Category Archives: Refactoring

Tekpub release their series on Knockout.js recently and I was fortunate enough to make a guest appearance! Now I know you’re thinking “why would Derick make an appearance in a Knockout series?!” But don’t worry – I’m not there to … Continue reading →

LINQ’s .Any() method is under-utilized, given the benefits it brings in making your code briefer, clearer, and more efficient. LINQ in general improves the expressiveness of your collection-manipulating code by using declarative statements instead of imperative foreach loops; .Any() is … Continue reading →

Code-review time. I haven’t written significant JavaScript in forevs, but I hit upon a use case well suited to it, had a blast coding it up, and am confident that I’ll be completely mystified by it three months from now. … Continue reading →

In the last few weeks, I’ve rebuilt and refactored a large amount of JavaScript code in both my Backbone.ModelBinding and Backbone.Memento plugins. In the process, I re-learned several object oriented design principles and how they apply to JavaScript. I also … Continue reading →

In my travels I’ve encountered systems chugging happily along on outdated, discontinued, unsupported technology stacks. Apps written in VB6, FoxPro, Classic ASP, still running without a hitch because the kinks had been shaken out years ago… Software users delicately avoiding … Continue reading →

A riddle for you, friends: When is changing a method from return void to return Something a breaking change? If you already know the answer, then why hadn’t you told me? Could’ve saved me a fair bit of embarrassment. Ah … Continue reading →

I’ve got a chunk of C# that sits inside of a very simple form. The form downloads an update from a web page – one of two possible downloads, based on which one is available – and shows a message … Continue reading →

I know switch statements are considered “evil” because they are very procedural code, they violate the Open-Closed Principle, etc etc. But every now and then I don’t see a need to do anything more than a switch statement because the … Continue reading →

A coworker showed me a method that had a series of guard clauses at the top and a series of sequential steps that had to be processed after that. All of the guard clauses and sequential steps were executed the … Continue reading →