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Likewise if anything Charles made it blatant that he was not 'working', he was playing games and scribbling on paper with legs up on the table. Doesn't seem like feinting hard work.
Are you a programmer?
[deleted]
The two teams were entirely independent, neither knew of the other, he wouldn't prove the other team no good. Likewise if anything Charles made it blatant that he was not 'working', he was playing games and scribbling on paper with legs up on the table. Doesn't seem like feinting hard work. Are you a programmer?
Look, there's no moral to this story and very little to glean from it because it's about a situation that's ridiculous on its face. It's written to appeal to cowboy programmers to make them feel better about their prejudices in software development.
Can any of you actually relate a real-world case where a 4-month-long team-driven effort produced some code to solve a problem that could be solved by one cowboy in 3 months and 20% as many lines?
From 'Software Requirements & Specifications' [0], by Michael Jackson (not that Michael Jackson, and not the other one either), published in 1995, a parable [1]:
'What do you think?' he asked. He was asking me to tell him my impressions of his operation and his staff. 'Pretty good,' I said. 'You've got some good people there.' Program design courses are hard work; I was very tired; and staff evaluation consultancy is charged extra. Anyway, I knew he really wanted to tell me his own thoughts.
'What did you think of Fred?' he asked. 'We all think Fred is brilliant.' 'He's very clever,' I said. 'He's not very enthusiastic about methods, but he knows a lot about programming.' 'Yes,' said the DP Manager. He swiveled round in his chair to face a huge flowchart stuck to the wall: about five large sheets of line printer paper, maybe two hundred symbols, hundreds of connecting lines. 'Fred did that. It's the build-up of gross pay for our weekly payroll. No one else except Fred understands it.' His voice dropped to a reverent hush. 'Fred tells me that he's not sure he understands it himself.'
'Terrific,' I mumbled respectfully. I got the picture clearly. Fred as Frankenstein, Fred the brilliant creator of the uncontrollable monster flowchart. 'But what about Jane?' I said. 'I thought Jane was very good. She picked up the program design ideas very fast.'
'Yes,' said the DP Manager. 'Jane came to us with a great reputation. We thought she was going to be as brilliant as Fred. But she hasn't really proved herself yet. We've given her a few problems that we thought were going to be really tough, but when she finished it turned out they weren't really difficult at all. Most of them turned out pretty simple. She hasn't really proved herself yet -- if you see what I mean?'
I saw what he meant.
[0] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Requirements-Specifications-Software...
[1] http://www.win.tue.nl/~wstomv/quotes/software-requirements-s...
Oh god, this thing's actually getting traction here. Look, there's no moral to this story and very little to glean from it because it's about a situation that's ridiculous on its face. It's written to appeal to cowboy programmers to make them feel better about their prejudices in software development. Can any of you actually relate a real-world case where a 4-month-long team-driven effort produced some code to solve…
Oh god, this thing's actually getting traction here. Look, there's no moral to this story and very little to glean from it because it's about a situation that's ridiculous on its face. It's written to appeal to cowboy programmers to make them feel better about their prejudices in software development. Can any of you actually relate a real-world case where a 4-month-long team-driven effort produced some code to solve…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The two teams were entirely independent, neither knew of the other, he wouldn't prove the other team no good. Likewise if anything Charles made it blatant that he was not 'working', he was playing games and scribbling on paper with legs up on the table. Doesn't seem like feinting hard work. Are you a programmer?
[deleted]
Oh god, this thing's actually getting traction here. Look, there's no moral to this story and very little to glean from it because it's about a situation that's ridiculous on its face. It's written to appeal to cowboy programmers to make them feel better about their prejudices in software development. Can any of you actually relate a real-world case where a 4-month-long team-driven effort produced some code to solve…
> Charles announces he has completed the project. He submits a 500 line program.
> Charles did produce about 5 lines of code per day. This is perhaps a little above average.
Obviously that's not the point though.
Oh god, this thing's actually getting traction here. Look, there's no moral to this story and very little to glean from it because it's about a situation that's ridiculous on its face. It's written to appeal to cowboy programmers to make them feel better about their prejudices in software development. Can any of you actually relate a real-world case where a 4-month-long team-driven effort produced some code to solve…
The scenario's quite believable. Many "programmers" out there got transferred from a user department, lied on their CV, and/or cheated the aptitude test. They can't code very well. Or maybe their coding level's up to scratch but they can't coordinate and communicate with other programmers, hence meetings and numerous drafts of what's been agreed on. Or perhaps work is hard to find or some programmers are getting older, so they deliberately complicate the task or the program to keep themselves in a job.