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Code Rot -- The Third Decay

Code Rot -- The Third Decay

" I'll fix it later. "


Probably my favorite ever comment in code, seen in 2013, exemplifying the entire history of our industry :

/*
* This code is crap
* Deadline tomorrow
* Will fix next release
*
* Joe - 19740608
*/

Joe was right. The code was a hackjob.

Details changed to protect the guilty.

Have you seen the same comment?

Uncle Bob, in 2008, defined The 5th Agile value, which the framers all agreed on, but that they forgot to add to the manifesto: Craftsmanship over Crap

Overall, there are two different ways crap gets put into a system.

1. Folks who don't know any better put in something that works, but is crap.

This is why you supervise folks with under 5y of dev experience. You can't expect them to have the experience to know the difference.

2. Folks who do know better but do it for speed. Like Joe. In 1974.

Principles:
A. There is ALWAYS too much work to be done for the time you have.
B. Craftsmanship rarely costs more than twice what Crap does in the short term.
C. A section of Crap usually costs 5, 10, or 50x what craftsmanship does over a few years.
D. When you're short on time today, you're not going to have more time to fix it "later".

Don't be Joe


last updated january 2020