Category: Developer

Last is King – Back To Basics CSS

CSS is the basics of HTML styling, but I am finding out that somehow it is missed. It’s hard to be a Web Designer without knowing how CSS style sheets work. For those who do not know, CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets. If you can picture a waterfall, that is basically how CSS works. Continue reading Last is King – Back To Basics CSS

IT Professional and Communication Skills

It is a well-known fact that Information Technology professionals are often lacking skills in the communication department. Almost every job posting lately had stated you must have good Oral and Written communication skills. This was not me; at least until recent. I was always the guy standing by the punch bowl or snack table with hands in the pockets that said “HEY” as people walked by. IT professionals often confuse colleagues, friends and customers with their acronyms and tech-lingo – I was one of these people. Then I was pulled out to a Toastmasters meeting. Continue reading IT Professional and Communication Skills

More Than Meets The Eye

There is more than meets the eye with me. On my resume it is majority Microsoft skills. Microsoft is used more than open source because that is what my work and customers demand from me.  Can I do more? Yes! I have experience in a lot of open technologies such as PHP, MySQL, Python and more. I do use these technologies, but not often Continue reading More Than Meets The Eye

Do Not Forget The Customers

New developers often design and develop what they believe is cool and cutting edge.  What is forgotten is how the customer or the user will think about the experience.  If the customer or user refuses to accept what you have built, you have just wasted time and money.  Potentially you are out of business. Continue reading Do Not Forget The Customers

Do I Need Source Control

Yes!  For the first time in my 15-year career I had experienced what it is like to not have source control, and I had hated it.  I had lost a very difficult to write SQL statement in a project.  It seemed almost impossible to rewrite the SQL for the second time.   I believe it was two of us working in the same project that had caused this loss of code.   I take the blame because I am the manager and I knew that source control was not implemented.  I should have taken the time to take all of the projects and check them into the source control system. Continue reading Do I Need Source Control

Websites Responsive to Screen Size

I own a desktop, laptop, iPad and an HTC Android phone. Each device has a different screen size. I had never tried my website on the iPad and the Android phone until after the DIG 2011 conference in London Ontario. Jeffery Zeldman and Derek Featherstone spoke on the importance of having your website visible on multiple devices and this struck home to me. Continue reading Websites Responsive to Screen Size

How I Achieved Decent Search Ranking

I recently showed my hit stats for my website to a friend, which include the GOOGLE and Yahoo queries. I was asked how I achieved my ranking. I typically see a rank between 3 and 20, which I consider respectable. Most of my ranking is under 10, which is really good.   I am actually surprised how people find me as it can be a very obscure search.

Could it be better? Probably, but this seems to work for me

Example ( real rankings 11/03/2011 ):
Ranking 22: www.google.co.uk — c#/ .net blogs in london + cv
Ranking 02: www.google.ca — software developer london ontario
Ranking 05: www.google.com — how to use equalsignorecase in javascript
Ranking 01: wwww.google.lv — excel interop in web service
Ranking 14: www.google.ca — london ontario computer programmer

Here is how:
1. Fresh Content ( Blog, Twitter Feed, Other Dynamic Content )
2. Have description and keyword meta tags relevant to your content on the page ( Each Page should be unique )
3. Put title attributes on links / menu items
4. Put alt attributes on images describing the image
5. Have unique titles on each page
6. Do not use tables to structure your web page
7. Use H1 and H2 tags for page and paragraph titles
8. Optimize your webpage and images for speed.
9. Have a site map ( link page ) outlining links to your content
10. Use GOOGLE’s and Yahoo’s webmaster tools for site maps and analytics
11. Use and understand GOOGLE Analytics tool
12. Have other sites link back to you that our relevant to your site.
13. Use Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to promote your fresh content.

Code Reviews

Developers often seem scared to allow another person to look at their code.  It is like they have a fear of someone stealing what they had done or that someone is looking over their shoulder.  Software developers and web developers often hold tight to their projects.  In almost every business work is proof read or reviewed.   It is not because a lack of trust, but rather many eyes will catch mistakes.

Why do we do code reviews?
The reason for code reviews may be obvious, but since the resistance it needs to be mentioned.  Code reviews are primarily to catch logic mistakes, missing business rules and team coding standards.

When a developer is so close to a project and looks at the same code for days, weeks or months, it is easy to invert logical expressions or entirely miss basic variable checks.  Assuming both purposely and by accident that routines return the perfect values is often the biggest mistake and we are suddenly surprised when a NULL value sneaks in.

Often when we start a project we are handed pages and pages of business rules and requirements.  It is very easy to miss the small things and even the big things.  As easily it is to cross items off a list, it is just as easy to entirely miss one.  It is very viable to have a second set of eyes to review what we had just written.  Better to catch mistakes before the customer does.

Lastly team coding standards;  they are standards that either the team lead or the team together decided they would follow.  These standards are to ensure that the team writes the code in the same structure and using the same variable naming convention.  Having coding standards allows the team to work together and have the ability to read each other’s code.  It allows quick debug and editing by any team member.  Without these standards projects would be a wild wild west and would differ from team member to team member.

Types of Code Reviews

  1. Team Code Reviews – Team members together would focus on a method or a group of methods.  The team together would offer suggestions and ideas to enhance the code for which they are reviewing.  It is not a time to rip the developer apart, but to offer constructive suggestions.  If a developer gets out of line, that person should be asked to leave the room.  A projector should be used if available; otherwise printing off the code or have each developer view it on their laptops are adequate methods as well.  The team lead should take a leadership role in this method guiding conversation and making notes to send out after the meeting.
  2. Colleague Code Reviews – These reviews should be done by a senior or a team lead person.  The senior can be greater or equal in experience.  Same as a team review, everything should be done in a constructive manner.  If a senior developer is doing the review; the senior should be assigned by the team lead to prevent a biased review.  When the review is complete – the review should be covered in person with all developers involved.

Tips for the Reviewer

  1.  Ask questions, do not make statements
  2. Do not be too critical, remember to praise
  3. Be sure you have your company coding standards available as a reference
  4. Keep the review on the code and not the coder.   Do not make it personal
  5. Keep in mind that there is more than one way to do something

Tips for the Developer

  1. Remember, you wrote the code, but the code is not you.
  2. Make a check list of things that are often found in the code reviews
  3. Be involved in the maintenance of the coding standards
  4. Always do your best and do not look for short cuts