Timeline for When does "proper" programming no longer matter?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 21, 2012 at 3:16 | comment | added | Kaz | Exactly, everyone. So first we determine what we hope to get out of writing this program, or continuing to do that. That something could be "passing the time such that it is fun". But even then, we can think: is working on such and such a thing in such and such a program the best way to achieve the most fun, or do we put the time into something else. | |
| Nov 21, 2012 at 1:51 | comment | added | Kai Qing | @mattnz - what you say is true in that nobody does something for no return, even if the return is a good laugh. Almost all of my personal projects are done for the humor. Almost all of them make enough to justify their requirements. None of them have enabled me to quit. | |
| Nov 21, 2012 at 1:18 | comment | added | mattnz | Two useful words to add to your very well written answer - "Speculative Investment" - you do it because you speculate there will be a return in the future. | |
| Nov 21, 2012 at 0:42 | comment | added | Kaz | Indeed. We can't always make some kind of objective case. Not everyone values the program in the same way. Suppose that the main utility in the program is the pleasure in working on it. That might be of no benefit to anyone else and nobody will pay for the improvements (if even there are users besides the programmer), but it's enough to justify improving it in any way whatsoever. | |
| Nov 21, 2012 at 0:26 | comment | added | Kai Qing | Very well written. In my case there was never planned return. Any return may be incidental but shouldn't be dismissed since I think some of the biggest successes started as flukes. In terms of client work, where there is not so much money at stake as there may be just aggravation if the app hangs or something becomes a minor inconvenience, it is a thicker threshold. If the benchmarks look good, but the code is known to not be the most efficient, then nobody will ever come along to audit it before the times of code progress and perhaps demand a migration anyhow... hard to say on that one. | |
| Nov 21, 2012 at 0:18 | history | answered | Kaz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |