Clean Code Band
The image above probably needs a bit of explanation. After having a lingering todo I finally made a donation and requested a Green Clean Code band from Uncle Bob Martin. I was at a talk of his at SD West 2005. At that point he pointed out a rubber band he was wearing that he would snap on his wrist every once in a while to remind him to run the tests. It was a mark that he took TDD as part of his professional duties.
The green band you get sits at the top of the image. The yellow band below wasn’t a warning type band. The words on have worn out, but it said ‘Go Kenji!!’. Kenji is the son of a neighborhood friend who was diagnosed about a year and a half ago with Stage IV Neuroblastoma. It was heartbreaking to see him go through chemo radiation and finally a stem cell transplant, but he’s a happy cancer survivor today. Today was a good day to retire the band. Cancer is a nasty disease, but it’s better to move on as soon as you’ve vanquished it.
So next time I run into anyone I’ll be wearing this band as a reminder to always keep my code clean with tests and refactoring, even when that code is hairy or written in some language and frameworks that are inherently hard to test.