Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Hmm. I thought it was a fairly interesting (altho not astonishing)
> discussion of value versus code.  Far too many programmers think of
> programming outside the structures of business, capitalism, and so on.

Sorry.  Looking back, my comment sounded a lot more dismissive than I meant for
it to.  I just got sidetracked by some things that caught my attention very
quickly.  That's probably because I'm really not a programmer by trade,
although that ends up being most of what I do.  Yes, that's just asking for
trouble.

And this is a constant frustration, since the culture seems to be that it's
better to write and rewrite ugly code that works now than to write extensible
code.  For me, simple 'ugliness' is too one-dimensional.  Add all the comments
and organization you want, but write it in Fortran with modules, and the
reusability shrinks to zero.  Oh, and use whatever language you want because
all we care about is results.  I think this figure-it-out-for-yourself approach
to programming is a real problem for non-comp-sci majors.  It's wasted time for
people who won't need it, but the rest of the time the consequences can be
severe.  Not that I'm innocent either, but I do make an effort.

Assuming you fit into the professional programmer category, are you rewarded for
producing fast, effective results that meet requirements, or for well-written
code?  Not that they're mutually exclusive, but this ugly code has to come from
somewhere, and I can't imagine you're told to fix every mess you come across.  I
can see pressure from above promoting very poor practices that produce short
term gains and long term losses.

As a side note, the 'Refuctoring' link at the top is a good read.  "Job security
index = 1/maintainability."  Cute.

 - Ricky

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