4 ms·

It is tedious. It’s inefficient. Quality software usually is less important than working software.

maldeh 9y ago
Unless I'm misinterpreting the meaning of "usually" or "important", I find this comment a little bewildering in the context of the article.
- katastic 9y ago
  In the working world, what matters is you ship. The most beautiful code and best "game ever designed" means nothing if it doesn't ship. Additionally, in my years of working as a contractor, I can tell you that nearly 1 in 1,000 companies (+ or - 1) care about security. Management simply does not value it, and everyone already thinks your product "should have been done yesterday." The entire world runs on insecure products. From banks, to healthcare, to universities. I can list every one of those who has put admin credentials in a publicly, internet accessible text file. (But they'll do silly things like insanely unmemorizable passwords like 23ix2n5 that get written down as postit notes and as files on desktops, and disable RDP copy-and-paste but leave RDP hard drive support.) We're going to continue seeing these blunders day after day until people start going to jail for losing data.
  - digi_owl 9y ago
    Or stop treating programming like some grand joust...
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      We won't. Worse is better, remember? Especially when a typical company wants to be the first to quickly sell some shit product and then, maybe, they'll patch it for a while as they go along. Competitive pressures (and management fads, IMO - software market ain't that efficient yet) turned "good solution today > perfect solution next week" into "steaming pile of garbage today > good solution tomorrow". I guess this is fine for throwaway acquihire SaaS stuff, but it's becoming a serious problem for stuff that's meant to be widely used.
- emmelaich 9y ago
  Consider it descriptive rather than prescriptive.
InclinedPlane 9y ago
Can you think of any particular circumstances where quality would be of paramount importance? I'll wait.
- jdhendrickson 9y ago
  Pacemaker firmware comes to mind.
  - colejohnson66 9y ago
    You’d think: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/465k-patients-need-a-firmware-update-to-prevent-serious-pacemaker-hacks/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/465k-...
criddell 9y ago
I've been working in the same code base one way or another for more than 20 years now. Quality is underrated.

Unless I'm misinterpreting the meaning of "usually" or "important", I find this comment a little bewildering in the context of the article.

katastic 9y ago
In the working world, what matters is you ship. The most beautiful code and best "game ever designed" means nothing if it doesn't ship. Additionally, in my years of working as a contractor, I can tell you that nearly 1 in 1,000 companies (+ or - 1) care about security. Management simply does not value it, and everyone already thinks your product "should have been done yesterday." The entire world runs on insecure products. From banks, to healthcare, to universities. I can list every one of those who has put admin credentials in a publicly, internet accessible text file. (But they'll do silly things like insanely unmemorizable passwords like 23ix2n5 that get written down as postit notes and as files on desktops, and disable RDP copy-and-paste but leave RDP hard drive support.) We're going to continue seeing these blunders day after day until people start going to jail for losing data.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Or stop treating programming like some grand joust...
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    We won't. Worse is better, remember? Especially when a typical company wants to be the first to quickly sell some shit product and then, maybe, they'll patch it for a while as they go along. Competitive pressures (and management fads, IMO - software market ain't that efficient yet) turned "good solution today > perfect solution next week" into "steaming pile of garbage today > good solution tomorrow". I guess this is fine for throwaway acquihire SaaS stuff, but it's becoming a serious problem for stuff that's meant to be widely used.
emmelaich 9y ago
Consider it descriptive rather than prescriptive.

InclinedPlane 9y ago

Can you think of any particular circumstances where quality would be of paramount importance? I'll wait.

jdhendrickson 9y ago
Pacemaker firmware comes to mind.
- colejohnson66 9y ago
  You’d think: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/465k-patients-need-a-firmware-update-to-prevent-serious-pacemaker-hacks/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/465k-...

criddell 9y ago

I've been working in the same code base one way or another for more than 20 years now. Quality is underrated.