Tag: software engineering

Git branch names support forward slashes

Oh. My. God!  I’ve been using git for years now and I only learned this today – git branch names support forward slashes! How awesome is that?!  You can do things like this:

$ git checkout -b feature/foobar

Grouping branches like this is much easier indeed!

I came across this while reading CakeDC’s CakePHP Plugin Standard.  Searching around to find more details, I see that there are a few potential issues with this naming convention, as tools occasionally break (composer, IDEs, etc).   However, these problems are fixed by tool vendors.  Looking into it even further, I found the following description in the book “Version Control with Git: Powerful tools and techniques for collaborative software development” (Google Books preview):

Dos and Don’ts in Branch Names

Branch names must conform to a few simple rules.

  • You can use the forward slash (/) to create a hierarchical name scheme.  However, the name cannot end with a slash.
  • The name cannot start with a minus sign (-).
  • No slash-separated component can begin with a dot (.).  A branch name such as feature/.new is invalid.
  • The name cannot contain two consecutive dots (..) anywhere.
  • Further, the name cannot contain:
    • Any space or other whitespace character
    • A character that has special meaning to Git, including the tilde (~), caret (^), colon (:), question mark (?), asterisk (*), and open bracket ([).
    • An ASCII control character, which is any byte with a value lower than \040 octal, or the DEL character (\177 octal)

These branch name rules are enforced by the git check-ref-format plumbing command, and they are designed to ensure that each branch name is both easily typed and usable as a filename within the .git directory and scripts.

So, as you can see, you aren’t even limited to the single forward slash. Even things like this work just fine:

$ git checkout -b Leonid/ideas/feature/foobar

But remember, just because you CAN do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you SHOULD.  Have a look at this StackOverflow discussion about git branch naming best practices for more understanding on what you should and shouldn’t do.

The Architecture of Open Source Applications

The Architecture of Open Source Applications

Architects look at thousands of buildings during their training, and study critiques of those buildings written by masters. In contrast, most software developers only ever get to know a handful of large programs well—usually programs they wrote themselves—and never study the great programs of history. As a result, they repeat one another’s mistakes rather than building on one another’s successes.

Our goal is to change that. In these two books, the authors of four dozen open source applications explain how their software is structured, and why. What are each program’s major components? How do they interact? And what did their builders learn during their development? In answering these questions, the contributors to these books provide unique insights into how they think.

If you are a junior developer, and want to learn how your more experienced colleagues think, these books are the place to start. If you are an intermediate or senior developer, and want to see how your peers have solved hard design problems, these books can help you too.

There is also the fourth book in the works – 500 lines or less.

Why is software engineering exciting?

Quora runs the question.  There are some really inspiring and insightful replies.  Have a look.  Here are some bits to get you started.  Robert Love said:

Software is the most malleable of media. With just bits—which are nothing, really—a software engineer can build castles out of thin air. Entire businesses, industries even, are created with nothing physical at all. Software’s substrate is the stuff of pure thought.

Other engineering disciplines are constrained by the surly bonds of the physical world. To design a new plane, the aerospace engineer may spend years designing a model. A model! A software engineer can go from idea to reality in a day. As an intellectual pursuit, software is enormously rewarding.

Martin Sarsale:

It’s like playing with Lego but the blocks are product of your mind.

Noam Lerner:

Creation. It’s my way to express my creativity. Some people create music, movies, paintings or pottery. I create software.

Briggitte Jellinek:

It’s exaclty like magic:   with my spells (that are completely incomprehensible to muggles) I can make stuff happen!

And there’s more, of course.

The absolute worst testers you can possibly have a…

The absolute worst testers you can possibly have are developers. They’re better than nothing. But barely. Even a mediocre tester will make your application better, and by proxy, encourage you to become a better developer. The very best testers will drag you, kicking and screaming if necessary, across the bug-bar threshold. Professional testers force you to become a better developer. Sometimes it’s painful. But in a good way, like a heavy workout.

Jeff Atwood