Programming Tips From Tomas

• Get away from the desk every now and then. Helps your mind stay sharp.
• Wrap untyped data into objects to make them typed. Saves time by revealing errors at compile time vs runtime.
• Override toString() or equiv. Makes debugging much faster and easier.
• Remember that knowledge is not reality, but the form of the mind, and therefore, no matter what you "know" you may be mistaken.
• Always write a functional unit test for each feature. Otherwise you'll break your app by accident.
• Break helper methods out of your larger methods frequently. It will help you understand what is going on more quickly.
• Write scripts/batch files to help with your compiling/building/deployment. may take learning, but saves tons of time.
• Validate your inputs. If some input has an invalid value, it will be a lot easier to identify if you throw a specific exception than if you just let one of the sub-commands fail in a mysterious way.
• Use specific exceptions with helpful messages. Saves phone calls and screen shares. Also demands that you understand what is going on with code you are working on or using.