36 ms·

Bravo to Ms Thomson for championing this kind of thinking. I also like her choice of languages -- m4! Still I wish the write-up spelled out her thinking more.

Bravo to Ms Thomson for championing this kind of thinking. I also like her choice of languages -- m4! Still I wish the write-up spelled out her thinking more. I think her two examples are supposed to be positive here-is-how-you do it cases. But then she immeditaely says they could be better, and even points out a serious problem with the second example. The biggest thing though is culture and process: it's great to have style for leaving comments to your co-workers about restrictions and guarantees. But in the wrong work environment, those comments will be ignored. What I want to know is how to build the right environment.

pklausler 10y ago
> But in the wrong work environment, those comments will be ignored. What I want to know is how to build the right environment. Hiring the right people is the hard part. Or (better) not hiring the wrong people.
ktRolster 10y ago
We are all born not knowing how to program. We were all lousy programmers at one time. We can all learn to do better. Teach your coworkers.
- adrianratnapala 10y ago
  All of my co-workers are good programmers. But some are good programmers who care about invariants and others are good programmers who will trample invariants to get this week's feature done. I think it is really a matter of process. E.g. code reviews. But I don't yet know how to strike the balance between rigour and efficiency.
  - ktRolster 10y ago
    others are good programmers who will trample invariants to get this week's feature done. That doesn't sound like good programmers tbh
ktRolster 10y ago
I think her two examples are supposed to be positive here-is-how-you do it cases. But then she immeditaely says they could be better, and even points out a serious problem with the second example. I did it that way to help get people into the habit of immediately looking at their code after they write it and see if there is anything that can be improved :)

pklausler 10y ago

> But in the wrong work environment, those comments will be ignored. What I want to know is how to build the right environment. Hiring the right people is the hard part. Or (better) not hiring the wrong people.

ktRolster 10y ago

We are all born not knowing how to program. We were all lousy programmers at one time. We can all learn to do better. Teach your coworkers.

adrianratnapala 10y ago
All of my co-workers are good programmers. But some are good programmers who care about invariants and others are good programmers who will trample invariants to get this week's feature done. I think it is really a matter of process. E.g. code reviews. But I don't yet know how to strike the balance between rigour and efficiency.
- ktRolster 10y ago
  others are good programmers who will trample invariants to get this week's feature done. That doesn't sound like good programmers tbh

ktRolster 10y ago

I think her two examples are supposed to be positive here-is-how-you do it cases. But then she immeditaely says they could be better, and even points out a serious problem with the second example. I did it that way to help get people into the habit of immediately looking at their code after they write it and see if there is anything that can be improved :)