How terrible code gets written by sane people
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Re: How terrible code gets written by sane people
#2>porting an old Python codebase to Node
Node is how.
Re: How terrible code gets written by sane people
#3I was specially chosen by God and given divine intellect to become His avatar for the divine code of TempleOS. It is divine intellect written by God himself.
God says... gloried idiom's welfare's contraband carnally urchins clear's activity stalemating depressing subconsciously intentionally verbs distinguishable staunching Mooney's spanking speculate omnivore Fassbinder Ophelia vehicles kidnapping fresher mammograms kneeling exiting minuscule daydreamer's Chickasaw mattresses torpidity
Re: How terrible code gets written by sane people
#4All good examples (such as excessive importance to deadlines, a big no-no).
My question: can they be truly good programmers of they write bad code? Isn't the essential product of a programmer SLOC and functionality via software? And if they do that in a manner inferior to another dev, isn't that objectively a measure of inferiority in their craft?
I've met far too many 'good' programmers who were a net detriment to a project not to be wary of the term.
Re: How terrible code gets written by sane people
#5All good examples (such as excessive importance to deadlines, a big no-no). My question: can they be truly good programmers of they write bad code? Isn't the essential product of a programmer SLOC and functionality via software? And if they do that in a manner inferior to another dev, isn't that objectively a measure of inferiority in their craft? I've met far too many 'good' programmers who were a net detriment to a…
Under insufficient time constraints, a good developer will either produce bad code or no code at all (he will resign from the company). This is extremely common. The stuff the author said about too much emphasis on deadlines is spot-on.
Some developers who code really fast might appear like they're being extremely productive but behind the scenes, you end up having a whole team of developers who are just fixing that developer's bugs.
For example, if a lead developer doesn't choose the right framework or plan/design the API correctly, then the consequences of that will keep piling up over time.
It's really easy to put the blame on people who are doing the 'small work' but in reality, they might be doing the best work possible under the terrible constraints imposed on them.
Re: How terrible code gets written by sane people
#6a good programmer should be able to identify bad companies to work for, which could solve many of the issues displayed in the article.
it's much like choosing a good life partner - choosing a good life partner (instead of a crazy one) will save you from many troubles that you would encounter if you married the wrong person in the first place.
ps: i need to tell this more to myself. i already made bad choices regarding where i work, which forced me to quit those jobs at the end..
(edit: spacing)
Re: How terrible code gets written by sane people
#7Focusing on poor metrics such as “issues closed” or “commits per day”
I once worked at a company that used an offshore company to work on certain modules of a large project. They would commit code that my team would have to then code review. We'd see things like large IF-ELSE blocks with minor differences among the conditions (sometimes just one char). I know everyone hates this.
Turns out their internal metric was lines of code per day, so they'd bloat the shit out of everything.
Re: How terrible code gets written by sane people
#8This is a fucking arrogant article. I would love to see this blogger try to maintain a large codebase after several development cycles in the real world. To come into someone else's codebase that has umpteen number of iterations and tough business realities like trying to make money, and proclaiming that it's terrible code and how he would fix it, is delusional and self-aggrandizing.
Most production code needs to be revamped every few years because the subsequent unforeseen functionalities that was forced by product managers and customers. That code is usually going against the grain of the original code but you can't blame the original designers because it was never spec'ed out. The best code is the code that is easiest to manipulate and modify, but even then it gets old and needs a rewrite. There's nothing wrong with that, except thinking you can comment on the shitty code and thinking your above it and how you would never let it happen.
Re: How terrible code gets written by sane people
#9This is a fucking arrogant article. I would love to see this blogger try to maintain a large codebase after several development cycles in the real world. To come into someone else's codebase that has umpteen number of iterations and tough business realities like trying to make money, and proclaiming that it's terrible code and how he would fix it, is delusional and self-aggrandizing. Most production code needs to be…
> The best code is the code that is easiest to manipulate and modify
this great (IMO) article comes to mind: http://programmingisterrible.com/post/139222674273/write-cod... :
"Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend"
Re: How terrible code gets written by sane people
#10This is a fucking arrogant article. I would love to see this blogger try to maintain a large codebase after several development cycles in the real world. To come into someone else's codebase that has umpteen number of iterations and tough business realities like trying to make money, and proclaiming that it's terrible code and how he would fix it, is delusional and self-aggrandizing. Most production code needs to be…
> To come into someone else's codebase that has umpteen number of iterations and tough business realities like trying to make money, and proclaiming that it's terrible code and how he would fix it, is delusional and self-aggrandizing.
And yet that is exactly the reality one faces in such projects (because the only valid code metric is "WTFs/minute" [1]. Point is, I've never heard anybody complaining about arrogance until now - usually the devs are very well aware where and how their code sucks and they usually are overly apologetic even though I understand the constraints the code was written under (some of which you described).
