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68 changes: 34 additions & 34 deletions posts/2023-09-17-how-to-be-a-good-programmer.html
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Expand Up @@ -28,17 +28,17 @@ <h1>How to be a Good Programmer </h1>
</p>

<p>
Programming is a very unique activity in the spectrum of human activities. On the one hand there
Programming is a very unique activity in the spectrum of human activities. On the one hand, there
are activities which are done purely for the love it - they are artistic activities, like
creating music, or doing painting. While some musicians or painters do become famous and rich,
music or painting in itself is not something which directly brings economic gains to the society in the way
that a loaf of bread (which can be eaten) or a brick (which is used to build house) does. Musicians
music or painting in itself is not something which directly bring economic gains to society in the way
that a loaf of bread (which can be eaten) or a brick (which is used to build a house) does. Musicians
and painters, at least the best of them, practice their art for the love of it.
</p>

<p>
A lot of Mathematics falls in this domain too. While Mathematics has a lot of practical uses, mathematicians
push the boundaries of human knowledge for its own sake, and it is lucky coincidence that advanced
push the boundaries of human knowledge for its own sake, and it is by lucky coincidence that advanced
Mathematics is sometimes useful in other areas of human activity, particularly Physics. As an aside,
<a href ="http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/mathsapology-hardy.pdf">A Mathematician's Apology</a>
is a good book to explore thoughts on pure vs applied Mathematics.
Expand All @@ -47,37 +47,37 @@ <h1>How to be a Good Programmer </h1>
<p>
On the other hand, there are mundane activities like business and politics. People don't
do business to practice business for its own sake, their goal is to make money. Politicians don't
do politics for its own sake, their goal is mostly power, money and sometimes hopefully to serve the country.
do politics for its own sake, their goals are mostly power, money, and hopefully sometimes to serve the country.
</p>

<p>
Programming is unique in the sense that while we don't write program just for the sake of programming,
but still programming is an art - the feeling of
joy that you get when you write a good program is similar to the joy you get when you create good music
or painting or prove a nice theorem, and it is unlike the joy that you get when you succeed in
Programming is unique in the sense that while we don't write programs just for the sake of programming,
programming is still an art. The feeling of
joy that you get when you write a good program is similar to the joy you get when you write good music,
create a beautiful painting, or prove an impressive theorem, and it is unlike the joy you get when you succeed in
business or politics. There is something in programming that is soothing to the soul.
</p>

<p>
I don't have a strong intuition about where to place other engineering activities in this spectrum -
I don't have a strong intuition of where to place other engineering activities on this spectrum -
is designing a car (mechanical engineering), or a rocket (aerospace engineering) also an artistic
activity? May be, but my intution is that software engineering is just more artistic than other,
more physical branches of engineering.
activity? Maybe, but my intution is that software engineering is just more artistic than others,
more than physical branches of engineering.
</p>

<p>
So, software engineers are in a unique position - they can do something artistic while producing
something which is directly useful to the society. This also makes their position precarious. If
they focus only on the art part of it, then in a corporate setting they would be too slow and
that would harm them. If they focus only on the delivery part of it, forgetting art completely then
in the long term they would remaing poor programmers and that would hurt delivery part of their
they focus only on the art side of it, then in a corporate setting they would be too slow and
it would harm them. If they focus only on the delivery part of it, forgetting art completely, then
in the long term they would remaing poor programmers and that would hurt the delivery side of their
work.
</p>

<p>
The struggle to become a good programmer is that of appreciating and honing the art part of
programming more and more (which brings business benefits in the long term, and makes programming
more pleasing) while doing a good job on day to day delivery.
programming more and more (which brings business benefits in the long term and makes programming
more pleasing) while doing a good job on the day to day delivery.
</p>
<p>
Alright, with this preamble, let's get to the topic of the article - how to become a good programmer.
Expand All @@ -97,15 +97,15 @@ <h3>Learn a variety of programming languages</h3>
Haskell is pure functional language</a> and <a href = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk">Smalltalk is
a purely object oriented language</a>. Most languages allow you to mix programming styles and thus
it is difficult to understand the essence of a certain programming style. By working in a pure language you
get handicapped in that you cannot unknowingly use other style and thus you understand a given style better.
don't get handicapped in that you cannot unknowingly use other styles and thus you understand a specific style better.
</p>

<h3>Write a compiler</h3>
<p>
There are two kinds of people in technology. A large majority of them write programs, compile and run them.
And a small minority write compilers. Language design is largely influenced by the latter group of people.
Then a small minority actually write compilers. Language design is largely influenced by the latter group of people.
Just as car mechanics always look at a car in a deeper way than the rest of us (they would use some technical
jargons that others don't get), and astronomers looks at night sky in a different way than the rest of us,
jargons that others don't get), and astronomers looks at the night sky in a different way than the rest of us,
compiler writers have a deeper appreciation of programming languages.
</p>

