On Aug 24, 9:05 pm, Hugh Aguilar <hughaguila...@yahoo.com> wrote: > What about using what I learned to write programs that work? > Does that count for anything?
It obviously counts, but it's not the only thing that matters. Where I'm employed, I am currently managing a set of code that "works" but the quality of that code is poor. The previous programmer suffered from a bad case of cut-and-paste programming mixed with a unsophisticated use of the language. The result is that this code that "works" is a maintenance nightmare, has poor performance, wastes memory, and is very brittle. The high level of coupling between code means that when you change virtually anything, it invariably breaks something else. And then you have the issue of the programmer thinking the code "works" but it doesn't actually meet the needs of the customer. The same code I'm talking about has a feature where you can pass message over the network and have the value you pass configure a parameter. It "works" fine, but it's not what the customer wants. The customer wants to be able to bump the value up and down, not set it to an absolute value. So does the code "work"? Depends on the definition of "work." In my experience, there are a class of software developers who care only that their code "works" (or more likely, *appears* to work) and think that is the gold standard. It's an attitude that easy for hobbyists to take, but not one that serious professionals can afford to have. A hobbyist can freely spend hours hacking away and having a grand time writing code. Professionals are paid for their efforts, and that means that *someone* is spending both time and money on the effort. A professional who cares only about slamming out code that "works" is invariably merely moving the cost of maintaining and extending the code to someone else. It becomes a hidden cost, but why do they care... it isn't here and now, and probably won't be their problem. > If I don't have a professor to pat me on the back, will my > programs stop working? What a low bar you set for yourself. Does efficiency, clarity, maintainability, extensibility, and elegance not matter to you? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
