Path: utzoo!telly!attcan!uunet!brunix!cgy
From: cgy@cs.brown.edu (Curtis Yarvin)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: MEL - A *Real* Programmer
Keywords: Real Programmer, Hacker
Message-ID: <54296@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 24 Oct 90 22:21:06 GMT
References: <7380.271c3129@ccvax.ucd.ie> <1990Oct23.235720.16178@nas.nasa.gov> <6089@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: cgy@cs.brown.edu (Curtis Yarvin)
Organization: The Ministry of Truth
Lines: 33

In article <6089@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> smsmith@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Stephen M. Smith) writes:
>In article <1990Oct23.235720.16178@nas.nasa.gov> 
>smithwik@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (R. Michael Smithwick -- FSN) writes:
>>                  ... The instructor went on,
>>"don't ever write code like this! Considering the fact that none of you
>>were able to figure out what it did demonstrates that it is very
>>poor code".
>>
>>In otherwords, be clever when you have to, not just to show off.
>
>Exactly.  Fortunately as a new student to programming I have a very
>good instructor who emphasizes this very thing.  In the first weeks
>of class he has already emphasized portability and threatened to
>anonymously distribute each of our own programs to the rest of the
>class just to see if WE can be easily deciphered by our own colleagues.

Right - but you have to make the distinction between _cryptic_ code and
_obfuscated_ code.  Cryptic code is hard to understand because it gets the
job done very well, but needs to carry out arcane manipulations to do it.
Obfuscated code intentionally makes a simple task complex.  
	
If you find yourself writing cryptic code, code that is impossible to read
but gets the job done very well, just comment it.  Comments are cheap.
But anyone who intentionally writes obfuscated code or uncommented cryptic
code, and expects others to deal with it, should be shot - I agree with you
there.  Nonetheless we must recognize that, despite the best efforts of
"software engineers," there is a place in the world for cryptic code.

		-Curtis

"I tried living in the real world
 Instead of a shell
 But I was bored before I even began." - The Smiths