Expand All @@ -121,12 +121,12 @@ <h3>Write a compiler</h3>
<h3>Understand computer architecture</h3>
<p>
Programs get compiled to an architecture - sometimes to native architecture as in the case of C, and at other
times to a virtual machine architecture (like in Java to JVM and in Python to python virtual machine). It
times to a virtual machine architecture (like in Java to JVM and in Python to Python virtual machine). It
is good to understand this architecture to have a better appreciation of the languages itself.
</p>

<p>
For instance, having an appreciation that instruction of integer multiplication and floating point multiplication
For instance, having an appreciation of the fact that instruction of integer multiplication and floating point multiplication
are different would make one understand why int and float are two different data types. And understanding caches
would help one understand why matrix multiplication done in a
<a href="https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~demmel/cs267_Spr99/Lectures/Lect_02_1999b.pdf">certain way</a> is faster than when done in another way.
Expand All @@ -139,24 +139,24 @@ <h3>Look at assembly code</h3>
</p>

<p>
I cannot precisely defend why it makes one a good programmer but looking at an intermediate stage
I cannot precisely define why it makes one a good programmer, but looking at an intermediate stage
between source code and machine code certainly increases one's apprecation of what is going on.
</p>

<h3>Understand runtime environment</h3>
<p>
Having an understanding of runtime environment helps you understand what is going on beneath the hood.
For instance, understanding how garabage collection works in Java and why Global Interpretor Lock
hurts python performance.
hurts Python's performance.
</p>

<h3>Read the history of languages</h3>
<p>
Reading history of anything equips one with a different take. Evolution of languages has been happening
Reading the history of anything equips one with a different take. The evolution of programming languages has been happening
along with, and partly as a response to, increasing processing power and increasing penetration of
computing in the society. Thus, while initial languages were closer the hardware, newer languages
are more user friendly, and useful despite being inefficient because the hardware has become faster anyway.
User friendliness of these languages have lowered the barriers to entry for programming.
computing in the society. Thus, while initial languages were closer to hardware, newer languages
are more user friendly and useful, despite being inefficient because the hardware has become faster anyway.
User friendliness of these languages has lowered the barriers to entry for programming.
</p>

<h3>Read the code of the masters</h3>
Expand All @@ -171,16 +171,16 @@ <h3>Revise your code, strive for excellence</h3>
<p>
For many developers, their coding cycle looks like the following. They are building some new functionality.
Step by step they build it up. At each step along the way they test their code (mostly via print statements).
Many times they encounter bugs which are not easy to resolve. They spend a lot of time find the logical
Many times they encounter bugs which are not easy to resolve. They spend a lot of time trying to find the logical
error they have made. Finally, they are able to resolve all the known errors and check that the code
correctly works for a all plausible use cases. At that part, they declare victory, delete extraneous print statements,
perhaps do a bit of code clean up and send the code for review.
</p>

<p>
Just a hungry man cannot think of God, a developer who has not implemented the feature correctly cannot think
of elegant code. The process of writing elegant code begins only after you have got the functionality out
of the way. So, once you have implemented the feature, that is a good time to take a look if the everything
Just as a hungry man cannot think of God, a developer who has not implemented the feature correctly cannot think
of elegant code. The process of writing elegant code begins only after you have gotten the functionality out
of the way. So, once you have implemented the feature, that is a good time to take a look to see if everything
can be done in a far better way. Often, I have found that only when you finish writing the code for a problem
do you really understand the structure of the problem in the first place. And when you understand that, you can often
do everything a bit differently, which is more elegant.
Expand All @@ -189,14 +189,14 @@ <h3>Revise your code, strive for excellence</h3>
<h3> A word of caution: stay pragmatic, don't predict the future</h3>
<p>
Very often I have seen developers trying to "future proof" their
code. They develop extensive class hierarchies and needless abstractions justification for which is "in future
code. They develop extensive class hierarchies and needless abstraction justification because "in the future
when we need to do so and so, it will be very easy". In practice, the future turns out to be very different
from what the developer imagined and new people reading the code waste time in understanding the abstractions
for no benefit.
</p>

<p>
So, the code we write should be elegant for our current needs, not for enabling us to do better job
So, the code we write should be elegant for our current needs, not for enabling us to do a better job
in future. Only when it is very obvious that the requirements have moved in a way that existing abstractions
are no more suitable, should we strive to change them.
</p>
Expand Down