in reply to Re: (OT) The Honest Cherry Bomb
in thread (OT) The Honest Cherry Bomb

Bugfixes? If the code is stupid, and I say "Oh, you brilliant mind, what a wonderful code you've written", there's little chance the code will ever be fixed.

Sorry, I fail to see what's wrong with a bit of honesty. If I say code is wrong when it is wrong, and I praise code when it's good, it's easy to know when I make a compliment, and when I think the code can be improved. From someone who's always nicey-nicey, you'd never know.

Code is not stupid, stupid is an insult that applies directly to person you are addressing. Saying "This code is stupid" is most often heard as "You are stupid". Too often people think they are being "brutally honest" while in fact they are simply poor communicators, or to be "brutally honest", they are being stupid.

Better ways to communicate:
"This code doesn't meet the requirements."
"The way this code is written is difficult for me to read."

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true -- Michael Faraday

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Re^3: (OT) The Honest Cherry Bomb
by adrianh (Chancellor) on May 29, 2003 at 21:39 UTC

    <pedantic>

    Code is not stupid, stupid is an insult that applies directly to person you are addressing.

    It's perfectly good English to refer to a thing as stupid without implying anything about the things author. Webster's has "Resulting from, or evincing, stupidity; formed without skill or genius; dull; heavy; -- said of things." as one of the definitions.

    Saying "This code is stupid" is most often heard as "You are stupid".

    All too true - but the problem may not be with the author. I can (and do :-) write stupid code on occasion, that doesn't imply that I am stupid.

    Too often people think they are being "brutally honest" while in fact they are simply poor communicators, or to be "brutally honest", they are being stupid.

    They might be poor communicators. They might not be stupid.

    </pedantic>

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