Volker Dusch (09.Oct.2011 at 11:30)
Talk at PHP North West 2011 (English - UK)
Slides:
Direct PDF download: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3615626/slides/Stop-wasting-time-by-applying-clean-code-principles.pdf
Slideshare upload: http://www.slideshare.net/Edorian/stop-wastingtimebyapplyingcleancodeprinciples
My other presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/edorian
> All my slides are licensed under WTF-PL http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/ so they should be as freely available as possible
----------- Original Abstract --------
Does: "Everything needs to be documented!" sound familiar to you? Do you like the idea?
This talk aims to make a case for the point that forcing developers to document every single piece of code will not result in good documentation. It will generate superfluous documentation and even impair the code quality!
It is really easy to write docs for bad code because short and indescriptible named functions need to be explained while code that clearly communicates its intentions and actions does not.
The question discussed include points like:
- What needs to be explained and what doesn't?
- Why is it a good idea to invest time into thinking about class and function names instead of documenting them?
- What should be included in a commit message?
- Can we get better and more meaningful documentation by writing less of it?
- What is the gain of certain documentation concepts?
Further discussing where documentation is really needed and showing some common documentation "refactoring" patterns. By explaining ideas like "replace comment with function call" and "replace description with variable" the talk aims to save the time of every developer. Spending it once while writing the code and then saving the time of everyone involved by not making them reread documentation that only tells them what they should already be expecting by reading the class and function names.
So stop wasting time on docs and start spending it on the one thing you know you care about: Code!
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Quicklink: https://joind.in/3600
Track(s): Track 2
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09.Oct.2011 at 18:05 by Paul Lemon
I really enjoyed the humour in Volker's presentation. The start of the talk on unit tests didn't really relate to the title or grab me that much the second half as he moved onto clean code concepts was great. I'm going to present this half back to the team at work who couldn't stay for sunday.
09.Oct.2011 at 20:24 by Petr Rybak
Very enjoyable presentation. I hope it won't take the guys a month to put videos online just because they need to beep out all the swear words :)
09.Oct.2011 at 20:33 by Dan Rooke
Good talk focussing on how to write code someone else can work with quickly, a valuable skill! Enjoyed the lively presentation style.
09.Oct.2011 at 21:00 by Ben Nuttall
Well presented talk with good code practices discussed, opinions offered not dictated which is appreciated. There was a good atmosphere in the overcrowded room. Could have done with a few dozen more slides though, I got the feeling there weren't enough :P
09.Oct.2011 at 22:03 by Remon van de Kamp
Good presentation style and nice topic. Will definitely look into buying on (or more) of the suggested books.
One tip for the speaker; it's not really customary in the UK to use strong language, so while I (and I'm guessing most people there) didn't mind, you may want to look in to this, or look for different words to use when in the UK :)
10.Oct.2011 at 09:14 by Tim Curzon
Best talk of the conference. Volker is a very funny speaker and knows his subject well. I got a lot out of this.
10.Oct.2011 at 10:13 by Robert Goldsmith
A good and enjoyable talk on a subject that is often ignored. Volker is a fun and engaging speaker but even having much more time than other sunday speakers I think he had too many slides and spent too long on each sub-topic. More focus on the key messages in each section and a 50%-60% reduction in slides and this talk would fit nicely into an hour (hopefully) without loosing Volker's "individual" style of presentation :)
10.Oct.2011 at 11:37 by Alex Mace
What was covered was good and was delivered well, but seems there was maybe 50% too much content. I think all of the unit testing stuff could be cut out (since it isn't mentioned in the abstract and other talks covered testing), leaving more time for the examples that had to be skipped over at the end.
10.Oct.2011 at 13:12 by Jo B
I really enjoyed this talk, the content was really informative and the delivery style was great!
10.Oct.2011 at 13:19 by Les Rowley
My favourite talk of PHPNW11, a great pity he ran out of time. Could probably get rid of the first section, about how valuable our time is (I'd hope everyone already realised this :) ), and get straight onto the techniques.
Unfortunate about the mic feedback problems, but other than that, excellent delivery.
10.Oct.2011 at 14:16 by Stephen Melrose
A fun and engaging talk.
My only feedback would that the first half was quite boring and dragged on. I can understand why he discussed subjects like TDD, you only write what you need, therefore cleaner code, etc. However, that point could have been covered in about 2 minutes. Would have been nicer if the entire talk was more code related like the second half.
10.Oct.2011 at 16:27 by Alex Butter
This talk was the highlight of the day, I think Volker could easily have continued for another 30 minutes (I wouldn't have minded).
Very entertaining with and a little bit thought provoking, excellent combination to end the weekend with.
10.Oct.2011 at 19:01 by William Booth
Loved this talk. The style was funny, and engaging. Got me excited about developing clean code again.
10.Oct.2011 at 21:49 by Nick Downton
Another awesome speaker. Lots to think about afterwards!
Mic feedback issues were annoying though. Maybe have some of the volunteers trained how to turn the pa down a touch next year :)
11.Oct.2011 at 02:35 by Mark Robinson
Lots of humour and packed with great advice - Fantastic talk well presented.
11.Oct.2011 at 09:01 by Richard Miller
Really enjoyed this talk. Volker made the case for writing clean code well, we all know we should but this helped with the why. The second half showing clean code principles was great and raised some interesting points. Definitely inspired to read the books he referred to.
11.Oct.2011 at 16:20 by Alex Luneburg
I really liked this talk, it was funny but also very informative. There was a lot to cover so it was a shame there wasn't a bit more time but maybe some of the content could have been stripped out to make sure it all fitted into an hour.
A great talk though, very well presented, that I got a lot out of. Thank you!
13.Oct.2011 at 17:46 by Bronwen
One of the best talks of the conference for me. Nice to see a presenter with more slides than they have time, and skips the ones they don't have time for, rather than trying to talk thro' each and every one.
But I'm still wondering how many people in the audience were being paid the equivalent of 5,000 euros...
19.Oct.2011 at 21:26 by Gavin Taylor
really enjoyed this talk, def one of the best of the weekend.
a lot to think about and ideas to implement.
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09.Oct.2011 at 16:08 by Joe Lee
I enjoyed the talk with a good fun but informative style. Some good ideas on approaching the subject but I felt that the 99 odd slides may be reduced slightly and focus on more code examples?