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3:21:03
beach
I find it interesting that so many Common Lisp newbies seem to have no clue about code being used to communicate between the author and the maintainer, even though some of them claim to be experienced programmers.
3:21:08
beach
I mean, these are fundamental concepts of software engineering. I can see how they would be unknown to people who are new to programming in general, but not to experienced programmers.
3:21:09
beach
So maybe these people just overestimate their experience? Or maybe they have just programmed for a long time, but they have no real training or experience in real software development?
3:23:22
beach
Even more fascinating to me is that some of these people then have the audacity to protest that these concepts don't exist, rather than the humility to listen and learn.
3:23:27
hayley
I got the excuse that software engineering is different (by magic) if you aren't working in a large software corporation. But, as I said yesterday, one would be in more trouble if they cannot read their own code, and they can't afford to be unproductive.
3:24:55
beach
Right, software engineering is for large projects with many participants, at least over time. Not necessarily in corporations though.
3:26:19
beach
But you are also right that this interesting quotation from the LUV slides applies, namely that inexperienced programmers (who of often young) can remember lots of code and what it does, but more experienced programmers (who are often older) need to communicate with themselves at a later point in time.
3:29:52
hayley
So I am not doing software engineering, but I like to think I am fairly conscious of making a mess I won't be able to reason about later.
3:33:01
beach
Sure. But it does help a lot to systematically think that you are communicating with someone you don't know. There is a slight difference. If you are communicating only with yourself, it is OK to have some personal quirk that you know you will recognize later, but if you think you are communicating with unknown people, a more conventional style might be more appropriate.