My TechDay 2011 presentation (ARC305)

1. Top 5 Ways to Improve Your
Code
Eric De Carufel
Agile Coach
http://blog.decarufel.net
http://pyxis-tech.com

2. Introduction
• Legacy code is code without
tests
• Michael Feather in Working
effectively with legacy code
• Without continuous
maintenance the code will
degrade rapidly
• We need to detect and
remove code smell

3. My Top 5 Improvements
1. Simplify conditionals
2. Improve code documentation
3. Improve method calls
4. Manage scope
5. Remove dead code

4. 1. Simplify conditionals – Why?
• Reduced complexity
• Better readability
• Better maintainability
• Better reusability

5. 1. Simplify conditionals –When?
• There is more than one condition (and / or)
• There is too much code in the body
• The condition is based on type
• There are nested if statements
• There are many decisions based on the same info
(if else if chain / switch case)

6. 1. Simplify conditionals – How?
• Refactor conditional statements
• Decompose conditional code
• Consolidate conditional expressions
• Consolidate duplicate conditional fragments
• Introduce null objects
• Flatten nested if
• Don't use negative conditions
• Keep conditional statements lean
• Avoid conditional statements
• Replace conditional code with polymorphism
• Replace conditional logic with strategy
• Replace conditional dispatchers with commands

7. Decompose Conditional Code

8. Consolidate Conditional Expressions

9. Consolidate Duplicate Conditional Fragments

10. Introduce Null Objects

11. Flatten Nested if

12. Don't Use Negative Conditions

13. Keep Conditional Statements Lean
• Do your best to have only one condition
• Use methods to combine multiple conditions
• Invert your conditions if most (or all) the code of
your method is inside the "true" block
• Make sure to avoid double negation

14. Replace Conditional with Polymorphism

15. Replace Conditional Logic with Strategy

16. Replace Conditional Dispatcher with Command

17. 2. Delete comments – Why?
• Better readability
• Better maintainability
• Fewer obsolete comments

18. 2. Delete comments – When?
• Every time there is a comment that is not (useful)
information, intention, clarification, warning, TODO or
amplification.
• Comments are the only content of a code section
• Empty catch statements
• Your comments describe line by line what you are trying to
do
• Example:
// Getting connection string from configuration
// Opening connection
// Retrieving data
// Closing connection

19. 2. Delete comments – How?
• Replace comments with good naming
• Extract methods
• Use meaningful names
• Write useful comments
• Naming Conventions (MSDN: Guidelines for names)
• Properties
• Enums
• Events
• Methods

20. Extract Methods

21. Use Meaningful Names
• Use Intention-Revealing names
• Avoid disinformation
• Make meaningful distinctions
• Use pronounceable names
• Avoid encoding
• Avoid mental mapping
• Class names -> nouns not verbs
• Method names -> verbs
• Don't be cute. Use standard names
• Solution Domain Names vs Problem Domain Names

22. Properties
• Do use PascalCase naming
• Do name properties with a noun, noun phrase or an
adjective
• Do Not use names that match Get method
• Do name booleans with Can, Is or Has prefix

23. Enums
• Consider the first element to be
the default value
• Do use PascalCasing naming
• Single choice enumerations should
be singular
• Bit fields enumerations should be
plural and have Flags attibute
• Value of bit fields enumeration
should be coherent (Read & Write
== ReadWrite)

24. Events
• Do use PascalCase naming
• Do name event using a verb, present progressive for pre-event and past for post-event
• Do provide a virtual version of the event to override
• Do provide a way to cancel pre-event

25. Methods
• Do give methods names that are verbs or verb
phrases
• ProcessPayment
• Do express the return value in method name
• CreateCustomer
• GetInvoice
• Use consistent naming (Get, Fetch or Retrieve but
not all in same context)

26. 3. Clarify contracts – Why?
• Better performance
• Better readability
• Better reusability

27. 3. Clarify contracts – When?
• There are too many parameters (how many is too
many?)
• A method does more than one thing
• A method uses out parameters
• You need default values

