Linzie
was sitting still; eyes filled with tears. Henry was a bit shocked and
confused to see tears in her eyes where he rather had expected a
delighted face.
What is wrong with Linzie? Let us go back in time.
It
was a Friday night. Linzie and Henry just had their dinner. Henry, a
smart and geeky software developer looking at his laptop seriously like
if he is trying to figure out a way to send rocket to Mars. Linzie, a full time house wife that whole heartedly enjoys her job.After completed her cleaning work in the kitchen, Linzie comes and sit next to Henry.
Linzie : You still working dear? ! Do you remember it is Friday night?
Henry: Yeah, I have some work pending to be completed for the week. I had to lend hand to a friend from some other team during day time to resolve a critical issue in their project.
Linzie : That’s great. By the way I have a small question for you? !
Henry : Yes? !
Linzie : Do you think I’m the right person for you?
Henry: Why this question all of a sudden?
Linzie : It’s been there for a while. But it came out today only.
Henry: Of course, you are the perfect match for me.
Linzie : You are a very high tech person. I don’t go much into the basics even. I wish I was able to help you with your work.
Henry
: oh… Come on Lin! Do you know that you are the inspiration for me to
do a good quality job? Actually you are the one who taught me all the
basics that helped me to become a successful techie.
Linzie : I helped you? ! how? I do not get anything at all.
Henry: Let me explain
- There
is a concept called threading in software programming. Rather than
waiting for one big time consuming process to complete, let it run in
the background and let others work in parallel.The
way you handle multiple jobs like answering a phone while making coffee
helped me understand multitasking and I’m able to build efficient and
responsive programs with it.
- Some
days you make excessive amount of food and keep them in refrigerator.
So we do not to spend a lot of time every day for cooking. I use the
very same theory in programming. I do not do expensive and time
consuming data retrieval from database every time when I need it. Rather
I store the retrieved data in a cache and use them till they become
expired.
- There is a concept called pre-compilation in SQL where prepare things beforehand and keep them ready for use. The days
when you need to cook for me in the morning, you cut the vegetables and
keep everything ready on the previous night itself. That helped me
understand the theory very well and I use it in programming where ever
possible and appropriate.
- Every
time once you done with cooking, you clean the vessels and put them
back in place neatly so no one will feel uncomfortable coming to kitchen
and do some preparation. That taught me the concept of refactoring.
Refactor the code once completed the implementation so the code will
look more neat and readable.
- When
you place the ingredients in the kitchen cupboard you arrange them
category wise so main ingredients are in one segment, spices are in
another segment likewise which taught me to arrange my code region wise
so the system events will be in one region, custom functions written by
me will be in another region etc etc. Hence when I go and look at my
code after a while or if someone else got to go through my code, anyone
can locate the places easily.
- One
thing I appreciate is you have labeled all the ingredient bottles and
boxes in the kitchen so I can easily identify the items just by looking
at the label when you are not at home. I follow the same good practice
in programming where I give meaningful names for variables and methods
as much as possible.
- Every
week you take clothes out of suitcase and arrange them in the front
part of dressing cupboard which helped me to understand the concept of
keeping frequently accessed objects in memory so time and effort for the
retrieval can be reduced.
And there are many more. Still do you think you are right?
(Flash back ends)
Linzie looked in to the worried eyes of henry wiping her own tears out.
“No.
I’m perfectly alright.It’s tears of joy. I was overwhelmed by your
response and your love even though I did not understand the programming
part of those theories. I’m so lucky. Love you honey”
“Love you too Linzie!”
Henry’s mind voice: “Thank God. No more questions. I can peacefully work.”