Pretend you have a really great programming day. You only have to attend a few meetings, have only a few off-topic conversations, don't get distracted or interrupted much, don't have to do a bunch of status or time reporting, and you put in a good six hours of serious programming [note: this RARELY happens in an 8-10 hour day]. I want to review your work in the morning, so I print out a diff of your day's work before going home. Sadly, overnight the version control system crashes and they have to recover from the previous day's backup. You have lost an entire day's work. If I give you the diff, how long will it take you to type the changes back into the code base and recover your six-hours' work? Programming is 11/12ths Thinking I've been touting this figure for some time now, and people keep asking me where the study is that produced such an odd number. Well, it's not pulled out of thin air and it's not the result of a thoro...
I get the intention of the post and, personally, sit in the clean code camp, however, this seems to be something of a question of morals and human nature....
ReplyDeleteHow many people /would/ ruin their employers car if they knew that the employer couldn't tell the difference between the car in each state (see where I'm going with this)?
Writing clean code takes a lot of care and effort. To care is a personal choice. Many people will choose not to care (especially if they know they can get away with it).
Two easy options, for employers, as I see it:
1. Learn how to recognise when your code is being ruined by your employees or...
2. Employ people who care enough not to ruin it.
Of course, it's also amazing how people will drag a muffler or a rear bumper, and how long they'll leave that broken headlight and cover.
ReplyDeleteMaybe cars are a little code-like.
If my employer's car was anything like the source code that I typically receive at the start of most projects he wouldn't be able to make it to work in the first place...
ReplyDelete