Thinking Inside a Bigger Box

Update: Rewrote several sections

“Fools ignore complexity; pragmatists suffer it; experts avoid it; geniuses remove it.” – Alan Perlis

This article contains some things I have learned that has made me into a better developer than I was before I learned them. There are nine tips. These are not necessarily the only, or the best things I have learned, but I like the number nine.

Becoming a better developer is a complex path. What I have found to be the most important attitude is to be versatile. Digging yourself down in one kind of activity, one “phase” of a project, one technology is a sure way to stagnate. I try to balance technical knowledge with “softer” skills. Developing software is about communicating, thinking, and programming. In order to be effective, you have to master all of these areas.

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Updated for republication in Mr Bool

In my experience, the most serious bugs in programs in production are in error handling routines. Inventive programmers often try fancy things when dealing with errors, but error situations are often omitted during testing. This article examines the fundamental questions of exceptions: What causes exceptions, and what can be done with them?

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