Kodsnack 570 - Debug your ideas, with Eric Normand

Fredrik is joined by Eric Normand for a discussion of debugging your ideas through domain modeling, using Eric’s concept of lenses to find more good questions to ask.

Eric is writing a book about domain modeling and has developed the concept of lenses - ways to look at various aspects of your domain, model, and code in order to better consider various solutions and questions.

Why? Because design is needed, but is easily lost in the modern urge to be fast and agile. There’s a lot you can and need do on the way to a working system. Eric pushes for design which is an integral part, perferably right in the code, rather than a separate one which can become outdated and separated without anyone noticing. Just spend a little more time on it.

Tricks for seeing your domain with fresher eyes.

Change is not always maximal and unpredictable! But thinking it is can lead to a lot of indirection and abstraction where a single if-statement could have sufficed for years.

Refactoring as a way of finding the seams in your model. What is the code actually supposed to do? How does it actually fit with the domain?

Recorded during Øredev 2023, where Eric gave two presentations about the topics discussed: Better software design with domain modeling and Stratified design and functional architecture.

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Links

• Eric
• Eric’s Øredev 2023 presentations:
  • Better software design with domain modeling *Stratified design and functional architecture
• Eric has his own podcast
• Grokking simplicity - Eric’s book on functional programming
• Domain modeling
• Waterfall
• UML
• Clojure
• REPL - Red-evaluate-print loop
• Kodsnack 294 - the episode where Dan Lebrero gave Fredrik a feel for REPL-driven development
• Domain modeling lenses
• Drawing on the right side of the brain
• The “keynote yesterday” - Na’Tosha Bard about code outliving you (see also episode 558)
• Then a miracle occurs

Titles

• I’m really on to something
• Anti-design trend
• In a waterfall world
• On the way to code
• Experimentation in code
• Not about moving your hand
• I don’t want rules
• Yes, that’s the right question!
• Take five minutes
• Spending more time on it
• Code lets me play with ideas
• I’m happy working on a whiteboard
• Debug your ideas
• Server babysitters