Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!fernwood!dumbcat!marc From: marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman) Newsgroups: comp.object Subject: Readability Summary: Why, now what Message-ID: <303@dumbcat.sf.ca.us> Date: 19 May 91 04:37:17 GMT References: <72084@microsoft.UUCP> <1991May16.172129.14877@ap542.uucp> Distribution: comp Organization: MH Software, Hayward, CA. Lines: 19 In article <1991May16.172129.14877@ap542.uucp> david@ap542.uucp writes: > You must think about the poor slobs who come after. I sure as hell > don't want to spend my life maintaining something I developed. I > would much rather make it so simple, so easy to understand, that > ANYBODY can figure out what I did. So they don't ask me silly > questions. But David, a programming language is not enough. While your "dream" language, whatever it may be, will make _what_ you did readable and easy to understand it still wont explain _why_ you did it. Unless your using a form of literate programming. When going through someone's code the question I always want to ask is "why did you do it this way and not that way?". Sometimes there's a reason. // marc -- // home: marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us pacbell!dumbcat!marc // work: marc@ascend.com uunet!aria!marc