Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!daveb
From: daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Posessive programming
Message-ID: <2688@geac.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 88 01:13:47 GMT
Article-I.D.: geac.2688
Posted: Mon May  2 21:13:47 1988
References: <528@vsi.UUCP> <1066@mcgill-vision.UUCP> <759@dlhpedg.co.uk>
Reply-To: daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown)
Distribution: comp
Organization: The Geac CP/6 Department.
Lines: 33

In article <759@dlhpedg.co.uk> cl@datlog.co.uk (Charles Lambert) writes:
>No piece of code should be "owned" by one person to the extent that nobody
>else may work on it.  That simply conceals and encourages idiosynchrasy, [sic]
>which is the bane of maintenance.  A piece of code should be common property,
>and the style of it should be arbitrated by group inspection and a common
>philosophy.  This encourages cohesion,  disseminates good idioms,  and
>promotes egoless programming.

  On the other hand, egoless programming is a theory which has not
been shown to work in all cases.  Egofull programming has been a
commercial and technical success in several widely-discussed cases.
  One of the most accessible examples was the development of the
Honeywell CP/6 operating system, which succeeded despite corporate
demands that it be written according to corporate standards in GMAP
(an assembler) was actually written in a modern language (PL/6) and
by a team where crosstraining was common, but individuals were
strictly responsible for "their part", and were encouraged to do a
good, if non-standard job.
  CP/6 is popular with a significant minority of the customer base,
really quite elegant, and rather well-written. The PL/6 language late
became a corporate standard.

  Public source: datamation.

 --dave (once of Honeywell TSDC/CCSC) c-b
  ps: if your turnover is signifiicant, don't even think about it.
      If you can start with low turnover, though, this can help keep
      it low.
-- 
 David Collier-Brown.                 {mnetor yunexus utgpu}!geac!daveb
 Geac Computers International Inc.,   |  Computer Science loses its
 350 Steelcase Road,Markham, Ontario, |  memory (if not its mind) 
 CANADA, L3R 1B3 (416) 475-0525 x3279 |  every 6 months.