MOUG17 Keynote: Coding Therapy for Database Developers

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Coding Therapy for
Database Developers

"How does this code make you feel?"
Steven Feuerstein
Oracle Developer Advocate for PL/SQL
Oracle Corpora;on
steven.feuerstein@oracle.com
@sfonplsql
stevenfeuersteinonplsql.blogspot.com
PracLcally Perfect PL/SQL (YouTube)
1

No One Is Making Fun of Therapy, Here!

And I am most deﬁnitely not a licensed therapist!

• Therapy can be a very important and meaningful process for healing
pain and distress.
• I am not mocking real therapy nor do I suggest that my session
today can subsLtute for a session with a real therapist.
• But perhaps I can help you with a few code-related issues....

Why Might Therapy Be of
Use to Developers?

Soware Comes from the Brain and Body
How’s your brain and body?
• Lots of soware conLnues to be wriên directly by
human beings.
– Though more and more will be generated/AI-built over Lme.
• Soware construcLon is a rather brainy endeavor.
– But the brain sLll needs the body.
• Consequently, human physiology and psychology play an
enormous role in how soware is wriên –
and mis-wriên.
• Check out Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin.

Game Therapy
All work and no play
makes it harder for me to work each day.
Let the games begin!

Games Entertain and Strengthen the Brain
Work, work, work all day long leads to poor results.
• Games can be quite helpful in the learning process.
– We like to compete (even if only against ourselves), have fun, win prizes.
• Mastermind
– Classic of deducLve logic that improves your debugging skills!
– h^p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind
• Set - www.setgame.com
– Pa^ern analysis and resoluLon improves everything you do.
• Oracle Dev Gym – devgym.oracle.com
– Best of both worlds: quizzes, workouts, classes on SQL, PL/SQL and more

Confessional Therapy
The militant agnostic:
I don't know and you don't either.

- peteducation.com
"Predators look for signs of illness or
weakness when choosing their
prey, so a prey animal needs to
appear healthy, or it will be a sure
target. By the Lme they are
showing signs of disease, in many
instances, the birds have become
too weak to be able to disguise it."
I hope this doesn't remind you of anyone – predator or prey – on your team!

When everyone expects you to know everything....
In a world of know-it-alls, no one knows it all.
• Our evolved survival insLnct urges us to
hide weakness.
• On top of that, we soware developers are
supposed to be really smart.
– We are the wizards of modern society.
• Unfortunately, ignorance leads directly to
bugs and sub-opLmal code.

It's OK to say "I don't know. Help me!"
It may not even ma^er who you ask for help
• Just thinking about asking for help will oen do the trick.
– We are "wired" to be hyper-aware of peer judgments.
• Most people like to be asked to help.
– It makes them feel valued & strengthens the team as a whole.
• If there are no programmers handy, ask your spouse or parent or
child to be a sounding board.
– Or write an email. By the Lme you ﬁnish wriLng it, you will likely have found
the answer to your problem.
– Or use a Rubber Ducky h^ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
– The important thing is to get the issue out of your head.

Follow the Thirty (or is it Five?) Minute Rule
Do not bang your head against the wall.
• We are usually too deeply inside (and part of) the
problem to step back and take a fresh look.
• For a "trivial" bug (eg, PLS-306 wrong number or
type of arguments), ask for help aer 5 minutes.
• For algorithmic puzzles, give yourself 30 minutes,
ask for help.
• Senior developers and managers take the lead.
– Ask more junior members for help. Show that you are
fallible, that you can learn from anyone and everyone.

Couples Therapy
You and Your Unconscious
Database Developers and UI Developers
Developers and DBAs
Developers and Their Managers

What do these have in common?

Our uêr lack of understanding of them
And our dismissive aptude towards them
• Oh and also that we were completely wrong.
• That DNA? It's not junk. It's incredibly important.
• Dark maêr? You can call it whatever you want, but if it's not
accounted for in your theories and it makes up most of the universe,
your theory's kind of sucky.
• The rest of our mind is inaccessible to us, so it is "un", "sub", lower. It
does the automaLc, unthinking stuff, while we do the real brain work.
• Uh, actually, no.

Couples Therapy: You and Your Unconscious
Life in the conscious lane
• Want someone you meet to think you are warm and cuddly?
– Hand them a cup of warm – not iced! – coffee (or tea).
• Want to get paroled from prison?
– Get a hearing right aer lunch.
• Want to make your views more conservaLve?
– Stand next to hand saniLzer.
• Want to get more donaLons for coffee in your "honest box"?
– Put a coconut "with eyes" on a shelf above the coffee urn.
• And then there are dreams.

The Rest of Our Minds Make Most of the Decisions
Consciousness raLonalizes decisions already made
• We (the conscious parts of people - CPP) think we're deciding things.
• But cleverly-designed studies reveal that CPPs mostly come up with
stories to explain what the ROOM already decided.
– Mostly to make us look beêr with our peers.
• The ROOM is great at paêrn analysis (thank you, millions of years of
evoluLon!).
• So use your ROOM, don't fight it, don't beli^le it, don't ignore it.

