NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/lang/c++-part1/38

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 3.8 KB

Path: mujibur.inmind.com!usenet
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Hungarian notation
Date: 2 Jan 1996 03:50:14 GMT
Organization: In Mind, Inc.
Message-ID: <4caa1m$[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <4agus6$[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <4c3ncl$[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
NNTP-Posting-Host: finneyman.inmind.com
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In <4c3ncl$[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Jer) writes:
>The above is "nice". But, when the boss walks in and says, "I want
>this out now!", 'standards' go to the wind, relative to a pay check.

No.  Not if you are professional.  At worst case, you will use a
personal standard if there is no other standard available.  Nor
is there any such thing as a "one shot" program.  No compromises
should be made when writing a program just because you are
told it is a "one shot" program.  I know of far too many programs
of this nature that have been shipped out the door.  If somebody
tells me that something is a one shot program then I write it, run
it and erase it.  Period.  And even then it is written according to
a standard.

>Secondly, standards are only helpful if the "replacement" programmers
>have been trained in The 'standard', otherwise they have to learn the
>'standard' before proceding, which again puts them in jeopardy of the
>first comment I made.

Yes, but how long does that take?  Five minutes, ten?  Surely not
more than an hour!  You can afford an hour if it has to come out
of your own time.  And if the company is not willing to give a new
hire an hour (or a day for that matter) to "come up to speed" on
issues like this, then I strongly suggest looking for another position.
After all, it is not something that (normally) changes on a day to
day basis!

My companies have even required short term contractors to program
to the local standard.  No quarter in this area!

> Most of the managers that I have worked for
>don't give a hoot about standards, all they care about is when!!

But *YOU* as a professional programmer do!  If the employer of a
civil engineer felt that safety margins were not "necessary" for a
bridge and the engineer omitted them, he could be sued for
unprofessional behaviour.  There are simply somethings you don't
compromise on.

Writing good code is one of them.

Even under time pressure.  Even if lives are depending on it.
Because doing so is more likely to save those lives by *NOT*
having a bug in the code than taking the time to be careful
in the first place.  And even that time is almost always paid
back before you are done.

Not that adherring to standards takes one second longer than
writing random code.  I suppose you could argue that indentation
takes longer -- but I would suggest that even there, learning to
type (or to type faster) would be far more significant.  Not to
mention using something besides EDLIN to enter you program!
And the data entry of a program is rarely the limiting factor in
writing code.  Understanding is.  And *THAT* is where adherrance
to standards helps.

In other words, expediency is *NOT* justification for throwing
professionalism out the window!  Have a set of personal standards
which are the best you can make them which you can use if there
is no overt standard or which you can use to fill in the holes of
any existing standard.  If you are modifying an existing program
use the style and standard that program uses.  If done properly,
the original author should not be able to tell that he did not write
the code after you alter it (at least without direct comparison to
the original code).  If writing a new program use the standards
for the company.  If there aren't any then use yours.  They may
well become the default standard.  But *USE* one -- or get
another profession.


Michael Lee Finney