Plenary: Coping With Other People's C++ Code - Laura Savino - CppCon 2023

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Plenary: Coping With Other People's Code - Laura Savino - CppCon 2023
github.com/CppCon/CppCon2023
Sometimes we're fortunate enough to work with a small group of devs who share our coding values, and when we see their PRs come in, we nod along and say, "Yup, that's what I would have done. Oh, nice, that one's even better than my usual approach, I'd better tuck that idea away for next time."
This perfect alignment is precious... and particularly elusive in C++. Most of us are living in codebases that are profitable, complex, and updated in ways with which we have legitimate beef. How can we keep a sense of curiosity, progress, and satisfaction amidst patterns we would never have chosen?
This presentation explores the often-overlooked social aspects of C++ development, offering both practical tools and light-hearted commiseration. We'll draw from the field of behavior science to build strategies that address conflicting design patterns and the strong opinions that come with them.
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Laura Savino
Laura Savino is a Photoshop engineer, globally recognized tech speaker, and expert in developer communications. She has adapted to both decades-old legacy codebases and beta versions of languages & frameworks. She's worked with a team that replaced their data layer with a functional reactive model that erased all the types, transitioned from working on cutting-edge Swift to egregiously templated Objective C++, and once attempted to replace a series of sequential `#define`s with a well-scoped enum that had unintended far-reaching consequences. Rather than swearing off computers entirely, she copes by scouring peer-reviewed articles about psychopathology and occupational health.
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#cppcon #cppprogramming #cpp #code

[@babgab]

The bit about writing down everything is gold. HUGE benefit in an interruption-rich environment.

[@jenswehner9180]

I struggled with this talk a bit as it is not technical, but from my work experience most problems are not technical but social. As she points out, changing codebases relies a lot on building consensus, integrating people in the team and not frustrate others. So in conclusion she gave a lot of valuable advice Especially if you want to be a professional developer with an impact larger than your own coding skills.

[@youtubeaccount2302]

There’s a lot of wisdom here. Great talk. There are a million talks on TH-cam with code snippets to grok, but really internalising the content of this talk is the kind of thing that can change your professional life.

[@jacksonsmith4648]

This should be mandatory viewing for a lot of software orgs

[@sqw33k]

Very good talk! Recommending it to anyone regardless of seniority level.

[@rudolflovrencic]

Really good talk. Most relatable parts for me:
1. purist vs pragmatist
2. bosses/coworkers that say they are on (sick) leave, but will be available

[@AndrewEbling]

Did that get a standing ovation in the room? It deserved it! 👏👏👏

[@USGrant21st]

Why? Because they wasted an hour of their lives listening to those platitudes? I had bad feeling about that presentation after just a few minutes. Unlike those poor folks who sat in the audience, I could scroll through the video and watched a dozen of other places. My hunch didn't fail me, it's a total waste of time.

[@MatthewWalker0]

There is a suspicious lack of upper-case letters in these slides. I suspect this is intentional.

[@cellularmitosis2]

Great talk! I’m willing to bet the framework mentioned around 17:00 was an FRP framework :)

[@JetBossLauraSavino]

Excellent!

[@babgab]

There are a LOT of devs out there who could be more purist if they extended just the tiniest bit more effort, and I can't understand them at all. Does it really take that much longer to think about the semantics of your code and how other people will read it? Does that "extra" amount of time REALLY matter?

[@rikardsoderstrom835]

Thank you for an inspirational talk.
I totally agree there should be more diversity among the people participating at cppcon 👍(and in the industry).
Regarding the topic at hand, I really enjoyed that part with people standing in a triangle and then changing to a more "C"-like form in order to welcome other people to the conversion. Personally I've always been the person that looks over my shoulder and if I see anyone incoming I move closer to the person on my left (not sure why I always pick left thou), but the approach presented here is actually less work and has the benefit of reducing the risk of missing the person approaching. So I'll definitely take that part with me.
Take care and don't drop the baby.

[@ABaumstumpf]

"I totally agree there should be more diversity among the people participating at cppcon"
So you want to judge people by their race? Really?

[@yephick]

"more trans people"... what, WHAT does one's sexual orientation have to do with C++? Damn :(

[@LilliHerveau]

Good talk but misleading title

[@MrDiverXHD]

Honestly there were a few good parts in this talk which are really helpful for navigating this complex landscape of people. But as soon as we drifted towards, we need more people of "XY" here, then it lost me a bit. Not because i don't want to see these people up there, but more because proportionally there are just not a lot of people from these groups. This has many reasons, but in general there is such a big focus on pushing certain groups nowadays, that it starts to build this culture where every group needs to be existing in equal parts. It has gotten so bad in some places that focusing pushing these groups forward is to the detrement of the majority of people that work in this industry. There are legal debates in universities and workplaces if it is ethical to have someone be preferred just because they belong to a specific group of people. And i do not think that this is a solution. Yes, we need more equality, but equality goes both ways. So why do we not push that we are all the same and it doesn't actually matter where we come from or who we are. Why are we over and over focusing on the fact that these are people belonging to a minority, instead of pushing the fact that we are in fact all made equal and there shouldn't be any difference. But at last this will be a debate fought for multiple generations to come. Please start working towards the equality for the people and not forcing at outcome where it currently doesn't exist. Because personally especially in this context, i do not give a single damn where a person comes from or whatever they feel about themselves if they give a good talk, because that's the only thing that matters in this context, and that should especially be the focus of the talks. Providing good and helpful information and helping people excell to their best selfs.
Nontheless i hope in the future we will have more equality for ALL the people and can finally go back to having constructive discussions, which will help us (as in every human being) to become our best selfs. So that we stop discussing our differences and start discussing what we can achieve if we work together as humans.
Because in the end that's the only fact that matters, we are human.

[@CartoType]

If you want practical examples this talk is not for you. It seems to be a series of stretched metaphors and sections of pep talk.

[@coderedart]

yeah. after 10 minutes into the talk, It felt like we are forever talking in vague terms like a motivational ted talk, instead of skipping to actual code. Found your comment now, so i will heed the warning and just skip the rest of it. thank you

[@USGrant21st]

platitudes replacing knowledge

[@voxhominem]

It gets worth watching after like the 20 minute mark. Good insights but the front of the talk does sound a bit like someone reading a list of platitudes

[@mattiamontanari5746]

You saved me 1h 7min

[@user-go5oe6td3k]

This talk had zero technical content. It could have been given by any "life coach". I should have read the comments first...

bullshit talk. no even code to show.

[@sqw33k]

That's because that isn't the point of the talk.

[@ABaumstumpf]

@@sqw33kSo it is a bullshit talk then... yeah.

[@Tibor0991]

Bullshit comment, looks like you've never seen legacy code that makes even the most sane person froth at the mouth due to the concentrated stupidity of whoever wrote that shit in the first place.