28. 3. Clarify contracts – How?
• Reduce number of parameters
• Introduce parameter object
• Create overloads with less parameters
• Use default values
• Function output
• Return type value
• Use out parameters
• Overload methods in proper order

29. Introduce Parameter Object

30. Create Overloads with Fewer Parameters

31. Use Default Values

32. 4. Reduce scope – Why?
• Avoid side effects
• Better reusability
• Better maintainability

33. 4. Reduce scope – When?
• A field is used in only a few methods
• Public members expose class behavior

34. 4. Reduce scope – How?
• Reduce visibility
• Use protected
• Use private
• Use Internal
• Reduce scope
• Move fields to method
• Split class
• Move local variable close to its use
• Reduce lifetime
• Initialize late
• Reduce references
• Free early

35. 5. Remove Dead Code – Why?
• Because you must
• Better maintainability
• Better performance
• Better readability
• 100% test coverage

36. 5.Remove Dead Code – When?
• You know the code is dead
• You think the code is dead
• You want that code to be dead

37. 5. Remove Dead Code – How?
• Identify and remove dead code
• Delete the code
• Compile
• Run the tests
• What is dead code?
• Commented code.
• Any line of code that is not covered by unit tests.
• Tools
• There are tools that delete all code not covered by unit tests.

38. Next Steps
• Improve your conditional code
• Improve your documentation
• Improve your method calls

39. Resources
• Refactoring – Improving the design of existing code
• Author: Martin Fowler
• Edition: Addison Wesley
• ISBN: 978-0-201-48567-7
• Refactoring to patterns (Martin Fowler signature)
• Author: Joshua Kerievsky
• Edition: Adison Wesley
• ISBN: 978-0-321-21335-1
• Clean code – a handbook of agile software craftsmanship
• Author: Robert C. Martin
• Edition: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 978-0-132-35088-4
• Working effectively with legacy code
• Author: Michael C. Feather
• Edition: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 978-0-13-117705-5

40. Related sessions
• Day 2 – 08h45 to 10h00
• DEV373 – Testing with Microsoft Visuals Studio Test
Professional and the new Team Lab 2010
by Etienne Tremblay
• Day 2 – 10h30 to 11h45
• ARC301 – Design by Contract (DbC) and Code
Contracts in Visual Studio 2010
by Joel Hebert

41. Remember To Complete Your Evaluations!
You could WIN a Samsung Focus
Windows Phone 7!
Let us know what you liked & disliked!
Remember, 1=Bad, 5=Good 
Please provide comments!
No purchase necessary. The contest is open to residents of Canada (excluding government employees). The Toronto Tech·Days evaluation form contest begins on October 25th, 2011 and
ends on October 26th, 2011. The Vancouver Tech·Days evaluation form contest begins on November 15th, 2011 and ends on November 16th, 2011. The Montreal Tech·Days evaluation
form contest begins on November 29th, 2011 and ends on November 30th, 2011. Participants can enter the contest in one of two ways: (1) complete and submit an evaluation form by the
contest close date; or (2) provide contact information by the contest close date. The draw for Toronto will take place on October 31st, 2011. The draw for Vancouver will take place on
November 21st, 2011. The draw for Montreal will take place on December 5th, 2011. The chances of being selected depend upon the number of eligible entries. Selected participants will be
contacted by phone and/or e-mail and will be required to answer correctly a time-limited skill-testing question. There are three (3) prizes available to be won. One (1) prize will be given away
for each Tech·Days event in Toronto (October 25-26 2011), Vancouver (November 15-16 2011) and Montreal (November 29-30 2011). The prize consists of a Samsung Focus Windows
Phone 7 (handset only; voice and/or data plan not included) (approximate retail value of $499 CAD). The prize will be delivered to the shipping address designated by the winner within 6-8
weeks. The winner may be required to sign a declaration and release form. For full contest rules, please see a Microsoft Tech·Days representative.
You can email any additional comments directly to
td_can@microsoft.com at any time.

42. Q&A

43. © 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should
not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.