5 Ways To Sharpen Your Saw as a Programmer

A saw-sharpening guide that helped me improve as a programmer

Photo by Pressmaster, rights obtained via Envato Elements.

Yesterday, my day started with a pair programming session with my new colleague Susan. Su, as she likes to be called, started at the company last week as a software developer.

Before we started, we first agreed on some pair programming rules. What style are we going to use? Do we use Ping Pong or standard Driver and Navigator? After how much time do we switch roles? When do we take breaks?

We began with the classic pair programming style, Driver and Navigator. Su started as the driver.

We started with a small task. We had to increase the frequency with which our system checks if there is data to be processed. This value was hardcoded in a file that also contained the data-processing logic.

I proposed that we extract the value into a configuration class. Su agreed, pressed two keystrokes, and bam! She added a new file and class to the project. “Wow, that was fast,” I thought.

I suggested we should rename the file and class to DataProcessingConfig. Again, Su pressed two keystrokes, entered the new name, and bam! She renamed the file and class. Wow.