Re: Clause "with and use"

["Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@cogeco.ca>]

Marin David Condic wrote:

> It always "sounds reasonable" - but is it backed up with any *data*? I 
> believe the claim because it is reasonable, but obviously, there are 
> folks who think that "economy of expression" is the bees knees. Hence 
> the strong devotion to cryptic C programming. If you seek to persuade 
> that crowd, some data to back up the claim would help.
> 
> MDC

What I have observed here at least, is that while it has
been shown and demonstrated time and time again, that
such-and-such an engineering approach such as developing
readable and maintainable code is a good thing, you
still only hear the programmer say "I want X anyway".

The problem as I see it, is the programmer too often is
selfish in what HE wants, and so getting the job done
quickly and with the minimum effort, is the only noise
that you hear above the din.

Yet the END-OWNER of the software that is being
developed, has different goals, including
the cost of maintenance and readability (to save
time ($) for that next poor programmer that must
jump into the code).

The problem is that the programer usually is in the
position of making that choice -- not the end owner,
unless the owner has specific processes in place to
prevent otherwise.

THE GOOD THING ABOUT Ada, is that in large part, it
forces a more readable style on the code. As someone
else posted here, you don't see any Ada obfuscated
code contests given for Ada, although I am sure it
can be done ;-)

Where this division gets blurred is when the developer
and the owner are one: then the tendancy seems to be
to favour the developer, unless the developer is
well disciplined.

I personally think it is necessary to keep encouraging
the programmers to think about more than their own
convenience. This is what much of the += ballyhoo is
all about.
-- 
Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg