hello world!
hello world!
I’m Andrew Leung and I’m starting a blog again. My old one (andrewbb.com) was way back when Moveable Type was just starting out and I ended up making a phpBB as my “blog”. At the time, I didn’t want the ‘blog’ aspect, I wanted the interaction. Well, things have changed dramatically for me since then. I stopped coding in C/ C++, moved to Germany for three years, led and rebuilt a Toastmasters group there, got an MBA, moved to New York and got back into programming.
The programming world has changed dramatically since the last time I was in it. There are so many resources for programming now. Free resources. Interactive resources. Meetup groups. (Even I’m a meetup organizer now!)
Stepping back into programming is an interesting experience. This blog will be part chronological documentation of that adventure, part discovery of my present issues, part sharing of my past. It’s not easy to be a programmer now. There’s so many languages and frameworks to work with. The programming ecosystem is so rich. So many other programmers are contributing to developing new and existing systems. It’s really a smorgasborg for a programmer and it probably will be for a long time.
From my perspective so far, there are some things I keep seeing again. Some new things are happening as well. For me, this biggest change is test driven development. For me, coding before just made things nice… it was very easy to create, play with some code, extend the code, and repeat. The systems were limited, features were small, and a lot less people using them.
For me, as the system grew, well, bugs would creep in… really gnarly bugs which I never saw coming and the fix would just be one line! Even with the compiler doing type checking for you, these bugs creep nn. For me, doing programming now requires Test Driven Development (TDD). This style really makes sense to me as a developer. TDD keeps me focused and ready. it also helps me to keep track of other situations that are important to the system.
Best thing about TDD for me: no unexpected regressions! Honestly, code regressions was one of my biggest peeve in programming something awesome. nothing can take the wind out of some great new feature when the new code breaks an old feature.)
Stepping back into programming has made me a big believer in TDD. really big. Thanks Uncle Bob!
I want to share my insights from my life so that you can benefit from my mistakes and learnings. Life is too short to make all the mistakes and learn from. I’ve made a lot and if you can learn from my mistakes, then my job is done. Letting someone keep falling for the same mistakes is just ‘evil’, especially if you can help them avoid that mistake.
Future posts I plan on writing:
- my programming life before TDD
- teaching myself to program
- technical communication
- getting out of my comfort zone
- learning a programming language through TDD - on hackathons
I will keep things technical and/or related to programming as much as possible. The crazy thing about programming now is that it is related to so many different parts of life now.