NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/comp/software/4967

Text File | 1992-12-15 | 3.3 KB | 69 lines

Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!mcgregor
From: [e-mail] (Scott Mcgregor)
Subject: Re: Request for reuse tool info
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 06:48:09 GMT
Lines: 58

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Phil Julian) writes:

>From this scenario, reuse is bad for resumes.  What do other
>programmers or employers value more -- reusing old code or writing
>original code?  The problem may be our own attitudes and the attitudes
>of the marketplace.  Reuse is not valued as an intrinsic skill.  I
>know this is trite, but have you ever seen "reuse" as a desired skill
>on a job description?

There's a good point here, but it is hidden.  There are two important
marketplaces here.  The first is the one that is the end users who
purchase software solutions.  Those people don't give a hoot whether
it is reused code or not--but they do care if it is done quickly,
cheaply and reliably. Reuse may contribute to achieving these goals
which may in turn result in software products that are more attractive
to ultimate consumers. There may be other ways to achieve these goals,
and so while reuse may be a good way, employers may be reluctant to
specify it as an explicit a job requirement and may want to consider
applicants who claim to have other ways of achieving this (i.e. "I'm
just a super coder who turns out 10K/lines of accurate code/day...").

This is, for example, part of SAS Institute's competative advantage,
that they have designed their product in such a way that much of it
can be mounted on a new computer system with just a re-compile, which
makes adding a new system to the support list relatively more
inexpensive, faster and reliable than a ground up port.

The second important market is the employment market.  Engineers are
usually chose by first line managers, who in turn are often more
technically oriented than other managers.  They may figure that ANYONE
can reuse code--and they assume that everyone will be bright enough to
recognize and capitalize on the opportunities to do so.  But after the
reuse is done, there's still the part to be coded, and there the
super-coder looks advantageous.  In reality, many of these assumptions
are at least partially false, and that can lead to the poor results we
sometimes see.

It is also worth noting that one way that "super-coders" often churn
out so much code in a  day is that they are heavy re-users--of their
own past code!  When the programmer is hired, so is her personal
libray of re-useable code. This is vaguely understood in the marketplace but is
one reason that experience with a given OS and language is sometimes
given a lot of weight in hiring decisions, while over all years of
experience are not as strongly rewarded.

--

Scott L. McGregor        [e-mail]
President            tel: [phone]
Prescient Software, Inc.    fax: [phone]
3494 Yuba Avenue
San Jose, CA 95117-2967

Prescient Software sells Merge Ahead, the tool for Merging Text or Code and
offers consulting  & training in project management and design for usability.