Think about it when you are writing your code. You do not want to deal with building-sized Filesaurus. The creature with laser-eyes, poisonous breath, invisibility, and teleportation. How To Avoid It No file is large from the beginning. All files are created empty. However, over their existence, they slowly grow. If …

Each codebase is using some naming conventions. Either explicitly by following some document, or implicitly by following patterns already used. It should always look like the file was written by a single person. In the example below you can see how it should not look like: 1num_legs = 6 2wings = 2 3number_of_stings = 1 …

Law of triviality is C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 argument that people within an organization commonly or typically give disproportionate weight to trivial issues. "The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum [of money] involved." A reactor is so vastly expensive and …

The idea of search-oriented programming is based on two premises: Every useful class, method, or attribute has been used at least once. If nobody is using it, do not use it either. Every line in mature software has been checked by multiple people. Therefore every class, method, or variable has a descriptive and …

Discussions about ideal function lengths are never-ending. My rule of thumb is that the ideal function should fit into your head. If it is longer, it will not fit there, and therefore you cannot reason about it. To determine if the function is too long, place your head next to the screen, and compare its length with …