Know your IDE

Your IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is your tool for creating great applications. Without it, you don’t mean much, unless you are a hardcore .NET developer that can write a whole application in Notepad and compile it with a command line compiler. The bottom line is, you need your IDE.

What is really astounding to me is how little the average programmer knows about their IDE. (I will be specifically referring to Visual Studio Team System 2008 throughout this post.) They know just enough in order to do the most basic of tasks (and I don’t mean writing code). Your Visual Studio IDE is a very powerful tool, and your utilization of that tool impacts directly on your productivity. (more…)

When writing code, the simplest solution to a problem is the best

Occam’s razor according to Wikipedia is “the principle that ‘entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity’ (entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem). The popular interpretation of this principle is that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Simplest is not defined by the time or number of words it takes to express the theory; is really referring to the theory with the fewest new assumptions.” (See the article here) (more…)

Build up a code library or repository

How much code do you rewrite? Be honest with yourself. I am a very lazy programmer. So lazy in fact that I created a project template for myself. (More on this later) But as any good programmer knows, having a stash of code is essential! And really, with all the tools available to you, there really isn’t any excuse not to have a code repository. Try http://codesnipp.it/ online and request an invite (or contact me for one. If I have left, I’ll share).

But let me start from a point. I started noticing that certain aspects of my projects were reusable because I was writing code over and over again. (more…)

Never commit to anything without doing proper research first

On a couple of occasions I have been approached by one of my clients wanting a change to a system I or one of my colleagues wrote. They will start off by saying that they need a ‘small’ addition and that it is really simple. (That usually coming from somebody with NO programming experience at all) They will then proceed to explain the change and at the same time tell you that it shouldn’t take you more than x amount of hours to complete.

This is probably one of the most frustrating situations for me. (more…)

If you are a programmer, and you work for a company (not for yourself), giving out information like this is just as good as signing away any possibility of being able to take some time off...