The ThoughtWorks Anthology, Volume 2: More Essays on Software Technology and Innovation

240 Pages·2012·8.51 MB·English

by  ThoughtWorks Inc

What Readers Are Saying About
The ThoughtWorks Anthology 2
ThoughtWorks is a company I’ve long admired from afar. So when a request to
review The ThoughtWorks Anthology 2 came up, I gladly accepted. I particularly
like the fact that ThoughtWorkers have practical field experience, and their articles
reflect it. The skills of the respective writers really show through in the content.
More importantly, these topics have direct relevance to our daily work as software
developers. We may very well find ourselves taking on the advice promoted by
these authors on our next task or project.
Grab a copy; I’m confident that you’ll be glad you did.
➤ Eitan Suez
Independent consultant, speaker
What’s nice about The ThoughtWorks Anthology 2 is the breadth of topics covered.
Technology has been changing rapidly, which has had a strong impact on devel-
opers. I like that the anthology covers changes about languages, integration, and
testing as well as how Java development on the server side has changed. The
anthology will be useful for both new developers and seasoned developers transi-
tioning to the newer development landscapes.
➤ Greg Ostravich
IT professional, CDOT
The latest anthology from ThoughtWorks brings together the latest trends in lan-
guages, testing, and continuous delivery but keeps a highly practical focus. Once
again, ThoughtWorks has pulled together a range of timely, relevant, practical,
and engaging articles designed to help software developers enhance their craft.
It’s a must-read for any professional software developer.
➤ Peter Bell
Senior VP engineering and senior fellow, General Assembly
The ThoughtWorks Anthology 2
More Essays on Software Technology and Innovation
Farooq Ali Ola Bini
Brian Blignaut James Bull
Neal Ford Martin Fowler
Luca Grulla Alistair Jones
Aman King Patrick Kua
Marc McNeill Julio Maia
Mark Needham Sam Newman
Rebecca Parsons Cosmin Stejerean
The Pragmatic Bookshelf
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The team that produced this book includes:
Michael Swaine (editor)
Potomac Indexing, LLC (indexer)
Kim Wimpsett (copyeditor)
David J Kelly (typesetter)
Janet Furlow (producer)
Juliet Benda (rights)
Ellie Callahan (support)
Copyright © 2012 ThoughtWorks.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN-13: 978-1-937785-00-0
Encoded using the finest acid-free high-entropy binary digits.
Book version: P1.0—October 2012
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part I — Languages
2. The Most Interesting Languages . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Why Languages Matter 6
2.2 A Few Languages 7
2.3 Wrapping Up 39
3. Object-Oriented Programming: Objects over Classes . . . 41
3.1 Objects over Classes? 42
3.2 Class Focus vs. Object Focus 43
3.3 Object-Focused Languages 55
3.4 Recap of Ideas 68
3.5 Wrapping Up 69
4. Functional Programming Techniques in Object-Oriented
Languages . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.1 Collections 72
4.2 First-Class and Higher-Order Functions 79
4.3 Minimizing State 81
4.4 Other Ideas 83
4.5 Wrapping Up 85
Contents • vi
Part II — Testing
5. Extreme Performance Testing . . . . . . . . 89
5.1 Stating the Problem 89
5.2 A Different Approach 92
5.3 Extreme Performance Testing Practices 99
5.4 How This Helps You 107
5.5 Wrapping Up 108
6. Take Your JavaScript for a Test-Drive . . . . . . 109
6.1 The JavaScript Renaissance 109
6.2 Current JavaScript Approach and Problems 110
6.3 Separation of Concerns 111
6.4 Our Testing Approach 119
6.5 Continuous Integration 121
6.6 Tools 121
6.7 Wrapping Up 122
7. Building Better Acceptance Tests . . . . . . . 123
7.1 Fast Tests 123
7.2 Resilient Tests 128
7.3 Maintainable Tests 134
7.4 Making It Work 137
7.5 Wrapping Up 140
Part III — Issues in Software Development
8. Modern Java Web Applications . . . . . . . . 143
8.1 The Past 144
8.2 Stateless Server 146
8.3 Container Considered Optional 149
8.4 Segmentation by Freshness 152
8.5 Post Redirect GET 157
8.6 Wrapping Up 158
9. Taming the Integration Problem . . . . . . . 161
9.1 The Continuous Integration Approach 162
9.2 Defining Integration Contracts 166
9.3 Metrics and Visibility 167
9.4 Wrapping Up 168
Contents • vii
10. Feature Toggles in Practice . . . . . . . . . 169
10.1 Simple Feature Toggles 170
10.2 Maintainable Feature Toggles 170
10.3 Separating Static Assets 173
10.4 Preventing Accidental Disclosure 174
10.5 Runtime Toggles 175
10.6 Incompatible Dependencies 176
10.7 Testing of Feature Toggles 176
10.8 Removing Toggles for Completed Features 177
10.9 Wrapping Up 177
11. Driving Innovation into Delivery . . . . . . . 179
11.1 Value Stream or Value Trickle 180
11.2 A New Approach 181
11.3 Wrapping Up 193
Part IV — Data Visualization
12. A Thousand Words . . . . . . . . . . . 197
12.1 Smelling the Coffee 198
12.2 Visualization Design Principles 199
12.3 The Visualization Design Process 200
12.4 Visualization Design Patterns 209
12.5 Tools and Frameworks 215
12.6 Wrapping Up 218
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Preface
by Rebecca Parsons and Martin Fowler
While many companies are primarily defined by a business model, Thought-
Works is primarily defined by a social model. We define three pillars to
measure success in our business and to influence our business decisions.
• Run a sustainable business.
• Champion software excellence, and revolutionize IT.
• Advocate passionately for social and economic justice.
This ThoughtWorks business and social model continues to motivate us to
challenge notions about organizational structure and business success. This
social experiment that is ThoughtWorks will of course evolve, but we’d like
to think ThoughtWorks will still be around and shaking things up in 100
years. And if you’re around then, think of what a shelf of anthologies you’ll
have to leaf through!
Rebecca Parsons
[email protected]
June 2012
Martin Fowler
[email protected]
June 2012
report erratum • discuss