From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: david@kdbarto.org (David) Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2017 13:09:30 -0700 Subject: [TUHS] really Pottering vs UNIX In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <36EA6EA0-D292-4042-A2B0-AC370DA930E8@kdbarto.org> On Sep 15, 2017, at 1:32 AM, tuhs-request at minnie.tuhs.org wrote: > > From: "Steve Johnson" > To: "Dan Cross" , "Bakul Shah" > Cc: "TUHS main list" > Subject: Re: [TUHS] really Pottering vs UNIX > Message-ID: > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > > > More to do with a sense for quality. Often developed through > experience > (but not just that). I think what we need is a guild system for > programmers/engineers. Being an apprentice of a master craftsman is > essential for learning this "good taste" as you call it. > > Back when I was writing FORTRAN, I was > working for a guy with very high standards who read my code and got me > to comment or, more usually, rewrite all the obscure things I did. > He made the point that a good program never dies, and many people > will read it and modify it and try to understand it, and it's almost a > professional duty to make sure that you make this as easy as possible > for them. > When I taught at UCSD I always made it a point to inform the students that the person who will be maintaining their programs in the future will all be reformed axe murderers. These nice folks learned C (at the time) on MS-DOS 3.1 and weren’t as homicidal as they used to be. They would however be given your home address and phone number in case they had questions about your code. It was always good for a laugh and I went on to explain how code outlives the author and so you should take care to make it easy for someone else to work on your code. The other thing I did was to have students give their programs half way through the project to a randomly chosen (by me) other student. They were not allowed to assist the recipient and grades were based on how well the final program met the requirements given at the beginning of the project. Code quality went way up on the second project compared to the first. David