Coding Blocks

We continue talking our way through Clean Code, taking a deep look at the building blocks of programming in the quest to write the best functions. Oh, and everybody sings.

The original version of the show notes can be found at:
http://www.codingblocks.net/episode48

In this episode, we take our first dive into the book Clean Code by Robert Martin and specifically we talk about writing meaningful names for all things code related.  You'll be amazed at how following some decent rules that you can start naming things that will help you and fellow coders understand your code at a glance.

You can see the original show notes and put your own stamp on our survey here:
http://www.codingblocks.net/episode47

Samsung 960 Pro
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10698/samsung-announces-960-pro-and-960-evo-m2-pcie-ssds

SQL Server 2016 Columnstore for real time operational analytics
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn817827.aspx

Krebs site taken off Akamai
http://www.zdnet.com/article/krebs-on-security-booted-off-akamai-network-after-ddos-attack-proves-pricey/

The best Android distribution is iOS?
Outlaw’s thoughts on various phone OS’s

[yop_poll id="23"]

“If a name requires a comment, then the name does not reveal its intent”

• Write explicit code - naming variables and methods can reveal the entire intent of the code
• Avoid using words that would be confusing like “List” as they refer to programming types and could be misleading : accountList should be accounts
• Avoid using characters that look like numbers i and L or capital o
• disinformative vs noninformative
  • noise words “data” “info” - noninformative
• Types should almost never be in a name “table” “string” “object”
• Names should be distinguished so a user can look at them and understand the differences
• Use pronounceable names
• Use searcheable names - longer names trump shorter names
• Author’s pref - single letter names should only be used as local variables inside small methods - length of the name should correspond to the size of its scope
• Avoid encoding names
• Avoid Hungarian Notation with typing as part of the variable name - simply not needed nowadays
• Stop prefixing member (instance) variables with m_ or _
• Decorating Interfaces vs Classes with a prefix / suffix - opinion - he prefers
  • ClassImp or vs IType
• Don’t force someone to map variable names in their mind - n = username…smart programmer vs professional programmer - clarity is king
• Class names should be nouns - English 101 - NOT VERBS
• Method names should be verbs
• Use get, set, is - javabean standard
• When constructors are overloaded, use static factory methods with explicit names - liked this one, possibly make the constructors private
• Don’t get cute with naming by means of jokes (inside or well known)
• Use consistent naming - Get, Set, Controller - makes it easier to understand and code various parts of an application
• Avoid puns - add for a collection vs add for setting a value - two different meanings with the same name
• Use technical names such as pattern names or CS terms in your names - other programmers will understand them better than the problem domain in some cases
• Fall back to the problem domain for a name if there is no suitable technical name
• Adding context to naming can clarify their use - prefixes can work but putting variables into classes may work out better

“Hardest thing about choosing good names is that it requires good descriptive skills and a shared cultural background”

Renaming things that don’t make sense as you work in code is a good thing.

Clean Code

Even though we’re giving our thoughts on the various ideas throughout the book, Clean Code has tons of excellent sample code that really helps drive the points home. We can’t recommend it enough - it’s probably one of the few books EVERY developer should read and revisit from time to time.
http://amzn.to/2cryvJR

Allen: Implementing OAuth in ASP.NET for a number of providers
http://www.oauthforaspnet.com/

Michael: Get out there! Go to conferences, meetups, do it all!
http://www.connect.tech/
https://www.atlantacodecamp.com/2016

Storing smaller subsets of data in a faster, closer memory can make astronomical differences in performance. This episode we're talking about the caching tools and techniques that application frameworks provide.

The original version of the shownotes can be found at:
http://www.codingblocks.net/episode46

In this episode we give a general overview of caching, where it's used, why it's used, and what the differences in hardware implementations mean in terms we can understand.  This will be foundational to understanding caching at a software level in an upcoming episode.  There's also something about the number 37 that may be the most important number to remember...ever...

