Comments on: The 500 Pound Gorilla

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:51:45 +0000

Well not only do I write bad code, but it appears I picked the wrong picture for this post. I changed it to something a little less “disturbing”. For the curious, the original is here: http://www.scartech.net/wp-con.....orilla.jpg.

By: M.

M. — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:46:35 +0000

That picture is REALLY so sad and disturbing. Didn’t you think about the scene in that picture?

By: Jonathjan Hartley

Jonathjan Hartley — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:36:23 +0000

>> evolve asymptotically towards … “perfection”

That implies that after a while, one gets pretty close to perfection. I think that’s way over optimistic. Rather, we are all evolving asymptotically towards ‘rubbish’. We never get anywhere near perfection, except for the occasional few snippets of code in the world, a handful of lines, each honed by academics over the course of many weeks, months or years. Enough code to demonstrate a point – never enough to be a complete module, never mind an actual program. Most of us will never even write a single snippet of code that exceeds ‘rubbish’ in quality. The sooner you realize this, the better a software engineer you are. Everyone who hasn’t realized this yet is not just significantly worse than ‘rubbish’ – they are outrageously deluded about it to boot, and commensurately more dangerous.

By: Leo

Leo — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:12:09 +0000

The picture isn’t ugly. It’s sad.
I’ve been programming for more than 20 years. In my experience the gap between my code’s quality and perfection is narrowing (though never reaching zero), while at the same time my expectations are growing. So, while I’m making fewer mistakes now (by virtue of having made many) my tolerance for mistakes also becomes lower.
A few years ago I considered buggy code “bad”. Nowadays I also consider code “bad” that’s poorly documented, lacks consistent design, misuses useful paradigms or doesn’t follow my current coding style
My coding abilities evolve asymptotically towards what I consider “perfection”. There’s only so much you can achieve here. Eventually you reach a point where it doesn’t matter much anymore. Real growth is happening elsewhere.
I do not measure my ability as a programmer in “code quality” any longer. I measure it by the complexity of problems I can solve.
It’s the transition from mere handicraft to art.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:58:27 +0000

Its an unfortunate truth that the majority of programmers are too arrogant to admit this. Although its entirely understandable as you’d rarely get any profession being so frank about its own work. I think for anyone to develop though you need to rest ‘just south of arrogance’ and excercize an unbiased and critical review process for your own code.

Its not necessarily lack of ability that creates bad code but constraints such as time, workplace practices and environment issues too.

By: Ankur

Ankur — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:46:15 +0000

Remember the first code you wrote for a project … Why don’t you benchmark that against the code you wrote for your last project ? … Is there improvement … I have been working for a year now. I always no matter what have a opinion on how I can improve on what I just coded. Many a times I rewite too for worse. Like they say There is always room for improvement. Back to work now. The above pic is ugly.

By: McFinnigan

McFinnigan — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:41:46 +0000

the best part about the fact that everyone writes bad code is that other people’s bad code provides an excellent opportunity to learn how NOT to do it.

I’ve got 7 years of dev experience, an SCJD, and I still wouldn’t pay money for most of what I write

By: Somewhat Disturbed

Somewhat Disturbed — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:14:34 +0000

That’s an ugly picture – too ugly for what’s trying to be just an amusing illustration.