On Wed, 2 May 2001, Frank Wales wrote:
> Thomas Green wrote:
> > You folk who do real programming, or at least associate with real
> > programmers (unlike me), what is your view of this?
>
> Well, I'm not sure what Derek means when he makes the statement:
>
> I am beginning to think that program understanding does not exist.
>
> since I don't see why we can't understand some programs. For example,
> hands up those who call themselves C programmers who don't understand
> this C program:
>
> main()
> {
> printf("Hello world.\n");
> }
[raises a hand]
> (Those with their hands in the air: you're fired.)
Awww, shoot. And I really needed that coding job too. Note: there is much left
implicit and up to the compiler's implementation in that program. There is
no indication as to whether or not this will compile to a void or integer
main, and what the printf will exactly do is fully unclear as well (it might
open a 'console window' to print text in, such as on a Macintosh, or it
might simply write to the screen, or it might use an open device file and
write to that) .
> Consequently, I have to assume that some interesting definition of
> 'understanding' is in use here. Perhaps if Derek could clarify what
> he means by his growing belief that program understanding doesn't
> exist, I'd be able to see what he's getting at.
What I think Derek is hinting at is that every programmer has a tendency to
actually understand only parts of the program and assume other parts will
behave properly. As anecdotal evidence: must bugs I encounter have to do
with assuming I understand what a piece of code does (and the assumptions
usually are quite reasonable) and finding out that assumption is wrong.
Even then I usually don't need to fully understand what's going on, just
what's going *wrong*.
Other than that there are obviously different levels of understanding. I
understand the way computers work on a general level, but I wouldn't say
I actually understand what the north bridge connecting my processor to the
memory bus and the south bridge does precisely.
Doei, Arthur.
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