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I can't understate how important Steve McConnell's writings have been to my software career. Many years ago I was just a young developer completely immersed in
by trentnix 6y ago
I can't understate how important Steve McConnell's writings have been to my software career. Many years ago I was just a young developer completely immersed in tech and algorithms, but I was frustrated that the teams I was involved with weren't better at making software. Code Complete, Software Project Survival Guide, and his other writings really helped me appreciate how important craftsmanship, design, process, and forethought are to a project's success.
I've never been under the impression that he figured it all out on their own, or that they captured the end-all, be-all of how to make software. Some of the things he wrote about have evolved tremendously over the years. But I still get incredible value of revisiting those books and reinforcing better engineering practices and habits he evangelizes.
- Myto 6y agoYou mean overstate. For some reason, I've been noticing this mistake more and more lately.
- trentnix 6y agoYep. That's what I was thinking, but not what I wrote. Sincerely thanks for pointing that out.
- arduanika 6y agoMost of us couldn't care less. Or could we? I forget which.
- nocman 6y agoOK, I'll bite. :-D If you say you "couldn't care less" then you don't care at all, and that's what you are trying to point out (This is the correct version of the phrase, for how it is used in every case I can think of). Saying you "could care less", means you do care, at least a little (as Weird Al points out in the "Word Crimes" song). Again, in the places where I hear people use one of these phrases, they always mean they don't care at all, and are trying to emphasize that. Only "I couldn't care less" makes sense for that meaning.
- mindcrime 6y agoThat's all true, but I would argue that in practice, the colloquial meaning of "I could care less" and "I couldn't care less" have become the same through usage. Much in the same sense as how "literally" came to mean "figuratively" through misuse, to the point that at least some dictionaries now contain an entry for "literally" that refers to the sense here it mean "figuratively". #headexplode
- nocman 6y agoYeah, I figured that would be mentioned. I just personally don't agree that it's OK to say "well, everyone means 'empty' when they say 'full'". When the phrase you are using quite literally (hehe) means the opposite of what you mean, that's just abuse of the language. Unless, of course, you are trying to be sarcastic (which is never the case with saying "I could care less"). I feel the same way about literally/figuratively, and at least figuratively (hehe-2) roll my eyes on that one regularly.
- mindcrime 6y agoYeah, I hear ya. I'm definitely not happy with the current state of affairs myself. I'd like to think there can be some level of precision in our use of language. But sadly, the rest of the world don't seem to care what you and I think. :-(
- specialist 6y agoYa. I loved Code Complete v1. Loved it. Such a great snapshot of a period in time. Mostly, Code Complete is a model for how to think about thinking, a self examination, how to do introspection. A current superior example of this strategy is Dan Luu. IMHO.
- pbourke 6y agoDan’s writing is really informative. I also really admire the way that he uses Twitter. I’ll often see a recent tweet from him that is part of a long running topic thread that he appends to when he has something new to say.