From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: Distinguishing type names from other identifiers
Date: 1998/01/18
Date: 1998-01-18T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <dewar.885126007@merv> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 69rnvv$gjr@drn.zippo.com
Nasser says
<<Otherwise, it becomes programming by committe, no one is responsible for
any thing going wrong, becuase no one owns the code. If one part of the
software is not working, one can't hold any person responsible, this seems
to me to allow lazy and bad programmers to ride on the shoulder of better
programmers.
>>
The trouble is that if your view is that one particular person is
*the* person responsible for fixing a bug if it occurs in unit X, then
what if that person is on vacation, or suddenly leaves the company.
Inevitably this kind of ownership discourages others from learning
that code, or fixing it, and, as you note, taking responsibility for it.
My ideal of a project is that everyone takes responsibility for everything,
and that every part of the system has more than one person knowing it
well enough to fix or modify things. Ideally testing procedures should
be set up to minimize the problem of introducing bugs into a system
but if someone *does* introduce a bug, then what should happen is that
they feel a strong sense of responsibility to the little community that
is the project they are involved in, and rush to fix the problem.
Furthermore, everyone needs to work together, so that if someone does
make a mistake, other people's reaction is to work to help sort it out,
rather than sit around being annoyed.
Creating a sense of community that achieves this ideal is not easy, but
it is definitely possible. Agreeing to a standard set of coding conventions
is just one element in acheiving this.
A good test for me is how the "owner" of unit A reacts if someone else
fixes a problem or makes a modification in unit A. All to often the
reaction is a defensive one ("what's this guy doing messing with my code?").
What you are aiming at is that the reaction is more like "great, thanks,
now I don't have to fix that bug myself".
Robert Dewar
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1998-01-18 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 69+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1998-01-13 0:00 Distinguishing type names from other identifiers Adam Beneschan
1998-01-14 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-15 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1998-01-15 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-01-16 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-16 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1998-01-16 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-16 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-17 0:00 ` nabbasi
1998-01-18 0:00 ` Robert Dewar [this message]
1998-01-18 0:00 ` who owns the code? was " nabbasi
1998-01-18 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-19 0:00 ` nabbasi
1998-01-19 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-20 0:00 ` Paul Van Bellinghen
1998-01-21 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-21 0:00 ` nabbasi
1998-01-22 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-21 0:00 ` nabbasi
1998-01-22 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-22 0:00 ` nabbasi
1998-01-26 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-20 0:00 ` Anonymous
1998-01-20 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
[not found] ` <69rnvv$ <dewar.885475174@me>
1998-01-23 0:00 ` James Hopper
1998-01-22 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
[not found] ` <6a8mir$caa@nn <dewar.8855 <6a8vgd$cr7@nntp1.erinet.com>
1998-01-23 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-23 0:00 ` Paul Van Bellinghen
1998-01-23 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-23 0:00 ` Richard Kenner
1998-01-23 0:00 ` James Hopper
[not found] ` <6a8mir$caa@nn <dewar.8855 <6a8vgd$cr7@nn <dewar.885555487@merv>
1998-01-24 0:00 ` James Hopper
1998-01-16 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-21 0:00 ` Philip Brashear
1998-01-20 0:00 ` Benoit Jauvin-Girard
1998-01-20 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-19 0:00 ` who owns the code? was " Anonymous
1998-01-19 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1998-01-25 0:00 tmoran
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-26 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-01-14 0:00 tmoran
1998-01-14 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-14 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-14 0:00 ` nabbasi
1998-01-15 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-10 0:00 Two simple language questions (plural types) Matthew Heaney
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Anonymous
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-13 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-13 0:00 ` Distinguishing type names from other identifiers Nick Roberts
1998-01-13 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-14 0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-15 0:00 ` Anonymous
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-15 0:00 ` Aaro Koskinen
1998-01-17 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-17 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
[not found] ` <n5rs5FAStOz0Ew2+@dowie-cs.demon.co.uk>
1998-01-26 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-27 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-27 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-27 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-29 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-30 0:00 ` Mats Weber
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
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