Re: Clever vs. Readable

I'm voting for readability, in agreement with Dr Conway. Frequently, code maintenance is assigned to the programmers with the least experience in a language, so terseness is not clever. I've been handed code to maintain in COBOL and PL/1, never having worked in either, and I had never even read a book about COBOL before.

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Comment on Re: Clever vs. Readable

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Re^2: Clever vs. Readable by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Aug 26, 2008 at 23:38 UTC
Frequently, code maintenance is assigned to the programmers with the least experience in a language, And until that dumbest of dumb inequities is addressed, software development will have as much in common with 'the professions' as fly-by-night roofers and itinerant driveway layers. I started into a long and vociforous rant when it dawned on me that I was repeating myself, albeit in a slightly different context: Code maintenance is often seen as a secondary activity, somehow lesser than 'greenfield' coding. It is not! Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. "Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."	[reply]

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Re^2: Clever vs. Readable
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Aug 26, 2008 at 23:38 UTC

Frequently, code maintenance is assigned to the programmers with the least experience in a language,

And until that dumbest of dumb inequities is addressed, software development will have as much in common with 'the professions' as fly-by-night roofers and itinerant driveway layers.

I started into a long and vociforous rant when it dawned on me that I was repeating myself, albeit in a slightly different context: Code maintenance is often seen as a secondary activity, somehow lesser than 'greenfield' coding. It is not!

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

[reply]