#coding principles

Here are six fundamental coding principles every programmer must adhere to – DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself): This principle emphasizes minimizing redundancy in our code. If you find yourself writing the same code more than once, consider a function or a class instead. YAGNI (You Aren’t Gonna Need It): The YAGNI principle tells us not to add functionality until deemed necessary. It’s a practical…

No prototypes. Just make the game. polish as you go. Don't depend on polish happening later. Always maintain constantly shippable code

It is incredibly important that your game can always be run by your team. Bulletproof your engine by providing defaults upon load failure.

Keep your code absolutely simple. Keep looking at your functions and figure out how you can simplify further

Great tools help make great games. Spend as much time on tools as possible

We are our own best testing team and should never allow anyone else to experience bugs or see the game crash. Don't waste others' time. Test thoroughly before checking in your code

As soon as you see a bug, you fix it. Do not continue on. If you don't fix your bugs your new code will be built on a buggy codebase and ensure an unstable foundation

Use a superior system than your target

Write your code for this game only – not for a future game. You're going to be writing new code later because you'll be smarter

Encapsulate functionality to ensure design consistency. This minimizes mistakes and saves design time

Try to code transparently. Tell your lead and peers exactly how you are going to solve your current task and get feedback and advice. Do not treat game programming like each coder is a black box. The project could go off the rails and cause delays

Check this out https://bizanosa.com/1-introduction-programming/

1. Introduction to Programming

Watch this video on YouTube

Introduction to Programming

  If you want to learn to code way beyond HTML and CSS, go ahead and watch this full tutorial. In the end you will understand most principles about programming languages.

  Programming Languages resemble one another

Some programming languages originated from others. While others were influenced by others.

This implies that most styles and concepts in programming are derivatives of each other. Hence once you learn general principles of programming, It will be much easier for you to pick up any new programming languages.

  If you’ve ever wondered why one person can know so many different programming languages, that is the reason. Once you learn one serious programming language, any new programming language will be easier to pick up and eventually master.

  That could be you.

  Time and Mastery

Start here. With this introduction to programming course. Then decide which programming language you want to learn.

  Then concentrate your time and efforts into that programming language. Make a commitment to yourself to learn it.

Gather up all the resources you will need.  Don’t join too many courses or buy many books simultaneously.  Get one resource, finish it. Then move on to another one.

  By going one book/ course after the other, you’ll be able to track your progress. By finishing up one book / course, you will be able to know what you have covered. And this will give you a clear picture of what next you need to learn.

  Treat it like a journey

This introduction to programming is a first step for you.  However you must acknowledge that you still have a long way to go. And must therefore stay compassionate with your own self.

  Accept that it is going to take you awhile to get to the level you want to be. Just remember to keep practicing and keep learning.

  Treat the learning process like a journey.

  You can join this class on SKillShare >>

  What you will encounter in the full course.

Programming Languages [statements,file extensions , High level and low level, Compiled vs Interpreted ]

Data Types

Variables

constants

Operators

loops

conditions

comments

Arrays

Functions

errors

pseudos and flowcharts

  Databases

Algorithms

OOP and Classes and Objects (access specifiers [private, public or protected])

Regular expressions

1. Introduction to Programming

Introduction to Programming

  If you want to learn to code way beyond HTML and CSS, go ahead and watch this full tutorial. In the end you will understand most principles about programming languages.

  Programming Languages resemble one another

Some programming languages originated from others. While others were influenced by others.

Coding Principles in general

When I dabbled in development first time I had no idea I actually was developing. I was just adding a few fields here and there. Mostly I just wanted a way to record information on tracking film materials, dubbing, etc. And for the next decade I did the same: I hacked my way to getting things done for the boss. And while I tried to protest, the boss always won and said “but I need it now.” That leaves zero time for planning or building architecture. So I was more of a firefighter than developer. The next decade I spent learning development from scratch and I keep learning.

Simplicity is the most important consideration in a design

Whether you’re a hard core coder who eats, sleeps and breathes code or a school teacher turned FileMaker developer, you sure have some principles that you abide by (and if you don’t you should). We live by principles, so why shouldn’t we code by principles? And when you code, you often ask yourself “is this the best possible way to solve the problem?” In FileMaker there are at least three ways to do the same things. And there’s a different

Since this blog is mostly dedicated to FileMaker development (at this point), I’ll just take a stab at some coding principles and see how they apply to us, FileMaker developers.

YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It)

The idea is that you should code with the goal in mind to program for what you need not what you might need. XP co-founder Ron Jeffries has written:

“Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you need them.”

The temptation—to create something—is large for a developer. It is like putting a knife in a surgeon’s hand or giving a pencil to the architect; they will want to do what they do best. We want to add bells and whistles and we want to blow the client away. But just like furniture shopping at IKEA, we can end up with a lot more than we can take home. It’s better to code for what the client needs than what the client wants. Personally, I’m an advocate for this and I always tell my clients: “I will give you what you need but not what you want.”

