[Pdx-pm] Software development and The Rules

[lemming at attbi.com]

--- Ovid <poec at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Joe Oppegaard <joe at joppegaard.com> wrote:
>> It seems like 75% of the software developers out
>> there don't follow The Rules 
>> (or know why they are breaking them), at least this
>> would be the assumption to make after reading books
>> like The Pragmatic Programmer, The Practice of
>> Programming, or just hearing people talk about their
>> peers at work. 

There is some truth to that, but some of it is just that
everyone has their own way of doing things.  As
someone else pointed out, a lot of managers don't
really go for mentoring and just tell their programmers
to get it done.  There might be a coding standards
document, but it's usually a horribly long obtuse
piece of work that no one including the manager has
even read.
The worst program I ever had to look at was a SMTP
program that was written by someone who had never dealt
with SMTP before and it was his first programming
project. Naturally, I was the one who inherited that
code a couple years later.  (We did find a quick and
easy replacement for it...)

>> As I've never had a job as a software developer, I
>> don't know how true that assumption is. Is it one of
>> those wonders of society where everyone Knows they 
>> are good, yet they also Know most everyone else is
>> sub-par? (ie. driving).  

I've dealt with both.  The ones who don't think they
have anything to learn are the dangerous ones.

> I met a software developer who admitted that she was
> a rotten programmer, but she's the only one I've ever
> heard say that.  Most programmers have this idea that
> because their software works, they're good. 
> Unfortunately, other considerations apply.  

<examples snipped> Though good, I consider them
experience lessons.

> Incidentally, most programmers that I have
> encountered are awful.  By being willing to learn
> what constitutes good programming, a person can
> definitely improve dramatically in relation to
> others.

I agree.  It's a balancing act as well between speed
of coding, maintainability, personal style,
and robustness.

-Mark