In Learning From Your Bugs, I wrote about how I have been keeping track of the most interesting bugs I have come across. I recently reviewed all 194 entries (going back 13 years), to see what lessons I have learned from them. Here are the most important lessons, split into the categories of coding, testing and debugging:
Bugs are great learning opportunities. So how do we make sure we learn as much as possible from the bugs we fix? A method I have used for more than 13 years now is to write down a short description of the bug, the fix, and the lessons I learned.
Way back in 2002, I came across a blog post (that I unfortunately can’t find again) that described this method. I have used it ever since, and I believe it has helped me become a better software developer.
Every time I fix a particularly tricky or interesting bug, I take a few minutes to write down some facts about it. Here is an example of a typical entry: Continue reading
Posted in Debugging, Learning, Programming, Testing
In my previous post, The Wisdom of Programming Quotes, I called out some quotes that look good on the surface, but turn out to promote the wrong ideas about software development. I have also posted some of my favorite programming qoutes in the past. But I thought I would list a few more good ones. Continue reading
I love good programming quotes. The best ones say something true about the craft of programming, usually both concisely and humorously. Recently I started following Programming Wisdom on Twitter. It’s been a source of many great quotes, but occasionally I have seen quotes that I think completely misunderstand the essence of programming. Here are three examples: Continue reading
When I graduated from university with a degree in Computer Science, I wanted to continue and get a Ph.D. But I also wanted to work as a software developer, so I worked for five years in industry before going back to do a Ph.D. I spent one year as a Ph.D. student before deciding that I liked professional software development better. Even though this was many years ago, I think some of the lessons I learnt still apply. Continue reading
I just finished taking the course Software Security from the University of Maryland via Coursera. It was a relatively easy course (at least if you know C) that gave an overview of the following areas: buffer overflows and other memory attacks, web security (including SQL injection, CSRF and XSS), secure design, static analysis, symbolic execution, fuzzing and penetration testing. The instructor, professor Michael Hicks, was one of the more pedagogical lecturers I have listened to, and the whole course was quite enjoyable. Continue reading
Here is my list of heuristics and rules of thumb for software development that I have found useful over the years:
1. Start small, then extend. Whether creating a new system, or adding a feature to an existing system, I always start by making a very simple version with almost none of the required functionality. Then I extend the solution step by step, until it does what it is supposed to. I have never been able to plan everything out in detail from the beginning. Instead, I learn as I go along, and this newly discovered information gets used in the solution.
I like this quote from John Gall: “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.”
Posted in Debugging, Learning, Programming, Work
Tagged heuristics, lessons learned, rules of thumb, software development
