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Many times I forget things about my application. I don't memorize the table names or what a query did and I search to get what I want. My team leader told me I'm supposed to memorize the table names that I use.
Is the developer required to memorize the table names in the database, the classes names etc? And if the answer is "Yes, all the time," what should I do to remember those things?
You shouldn't need to explicitly memorise these things. By that I mean sit down and learn them as you would a list of words for a spelling test. In the first instance the names should be memorable and discoverable so you can find them again without too much effort.
You should also have access to tools that help you out here with auto-completion and the like.
In a large system of over 100 tables there's no way you can really be expected to remember every table name and every column name, however, with memorable, discoverable names and regular use you should find yourself remembering the most important details and those you use every day.
Einstein said "never memorise what you can look up [in books]", and I completely agree.
Use your memory for abstract stuff (development techniques and principles) not facts that you can find when you need them.
Embarrassing to admit - I have been using C for nearly 30 years now, but can never remember how to declare function pointers - I always have to get out K&R to check the syntax.
Even more embarrassing, I have to think really hard about how typedef works - is it:
typedef foo int;
or
typedef int foo;
These are my personal blind spots. I wouldn't worry if you have similar ones.
Computers are good at remembering stuff exactly. Computers are also good at finding stuff they have previously remembered.
So the key skill is to use the computer as an extension to your memory. Write clean code, document stuff, learn to use search tools effectively, set up your development environment so that it is easy to find things, etc.
A nice side effect is that you'll also make it easier for others to read your code.
Memory is important
A strong memory is indeed one of the top talents a developer can have; actually that anyone can have. It's truly a special thing and I envy and admire those blessed with it. It definitely can help a person be a stronger developer, lawyer, mechanic, or (insert job of choice here).
How much should be required?
But I don't believe it is a fair requirement to require memorization of all things. I do believe that you will begin committing things to memory as a natural part of doing things. This is why reading a book about a language and using it in a production environment are not the same thing. As you work daily with something (some would call this "practice") you will begin to make some things second nature.
As with the other posters, I do believe memorizing key parts of the application does help. However, I'm not sure investing in memorizing all of it is worth the investment when you can take advantage of features like intellisense, which is increasingly common in modern tools.
How can you improve?
I am not an expert on memory, but some believe that you can indeed improve memory through mental exercises such as brain games (crosswords, sudoku, puzzles, etc). The theory is that your brain is like a muscle and if you use it in different ways and exercise it then you can strengthen it.
It would be interesting to see studies on how things like doing brain games, programming, and interactive activities would effect a brain over time. Could such things help fight the onset of memory loss brought on by age or dementia?
Where i come from, there is an old saying that goes something like this in English: "A fool memorizes, a smart man writes down". Basically, no mater how good your memory is, you will forget. You are only human. And this, as a consequence, makes relying on human memory...well, unreliable. Even if you think you remember those table names, can you be 100% certain? You need just a few seconds to look up table names, but you could need hours, or even days, to track down bugs caused by misspelling it.
As a conclusion, no, it's a ridiculous requirement, especially on large projects, which can have thousands of tables and classes.
If it's in something that you are working on and it's a long-term assignment, then yes, you should be working toward learning and be able to remember various table and column names, classes, variables, and methods. This is something that will come through time as you work with them. You won't learn them all overnight, but you should strive to know as much about the system you are working on as you can. Also, in a large system, there's no way you can have everything memorized, but there's no reason to not learn and remember as much as you can.
Having to look everything up all the time is just a hit to productivity - if you're working on a task and have to stop and look things up every few minutes, that is a break in concentration. Use appropriate tools to assist you, and learn/memorize what you can. It'll greatly improve your productivity.
Is there any point to memorizing exact class names? I don't think so.
Is there any point to knowing the what kind of terms your project uses in class names, so you can search for them faster? Definitely.
I don't agree that you should have the table names memorized, but they should be easy to guess. To make it easy to guess, be consistent. In this way, you won't be asking your self "Hmm.. is the foo table plural or singular? Is the primary key ID or RID or FooRID?"
I don't know how you could query a database for any time at all without getting to know the major table names and critical column names (but certainly not everything). I do know the people who do know this stuff without having to figure it out each time become more valuable to the organization and become the "go to" people when others are stuck.
I find that often when people don't start to learn this stuff, they make errors in queries without realizing it. Errors I often spot instantly in code reviews because I do understand our database structure and how the tables relate to each other and what the critical business rules are without having to look them up.
Personally I find that people who don't bother to learn the structure often stay at the beginner level in querying that particular database. They also tend not to survive layoffs. I think you boss is trying to do you a favor to get you to pay more attention.
More than the strong memory the one that helps a lot is domain driven design and following easy conventions like table names and class names to be same. If your business owner speaks to you about the requirement, the domain specific terms used by him/her should be there in the code. In this case we don't have to remember the mappings between business terms and names in the code. This habit takes a while to catch on but it is very useful as it also reduces translation errors to and fro between the business owners and developers.
Along with this if the duration of the project is very long, getting comfortable with code base over a period of time will subconsciously help the memory.
domain driven design?
Jun 11, 2011 at 17:17