https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/tags/software-engineering/Recent content in Software-Engineering on Vishal BhoriwalHugoenWed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/simplicity/Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/simplicity/<p>There&rsquo;s a question from Extreme Programming that I keep returning to:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>What is the simplest thing that could possibly work?</em></p> </blockquote> <p>It sounds almost naive. But it&rsquo;s one of the most useful filters I&rsquo;ve found when designing systems.</p> <h2 id="the-complexity-trap">The Complexity Trap</h2> <p>Engineers — myself included — tend to over-engineer. We anticipate scale, future requirements, and edge cases that may never materialize. We reach for distributed systems before we&rsquo;ve saturated a single machine. We add abstraction layers before we have two concrete cases to abstract.</p>https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/commit-messages/Sat, 10 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/commit-messages/<p>A commit message is a letter to your future self. Make it worth reading.</p> <h2 id="the-problem-with-bad-commits">The Problem with Bad Commits</h2> <p>We&rsquo;ve all seen them:</p> <pre tabindex="0"><code>fix wip asdf final final FINAL </code></pre><p>These tell you nothing. Six months later, when a bug surfaces and you&rsquo;re spelunking through <code>git log</code>, these are useless noise.</p> <h2 id="the-rule-of-thumb">The Rule of Thumb</h2> <p>The subject line of a commit should complete this sentence:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>If applied, this commit will&hellip;</em></p> </blockquote> <p>So: &ldquo;Add input validation to login form&rdquo; rather than &ldquo;validation stuff&rdquo;.</p>