Comments on: Programming lamentations to learn from

By: Garfunkalow

Garfunkalow — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:36:14 +0000

I tend to like TDD.In the agile environment, write only what will pass for the task. Granted, the next task might take you in a different direction thus negating the code just written. TDD tends to get the job done with only the code you need.

By: Eric Wendelin

Eric Wendelin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:52:56 +0000

You’re misunderstanding the post. I’m listing things to avoid here, not things you should do.

Please read the text under the headings to see what I mean.

By: RickM

RickM — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:16:01 +0000

Eric, I like your post and your well designed blog. The dragon graphic is really cool.

However, I disagree with “Stick to what you know”. I being a computer scientist or software engineer means that you must be prepared to learn what is necessary to get the job done. Being able to pick up and become proficient with new tools quickly is one of the marks of an excellent developer.

By: Ivan

Ivan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:23:10 +0000

everytime you exceed 80 chars on a line god kills a kitten.

By: Eric Wendelin

Eric Wendelin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:01:26 +0000

No kidding. Perl is powerful but totally unreadable. You could probably rip a hole in the universe with the right line of Perl code.

By: Mark Sanborn

Mark Sanborn — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:54:52 +0000

I think perl by default is considered “clever code”. I never know what is going on looking back at it. :P

By: Eric Wendelin

Eric Wendelin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:07:05 +0000

Yes I totally agree. I’ve seen some of my old code that took me way too long to figure out. No more of that!

By: Luciano

Luciano — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:28:10 +0000

In response to your first point, I have the following quote posted over my desk:

“Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.” – Brian Kernighan

I think it tailors nicely to your point about people needing to maintain the code. I know that I’ve looked at code I wrote over a year ago and gone “What was I thinking?”. Don’t only write code simply and cleanly for the person who comes after you, but for yourself.