[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How do solo devs get feedback on their code?
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Ask HN: How do solo devs get feedback on their code?
For solo devs working on a closed source codebase, how do you get
feedback on design and implementation decisions? In the past, I've
asked friends in the field I trust, but I'm wondering if there's a
better option out there.
Author : guinness74
Score : 15 points
Date : 2021-03-28 17:48 UTC (5 hours ago)
| devoutsalsa wrote:
| The answer is literally don't work alone. You're code is your
| baby. How do you get someone else to raise your baby? Make it
| their baby, too.
| segmondy wrote:
| By running the code. Let's say the code is bad. The software will
| let you know if there's a logical error. The software will be
| hard to maintain when you want to update it, The software will be
| hard to use when users try it. There's no feedback like the one
| the software gives. The proof is in the pudding. If you're new to
| software and a junior developer, then outside feedback is much
| needed, but once you're experienced. The most useful feedback is
| going to be the one the software gives you.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Not by a long shot! How is this going to teach you new patterns
| and practices, better ways of coding and structuring your code?
| At best this will find you easy to detect bugs.
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| The most useful feedback will come from customers. If you have
| a bug or are missing a feature they will tell you.
|
| What is harder is dealing with architectural issues but I'm not
| convinced they are that easy to avoid in a team environment
| either.
| afarrell wrote:
| > If you have a bug or are missing a feature they will tell
| you
|
| Reporting a bug takes work. Doing it clearly takes more work.
| Some percentage of people will do work for free. Relying on
| it is a choice with tradeoffs.
| verdverm wrote:
| - pay someone
|
| - open source it
|
| - reframe the arch in another example you can share (pull out the
| important parts and showcase them)
|
| - describe the arch (in some detail) and ask about potential
| issues
|
| There are different levels to consider design feedback, from
| overall arch to detailed (appropriate) use of language
| constructs. Is it maintainable, easy to change, easy to
| understand?
| melenaos wrote:
| We don't. Unfortunately this is one of my problems for been solo
| developer. I also don't have anyone to discuss the features and
| the architect decisions i need to take.
|
| I do have some developer friends to talk to when i need to get it
| out and once in a while i team up with one of them to create
| something. That way I learn new things and get some feedback but
| nothing close to what i had back then when i was working in a
| company.
| corry wrote:
| I'd say it really depends on WHY you want feedback. And perhaps
| who you are / what the code is doing for you (fun side project to
| build your skills vs MVP of your new funded startup).
|
| If it's just to improve your craft, I'd say there are lots of
| ways to learn without peer review. Studying other code based,
| open source, etc.
|
| But if you're a founder building your first project, the quality
| of your code is like concern #999 in the list. As long as it
| works and the clients are happy, you have better problems to
| focus on (like how to grow users). Much of HN doesn't want to
| hear that, but many (most?) $100m startups were stitched together
| with duct tape for the first n years. And you know what? It works
| out fine. You deal with the technical debt later as you need to.
| lewishogan wrote:
| If it's working on a closed source code base, I think you're not
| going to find many other options beyond looking at similar open
| source projects online, or finding and evaluating the merits of
| different design patterns.
| papaf wrote:
| I have been in this position a few times and I recommend using
| static analysis and linters e.g FindBugs for Java, CppCheck for
| C++.
|
| Personally I only use a debugger when there are bugs, but I know
| some people who debug the code when they are developing to check
| that it is doing what they want.
| foreigner wrote:
| I'd love a good answer to this. A couple months ago I struck out
| on my own with a non-technical partner, and I definitely miss
| peer code review.
| PartiallyTyped wrote:
| Reading other people's code is perhaps the second most important
| skill after programming.
|
| There's a great analogy in the essay Babble [1]. In the essay the
| author explains the process with which humans construct
| sentences. They say that we learn to babble, we perform a search
| in the space of all possible sounds, we weigh those possible
| continuations, select the most probable and filter them using
| some function. As we grow and through multiple interactions with
| others and in particular our parents, we improve our filter
| function. In tandem, we also need to improve our babbling
| function, that is, we need to improve the search space and the
| weighting that we give to the noises so that we chain them in
| interesting ways.
|
| By analogy, we learn to code-babble by working on projects, and
| by reading other people's code, we learn to filter.
|
| The author notes that it is of equal importance to train both
| filters in the case of speech, as deficiens in one can leave you
| either mute or appear as uninteresting, or incoherent. By
| analogy, deficiency in code babble leaves you unable to construct
| interesting patterns, and deficiency in code filtering leaves you
| with a create but otherwise garbage of hot spaghetti.
|
| [1] https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/i42Dfoh4HtsCAfXxL/babble
| itwy wrote:
| Your future self.
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