You can see all the show notes in their original form by visiting:
http://www.codingblocks.net/episode45

Thanks for your patience, we had a couple of rough audio situations - and we appreciate you sticking with us!

iTunes Reviews
Hedgehog, Thiagoramos.ai, Btn1992, Jonajonlee, UndeadCodemonkey, zmckinnon, hillsidecruzr, Dibjibjub, ddurose

Stitcher Reviews
pchtsp, rafaelh, CK142, TheMiddleMan124, LocalJoost

• 60 TB SSD!!!
  https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/09/seagate-60tb-ssd/
• Samsung 950 Pro M.2 PCI SSD

  Samsung 950 PRO Series - 512GB PCIe NVMe
  http://amzn.to/2b0adZt
  Full Review
  http://www.anandtech.com/show/9702/samsung-950-pro-ssd-review-256gb-512gb

• Ready Player One (fiction book)
  http://amzn.to/2aPaCi3 Ready Player One - Amazing Audio Book

Clean Code episodes coming soon + book giveaway - Stay Tuned!

Turtles all the way down???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down

• Storing a subset of information for faster retrieval
• The hit ratio dramatically increases as the cache size increases
• Think about a simple web request…
• Browser cache
• DNS cache
• ISP caching
• CDN
• Whatever your application is doing (redis, framework, database, etc)
• PLUS whatever the various computers are doing

• Fast is expensive!
• Cache Invalidation is hard!

Latency Numbers Every Programmer Should Know
https://gist.github.com/jboner/2841832

Relative Memory Access Interactive Demo
http://www.overbyte.com.au/misc/Lesson3/CacheFun.html

Caching is a strategy that computers use going all the way down to the processor

• .5ns
• As quick as a it gets, how long it takes light to travel 6"
• Managed by the CPU itself, no assembly available!

• 7ns
• 14 x slower than L1
• L3 / L4 / Scratch etc

• Have numbers for a “reference” and a 1mb sequential read
• 100ns - 250,000ns
• 14 - 35,714 x slower than L2
• 200 - 500,000 x slower than L1

• Sending is quick, there are numbers for that
• In general, a lot of variability here
  Same datacenter
• 500,000 ns
• 2 x slower than Main Memory
• 1 million times slower than L1

• Wait, network faster than the hd??? Yes, but no
• 1mb sequential
• 1 million ns
• 2 x slower than Network
• 2 million x slower than L1

• Get your employer to get you an ssd!
• 1mb sequential read
• 20 million ns
• 20 x slower than SSD
• 40 million x slower than L1

• Rough gauge of internet speeds
• Highly variable (CDN + ISP caching, for example), but gives you a sense of scale
• 150 million ns
• 7.5 x slower than spinning disk
• 300 million times slower than L1

• 1 second for L1 Cache
• 5 days for memory
• 11 days for data center
• 23 days for SSD
• 15 months for HD
• Almost 10 years for internet!

Think about how those numbers cache

• RAM / Application cache
• Local Hard drive
• Network storage
• Cache Server
• DB

Hope we gave you a good idea of the importance and scale of caching in computing at the hardware level

Things we didn’t talk about coming in a future episode:

• Application / Software caching and caching algorithms

Latency Numbers Every Programmer Should Know
https://gist.github.com/jboner/2841832

How L1 and L2 caching work
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/188776-how-l1-and-l2-cpu-caches-work-and-why-theyre-an-essential-part-of-modern-chips

Relative Memory Access Interactive Demo
http://www.overbyte.com.au/misc/Lesson3/CacheFun.html

Michael’s Favorite Meetup Ever
The Atlanta JavaScript Meetup
http://www.meetup.com/AtlantaJavaScript/events/222696324/?a=cr1_grp&rv=cr1

Hacking Interviews with:
Nick Larsen - http://cultureofdevelopment.com/
Sam Lawrence - http://www.samelawrence.com/

Joe: Algorithms to Live By
There's something about the number 37%...
http://amzn.to/2aX1iJk

Michael: Use Sublime to replace \n with an actual new line by turning on RegEx search and replace. Or in Michael’s case, replace
with actual \n\t characters.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20515670/replace-n-with-actual-new-line-in-sublime-text

Allen: Collaborative Markdown Editor - What?!
http://www.hackmd.io

This week on Coding Blocks, Allen says www as best he can, Joe eats the microphone, and Michael does something crazy as we discuss Stack Overflow's Salary Calculator and our experiences in landing the job - what to do and what not to do.