Street Coder

Book excerpt: Computer science theory quickly collides with the harsh reality of professional software development. This wickedly smart and devilishly funny beginner's guide shows you how to get the job done by prioritizing tasks, making quick decisions, and knowing which rules to break. In Street Coder you will learn: Data types, algorithms, and data structures for speedy software development Putting "bad" practices to good use Learn to love testing Embrace code breaks and become friends with failure Beginner-friendly insight on code optimization, asynchronous programming, parallelization, and refactoring Street Coder: Rules to break and how to break them is a programmer's survival guide, full of tips, tricks, and hacks that will make you a more efficient programmer. It takes the best practices you learn in a computer science class and deconstructs them to show when they’re beneficial—and when they aren't! This book's rebel mindset challenges status quo thinking and exposes the important skills you need on the job. You'll learn the crucial importance of algorithms and data structures, turn programming chores into programming pleasures, and shatter dogmatic principles keeping you from your full potential. Welcome to the streets! About the technology Fresh-faced CS grads, bootcampers, and other junior developers lack a vital quality: the “street smarts” of experience. To succeed in software, you need the skills and discipline to put theory into action. You also need to know when to go rogue and break the unbreakable rules. Th is book is your survival guide. About the book Street Coder teaches you how to handle the realities of day-to-day coding as a software developer. Self-taught guru Sedat Kapanoglu shares down-and-dirty advice that’s rooted in his personal hands-on experience, not abstract theory or ivory-tower ideology. You’ll learn how to adapt what you’ve learned from books and classes to the challenges you’ll face on the job. As you go, you’ll get tips on everything from technical implementations to handling a paranoid manager. What's inside Beginner-friendly insights on code optimization, parallelization, and refactoring Put “bad” practices to good use Learn to love testing Embrace code breaks and become friends with failure About the reader For new programmers. Examples in C#. About the author Sedat Kapanoglu is a self-taught programmer with more than 25 years of experience, including a stint at Microsoft. Table of Contents 1 To the streets 2 Practical theory 3 Useful anti-patterns 4 Tasty testing 5 Rewarding refactoring 6 Security by scrutiny 7 Opinionated optimization 8 Palatable scalability 9 Living with bugs