Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!johnson
From: johnson@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sw.components
Subject: maintenace and reuse
Message-ID: <130200014@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 13 Oct 89 13:46:00 GMT
Lines: 15
Nf-ID: #N:p.cs.uiuc.edu:130200014:000:755
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!johnson    Oct 13 08:46:00 1989


I'm a Smalltalk programmer.  All Smalltalk programmers are
maintenance programmers.  That's because we take reuse seriously.
The average Smalltalk programmer spends 75% of the time reading
code and only 25% of the time writing code.  Although this might
seem like an unproductive use of time, Smalltalk programmers
also have a reputation of being extremely productive, and the
two are related.  The fastest way to get good code (as all the
readers of this news group probably know) is to reuse it.
Reusing code requires understanding it.  Understanding code
requires at least reading the documentation, and sometimes
reading the code.  Thus, any system that is successful at
reuse will make everybody who uses it a maintenance programmer.

Ralph Johnson