Comments by "Stephen D Green" (@stephendgreen1502) on "Continuous Delivery" channel.

@TheEvertw I worked with microservices technology in an SaaS system, high profile in public sector, for over a year and experienced the problems for data consistency. Now I am faced with people wanting to develop a similar system for much fewer users and a high requirement for data consistency and database-centricity. I already advised strongly against microservices. Now this video and comment threads have reinforced and confirmed it. But there is still strong determination to move in microservices direction so I need to be sure I have strong and well supported arguments.
1
@TheEvertw define wisdom - in this context
1
The post-TDD generation will need to find new ways to ensure testability of code. Code might not need much unit-testing but still needs to support future testing when it becomes necessary. If TDD is dropped, either new versions of compilers will need to take care of testability or new lint tools (worse case scenario - linting is admission of failure) or new kinds of modularity will be needed to isolate unit-testable code from untestable code in a way which supports untestable older legacy code too.
1
How long before AI is built into compilers so they optimise code using AI as they compile. Gradually we could offload coding tasks to the AI-enabled compilers so we do less. Like garbage collecting, etc., today.
1
@DavidAtTokyo I think it helps to have some traditional AI, ontology, semantics experience and description logic skill so as to know how best to structure a prompt in line with fundamentals of AI reasoning and inferencing. In other words to ‘think’ like the LLM.
1
@ContinuousDelivery OK. So yes, there are two types of automated test or two particular purposes. Regression testing and acceptance testing.
1
@ContinuousDelivery Mmm. Interesting that the solution might be to combine all testing, including automated testing, with development. From what I have seen in better software companies, that could work very well. I suppose it need not be a threat to testers if it is organised well. I wonder how well tools would support it. I can imagine developers writing the automated tests for their own code or for automation testers to work alongside them to do it, but it would be great if it became so commonplace that tooling would support it. Is it a realistic prospect for pipelines to run such automated tests? I suppose so. You get it like that with some technologies such as Angular (although I imagine you hate it that they use e2e to do it). OK if the stack is conducive to automated tests but might be a challenge if there are many different kinds of interfaces such as message handlers, command line, API and the like all needing different ways of testing.
1
Yes, pull request code reviews are a recipe for deadlock. Or for blocking by anyone who wants to sabotage or undermine colleagues (Why yes! It happens!)
1
A big problem is when software developers never educate themselves as engineers. Then if a software system has any of these developers working on it, it will never be possible to sustain good engineering practices in it: these developers will fail to know how to maintain those practices.
1
So is Cloud the new mainframe?
1
@haxi52 but when they give a steer, HR are there to say you must follow it, although it is likely wrong
1
@haxi52 not uncommon though - it happened in two of my last three jobs
1
Fortunately for a seasoned dev or experienced lead dev, AI does not replace experience, your most valued asset. It tends to not offer solutions to a broad understanding of the codebase and tech stack or platform. It offers a solution to a prompt or a narrowly scoped immediate problem.
1
Back in days before TDD, we longed for software development to be more professional and respected. After earnest endeavours towards this goal we started to see it taught as a respected discipline in universities. TDD helped raise the bar in promoting it as a sophisticated engineering practice. Now two decades later the university graduates don’t even want to touch the likes of TDD. Are we seeing the end of a rise and fall of software engineering and with it the demise of professional quality software development?
1
@vanivari359 😭😔😕
1
There is a trend I am coming across of employers specialising in employing obsessive compulsive software developers, to try to exploit their attention to detail and persistence on solving a problem. I find this the most challenging kind of employer to work for as a software developer. The upside might work for the employer but the downsides are tough for colleagues: Deadlines, reaching consensus, communications. A worrying trend, like putting magnetic monopoles all together in a box (if they existed, that is).
1
@ContinuousDelivery Did Martin even consider ACID and databases? Or is it a distributed implementation of pure function thinking, devoid of state, persistence, time, ‘side effects’ like that.
1
Sanity check: If you are filling in a tax return form you can go step by step, trying and correcting mistakes as you go, being careful with each key press, as it were, to not make mistakes. That won’t be a good way to write a novel.
1
@ulrichborchers5632 If I was writing a draft of a novel, just as when I need to write a lot of code, I turn off spell checking. I turn it on when I have the substance of the draft, or the majority of the code. Then refactor.
1
Too much need to keep changing is what broke it. It needs to be frozen and then pruned clean so little change is needed. Pruning out whatever forces further change.
1
Is any developer going to be able to survive ignoring AI for a few years???
1
Good point - can we learn to content ourselves and moderate our expectations to keep to the areas the LLM has been trained in? If we can work in that area ten times more effectively than areas outside the training, what does that do to our work strategy?
1
Like a victimless crime, nobody involved personally loses much by failure.
1
When we get symbolic models to do the math too - then it takes off
1