week, we published Episode 3 of the Planet Argon Podcast. In this latest episode we responded to one of the ideas someone in the audience asked on this brainstormr, which was, “How do you manage bugs?”
We had a round table discussion about how we classify and prioritize bugs with our clients, ticketing systems, and other tools that we use to streamline this process.
You can listen to this on iTunes or online.
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Planet Argon Podcast, Episode 2: The Letter Scotch »
Created at: 30.10.2009 15:27, source: Robby on Rails, tagged: Ruby on Rails PLANET ARGON planetargon rubyonrails agile podcast javascript html css firefox firebug safari debugbar internetexplorer webbrowsers webinspector itunes
Earlier this week our new podcast was approved and is now available in the Apple iTunes Store. We’re also soliciting topic ideas for future episodes on brainstormr.
We posted Episode 2, The Letter Scotch, yesterday for your enjoyment. In this episode, we covered a handful of web browser tools that we use (and detest) to debug HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This included Web Inspector, Firebug, DebugBar, and a handful of other tools. We all have slightly different preferences, depending on the tasks that we’re working on and the team had an open dialogue about the pros/cons of each of these tools.
You can learn more about and listen to our podcast at http://planetargon.com/podcast.
Thanks in advance for listening!
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The 8-Hour Rails Code Audit »
Created at: 20.10.2009 15:13, source: Robby on Rails, tagged: Business Ruby on Rails ruby programming PLANET ARGON code codeaudit agile programming planetargon audit
While our team is typically focused on larger client and internal projects, we do get an opportunity to assist businesses on a much smaller scale. Whether this be through retainer-based consulting or through code audits, we have seen a lot of Ruby on Rails code over what has nearly been… five years!? We’ve been able to compile a fairly extensive checklist that we use in our code audit process that we’ve decided to streamline it into a smaller product.
Historically, this service has ranged anywhere from $2000-6000, depending the size and scope of the projects, but we want to help smaller startups1 and projects outline a roadmap for how they can begin to refactor and optimize their existing code base so that they can be more efficient at the start of 2010. So, we’ve scaled things down into an extremely affordable flat-rate package where we work off of a pre-defined number of hours.[2]
Through the end of 2009, we’re now offering the 8-Hour Rails Code Audit package for just $1000 USD (details).
We’re currently limiting this service to just two projects per week, so reserve your spot now.
1 Larger projects are welcome to benefit from this service and custom quotes are available upon request.
2 As always, we’re happy to discuss longer engagements.
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