Software Development as a Discovery Procedure
is almost complete.
Your comments are welcomed!
(And since rob got me all ssh'ed up and sh*t, his comments be especially welcomed!)
Libertarians, My Libertarians!
Cruel to be kind means that I love you . Because, while I think you are mistaken, your hearts are in the right place -- yes, even you, Silas -- unlike some people . This Breitbart fellow (discussed in the link above), by all appearances, deliberately doctored a video of Shirley Sherrod to make her remarks appear virulently racist, when they had, in fact, the opposite import. I heard that at a recent Austrian conference, some folks were talking about "Callahan's conservative turn." While that description is not entirely inaccurate, I must say that a lot of these people who today call themselves conservative give me the heebie-jeebies.
While I can not comment about anything Hayek has written since I've read none of it, I can comment about the writings of Alexander and Stroustrup as they were part of my formative years as a software developer. I once worked in a startup where the engineering manager was a smart guy with a lot of experience who brought the waterfall method to our shop. He had an analyst write a huge design document that we programmers were supposed to follow. "This document is the blueprint", he argued. We argued back, showed him some C++ code, gave him some books, and in the end he understood that the CODE WAS THE BLUEPRINT. Code is unique in this regard in that it is both the result of the development process, and the most accurate description of its design. I had another boss who asked us developers, "Do you want to write papers or do you want to write code?" Enough history. Gene's thesis, that writing code is a process of discovery, is absolutely accurate. It's quite the waste of time sit and think of every possible thing your code must do. You will fail to consider everything. Instead, do some basic planning, then start writing that blueprint, adjusting, learning, discovering as you go.
ReplyDeleteThe world is changing! rob and I agree on something!
DeleteMe too. Luckily we can be sure Murphy will not.
DeleteWell, apparently there is someone out there trying to make me look good ! They are way more articulate than me so I hope they continue to impersonate me on your blog.
DeleteFor what it worth - I do believe that that writing code is very much a process of discovery
Well, apparently there is someone out there trying to make me look good ! They are way more articulate than me so I hope they continue to impersonate me on your blog.
DeleteFor what it worth - I also believe that that writing code is very much a process of discovery.
Hi Rob! Yes, there are two of us here. I was hoping Gene would not notice but I think you've spilled the beans. Still, we can have a bit of fun leaving him guessing which is which.
Delete