Cutting Code Complexity, Why the Code Doesn't Matter, and Other Must Reads
The beauty of the LinkedIn’s Pulse platform is that it gives professionals a way to share their personal opinions about topical professional news and interests. Here’s a roundup of some of the best pieces LinkedIn engineers have written recently.
"What It Means to Be a LinkedIn Engineer"
By Ben Lai, Senior Software Engineer at LinkedIn
Ben joined LinkedIn after taking part in the company's inaugural StartIn program, which welcomes new grads into the engineering community through social events, career coaching and job opportunities. A year later, he shares how the program helped shape his future as an engineer at LinkedIn.
"The Code Doesn't Matter"
By Steven Foote, Senior Web Developer at LinkedIn
Steven is devoted to writing high quality code and appreciates the movement to increase “developer happiness.” But he cautions us not to confuse the means with the end. Ultimately, the typical user doesn’t care what code a site is written in, or what kind of developer wrote it. Users care about how the site looks and performs, and that is what developers should care about too, he says.
"Reduce the burdens of development by practicing functional programming"
By Brad Cypert, UI Engineer at LinkedIn
Brad explains how functional programming can solve issues with state, no objects, and heavy use of data structures. He gives best practices on how to manage state in code, but recommends avoiding state all together by writing code that is self-contained and makes use of state managers available.
"Cutting Code Complexity (and bugs) by Controlling UI State"
By Trey Eckels, UI Engineer at LinkedIn
Why is code so complicated? Engineers and non-technical professionals alike often ask themselves this question, albeit for different reasons. For engineers, the question is usually asked in comparison to how simple code could be. Complexity creates headaches and adds time to what should be fairly simple tasks. Trey explores how to cut code complexity and coding time by using the UI as a finite state machine.
"On the Joy of Coding"
By Mohamed El-Geish, Software Engineering Manager at LinkedIn
As a kid, Mohamed’s first coding manual gave him a euphoric sense of the power of computing when he created a program about Arab capital cities. The manual was written in his native language, but most code texts are not translated. He urges us to consider the high barriers to entry in computer science, and to support organizations promoting opportunity for those who have less educational and technological access.