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Distractions doesn't cause bad code, poor system design experience causes bad code. Programming is like any activity, once you're good at it, you can do it whi
by segmondy 8y ago
Distractions doesn't cause bad code, poor system design experience causes bad code. Programming is like any activity, once you're good at it, you can do it while doing other things. You can code while listening to music, watching a movie, talking on the phone. Provided you know what you're doing. If you have poor system design experience and have no framework for your current task, and you're pretty much experimenting, then you will easily fail especially when distracted, without noticing you're on the wrong path. However, if you have a unit of work to do, and a known framework to map it to, distraction won't cause you to lose sight of your goal, sure you might have a typo or even an incorrect logical cause, but I argue that those are minor and not bad code but mere and easy to fix mistakes.
Bad code is code that looks like good code, works, but is really bad because of poor design. Begins to show itself for what it is once it's time to modify and maintain it.
- rijoja 8y agoSure that's true if you're a code monkey stamping out CRUD apps all week long, if you're trying to push yourself to the limit. Imagine you're writing an exam in something you really really pushed yourself to learn in a highly competitive field, would you feel your tuition money would have to be well spent if you had to write said exam in an open office solution shared with loud sales people?
- dasmoth 8y agoOkay, this is probably generalising a little bit but if a programming task doesn’t contain at least some element of “pretty much experimenting”, shouldn’t you be looking at existing tools or libraries? (The nature of the experimentation varies, and might be more in the domain of design/UX than technology —- but even so...)
- some_account 8y agoThis is not true when you are writing code you haven't tried before. It's true for html, Css, devops stuff. Or if you are trying to come up with an algorithm that is complex. Doing that in open office is impossible for me.
- dasmoth 8y agoUnless you’re just reproducing a high fidelity mock-up from a designer, HTML/CSS work absolutely can include experimentation. And I’d argue that this is pretty important if you want web apps that are at all pleasant to use.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- commandlinefan 8y agoWell, not to put words in your mouth, but maybe to put words in my bosses mouth, you can say that, “if you were smart, you’d be able to program in a distraction-filled environment, and you can’t (at least not as effectively as otherwise), therefore you must be stupid”. I get that sentiment, and hey, maybe I am just stupid. But I also have an MSCS and a high GPA and two and a half decades of experience. That doesn’t make me smart by any means, but any form of filtering you’re doing on job candidates is one I’m going to pass with flying colors - so you had better be prepared to end up hiring an army of people about as stupid as me.