Software Horticulture

Software Horticulture

Software Horticultureand other terrible analogies

What is software engineering?


Coding


Coding

Designing


Coding

Designing

Communicating


Important


Recent

Important


Unique

Recent

Important


What is software engineering?We use analogies


to link to familiar things



to build intuition



to build intuition

to frame methodologies

What is software engineering?But analogies are imperfect

What is software engineering?But analogies are imperfect

and taking them too far can lead to

incorrect or incomplete conclusions



Build a structure or machine from raw materials



Structures need to stay standing



Structures need to stay standing

Machines need to work



Heavy on planning and design



Breaking is permanent and catastrophic



Breaking is permanent and catastrophic

Requirements are clearly set in advance


It’s for “very serious people.”

What is software engineering?Requirements

Design

Execution

Verification

Production


This is nothing like how software is built today.



Too slow and inflexible



Too slow and inflexible

Can we tolerate failure of any sort?

What is software engineering?“It is important to say right up front that quality isn't everything, and acknowledging it isn't some sort of moral failing. Value is what you are trying to produce, and quality is only one aspect of it, intermixed with cost, features, and other factors.”


Mark Zuckerberg


John Carmack


Business demands

Outputs

Sound familiar?

What is software economics?


Find the right match between



Demand for business logic PMs



Demand for business logic

Supply of business logic

PMs

Devs


yes



Trade offs


Trade offs

Time


Trade offs

Time

Quality

Scope

What is software horticulture?


“If you think about it, building software is more like gardening than building.”



some guy I know



Walter Hilton

Software Architect at Advertising.com



Babysitting - safety in both compile and run time



Landscaping - encouraging flexibility



Landscaping - encouraging flexibility

Linguistics - communication of intent

What is software babysitting?

What are the two biggest impediments to programming?



Fear of being wrong



Fear of being wrong

Being wrong


Static analysis is a huge safety net



Type safety, immutability



Type safety, immutability

Use it and use it wisely


val a = 20val b = if (a == None) {

30} else {

40}


var a = 1; var b = 0;if (a = 2) {

b += 1} else {

b += 2}


1. Never use vars


1. Never use vars

2. Never use AnyVal or Any.


1. Never use vars


3. Never do Option.get


1. Never use vars


3. Never do Option.get

4. Be as functional as possible


Testing is incredibly important

A sieve that catches runtime errors


Unit testing is for finicky business logic

Functional testing is for sanity checks


Singletons

Can trap state across application shutdowns


Singletons

Can trap state across application shutdowns

Use cake pattern for service unit tests

Use reloadable registry for controller functional tests

What is software landscaping?


Design for composition


Design for composition

Would rather have Legos than a BMW


traits


traits

type classes


traits

type classes

first class functions


trait CanBark; trait HasPawsclass Dog extends CanBark with HasPaws

class Dog extends Canineclass Canine extends Mammal


trait UserComponenttrait QuestionComponent

object Registryextends UserComponentwith QuestionComponent


trait Barkable[A]implicit dogIsBarkable = new Barkable[Dog]

def seesBurglar[A](animal: A)(implicit b: Barkable[A])


case class MyDTO(a: Int, b: String)

object MyDTO {implicit val format: Format[MyDTO] =

Json.format[MyDTO]}


def withAttack[A](animal: A)(attackF: A => Int): Int

withAttack(myDog) { dog =>dog.attackPoints

}


myList.map(_ + 1)

Action { implicit request =>Ok(request.body)

}

What is software linguistics?


Scala and most modern languages are not designed to communicate with computers


Scala and most modern languages are not designed to communicate with computers

They are designed to communicate with humans!


Scala is a huge language.



Limit your use of weird paradigms.



Limit your use of weird paradigms.

If it is truly useful, teach it to your team

What is software linguistics?Questions to ask:

What is software linguistics?Questions to ask:1. What syntax style to use? Dot vs. operator method calls?

What is software linguistics?Questions to ask:1. What syntax style to use? Dot vs. operator method calls? 2. What semantic style to use? Should use for comprehensions?

What is software linguistics?Questions to ask:1. What syntax style to use? Dot vs. operator method calls? 2. What semantic style to use? Should use for comprehensions?3. What structures to use? Cake pattern? Actors?

What is software horticulture?Building software is a steady but constantly changing endeavour to meet product requirements.

Maintaining a codebase is a constant process of grooming, never a complete restructuring.

[email protected]

Software Horticulture

Software

software engineering

software horticulture

software babysitting

software economics

babysitting safety

quality isnt

huge safety net type

right match