On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 12:44 PM, Andrew Snow <[email protected]> wrote:
> But because you don't know the circumstances: > * the budget > * the deadlines > * politics > * promises and obligations > * vague scope > * creeping scope, etc > I think it unwise to pass judgment on the "previous guy", whether to the > client, or to your peers. > > I've been thinking about this for a while, as recently I've been subjected to a similar situation. Formerly I agreed 100% with the above, and haven't wanted to cast character judgements based on bad code, especially as it's often the result of somebody coming from Perl or PHP and having to learn RoR without help. However, I've seen several examples where the only explanation could be deliberate laziness or native lack of ability, not inexperience or pressure. I've met developers who, despite years of experience in a multitude of roles, can't understand the very basics of how to program in a consistent and maintainable manner. I've met other developers who are skilled (or have the potential to be) but approach every problem with a "let the next guy deal with it" attitude. What I've found separates these guys from the simply inexperienced or over-stressed is a signposting. A # TODO or # XXX goes a long way towards explaining the intent of 'bad' code and giving a future maintainer and understanding of why it's there and what will happen if it gets rewritten. -- Michael Pearson -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en.
