From: Jakob Engblom <engblojb@tick.infomatik.uni-stuttgart.de>
Subject: Re: software engineering and the notion of authorship
Date: 1996/07/08
Date: 1996-07-08T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <31E0CF36.FDC@tick.infomatik.uni-stuttgart.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 4rjhv6$ilu@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU
Fergus Henderson wrote:
>
> In comp.lang.ada, dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:
>
> >To me this "ego-centered" style of programming is deadly. It promotes a
> >situation where in a big project code is owned by individuals.
Ego-less programming is absolutely necessary to produce large functioning
software. Or at least to maintain it later.
> If there is a problem
> in a particular piece of code, it makes sense for the expert on
> that subsystem to be the one to fix it. They'll be able to do
> it quicker, and with less likelyhood of error, than someone who
> is not an expert on that subsystem.
Yeah, but the real problem comes 10 years down the road, when the experts
have quit or died or moved to other projects and plain do not remember the
wonderfully complicated code they created back in '96...
Using a "just complicated enough to do the job", "ego-less" programming style,
makes it much easier for the new maintenance developer working with the
program in 2006... the savings in the long run far outweigh the lack of
"personal style" in the code.
> >in the GNAT project ... You absolutely cannot tell
> >who wrote code from its style, and indeed we strongly discourage the notion
> >of authorship (we never for example attach names to units). Sure in practice
> >certain people know certain code well and our informally the experts in
> >particular areas, but if you look at the revision histories, you will see
> >that all sorts of people work in all parts of the system.
!!!! SUPEr!!!!!
Only in software do we even think of accepting personal style like... it would
be quite devastating in any other industry if an engineer insisted on using
left-handed instead of right-handed bolts "because I feel creative today"..
things have to fit together, and TEAM WORK is the essential part of any
programming project.
/jakob
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jakob Engblom. Computer Science Student @ Uppsala University, Sweden
presently an ERASMUS exchange student in Stuttgart, Germany
email Uppsala: jakob@docs.uu.se
email Stuttgart: engblojb@tick.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
homepage: http://www.csd.uu.se/~jakob
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1996-07-08 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 84+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1996-06-21 0:00 Language Choice and Coding style Nasser Abbasi
1996-06-21 0:00 ` David Emery
1996-06-21 0:00 ` Louis Tribble
1996-06-21 0:00 ` Jerry van Dijk
1996-06-24 0:00 ` Adam Beneschan
1996-06-21 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-06-24 0:00 ` Dr. John B. Matthews
1996-06-21 0:00 ` The Amorphous Mass
1996-06-23 0:00 ` mfinney
1996-06-23 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-06-26 0:00 ` mfinney
1996-06-23 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-06-27 0:00 ` Adam Beneschan
1996-06-28 0:00 ` Peter Hermann
1996-06-28 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1996-06-29 0:00 ` Samuel Mize
1996-06-29 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-07-04 0:00 ` Peter Hermann
1996-07-04 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-07-05 0:00 ` software engineering and the notion of authorship Fergus Henderson
1996-07-08 0:00 ` Peter Hermann
1996-07-08 0:00 ` Jakob Engblom [this message]
1996-07-08 0:00 ` The Amorphous Mass
1996-07-08 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-07-08 0:00 ` John Byerly
1996-07-08 0:00 ` Fergus Henderson
1996-07-09 0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1996-07-09 0:00 ` Fergus Henderson
1996-07-11 0:00 ` Paul Eggert
1996-07-15 0:00 ` Ralph Silverman
1996-07-15 0:00 ` Fergus Henderson
1996-07-17 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-07-19 0:00 ` Mike Curtis
1996-07-05 0:00 ` Language Choice and Coding style John McCabe
1996-07-04 0:00 ` Dan Evens
1996-07-04 0:00 ` John McCabe
1996-07-02 0:00 ` John McCabe
1996-07-02 0:00 ` Samuel Mize
1996-07-03 0:00 ` John McCabe
1996-07-03 0:00 ` Jeff Dege
1996-07-03 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-07-04 0:00 ` John McCabe
1996-07-04 0:00 ` Phil Howard
1996-07-04 0:00 ` Peter Hermann
1996-06-28 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-07-02 0:00 ` John McCabe
1996-06-28 0:00 ` John McCabe
1996-07-06 0:00 ` Laurent Guerby
1996-07-19 0:00 ` software engineering and the notion of authorship Andrew Gierth
1996-06-27 0:00 ` Language Choice and Coding style The Amorphous Mass
1996-06-21 0:00 ` Giuliano Carlini
1996-06-21 0:00 ` David Weller
1996-06-23 0:00 ` Darin Johnson
[not found] ` <4qeu56$52r@news.interpath.net>
1996-06-23 0:00 ` Nasser Abbasi
1996-06-24 0:00 ` Andreas Schoter
1996-06-24 0:00 ` John McCabe
1996-06-24 0:00 ` Adam Beneschan
1996-06-24 0:00 ` Peter Hermann
1996-07-01 0:00 ` Alan Brain
1996-07-02 0:00 ` John McCabe
1996-06-26 0:00 ` Nasser Abbasi
1996-06-26 0:00 ` Ian Ward
1996-06-24 0:00 ` Michael R. Hartwig
1996-06-24 0:00 ` Theodore E. Dennison
1996-06-29 0:00 ` Samuel Mize
1996-07-01 0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1996-07-02 0:00 ` Samuel Mize
1996-07-03 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-07-08 0:00 ` ++ robin
1996-06-29 0:00 ` Rich Maggio
[not found] ` <JSA.96Jun26141502@organon.com>
1996-07-01 0:00 ` Russel A Hill
1996-07-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-07-08 0:00 ` Russel A Hill
1996-07-02 0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1996-07-02 0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1996-07-03 0:00 ` Mark Eichin
1996-07-02 0:00 ` Nasser Abbasi
1996-07-03 0:00 ` steidl
1996-07-05 0:00 ` Samuel Mize
1996-07-06 0:00 ` N. L. Sizemore
1996-07-08 0:00 ` steidl
[not found] <01BB6E34.8313FAA0@idc213.rb.icl.co.uk>
1996-07-10 0:00 ` software engineering and the notion of authorship Robert Dewar
1996-07-10 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-07-11 0:00 ` Hugh Dunne
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