About Me

Hello All, Derek here. I'm a Senior here at St. Norbert College, as many of you may have guessed seeing this is a page about my Senior Capstone Project. I was born and raised a yooper boy from Iron Mountain, MI. Outside of the classroom you might find me on a tennis court in the summer, on the ski slopes in the winter, or out in the Michigan great outdoors in the fall. If you want to get ahold of me, go ahead and shoot me an email at derek.harrington@snc.edu

Programming Style

There are a few things that I think are important as a programmer, that not everyone may agree with. These are some of the conventions that I choose to use. Feel free to agree or disagree.

• Long Variable Names. Some may argue this is inefficient, or that it creates more margin for programmer error, which are both somewhat valid points. However, I believe that the "pro" of doing this, which is extremely readable code, far outweighs the cons.

  if (your_code_is_readable_beause_of_very_descriptive_variable_names)
  	be_happy();
  else
  	refactor();
  

• Refactoring. I don't think people do it often enough. It's important. Do it.
• Make a class for it. Programs need structure. It doesn't take long before your "main" file is 500 lines long and you're scrolling up and down trying to find a function. If you have a similar group of functions, make a class out of them. If not for the sake of organization, then for the sake of modularity and abstraction. Let other files have access to them.
• Making it work. I believe there is a huge difference between making it work and doing it right. Don't make it work. Do it right. Best practices are not just guidelines. They are important. Programs are always going to need changing/tweaking/updating. If you build it right from the beginning, you won't have to redo it later. Not to mention you'll sleep better at night.