Bravo! Well said.
Looking back over my post, I realized that I had not said something else very important. I've also tended to use simpler idioms in code that is meant to be changed, such as configuration code.
In one particular past job, we had a really good group of people. The managers and various levels of programmer all understood that we are all learning. People had no problem asking each other for help or mentoring someone with less experience in a given area.
Unfortunately, that seems to be a rare case.
In that environment, however, my use of idiom became a way for some programmers to learn and to realize when they were out of their depth. I have been on the receiving end of code like that before, and sometimes it's really nice to know early that you will need to learn a lot before going in and making changes. Instead of assuming you know what's going on and diving in, and coming up for air two days later and realizing that you don't have a clue.
I also agree that it is amazing that people expect someone with a relatively small amount of training or experience to do effective work in programming immediately. Then, they are surprised that the results cannot be held to some engineering standard. But, our field is still relatively young.
In reply to Programming culture and Idiomatic Perl
by gwadej
in thread Textual Analysis and Perl
by cyocum
| For: | Use: | ||
| & | & | ||
| < | < | ||
| > | > | ||
| [ | [ | ||
| ] | ] |