Elevator Pitch
Code is communication. Between you and the compiler, but also between you and the next developer. Code that communicates poorly is code that cannot be maintained, and code that cannot be maintained is costly.
In this session, we’ll discuss ways to be a better communicator in your code.
Description
Code is communication. Between you and the compiler, definitely. But more importantly, code is communication between you and the next developer. Code that communicates poorly is code that cannot be maintained, and code that cannot be maintained is costly.
In this session, we’ll discuss ways to be a better communicator in your code. We’ll look at many examples of code that might leave you scratching your head and discuss ways to improve them. We’ll see how principles of effective verbal communication relate to the fundamental principles of writing readable, maintainable code. The code samples are in JavaScript and C#, but the principles are applicable to any object-oriented language.
You’ll leave this session understanding how to communicate the intentions of your code more clearly.
Notes
This is a talk on clean code, presented as an analogy to good interpersonal communication. The talk follows an imaginary conversation between my wife and I about how I can be a better communicator verbally. With each lesson, I relate it to several principles or practices we use to write more maintainable code.
There are many code samples.
Slides: https://bit.ly/code-is-communication
I have given this talk at MKE DOT NET in 2016, Self.conference in 2017, and Dev Up in 2017.
I received an average rating of 4.7/5 from attendees at MKE DOT NET. At Dev Up in October, 2017, attendees gave the talk 15 yes votes to 1 no vote.
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