3 ms·
How can I improve attention to detail and reduce oversights?
I'm working as software developer for 3 years now and consider myself a good and fast programmer.
But I'm prone to a certain class of mistakes:
- copy-paste errors (e.g.: leaving wrong stuff in)
- typos
- oversights
Nearly all my mistakes are fixed with changing one line of code, but still can have a huge impact. By now my colleague calls this kind of mistakes typical for me.
I mostly work in Erlang and think that a stronger typ checker would definitely catch some of my mistakes. None the less I want to improve on this, because I consider it my biggest flaw.
Currently I'm thinking about not reusing code snippets and rather write everything anew, so that I can't make copy-paste errors.
- im_down_w_otp 10y agoErlang has a good type-checker. You can use Dialyzer and enable some of its more strict options through CLI flags. Also, the Elvis style-checker for Erlang has some functionality that inspects the AST to look for repeated patterns to help identify places where you can improve your DRY.
- simplefl 10y agoI'm using Dialyzer but it's far from what I consider a good type-checker. I will take a look at the other tool. Thanks.
- brudgers 10y agoPersonally, I think you're on the right track with rewriting rather than copy pasting. Not necessarily because rewriting is the best answer but because it is a concrete change in process/work-flow. 'Improve attention to detail' isn't a concrete change; it isn't testable; and it isn't implementable. Generally, the sort of mistakes sound like things that go away with experience [and in the context of a professional career, three years is not a lot of experience even if the world of software development acts as though it is]. Good luck.
- simplefl 10y agoThanks!