From: tytso at mit.edu (Theodore Y. Ts'o)
Subject: [COFF] [SPAM] Re: [TUHS] Algol 68 and Unix (was cron and at ...)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2020 12:41:58 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <X9zp5pKz9cKQrc64@mit.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20201218144332.GH13368@mcvoy.com>
On Fri, Dec 18, 2020 at 06:43:32AM -0800, Larry McVoy wrote:
> Source management to the rescue. I hired an extremely smart guy (he
> reads papers on string theory, the physics ones, for fun). Taught him
> how to use our tools. Gave him a bug to fix. He looks at the source
> file and goes "This is crap, I'm gonna rewrite it so it is clean".
> Then remembers I showed him how he could see how the file evolved.
> So he looks at the first version of the file. It is *exactly* what he
> was going to write. Huh. He starts going through the history. Oh,
> this wart is for IRIX. This wart is for windows 2000 that reuses PIDs
> right away. This wart is for NFS. Etc.
>
> In the end, he added another wart to fix the bug and left the file alone.
> I did say he was smart.
....and this is why when I do code reviews, I'm asking for
improvements in the commit (or CL) description at least as much as I
am pointing out issues in the code itself. In some cases, when the
contributor is someone for whom English is not their first language,
I'll end up rewriting the commit description as well. Code archeology
is *definitely* a powerful tool, but this relies on the source control
metadata is sufficiently rich; in some cases, having links to bug
trackers or mailing list discussions are super-useful.
- Ted
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2020-12-18 17:41 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <CAKH6PiVLgdPVEGvGfyVAwNMz66=0huVyvRY90E+PduwG4ssVRQ@mail.gmail.com>
[not found] ` <0EA02917-243E-4612-9F7E-D370EE0A7C2E@ronnatalie.com>
[not found] ` <20201217143558.GD13268@mcvoy.com>
2020-12-17 15:22 ` [COFF] " clemc
2020-12-17 15:50 ` [COFF] [SPAM] " lm
2020-12-17 17:57 ` imp
2020-12-17 18:00 ` lm
2020-12-17 18:30 ` [COFF] "
2020-12-17 21:10 ` [COFF] [SPAM] " clemc
2020-12-18 14:43 ` lm
2020-12-18 15:46 ` clemc
2020-12-18 17:41 ` tytso [this message]
2020-12-18 19:24 ` [COFF] " lm
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=X9zp5pKz9cKQrc64@mit.edu \
--to=coff@minnie.tuhs.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).