Re: [Nolug] Crappy Perl Code

On Sun, 2003-07-13 at 18:40, Joey Kelly wrote:
> Thou spake:
> >On Sun, 2003-07-13 at 15:03, Joey Kelly wrote:
> >> Thou spake:
>
> <snip>
>
> >
> >It's possible to write great, powerful s/w that doesn't have to be
> >for someone with "average" (how's that for a subjective word?) skill
> >to understand with only moderate effort.
>
> I'll say this (has anyone mentioned this yet?), good comments go a long way
> toward helping the next guy know what you're trying to accomplish with a
> section of code.

Yeah, but they get out-dated soooo quickly in actively updated code.
Hand in glove with "intelligent but not clever" programming is decent
variable names, clear design and enough modularity that the arcane
stuff is pushed to the edges where it can be documented and is
less likely to get broken by maintenance changes.
The short phrase for that paragraph is "self-documenting code".

All that is theory, of course, and it's a test of "goodness" (in
project management as well as programming) as to how well it can
be implemented.

Of course, a week before the s/w is supposed to go live, when the
customer says "we just merged with another company, and you now
must integrate their system, and you have 2 weeks", and your bosses
bend over, grab their ankles, and cancel your vacation, all that
theory goes out the window and you get the damned s/w working any
way you can as quickly as you can so you can stop working 12 hour
days and go on vacation.

-- 
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| Ron Johnson, Jr.     Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net          |
| Jefferson, LA  USA   http://members.cox.net/ron.l.johnson |
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