Erik's Code Space

Author: erik

  • Delegate and Decorate in Python: Part 1 – The Delegation Pattern

    Delegate and Decorate in Python: Part 1 – The Delegation Pattern

    Note: This is not about Python’s language feature called decorators (with the @ symbol), but about the design patterns called “decorator” and “delegate.”

    In this series we’re going to learn two very useful design patterns: the delegation pattern and the decorator pattern. Each pattern is useful in that they help us enforce the single responsibility principle of object oriented programming. Getting these patterns to work as expected in Python requires a relatively deep dive into Python syntax as well as the always scary technique of metaprogramming. Let’s jump in!

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  • Stop Worrying About Which Programming Language to Learn First

    Stop Worrying About Which Programming Language to Learn First

    I remember when I first decided I wanted to learn to write code, my google search history would look like this:

    • Best first programming language
    • What programming language should I learn
    • How to avoid Ebola (unrelated)
    • Python good first language?

    Ultimately, this time I spent was a waste and I’ll tell you why.

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  • 5 Great Programming Books Rarely Mentioned in “Great Programming Books” Articles

    Originally posted on dev.to

    If you search something like “programming books” or “books developers should read” you will get a lot of articles listing the same 5 or 6 books. In this article, I want to bring to your attention some stellar books on coding that don’t get the love they deserve.

    There are no affiliate links here, just one guy’s opinion on some books that merit more recognition. Three of these books are language specific, but don’t skip them if they’re not your language. The underlying lessons you’ll find inside are applicable to development in general. There are no books on this list that are only good for the language they’re written for.

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  • Why You Shouldn’t Learn C

    Why You Shouldn’t Learn C

    Knowledge of the C programming language is often touted as the mark of a “true” programmer. You don’t really know programming unless you know this language, or so the wisdom goes. Many aspiring programmers have been advised by gatekeepers senior developers to learn C to up their skills and bring them to the next level. That’s what this blog is all about, leveling up, so let’s discuss why learning C might be a waste of your time.

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  • Designing Public Interfaces the Right Way

    Designing Public Interfaces the Right Way

    Interfaces define the ways objects interact with each other. Properly designing interfaces not only help conceptualize a system, but aid in testing and maintainability of our systems.

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  • Example TDD Workflows

    Example TDD Workflows

    This article isn’t designed to sell you on the benefits of TDD, it is simply a tutorial (in Java and JUnit) to get you acclimated to the typical workflow. TDD can be counter-intuitive, so we’ll go slow and keep it simple.

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  • Getting Started With Browser Automation Testing in Python

    Getting Started With Browser Automation Testing in Python

    Developers have unit tests to test atomic functionality and integration tests to test system interoperability. Web developers have to take it a step further and test actual browser behavior. This can be done in many ways, but most often it’s with some implementation of Selenium webdriver and an xUnit testing framework. In this article, I’m going to show you how to write a basic framework in Python to get your tests able to interact with a browser.

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  • C Pointers 101: Part 3 – Pointer Arithmetic

    C Pointers 101: Part 3 – Pointer Arithmetic

    In part 1, we learned the basics of pointers. In part 2, we learned what it meant to pass a variable by value or reference. Remember in part 2 I said that when C passes an array to a function, it passes the pointer to the first element of the array and then pointer arithmetic takes care of the rest? Let’s find out what I mean.

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  • C Pointers 101: Part 2 – Passing Pointers to Functions

    C Pointers 101: Part 2 – Passing Pointers to Functions

    In part 1, we learned the basic ideas behind pointers, addresses, and what they mean. In part 2, we’re going to talk about one of the main uses for pointers, passing by reference. This part will be a little easier to wrap your head around and might make some of the concepts in part 1 a little more clear.

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  • C Pointers 101: Part 1 – A Gentle Introduction

    C Pointers 101: Part 1 – A Gentle Introduction

    If the C language’s pointer feature has ever intimidated you, you’re not alone. Many programmers new to the language have been tripped up by the concept of pointers, but I believe it’s because pointers are poorly taught.

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