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Great software engineers create/build software only as a last resort, once all other options have been exhausted. :)
by valenterry 6y ago
Great software engineers create/build software only as a last resort, once all other options have been exhausted. :)
- lolive 6y agoAnd they can feel in their flesh the entropy increase of each of their commits.
- quickthrower2 6y agoThis reminds me of the saying about don't expect someone to do something when their paycheck depends on doing the opposite. That said yes a great software engineer would be writing software BUT would have said no to a lot of other tasks, so that the task she is working on is vital and has a big impact.
- username90 6y agoNo they don't, writing new code is often cleaner and simpler than adding a library. Exactly when to do either is arguable, and picking the right choice requires skill. So always going the library route when possible means you aren't a great software engineer.
- valenterry 6y agoPlease read my post again. What I said comes way before the kind of decision that you mentioned.
- username90 6y agoWhat you said includes the decision I mentioned.
- valenterry 6y agoHm, I don't know where you got this idea from... I certainly didn't mean it like that.
- username90 6y agoThen write down what you mean, people aren't mind readers. However you will find it quite hard to write down what you mean in this case since your statement doesn't work even if you talk about other situations. Like should you hire a guy to manually set a field in new entries in the database every night instead of writing a short script to do it for you? That is a non code solution, so your answer would be yes. But I'd say no, that is a dumb solution. You could say "But don't follow this rule when it obviously does apply", then I say that figuring out when the rule applies and doesn't apply is a part of being a great software engineer. Short platitudes like what you wrote sounds great but are actually mostly nonsense.
- valenterry 6y agoI'll give you an example about how it can be interpreted: A good engineer stops unrealistic/bad ideas before they even reach a point where people start to think about how the idea could be carried out in detail.
- throwaheyy 6y agoThey might remove or rearrange code to accomplish something before ever getting to the point of adding new code. Adding to the ball of mud is often the easiest but not the best option.