Comments on: Bounty Hunters

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:35:12 +0000

You work in a very small environment, because most work is done under unrealistic time pressures with the time eaten up in contract negotiation and the project given to the IT department almost at the last minute. There has been an attitude for too long to get something out there and we’ll fix it when the bug reports start coming back. There seems to be plenty of time to fix things, but not enough time to do it right.

By: whig

whig — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 07:54:28 +0000

I tend to design bottom-up, as needed. I’m not a flow charts guy. OOP and CASE are two separate things. I’m mainly procedural but I can handle objects fine, and event-driven architectures are absolutely better than polling. To do this well requires threads. Good design begins with choosing the right language and tools for your project.

I haven’t worked for an employer in a long long time. I do occasional projects, and they are mine to do, so I don’t have to deal with incompetent programmers. I can’t work well with them, because they are too much of a hindrance and slow me down more than help.

Give me a couple or three really good programmers, though, and it’s pretty cool to bounce off one another.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:44:49 +0000

Designs? You’ve worked somewhere that allows designs? In most shops you’re lucky if they can provide you with a cogent description of what the customer wants.

I always felt guilty teaching students the way software is supposed to be created, knowing the reality that awaited them.

In too many places today they think you are slacking off if you aren’t typing code. They want things created on the fly and too much software shows the effects. The rumor is that OOP has eliminated the need to plan and design a solution – you simply drag and drop modules.

By: whig

whig — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:01:35 +0000

If one person designs and codes, there is no excuse for bugs.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:28:06 +0000

I’ve had more than a few “features” over the years, but I’ve never released anything with actual bugs in it. The “bugs” that users found were generally issues that were never discussed when the contract was written.

By: whig

whig — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:09:14 +0000

Inoptimal code? Sure. All the time.

By: whig

whig — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:07:36 +0000

Steve Bates, maybe that’s my problem. I never had bugs.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:29:42 +0000

Whig, there isn’t enough paper in the world to contain what I think about “cost plus” contracts and their theft from the Treasury.

Oh, yeah, Steve, that would really lead to a success programming effort 😈

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:10:53 +0000

I remember a Dilbert cartoon in which the boss offered a bonus to programmers for each bug found and fixed…

By: whig

whig — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 06:08:38 +0000

And if you pay military contractors based on their cost plus…