Happy Things: A busy day of panels

Just got my preliminary schedule for Arisia. It's entertainingly unbalanced, but likely to be fun. I have one panel on Friday, one on Saturday, and *seven* on Sunday. So basically I get to relax and see the convention on Saturday, and then go into full-scale Panel Marathon on Sunday, starting at 10am and running until 11pm, with a few two-hour breaks in the middle to eat and get my head together.

Should be amusing: I've never done quite so *much* blathering in one day before, but I suspect it won't be too hard. And the most important of the bunch -- The Future of Online Community, which I'm moderating and expect to be jam-packed with both people and ideas -- is smack in the middle of Sunday, so that looks to be the high point of the weekend...

Happy Things: A busy day of panels

Just got my preliminary schedule for Arisia. It's entertainingly unbalanced, but likely to be fun. I have one panel on Friday, one on Saturday, and *seven* on Sunday. So basically I get to relax and see the convention on Saturday, and then go into full-scale Panel Marathon on Sunday, starting at 10am and running until 11pm, with a few two-hour breaks in the middle to eat and get my head together.

Should be amusing: I've never done quite so *much* blathering in one day before, but I suspect it won't be too hard. And the most important of the bunch -- The Future of Online Community, which I'm moderating and expect to be jam-packed with both people and ideas -- is smack in the middle of Sunday, so that looks to be the high point of the weekend...

Duplication is the Root of All Evil

The Initiate looks at two methods that share six identical lines of code, and says, "Were I to pull these into a common method, it would be a Benefit."

The Journeyman looks at two classes that are doing roughly the same things, and says, "Were I to lift out a common class, and isolate the differences to listeners, it would be a Benefit."

The Master looks at two programs that are structurally similar, and says, "Were I to pull out these patterns and turn them into a generics-based framework for both programs, it would be Really Cool. (And a Benefit.)"

The Novice looks at an example class, sees that he wants to do something similar in a new class, and copies all the code from the first to the second, changing a few lines where they're different. The Master looks at this, and bangs his head against the wall.

(This parable brought to you by my second straight day of refactoring, to clean up the mess that my data model layer has become. Not that I've been making Novice errors, but suffice it to say I am now regretting that I didn't formalize my DOM from the outset, and I'm fixing it before the ad hockery gets out of control.)

Duplication is the Root of All Evil

The Initiate looks at two methods that share six identical lines of code, and says, "Were I to pull these into a common method, it would be a Benefit."

The Journeyman looks at two classes that are doing roughly the same things, and says, "Were I to lift out a common class, and isolate the differences to listeners, it would be a Benefit."

The Master looks at two programs that are structurally similar, and says, "Were I to pull out these patterns and turn them into a generics-based framework for both programs, it would be Really Cool. (And a Benefit.)"

The Novice looks at an example class, sees that he wants to do something similar in a new class, and copies all the code from the first to the second, changing a few lines where they're different. The Master looks at this, and bangs his head against the wall.

(This parable brought to you by my second straight day of refactoring, to clean up the mess that my data model layer has become. Not that I've been making Novice errors, but suffice it to say I am now regretting that I didn't formalize my DOM from the outset, and I'm fixing it before the ad hockery gets out of control.)