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My experience is that it takes a certain kind of twisted intelligence to write code that is below a certain level of quality, but still works. Someone like me
by lsc 11y ago
My experience is that it takes a certain kind of twisted intelligence to write code that is below a certain level of quality, but still works. Someone like me who is a mediocre programmer? if my code gets too terrible, it simply stops working. I'm forced to use some base level of software engineering if I want to write a large program that runs, just because there's a limit on how many random side effects I can keep track of.
From what I've seen when supporting EEs? People who are that much smarter than I am don't have this limitation. They can write thousands of lines of spaghetti perl and bash and as long as nobody touches the damn thing, it works fine. God help you, though, if you make a change.
But... there is an established job role for this; I mean, you don't want to make your EEs sysadmin their own LSF cluster, either.
- drjesusphd 11y ago> God help you, though, if you make a change. Or need to add functionality. Or, just wait a year.
- collyw 11y agoNope, its always below average programmers who don't seem especially smart, and who don't want to learn who produce the worst code in my opinion.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoThere's a difference between 'being smart' and 'being able to program well', and that difference is precisely why academic code has its reputation.
- lsc 11y agoMy observation is that to make a program run, a less intelligent person needs to organize that program better. But, intelligence is a controversial subject in and of itself, so I don't expect to see agreement.