Skip to Main Content
Becoming a Better Programmer
book

Becoming a Better Programmer

by Pete Goodliffe
October 2014
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
362 pages
7h 49m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Becoming a Better Programmer

Chapter 14. Software Development Is…

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

William Shakespeare, As You Like It

It’s a sad fact that I won’t be able to rely on my sharply honed intellect forever. Some time in the future my wits will fade, and I’ll no longer be the sharp, erudite, humble genius I am now. So I need a pension plan, a way to make my millions so that I can live in luxury in my old age.

My original plan for world domination seemed so simple it couldn’t fail: fizzy milk! However, before I got a chance to work out the finer details of the recipe, I received devastating news: fizzy milk had already been invented. Gutted, and with the patent rights slipping through my fingers, I went back to the drawing board to come up with a new pension plan. And this time it was a good one.

This piece of genius goes back to the classic foods of my youth: custard and Alphabetti Spaghetti. I’m sure you can see where I’m going: Alphabetti custard! My initial experiments have proved promising. And almost palatable: it’s a bit like rice pudding, but wheatier. Admittedly, it’s an acquired taste, but I think it could catch on.

This Software (Food)stuff

Too much modern software is like my Alphabetti custard: it’s the wrong thing, written the wrong way.

To make Alphabetti custard the “right” way you’d make the pasta first by hand, and hand-mix a custard. The cheating, wrong way would be ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

How Functional Programming Can Improve Testing, Reuse, and Maintenance in Your Current Codebase

How Functional Programming Can Improve Testing, Reuse, and Maintenance in Your Current Codebase

Eric Normand

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781491905562Errata Page