sneeu.com

Why Accessors, and Mutators

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:39:17 +0100

The reason is: you will anyway.

Take the following Java code:

class Employee {
    public String fullName, bossName;

    public Employee(String fullName, String bossName) {
        this.fullName = fullName;
        this.bossName = bossName;
    }

Over time we come to realise that our use of bossName was a little naive, and we should have used a reference to another Employee object, but we've built up a lot of code atop the bossName attribute, and now we're now stuck.

This is why in Java it's a good idea to write accessors, and mutators for every public instance variable. If we were to reference a boss instead of a bossName, our code would change from:

public String getBossName() {
    return this.bossName;
}

To:

public String getBossName() {
    return this.boss.getFullName();
}

A pretty trivial change when the accessor is used.

Why this isn't this isn't required in Python (and Ruby)

Initially the above code in Python is as follows:

class Employee:
    def __init__(self, full_name, boss_name):
        self.full_name = full_name
        self.boss_name = boss_name

And once we realise that we're going to use an instance of Employee as the boss, rather that the boss_name property, we can do the following:

class Employee:
    def __init__(self, full_name, boss):
        self.full_name = full_name
        self.boss = boss

    def get_boss_name(self):
        return self.boss.full_name

    def set_boss_name(self, boss_name):
        self.boss.full_name = boss_name

    boss_name = property(get_boss_name, set_boss_name)

To the outside world, the second example's interface appears exactly the same as the first's.

As I understand it, attributes in Ruby are more like the second Python example, although they're generated automatically with the attr_reader, attr_writer methods.

Java best practices encourage you to protect yourself from future changes, while Python, and Ruby allow you to get on with it with as little noise as possible, and make it easy to change your mind later.

Agency to Start–up

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:18:48 +0100

My slides, notes, and photo credits, as promised are online.

Agency to Start–up.

2010 A Review; 2011 A Preview

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 11:41:20 +0100

2011 by sneeu.

My goals for last year were pretty large:

Get Married;
Attend EuroPython;
Have a new kitchen & bathroom;
Rebuild this website;
Give blood 4 times (once a quarter);
Read 6 books;
Post 52 blog posts (one a week, this is #1);
Brew 3 batches of homebrew;
Launch 1 side project;
Learn Haskell & Scala (to a useable level);
Attend a football match;
Go camping;
Go SCUBA diving.

Ro and I got married, got a new kitchen, attended a football match, went camping, and SCUBA diving.

I read 17 books, brewed one batch of homebrew, learnt a little Haskell, although not what I would call a usable amount.

Ro and I also circumnavigated the globe as our honeymoon, visiting Hong Kong, Fiji, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

We bought a new car.

I left agency life at Line, and joined Bloop as a co-founder and lead developer, and attended dconstruct.

And we visited Matt, Alison, and Brian in Iceland at new-year.

So what are the goals for 2011?

A bit more of the same: I found that I enjoy reading a lot more than I thought I did, so I have a goal of 20 books this year.

I'm also planning to attend DIBI, dconstruct, Euro DjangoCon, EuroPython, and Build this year, although with 5 weddings, that may not be entirely possible.

I have a few side-projects on the go, but I'm kept busy with Bloop and the freelance work that I'm planning to take a break at least for the first 6 months of the year.

The bigger plans revlove around fitness. I've been saying for the last few years:

The year after next I'll get fit.

The goal is known amoung friends as:

Get the body of Daniel Craig.

These are my goals:

Run: 1000km, including at least 1 marathon.
Swim: 100km.
Walk/run the West Highland Way.
100 pushups & 200 situps.
Reduce my alcohol intake.

I also plan on frequenting the gym to "do weights", and machines, although I'm a little shy about going to the gym.

Punctuation Typography Pet–Peeves

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:41:03 +0100

Multiple Pauses by suavehouse113.

Ellipsis

Use a space before and after, unless punctuation follows, in which case, use no spaces.

On a Mac, type ellipsis with Option, ;. In Windows, hold Alt, and type 0133 on the numeric keypad.

Hyphens & Dashes

Hyphens are used to join words, to space out the syllables of a word, for example: “hy-phen-a-tion”, and of course for hyphenation (wrapping words at the edge of a page or column).

An en–dash is mostly used when typing ranges, for example “25–30 years old”, or to join two words, e.g. “lager–beer”. An en–dash is not surrounded by spaces, unless its meaning would be ambiguous.

An em–dash is often used to parenthesise a a fragment, and in some situations where you might use ellipsis. An em–dash is never surrounded by white–space.

Nineteen Eighty–Four—sometimes written 1984—is a 1949 dystopian novel by George Orwell.

On a Mac, type a en–dash with Option, -, and an em–dash with Option, Shift, -. Windows is Alt, 0150, and Alt, 0151 respectively.

Curly Quotes

Without knowing it, it’s possible you’ve probably been typing prime, and double primes without knowing it; use curly quotes when ever possible. Opening, and closing double quotes can be typed with Option, [, and Option, Shift, [ (Windows users use Alt, 0147 & Alt, 0148). Single quotes are typed with Option, ], and Option, Shift, ] (Windows users use Alt, 0145 & Alt, 0146).

Playlist: Surf

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:19:41 +0100

dune by SARAΗ LEE.

The Ventues – Hawaii Five-O (Instrumental)
Weezer – Surf Wax America
The Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
Dick Dale & his Del-Tones – Miserlou
Pearl Jam – Go
Brand New – Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't
The Shadows – Apache
Nada Surf – Slow Down
Seafood – Toggle
The Lively Ones – Surf Rider

Listen to it on Spotify.