Ask Slashdot: How Would You Teach 'Best Practices' For Programmers?

An anonymous reader writes: I've been asked to put together a half-day workshop whose title is "Thinking Like a Programmer." The idea behind this is that within my institution (a university), we have a vast number of self-taught programmers who have never been taught "best practices" or anything about software engineering. This workshop's intention is to address this lack of formal training.

The question is, what should be covered in this workshop? If you have an idea -- that also has an example of best practice -- please share!
It's really two questions -- what "thinking like a programmer" topics should be covered, but also what examples should be used to illustrate best practices for the material. So leave your best thoughts in the comments.

How would you teach best practices for programmers?

Comments

Re:Learn math

[Immerman]

Other way around - mathematics is a strict subset of logic, which also applies to realms well outside mathematics.

Be aware that other people cannot read your mind

[Anonymous Coward]

Before you change anything ask yourself the question "Will this affect someone other than myself?"

If the answer is "yes":

1. a) Have you updated the docs?
2. b) Have you consider users who may be reliant on the old way?
3. c) Have you considered the people that have to support, sell or market your software?
4. d) Does the change need to be verbally communicated in meatspace to other people in your org?

Basically, never assume that checking in code is the final step