Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!nih-csl!lhc!ncifcrf!haven!aplcen!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!unix!synoptics!bionet!agate!eos!data.nas.nasa.gov!pioneer.arc.nasa.gov!smithwik
From: smithwik@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (R. Michael Smithwick -- FSN)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: MEL - A *Real* Programmer
Keywords: Real Programmer, Hacker
Message-ID: <1990Oct23.235720.16178@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 23 Oct 90 23:57:20 GMT
References: <7380.271c3129@ccvax.ucd.ie>
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Reply-To: smithwik@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (R. Michael Smithwick -- FSN)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Mtn Vw CA 94035
Lines: 50

In article <7380.271c3129@ccvax.ucd.ie> b_haughey@ccvax.ucd.ie (Brian J Haughey) writes:
>TEXTS   Node: Mel       Previous: Top           Up: Top
>
>         -- Source: usenet: utastro!nather, May 21, 1983.
>
>[I got this version from AIDA, a DEC-2060, in 1983 - b_haughey@ccvax.ucd.ie]
>
>
>     A recent article devoted to the *macho* side of programming
>     made the bald and unvarnished statement:
>
>                Real Programmers write in Fortran.
>
[deleted 250 lines of an admittedly great story about "Mel",
the wonder-coder]

While it is easy to call Mel a genius as a result of this story, I'm
not too sure he could be called a "real programmer" by todays standards.
A very clever programmer, yes, but if he were to try his cutsie hacks in
production code (unless it really needed it) he would be bounced from the
companys payroll in nothing flat.

There is nothing to be proud of when one writes code so very cryptic
someone else has to waste 2 weeks of company time to figure out a how a 
loop exits.

One of the best lessons I learned in school was in my first Fortran
class. Our teacher put a code fragment up on the board and asked us what
it did. All 30 of us pondered it for a few minutes unable to decipher the
intricacies of the routine. Finally our teacher explained that it simply
cleared out an array. Suddenly the lights went on! "Of course!" we thought
in unison, "why, how remarkably clever!". The instructor said "I bet you
thought that this was clever". We all nodded hoping that one day we could
all be clever enough ourselves to write like that. 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.

So whenever I find myself writing a cryptic routine, I think of George,
and wonder if he would use it as an example in his class. If the answer
is yes, I rewrite it.


                                       >> mike smithwick <<

Any opinions are my own since nobody else would ever want them.

"Colonize Cyberspace!"