in reply to Has this happened to you?

I've stepped in and fixed code which wasn't under my control. Sometimes things just need to be done, and can't wait until Monday morning, or to whenever it is that the responsible person returns from a trip.

Example: a few years ago for a project we doing, I had to modify about 150 tables in a database, create or modify 3 triggers on each of those tables, and create a stored procedure and an index for each of those tables. That meant about 450 modified or new files, and 900 new or modified database objects. More than 50,000 lines of SQL, all generated by a Perl script.

It was going to be the biggest bulk submit we had done so far, and there was no way of doing this cleanly during the week when dozens of other developers would be submitting stuff.

So, I had claimed exclusive use of the development area during a Saturday. Late in the evening the submission process failed. Because of bugs in the submission software (a Perl/Tk program, maintained by a totally incompetent programmer). I could do two things, either wait till Monday and let the programmer in charge try to fix it. That would mean I had to delay the submission process till the next week - causing havoc on whatever day I was going to submit. Or attempt to fix the problem myself. I chose the latter. It turned out that I didn't completely fix the problem (because the author was a great believer in "cut-and-paste" and I hadn't found all the copies of the same piece of buggy code), but at least I could submit my stuff.

Did I leave a long note to the programmer what I had done and why? Hell no. I emailed his supervisor (which was formally my supervisor as well, but I usually ignored him and dealt directly with his boss) saying I had fixed the buggy software, cc-ing the programmer.

If you are working in a company, don't assume ownership of code. It isn't yours - it's the companies. Others will fix and break things. Only if you are available 24x365 you might have a chance of exclusively working on the code. It's nice, and most of the times useful, to email the person responsible if you did change things. But it's immature to expect noone else to touch your code, or to be notified. Be your own boss if you can't stand it.

Abigail

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: Has this happened to you?
by petesmiley (Friar) on Aug 12, 2002 at 14:22 UTC
    For the most part I agree with you. But, if a programmer has to be the one responsible for a piece of code, then in a manner of speaking, that programmer owns the code, or at least the responsibility. Responsibility is a pricey word in a company, seeing as so few are actually willing to accept it. Either way, whoever is originally responsible for the code should know whenever someone else lays hands on it. Either by written message or through some kind of source control setup.

    A coder who changes someone elses code does not have to document every change, but the previous author should at least be notified that there are changes. That takes all of what, 3 minutes via email...."Hey I changed some stuff in your program, and consiquently broke it."

    I would think there is also a failing on the part of the supervisor who doesn't notify the original programmer that things have changed. Flat out, the whole deal is a communications failure in this fellows work environment. Unless of course this fellow didn't read his mail first thing? But I doubt that ;)

[reply]

In Section Meditations