Earlier quoted context omitted.
This has been happening over the last 100 years. That's why IQ tests need periodically recalibrated.
thing is, the curve remains the same. Fat in the middle.
But shifted right. This is good. Praise science.
Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
41–50 of 110 posts
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#42Lost me here: "Therefore, our true purpose is to express the intentions of our clients using as little code as reasonably possible, accompanied with lots of documentation and lots of tests (testing code and unit tests don't count as LOC). We should distrust every line of code written by ourselves as well as those written by others. The best code has 0 lines. Because in zero lines of code, there is room for exactly ze…
Less code does absolutely mean less bugs, in the majority of cases. Of course it is not an absolute rule and can be gamed, but simple logic dictates that since it is not possible to always write 100% bug free code, the more code one writes, the more chance there is to introduce bugs.
However I don't believe the statement was meant to be taken entirely literally.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#43Mediocracy or mediocrity?
I think he refers to the tyranny of popularity-based development.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#44Lost me here: "Therefore, our true purpose is to express the intentions of our clients using as little code as reasonably possible, accompanied with lots of documentation and lots of tests (testing code and unit tests don't count as LOC). We should distrust every line of code written by ourselves as well as those written by others. The best code has 0 lines. Because in zero lines of code, there is room for exactly ze…
Less code does absolutely mean less bugs, in the majority of cases . Of course it is not an absolute rule and can be gamed, but simple logic dictates that since it is not possible to always write 100% bug free code, the more code one writes, the more chance there is to introduce bugs. However I don't believe the statement was meant to be taken entirely literally.
Then why do I spend so much time fixing bugs in code where the concept was complicated to the nth degree so it could be written in five lines instead of ten?
I agree that fewer lines of code is better, unfortunately if you hold that concept in too high a regard it's easy to make a mess. Some programming challenges are complex and the complexity can't be avoided. Sometimes solving that problem in fewer lines of code makes the problem even more complex. Just because the complexity is moving from the code itself into the developers head doesn't NECESSARILY mean that it will be less prone to bugs.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
That depends on how you measure code. If you're talking lines or statements, sure, but if you're talking concepts then the code with fewer concepts expressed must necessarily have less opportunity for bugs, if the number of bugs per concept is held constant.
" The best code has 0 lines. Because in zero lines of code, there is room for exactly zero bugs." I read it as lines... I agree with what you're getting at, sometimes the concepts are a lot simpler and less prone to bugs when implemented in more lines of code.
"the only winning move is not to play"?
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#46These lines sound like a recipe for scope/feature creep and never ending development process. >Never do requirement analysis. Never write technical requirements or functional ones. If you do, you have already failed. In that case, how do you know when the software is finished and your contract has been fulfilled? >Creative solutions are often holistic in nature, driven by first-hand experience, discussion, interactio…
Right?
Never mind that thoughtfulness of design is a requirement to understanding complex distributed systems. And before we go off saying that few developers need to know how to program distributed systems consider that even a modern processor is a tiny distributed system.
This idea that genius will spout forth from the hands of the programmer in the spur of the moment is hogwash. If you believe this then let's make a wager. We'll pick a simple, standard algorithm. I'll give you the requirements, you implement it. I'll model your solution and run it in a model checker. I bet you that the checker will find an error in your implementation. Simple, right?
A colleague of mine did this to his students. They had to implement binary search. The majority of their solutions had bugs. These weren't under-grads.
Programming is hard because thinking is hard and we deserve the best tools we can find to help us think clearly and precisely. In the real-world we can always just add a fudge-factor to make up for our uncertainty while computers are infuriatingly discrete systems.
This flow of "thinking in code," is simple-minded ignorance. Think in code all you want. You won't be able to solve the hard problems that way. You'll just write sloppy code.
...
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#47Is the proper term "Manifesto"? A Manifest is a list of things included in something, like a bill of lading.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#48php developer talking about
"It does not matter how many people use framework X."
and
"Never do requirement analysis. Never write technical requirements or functional ones. If you do, you have already failed."
Trolling at its finest.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#49While very idealistic and beautiful in a way as all manifests tend to be, we (along the author) tend to forget certain truths - the middle of the gaussian curve is fattest; all natural distributions follow that curve, and developers are no exception. Most of us, by definition, are mediocre. There's nothing that can be done about it. We should not shun, but rather embrace that. Not by deluding ourselves that if we fol…
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Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#50While very idealistic and beautiful in a way as all manifests tend to be, we (along the author) tend to forget certain truths - the middle of the gaussian curve is fattest; all natural distributions follow that curve, and developers are no exception. Most of us, by definition, are mediocre. There's nothing that can be done about it. We should not shun, but rather embrace that. Not by deluding ourselves that if we fol…
Re-read the manifesto. You'll notice that its theme is not about a person's natural abilities or smarts, but self awareness. The manifesto can basically be boiled down to "show humility in your own code". Always assume that there is potential for improvement, and be ready for when that potential becomes a need.
It's about mindfulness towards our own product. "Mediocrity", in this case, is turning a blind eye towards our own limits. All people have the ability to overcome this form of mediocrity.