Worse Is Better

Aptly, also called also called “New Jersey style”.  [And if anyone ever wants to mock Jersey, again, they will meet my fist.] The idea behind it is that “quality does not necessarily increase with functionality”.  So what this does is it uses a scale to measure which one is heavier and says simple is heavier than correct. So to me this boils down to getting a solution off the ground and into the users’s hand rather than making it perfect.  You need to cover as many aspects as you can to make it practical. Your design needs to be consistent but simple. So, buttons, element placement and font sizing should be consistent from layout to layout. Luckily we have FileMaker 13 now so if you use a built-in template (or build your own)it’s hard to go wrong.

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle

This acronym is a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy. Achieving simplicity should be the goal at all times, and avoid unnecessary complexity. Design your layouts with fewer buttons and make sure they do the most important functions. Then you can take the user to a different tab or layout to give them further info. Give them a drop-down menu with further options if you must.

Don’t repeat yourself (DRY)

When FileMaker gave us variables, it became possible to start writing universal scripts. If you’re still not using variables you’re missing out on something great! They allow you to compact your code. You can write one script to create, delete, modify a record and give parameters to tell what layout you are coming from, what your table is, where you need to end up when you’re done. Of course, there will be variations which you can put in an if statement if you need it. But if you can create something once and reuse it, you’re golden. Below is a script we use to strip fields (after a user adds data that) from unnecessary garbage.

Clean Field Universal Script

            More useful coding principles: Wikipedia

Coding Principles And FileMaker

What coding principles do you follow?  Have you given it much thought?  If not, make time to develop (and write down) base principles to live by.  And collaborate with any other developers with whom you may work, as well.

Agnes Riley of ZeroBlue shared some of her hard earned principles recently:

Whether you’re a hard core coder who eats, sleeps and breathes code or a school teacher turned…

Coding Principles in general

When I dabbled in development first time I had no idea I actually was developing. I was just adding a few fields here and there. Mostly I just wanted a way to record information on tracking film materials, dubbing, etc. And for the next decade I did the same: I hacked my way to getting things done for the boss. And while I tried to protest, the boss always won and said “but I need it now.” That leaves zero time for planning or building architecture. So I was more of a firefighter than developer. The next decade I spent learning development from scratch and I keep learning. Simplicity is the most important consideration in a design Whether you’re a hard core coder who eats, sleeps and breathes code or a school teacher turned FileMaker developer, you sure have some principles that you abide by (and if you don’t you should). We live by principles, so why shouldn’t we code by principles? And when you code, you often ask yourself “is this the best possible way to solve the problem?” In FileMaker there are at least three ways to do the same things. And there’s a different Since this blog is mostly dedicated to FileMaker development (at this point), I’ll just take a stab at some coding principles and see how they apply to us, FileMaker developers.

YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It)

The idea is that you should code with the goal in mind to program for what you need not what you might need. XP co-founder Ron Jeffries has written:

“Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you need them.”

The temptation—to create something—is large for a developer. It is like putting a knife in a surgeon’s hand or giving a pencil to the architect; they will want to do what they do best. We want to add bells and whistles and we want to blow the client away. But just like furniture shopping at IKEA, we can end up with a lot more than we can take home. It’s better to code for what the client needs than what the client wants. Personally, I’m an advocate for this and I always tell my clients: “I will give you what you need but not what you want.”

Worse Is Better

Aptly, also called also called “New Jersey style”.  [And if anyone ever wants to mock Jersey, again, they will meet my fist.] The idea behind it is that “quality does not necessarily increase with functionality”.  So what this does is it uses a scale to measure which one is heavier and says simple is heavier than correct. So to me this boils down to getting a solution off the ground and into the users’s hand rather than making it perfect.  You need to cover as many aspects as you can to make it practical. Your design needs to be consistent but simple. So, buttons, element placement and font sizing should be consistent from layout to layout. Luckily we have FileMaker 13 now so if you use a built-in template (or build your own)it’s hard to go wrong.

That reminds me of the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle

This acronym is a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy. Simplicity should be the goal at all times, and avoid unnecessary complexity. Design your layouts with fewer buttons and make sure they do the most important functions. Then you can take the user to a different tab or layout to give them further info. Give them a drop-down menu with further options if you must.

Don’t repeat yourself (DRY)

When FileMaker gave us variables, it became possible to start writing universal scripts. If you’re still not using variables you’re missing out on something great! They allow you to compact your code. You can write one script to create, delete, modify a record and give parameters to tell what layout you are coming from, what your table is, where you need to end up when you’re done. Of course, there will be variations which you can put in an if statement if you need it. Below is a script we use to strip fields (after a user adds data that) from unnecessary garbage.

Clean Field Universal Script

            More useful coding principles: Wikipedia