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What's your most controversial programming opinion?

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Re: What's your most controversial programming opinion?

#11

Post by fosk »

there wrote: post #9

in my opinion, writing unit tests is overrated. i think some developers put too much stock in unit testing and it gives them (and their managers, customers, and co-workers) a false sense of security. they end up wasting time and not really preventing as many bugs as they think it will. application logic changes and they have to write twice as much code to change the application and all of the tests that depended on t…

I totally agree, who tests everything has just missed the point. I write tests for critical parts of a software that have an high risk to fail somehow (a DAO or Billing implementation, for example).

Re: What's your most controversial programming opinion?

#14

Post by olalonde »

frou_dh wrote: post #6

A: I have no interest in JavaScript and am fed up hearing about it. I assume that's increasingly controversial :)

Just a few years ago Javascript had a horrible reputation. It's funny how the more people learn Javascript, the more it is considered as a great language. I guess it's some form of Stockholm syndrome.

Re: What's your most controversial programming opinion?

#15

Post by sage_joch »

there wrote: post #9

in my opinion, writing unit tests is overrated. i think some developers put too much stock in unit testing and it gives them (and their managers, customers, and co-workers) a false sense of security. they end up wasting time and not really preventing as many bugs as they think it will. application logic changes and they have to write twice as much code to change the application and all of the tests that depended on t…

I said this to my coworker yesterday: the funny thing about code is that the more testable it is, the less it actually needs to be tested. (I specifically meant unit tested, because well factored code is easier to reason about, etc.)

Re: What's your most controversial programming opinion?

#16

Post by olalonde »

there wrote: post #9

in my opinion, writing unit tests is overrated. i think some developers put too much stock in unit testing and it gives them (and their managers, customers, and co-workers) a false sense of security. they end up wasting time and not really preventing as many bugs as they think it will. application logic changes and they have to write twice as much code to change the application and all of the tests that depended on t…

Sometimes it feels like unit tests are simply there to replicate the mechanisms of a strongly typed language. Makes you wonder why they chose a dynamic language in the first place...

Re: What's your most controversial programming opinion?

#18

Post by olalonde »

gfodor wrote: post #10

The top items don't seem to be very controversial, but instead seem to be "things that good programmers think are true, and bad ones don't." Here's mine: if you haven't gone through a respectable 4 year CS program, odds are I'm not going to want to hire you since your brain isn't wired to think about algorithms and data structures instead of code and servers.

Might be controversial on HN but certainly not elsewhere. Most recruiters do require a CS/engineering degree.

Re: What's your most controversial programming opinion?

#19

Post by DanHulton »

olalonde wrote: post #14
frou_dh wrote: post #6

A: I have no interest in JavaScript and am fed up hearing about it. I assume that's increasingly controversial :)

Just a few years ago Javascript had a horrible reputation. It's funny how the more people learn Javascript, the more it is considered as a great language. I guess it's some form of Stockholm syndrome.

Or, alternatively, the more people who learn Javascript learn it's actually really good.

Re: What's your most controversial programming opinion?

#20

Post by olalonde »

DanHulton wrote: post #19
olalonde wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a few years ago Javascript had a horrible reputation. It's funny how the more people learn Javascript, the more it is considered as a great language. I guess it's some form of Stockholm syndrome.

Or, alternatively, the more people who learn Javascript learn it's actually really good.

I think it's a bit of both, but to claim Javascript is an amazing language is very hard to swallow given all its design flaws, acknowledged by Javascript's creator himself.
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