Dream Therapy for Developers
• The worst way to deal with a problem is to worry at it (for hours or
days).
– SomeLmes conscious a^enLon only makes it harder to ﬁnd the soluLon.
• Maybe you should sleep on it, instead.
– There's a good chance that when you wake up the answer will be waiLng in your
conscious "in box."
Snooze and you lose? Not at all!

Change the Body, Change the Mind
Change what your body does, and you change how your mind works.
• If you can't go to bed and you're stuck on a
problem, then...
– Take a walk, run around the block, do some stretching or
sit-ups, anything but screen-stare.
• Best of all: leave the sterile environment of
computers and get out into the world.
– We spend almost all of our Lme completely, physically
disconnected from our own planet.
– Pick an invasive species and join the ba^le!

Couples Therapy: DB Developers and UI Developers
We all want the same thing, right? A successful app!
• It's not the 1990s anymore.
• So much has changed in the world of soware – and how we deliver it.
– Consumers are now User #1. Drives all other changes.
– Apps delivered on Lny screens with YUGE resoluLon.
– Users get to choose their apps.
– Training? Fuggedaboudit!
– If it's not free, I'm not paying for it.
– Eventually is good enough for me.
• User interfaces are now Led directly to culture. OMG.

We've Got It (RelaLvely) Easy
There's a reason for the Framework Insanity of JavaScript
• Lots and lots of code (compared to, say, APEX)
• Microservices, bots, containers, asynchronous communicaLon....
• Endless demand for changes to UIs, since we need to hide all that
ever-increasing complexity

So do we mock, disdain, criLcize? Or do we help?
It's not like UI developers are really any diﬀerent from us.
• Wow, do I sound old. And whiny.
• And seriously: FIVE YEARS from now?
• I expect to rebuild my app with a new framework in one year.
• And SQL? It's just weird.
• And PL/SQL? It's so procedural.
I’ve been doing this for 20 years.
I've seen ﬁrsthand the consequences of your ignorance and impaLence.
Five years from now, your life is going to be pure agony
as you wrestle with data integrity and consistency issues.”

Change the Message to: How can I help?
What do you have to lose? J
• Don't be opposiLonal.
• Don't be so eager to point out where others are
wrong.
– You could even admit you are wrong.
• Find developer pain points. These come to mind:
– Performance of DB access
– Headaches wrestling with SQL
– Needs JSON-based APIs
• Then oﬀer soluLons, of which you have lots.

We can help UI developers – a LOT.
And 12.2 makes it easier than ever before.
• You want APIs? We've got the best data APIs!
– PL/SQL is the best performing, most secure and producLve
language for creaLng APIs to the database, through packages.
• You want JSON?
– Oracle Database oﬀers naLve JSON support via SQL and PL/SQL.
• You will only talk REST?
– No problem.
– Easy, secure REST APIs (oen generated) through Oracle REST
Data Services

Couples Therapy: Developers and DBAs
Can’t we all just get along?

• Apparently not....
– Developer: "Why can't I just [ add that column | drop that table | mess things up ]
whenever I want?"
– DBA: "Add an index? Ha! First, tune your code."
• Stay on good terms with your DBA.
– Let's face it; a DBA has lots more responsibility and privileges (which translate to
"power" in a database).
– You can't win a ba^le with a DBA.
• Database programming needs to be a collabora8ve process.

Close CollaboraLons Yield Best Apps
Talk to, work with your DBA (and vice versa)
• As you change the way you write your code, you should noLfy your DBA.
– Start to work with collecLons? NoLfy!
– Using FORALL and BULK COLLECT? NoLfy!
– Discovered Oracle11g funcLon result cache? NoLfy!
• Ask (negoLate) for the resources you need to analyze code impact
yourself.
– For example, with access to just a handful of V$ views, you can monitor PGA
memory uLlizaLon of your PL/SQL code.

Couples Therapy: Developers and Managers
SaLsﬁed with how your manager communicates with you?
• Which of these quesLons does your manager ask you?
When will you
be done?
How thoroughly
have you tested
your code?
How maintainable
is your code?
Can you make it
go faster?
How can I
help you
get your
job done?
Did you follow
the coding
standards?

Developers and Managers: Pretense is CriLcal
Some managers need to be really clear about who is “in charge”
• Avoid direct challenges to authority. Instead:
• Ask frequently for help, advice and direcLon.
– "How can I improve my tesLng?"
• Ask for standards and mechanisms to verify that you are
following them.
– Standards improve your quality of programming life.
• Buy your manager Peopleware as a thank you gi.
– A classic text for building development teams

Coding Therapy: Conclusions
We are going to need many lengthy sessions on the couch.
• You can't escape your own brain and you can't escape your body.
• Don't ﬁght your unconscious; instead, understand it, accept it,
adapt to it.
• CollaboraLon is key.
– It's not – or it should not be - a zero-sum game.
– Find a way to help/work with your UI developers.
– Make your DBA a part of the development process.
– View/use your manager as an asset.

MOUG17 Keynote: Coding Therapy for Database Developers

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