Sharing Code
Sharing software is vital to allow multiple people to collaborate on the same codebase. For open-source software, sharing code also gives the public access to the code for reviewing, testing, and contributing. When papers and software are both published, it increases the reproducibility and reusability of scientific work. Sharing code in a public online repository […]
Testing and Code Coverage
Software should be tested regularly throughout the entire development cycle, from the first written lines of code through production releases, to ensure correct operation. Thorough testing is typically an afterthought; however, it can be essential for ensuring changes in a given part of the code do not negatively affect other parts of the code. This […]
Continuous Intergration
Continuous integration (CI) automatically builds your code, runs tests on a variety of different platforms, and deploys all manner of builds and documentation as desired. Typically, CI is run when new code is proposed (e.g. through GitHub Pull Requests) or committed to the repository. CI is useful for catching bugs before they reach your end […]
Code Style
Code that lives beyond its initial development will be read many times as part of routine maintenance and as new features are added. For this reason, it is essential to comment your code thoroughly: it will reduce the time and effort to understand your code when you come back to it some months or years […]
Documentation
The importance of documentation in an organization is often determined by multiple factors including the adopted software development practices (waterfall, agile etc.) and the size of the software being documented. Regardless, the documentation is a vitrine for the software that reflects its health and livelihood. A thriving software ecosystem has regularly updated documentation. Ideally, documentation […]
Build Systems
While interpreted languages such as Python have been steadily gaining popularity, compiled languages such as C and Fortran are still prevalent and many new software projects even choose to mix compiled and interpreted languages. Compiled software generally requires a build system to manage internal and external dependencies and to automate most of the tedious process […]
Best Practices in Software Design
Software quality depends on many factors such as: Functionality, usability, performance, reliability, portability, interoperability, scalability, and reusability (see full description here). There are many aspects that contribute to a good design and to the quality of your software. It is important to follow the best practices and think about the design of your software. Luckily, […]
Containerization
Containerization is a tool that allows you to launch and work with many different environments (known as “containers”) on a single computer, each of which might be running a different operating system, a different set of installed libraries, different environment variables, etc. Each container operates in isolation from the others; effectively, you can think of […]
Version Control
Version control keeps a complete history of your work on a given project. It facilitates collaboration – everyone can work freely on any part of the project without overriding others’ changes. You can move between past versions and roll back when needed. You can also review your project’s history through commit messages describing each added […]