http://www.symphonious.net/2008/05/22/results-matter/ Living in a state of accord. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:07:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.symphonious.net/2008/05/22/results-matter/comment-page-1/#comment-159569 Adrian Sutton Mon, 26 May 2008 06:07:50 +0000 http://www.symphonious.net/?p=852#comment-159569 Elegance, no - elegance doesn't matter. If it's unmaintainable slop then yes you do need to improve things. The key is to worry about maintainability rather than elegance. The phrase "any old slop" tends to indicate a lack of design, unit testing and lots of code duplication all of which would cause serious maintainability problems. It doesn't need to be the neatest or most efficient way of doing something as long as the intent is clear. Elegance, no – elegance doesn’t matter. If it’s unmaintainable slop then yes you do need to improve things. The key is to worry about maintainability rather than elegance. The phrase “any old slop” tends to indicate a lack of design, unit testing and lots of code duplication all of which would cause serious maintainability problems. It doesn’t need to be the neatest or most efficient way of doing something as long as the intent is clear.

]]> http://www.symphonious.net/2008/05/22/results-matter/comment-page-1/#comment-159473 Scott Thomason Sun, 25 May 2008 20:39:09 +0000 http://www.symphonious.net/?p=852#comment-159473 Let's bend your argument a bit to discuss a problem I experience on a frequent basis. What if it's not the programming language that's inelegant, but the programmer(s)? Do you let them use any old slop as long as it gets the job done, or do you hold them to certain standards of elegance? ---scott Let’s bend your argument a bit to discuss a problem I experience on a frequent basis. What if it’s not the programming language that’s inelegant, but the programmer(s)? Do you let them use any old slop as long as it gets the job done, or do you hold them to certain standards of elegance?
—scott

]]>