Software Design

Can we, as application developers, stop over-engineering software? I hate to use the term engineering even to describe it! I’m guilty of it too. I was writing “clever” code that was overly complex, hard to understand, and hard to change. Here are some of the pitfalls I see and what I think about to guide me down a more straightforward path. YouTube Check out my YouTube channel, where I post all kinds of content accompanying my posts, including this video showing everything in this post. “What if” Game One of the traps I think developers can get into is playing the “what… Read More »STOP Over-Engineering Software!

Should you delete records from your database or instead use a soft delete? I was recently asked my view on this question by a follower on Twitter. So what’s my answer? Well, I’m not usually thinking about “deleting” anything. Instead, I’m thinking about adding. YouTube Check out my YouTube channel, where I post all kinds of content accompanying my posts, including this video showing everything in this post. Hard Delete So we’re all on the same page, let me take a step back and discuss deleting data in general. Hard deletes refer to removing the data from the database. For example, with… Read More »Should you Soft Delete?

One primary reason for a data access layer or abstraction is your ability to change underlying databases easier. Have you ever replaced the underlying database of a large system or service? For example, moved from one relational database like PostgreSQL to MySQL. Or perhaps went from a relational database to a document or event store? There seem to be two groups of people. Those that have will say that abstracting the underlying database is crucial. In contrast, the other group has never moved the database and questions abstracting or creating a data access layer because you likely won’t replace the… Read More »Data Access Layer makes it easier to change your Database?