solid principles Archives

Abstract dependencies

Projects depend on packages, internal ones or from 3rd parties. In all cases, your architecture should dictate what it needs and not evolve around a package, otherwise changing the dependency with another package and mocking it in tests could take unnecessary effort and time.

While it’s very easy to include a package in any file you need and start using it, time will show it’s painful to spread dependencies all over. Someday you’ll want to change a package because it’s not maintained anymore or you discover security issues which lead to loss of trust, or maybe you just want to experiment with another package.

This is where abstraction comes in, helping to decouple an implementation in your project, to set the rules which a dependency must follow. Each package has its own API, thus you need to wrap it by your API.

To show an example, I’ve chosen to integrate a validation package into Echo framework. The validator package requires you to tag your structs with its validation rules. Continue reading Abstract dependencies

Real benefits of SOLID principles

Those SOLID principles many talk about are really helpful. But why use solid principles, why is SOLID important? Because they were stated and tested by advanced programmers in real situations? I say this is an enforcement, a reason to trust them, but not the reason to jump on them. It’s actually about understanding the benefits of using them and being able to identify when you need them.

All of them help in the way of having clean code. But why would you need clean code? You can really have messy code which does the same thing as the clean one. Except when you aim for long term healthy business. Solid code makes solid business.

Each of the SOLID principles comes with its ideology, but does not guarantee a 100% benefit, because there could be other factors which more or less collide with them, the first one being when you play around the principles, but do not apply them properly.

While the benefits you get from these principles are well known, I’d like to state some of them which for me are more real, more close to the business side. Continue reading Real benefits of SOLID principles

“Obsessing About Best Practices”

Today I read a very good article about some mistakes that one can do as a programmer, and the only idea that made me a little bit uncomfortable was the one about best practices. The author was talking about “Obsessing About Best Practices”. While I agree obsessing is not healthy, I consider his statement “There are no best practices.” is too strong. I think it’s something that one could hear and get too confident about their decisions.

Thinking the things you know today are the best there can be is wrong. Trying to apply everything you’re hyped about is wrong. Giving the same 2 or 3 methods you know as solutions to any problem is wrong. Not being curios to find out what else exists beyond any best practice and beyond your knowledge is fatal.

Still, there are some general best practices that you should at least think of before writing code. There are those SOLID principles that some have no idea about, some guide themselves through them, and for sure some are not very happy about. And many design patterns which were tested for years and years. Again, I agree about not being obsessed with them, but try to understand where they can come in need. And stay up to date. The Singleton was a rock star some years ago, now it smells like a dead body in many misused cases.

Because “There are no best practices.”, projects can take on a really, really unwanted highway. I say they do exist. Just open your mind to see which are the proper ones for your case.