Visualizing Code
A long-term client contacted me about a couple issues with their site. Very common place coding should have been done correctly with my eyes closed – download document (from PHP) and authorize.net recurring payments.
I dreamed up all kinds of reasons that the issues existed. This has usually been helpful in the past – try to come up with different scenarios before looking at code. Try to visualize what the code is doing. Got trained to do that somewhere along the line.
Once I looked at the code it was just wrong. There was test coding around the edges that hadn’t been removed. Fixes in place in 10 minutes versus time wasted visualizing.
Maybe I would be better off jumping into code asap?
Similar story with another client. Should be mostly a re-skinning project. Mind-numbing change 1000 references to widget x to widget y. Estimates given are based on common practice – how would someone normally code such a thing? what kinds of re-use would be involved? how to account for configuration changes? Again, the visualization thing. Finally look into the code and your head explodes.
I should know better. I have been programming for a long time. I think people generally do a good job but pressures are always in place to get it done faster. Hence the name of this blog (See ).
What is your approach?
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