Thread: Software Quality
The following URL is a short article about software quality. He criticizes the sloppy coding practices of some open-source software. I agree with most of his points. My personal feeling is that if sloppy coding becomes the norm, I will be out of a job. I place a high value on quality code, and I know most PostgreSQL do as well. http://www.osopinion.com/Opinions/MontyManley/MontyManley8.html -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000+ If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue + Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania19026
I think most of us here are hot on quality. It's one of the reasons why I don't release code before I'm at least happy with what I've got is clean and easily maintainable. Here (MBC) I see several other analysts writing quick hacks that then become mission critical. These hacks then become illegible so when they break, I end up pulling my hair out because I can't read the code. Yet, they then moan at me because I take longer. However, I test everything first and I don't reinvent the wheel - if a routine or class is going to be useful, I make sure it's not dependent on too much, and put it in a library. I hate sloppy coding, but it's a sign of the times. Machines are more powerful, and storage is so cheap it's the easy way out not to optimise things. For example: How large is the average chess program now? Does anyone remember the Sinclair ZX81 and chess that ran in 1K of memory? Or how about a programming language on the Amiga whos compiler was only 1020 bytes long (Fast). Peter -- Peter Mount Enterprise Support Maidstone Borough Council Any views stated are my own, and not those of Maidstone Borough Council -----Original Message----- From: Bruce Momjian [mailto:pgman@candle.pha.pa.us] Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 1:20 AM To: PostgreSQL-development Subject: [HACKERS] Software Quality The following URL is a short article about software quality. He criticizes the sloppy coding practices of some open-source software. I agree with most of his points. My personal feeling is that if sloppy coding becomes the norm, I will be out of a job. I place a high value on quality code, and I know most PostgreSQL do as well. http://www.osopinion.com/Opinions/MontyManley/MontyManley8.html -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000+ If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue + Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania19026
Peter Mount wrote: > > I think most of us here are hot on quality. It's one of the reasons why I > don't release code before I'm at least happy with what I've got is clean and > easily maintainable. > > Here (MBC) I see several other analysts writing quick hacks that then become > mission critical. These hacks then become illegible so when they break, I > end up pulling my hair out because I can't read the code. > > Yet, they then moan at me because I take longer. However, I test everything > first and I don't reinvent the wheel - if a routine or class is going to be > useful, I make sure it's not dependent on too much, and put it in a library. > > I hate sloppy coding, but it's a sign of the times. Machines are more > powerful, and storage is so cheap it's the easy way out not to optimise > things. > > For example: How large is the average chess program now? Does anyone > remember the Sinclair ZX81 and chess that ran in 1K of memory? Or how about > a programming language on the Amiga whos compiler was only 1020 bytes long > (Fast). I used to run the 68000 Macro Assembler for my Amiga 1000 of off floppy disk. There's nothing like a pre-emptively multi-tasking operating system with a graphical user interface that runs nicely in 256K of RAM ;-) Mike Mascari
Mike Mascari wrote: > I used to run the 68000 Macro Assembler for my Amiga 1000 of off > floppy disk. There's nothing like a pre-emptively multi-tasking > operating system with a graphical user interface that runs nicely > in 256K of RAM ;-) But there's a complete UNIX V7 available to run in 640K on XT hardware. My first 'make world' was on a 4.77MHz 8088 (ahem NEC-V20) with 768K and 10MB harddisk. With some better hardware (386 and 2MB at minimum - works withless but is no fun) you can also run it with a TCP/IP stack and telnet or ftp to it like me. My one is a total oversized 486DX4-100 with 16M and 1G disk. Jan -- #======================================================================# # It's easier to get forgiveness for being wrong than for being right. # # Let's break this rule - forgive me. # #================================================== JanWieck@Yahoo.com #