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What does the word "Quality" mean?

4 points by cawel 18y ago

Xichekolas 18y ago
Been reading Zen and the Art lately Raganwald? Pretty sure Pirsig decided in the end that 'quality' could not be defined analytically. I'm sure Webster begs to differ, but I'll stick with Phaedrus on this one. I think quality, like art, is in the eye of the beholder. To some, it might mean robust code, to others, 'beautiful' code, to others, bug free, etc. If it was objective, then everyone could have agreed on it long ago.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
  'eye of the beholder' is a cop-out argument. In both art and code, there are objective differences between high-quality and poor-quality products. Leaving the definition of quality as merely a personal taste sidesteps the difficult yet rewarding issue of determining what those differences are. The old line was that "Jazz can't be taught, but somehow you have to learn it." Modern musical teaching and theory amply demonstrates that Jazz can be taught. It just took time for the pedagogical techniques to catch up with the modern practice. We may not yet have a complete definition of what makes Quality code, but that does not imply that no such definition can exist.
  - Goronmon 18y ago
    In both art and code, there are objective differences between high-quality and poor-quality products. The hard part isn't finding the differences between good and bad code. The hard part is finding differences between good code and average code. There is also a big difference between pointing out examples of quality code and being able to establish guidelines that lead to quality code. In other words, I do think that much of what determines "quality" code comes down to what aspects the person viewing the code believes are the most important.
cawel 18y ago
The same piece of code will have a different value from one owner to the other. Thus, since the definition of quality depends on the context, doesn't it make quality inherently subjective?
tjr 18y ago
Reminds me of: We are sponsoring an ongoing Quality Contest. The purpose is to constructively combine two facts of modern life: One, we are all expected to spend our working hours immersed in quality; and two, if you keep your boss immersed in quality, you will be free to finish your work. We therefore announce a technical essay contest. Each month, or whenever we feel like it, we will have a new contest. This month's challenge: define a technical specification for a database to inventory, manipulate, and analyze large quantities of quality. Entries are limited to a maximum of 100 words. ...from: http://www.byte.com/art/9704/sec16/art1.htm http://www.byte.com/art/9704/sec16/art1.htm

4 points by cawel 18y ago

Been reading Zen and the Art lately Raganwald? Pretty sure Pirsig decided in the end that 'quality' could not be defined analytically. I'm sure Webster begs to differ, but I'll stick with Phaedrus on this one. I think quality, like art, is in the eye of the beholder. To some, it might mean robust code, to others, 'beautiful' code, to others, bug free, etc. If it was objective, then everyone could have agreed on it long ago.

LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
'eye of the beholder' is a cop-out argument. In both art and code, there are objective differences between high-quality and poor-quality products. Leaving the definition of quality as merely a personal taste sidesteps the difficult yet rewarding issue of determining what those differences are. The old line was that "Jazz can't be taught, but somehow you have to learn it." Modern musical teaching and theory amply demonstrates that Jazz can be taught. It just took time for the pedagogical techniques to catch up with the modern practice. We may not yet have a complete definition of what makes Quality code, but that does not imply that no such definition can exist.
- Goronmon 18y ago
  In both art and code, there are objective differences between high-quality and poor-quality products. The hard part isn't finding the differences between good and bad code. The hard part is finding differences between good code and average code. There is also a big difference between pointing out examples of quality code and being able to establish guidelines that lead to quality code. In other words, I do think that much of what determines "quality" code comes down to what aspects the person viewing the code believes are the most important.

cawel 18y ago

The same piece of code will have a different value from one owner to the other. Thus, since the definition of quality depends on the context, doesn't it make quality inherently subjective?

tjr 18y ago

Reminds me of: We are sponsoring an ongoing Quality Contest. The purpose is to constructively combine two facts of modern life: One, we are all expected to spend our working hours immersed in quality; and two, if you keep your boss immersed in quality, you will be free to finish your work. We therefore announce a technical essay contest. Each month, or whenever we feel like it, we will have a new contest. This month's challenge: define a technical specification for a database to inventory, manipulate, and analyze large quantities of quality. Entries are limited to a maximum of 100 words. ...from: http://www.byte.com/art/9704/sec16/art1.htm http://www.byte.com/art/9704/sec16/art1.htm