From: Alan Hohn <ahohn@mediaone.net>
Subject: Re: Programming: Art or Science? [was: MN]
Date: 1999/02/16
Date: 1999-02-16T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <36C9DB23.F1520DF7@mediaone.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 7acbfk$c0t@drn.newsguy.com
kevin@nospamworld.com wrote:
> Well, offcourse the software will be bad if the design is bad. (do you need
> to read a book to know that?)
>
I think you miss the main focus, which is that a bad design will prevent a good
programmer from writing good software, and that our good programmer cannot always
do his own design. The climate is one in which more than one person is working on
the software, and so the continuity of skill and style from person to person is not
guaranteed and must be controlled by engineering practices. You really need to read
Brooks' book; even the first chapter would open your eyes. He quite agrees with you
that for small projects, a single good programmer can do all the things you
mention, but for large projects which require an immense number of personnel, the
interaction between them is different in kind, not just different in magnitude, and
requires the kind of, yes, engineering, that I mentioned previously. Your
programmer who performs all aspects of software development is neither practical
for such projects or indicative of the industry.
Let me use the example of Linux to make my point. The architect, Linus Torvalds,
certainly did not do everything from architecture through testing. He did the
architecture, a lot of design, and the barest coding possible (and almost no
testing). His genius comes from being able to create an architecture which would
accept change. His ability to architect would transfer to any language, on any
platform.
> So, get off this 'coder' vs. 'designer' mentality. This is only created by
> those who have little clue about what software is all about. (Like authors
> of books on 'software engineering' who could not write a 2-lines program
> if their live depended on it)
Brooks was in charge of the OS/360 project; perhaps you've heard of it. I'm sure
you strongly believe that bad management can make a large software project fail;
isn't it a logical corollary that good management can also have an impact?
I'm quite distressed at your use of bluster in place of reasoned argument.
Alan
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-02-16 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 52+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1999-02-10 0:00 US-MN-Mpls >>> Ada Software Engineers <<< SDC
1999-02-10 0:00 ` Bob
1999-02-10 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-02-10 0:00 ` Dino Gianisis
1999-02-10 0:00 ` kevin
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Jerry Petrey
1999-02-11 0:00 ` kevin
1999-02-12 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-12 0:00 ` kevin
1999-02-12 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-13 0:00 ` Jerry van Dijk
1999-02-12 0:00 ` Gautier
1999-02-14 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-12 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-13 0:00 ` whiter5195
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Mike Silva
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-02-11 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Andrzej Lewandowski
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Mike Silva
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Dalen Kruse
1999-02-10 0:00 ` David Emery
1999-02-10 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-10 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-10 0:00 ` Jerry Petrey
1999-02-10 0:00 ` Paul Whittington
1999-02-10 0:00 ` Steve Doiel
[not found] ` <79v9f4$fe$1@remarq.com>
1999-02-11 0:00 ` fraser
1999-02-12 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-15 0:00 ` fraser
1999-02-15 0:00 ` Alan Hohn
1999-02-15 0:00 ` kevin
1999-02-16 0:00 ` Ada jobs & Programming: Art or Science? [was: MN] Alan Hohn
1999-02-16 0:00 ` kevin
1999-02-16 0:00 ` Alan Hohn [this message]
1999-02-17 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-17 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-18 0:00 ` Michael Stark
1999-02-18 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-17 0:00 ` Jerry van Dijk
1999-02-16 0:00 ` US-MN-Mpls >>> Ada Software Engineers <<< Scott Ingram
1999-02-16 0:00 ` Tom Moran
1999-02-16 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-16 0:00 ` What Ada's used for (was: US-MN-Mpls >>> Ada Software Engineers <<<) dennison
1999-02-11 0:00 ` US-MN-Mpls >>> Ada Software Engineers <<< fraser
1999-02-10 0:00 ` Steve O'Neill
1999-02-10 0:00 ` bkwposx
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Tom Moran
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Dr Steve Sangwine
1999-02-11 0:00 ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1999-02-12 0:00 ` Gautier
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