Looks Like a Duck, Quacks Like a Duck

If every object trusts all others to be what it expects at any given moment, and any object can be any kind of things, the design possibilities are infinite. These possibilities can be used to create flexible designs that are marvels of structured creativity or…

Much Respect for RSpec, Part 2

One of the key challenges to testing is figuring out precisely how to test with RSpec expectations…

I Heart Vim

Inevitably, when learning to code and use your terminal, you will accidentally prompt Vim. As a complete novice, you may be startled…

The Art of Writing Object-Oriented Code

Unlike theory, practice gets its hands dirty. It is practice that lays bricks, builds bridges, and writes code. Practice lives in the real world of change, confusion, and uncertainty. It faces competing choices and, grimacing, chooses the lesser evil; it…

The Ultimate N00b’s Guide to Testing

Novice programmers don’t yet have the skills to write simple code.

- Sandi Metz, Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby, Chapter 9

Coding Imperfectly (And Single-Responsibility Classes)

Design is more the art of preserving changeability than it is the act of achieving perfection.

- Sandi Metz, Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby, Chapter 2

Inheritance Under the Hood

When deciding between refactoring strategies, indeed, when deciding between design strategies in general, it’s useful to ask the question: “What will happen if I’m wrong?”
 
- Sandi Metz, Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby, Chapter 6

If You Really Need to Know

The road to maintenance nirvana is paved with classes that depend on things that change less often than they do.

- Sandy Metz, Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby, Chapter 3

[Mod]ule Culture

This is powerful stuff, and dangerous in untutored hands. However, because this very same power is what allows you to create simple structures of related objects that elegantly fulfill the needs of your application, your task is not to avoid these techniques but to learn to use them for the right…