Embracing The Cloud
public String CloudThoughts{ get; set;}

I've been using the phrase "IF happens" as a personal reminder to myself to be more vigilant in how code gets written. It refers to the use of "IF" statements in source code and is based on a similar existential observation.

It is more of a "style" than a "science". "IF happens" somewhere between functional and object oriented programming.

I could use big words like "Cyclomatic Complexity" to describe why IF statements are inherently bad, but I'm pursuing the less dogmatic and more pragmatic path.

When IF statements happen, they should ideally refer to a natural language function or property.

For example, this is pretty bad:

if(product.PurchaseDate < (TODAY - 30)){
   //do something
}

This is better:

if(warrantyHasExpired(product)){
    // do something
}

Nested IF statements are definitely bad. Please don't invite me to a pair programming session if the code even remotely resembles the following:

if(something){
   if(somethingElse || thatHappened){
      //do this
   }
   else if(thisHappened){
      if(thisEdgeCaseHappens){
         //do this
         if(ohYeahTheCustomerSaidThisMightHappen){
             //do this
         }
         else if(thisVersion2FeatureStateExists && someVar != null){
            //do this (if an exception hasn't already been thrown)
         }
      }
   }
}

Yes, we've all written code like the example above and it's probably buried in the core of every project. After all, IF happens.

When IF happens, consider moving the code into a factory container class if the purpose is to construct other objects, use a switch/case block, and write an apology in the comments with a future dated reminder to come back and refactor.

A New Years resolution I had in 2009 was to fully embrace the functional programming aspects of Javascript. I mostly accomplished that goal through the use of JQuery and anonymous functions, but did not fully utilize a FP library like underscore.js.

On the server side, C# now has Lambda expressions and LINQ to promote more functional programming. F# was another language on my 2009 resolution list (and in fact was also on my TODO list in 2008) that I unfortunately made 0 progress on. I hope that changes in 2010.

"IF" can happen a lot in unit tests. Assert is really just an abstraction to using IF. The long term pursuit should be more towards Design-by-Contract using something like Spec#.

Oh well... "IF happens". But there's always room for improvement