Re: Thought this was funny

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@comcast.net>]

Ed Falis wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 00:36:47 GMT, Robert I. Eachus 
> <rieachus@comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>> Take that back!  I was making fun of ExtremeProgramming nutcases. ;-)

> Ah, but an Extreme Programming nutcase would have agreed with you, 
> saying "YAGNI!" (You Ain't Gonna' Need It!) when faced with that 
> construct.  He also would agree with your philosophy of developing your 
> unit tests as you design.  So, you must be careful, Grasshopper - you 
> might find yourself post-classified, like I have.

Come on, if they say YAGNI! they can't be XP nutcases.  The real 
nutcases would chastise you for not being prepared for fuzzy logic values:

if <boolean expression> >= Certainty
then
   ...
elsif <booolean expression> <= Unlikely
then
   ...
else -- uncertain cases.
   ...
end if;

That paragraph I wrote was an attempt to separate the Zen of XP, which 
is very good, from the nutcase version that tries to convert ethetics 
into moral laws.  Yes, there is a lot of good thinking in XP. However, I 
was recently looking at some books "how to" on XP in Barnes & Nobles 
that made me sick.  They tried to tell you what to do, not why you 
should do it, and to make absolutes out of what should be esthetic 
judgements.

I guess the charlatans have taken over XP as the latest fad.

Oh, and don't let anything I said about make you think I disagree with 
use of fuzzy logic in programming.  There are places where it is very 
useful.  But let's keep it where it belongs.  Please!

-- 
                                          Robert I. Eachus

"Quality is the Buddha. Quality is scientific reality. Quality is the 
goal of Art. It remains to work these concepts into a practical, 
down-to-earth context, and for this there is nothing more practical or 
down-to-earth than what I have been talking about all along...the repair 
of an old motorcycle."  -- from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle 
Maintenance by Robert Pirsig