Fear of the dark: a developer’s manifest against dark magic (and for clean code)

We are happy to announce our first non-online meetup after a long time organized with our friends from Ingsoftware.

Location: Utočiste, Ingsoftware, TC Ambasador, Niš

You can find a description of the meetup below and since there is a limited number of persons who can attend, you must register here: https://forms.gle/CcC8KMBEDsaiTRc96

This is a manifest from an experienced Java developer on “proper programming”. I want to share my thoughts on how important well crafted code is, talk about my personal experiences with good and bad code and share some Java-code examples from our product portfolio.

### Draft outline: #

• What is dark magic?
• “Do not surprise the users”
• Dark magic vs. hidden complexity in libraries
• Examples
• What’s the problem with it?
• Hard to debug
• Hard to test
• Users feel uncomfortable using it - they are avoiding it
• How to avoid it?
• Write code like well-written prose (Grady Booch)
• Write tests - if it’s easily testable it’s probably not too bad :-)
• Extensive use of comments is not a solution
• Examples
• Recommended reading

Clean Code (Robert C. Martin:[ https://www.amazon.de/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=1OGJCRL4913A7&keywords=clean+code&qid=1652617926&sprefix=clean+code%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.de/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1OGJCRL4913A7&keywords=clean+code&qid=1652617926&sprefix=clean+code%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1))