On Sep 5, 2008, at 3:00 PM, Richard Erlacher wrote:
>>>> The point, however, is to document what the software suite is
>>> SUPPOSED to
>>> do, and not necessarily what it is OBSERVED to do. That's why
>>> it's so
>>> unfortunate that the doc's weren't written before the first line of
>>> code,
>>> rather than as an afterthought.
>>
>> That's nice in theory, but in the real world, it just doesn't
>> work. That you're having such difficulties, and that this thread has
>> gone on for days, illustrates this fact.
>>
> Well, that's just not true. If the doc's had been generated BEFORE
> the code
> was started, there'd be clear evidence of what it was intended to
> do, and of
> whether it does it.
Uhh yeah...but that's not how software is written in the real
world. It's not a very practical approach, which is why it's rarely
done that way. Overspecification (which is where that approach goes
if any tie-wearers are involved) is what kills software development
projects before they even get off the ground.
> That's one reason programmers don't like spec's to
> precede programming. If there had been documented spec's, it would
> be easy
> to show that their work product doesn't work.
If there had been documented specs, the software would never be
released, due to pie-in-the-sky wish lists and unrealistic goals.
That's what I was talking about above.
> The reason it's uncommon in the "real" world, that this highly
> desirable
> condition doesn't exist, is that programmers like to do what they
> like to
> do, and leave what they don't like to someone else.
Well, programmers are PROGRAMMERS, not paper-pushers.
> With no documented
> specifications, there's no way to show that their work is
> defective, so they
> like doing things that way.
That's an awfully big stretch. I, as a programmer, write damn
good code...and terrible documentation. That's because I'm a
PROGRAMMER, not a writer.
> This points out that management in software development is weak, first
> because software managers are often former and often incompentent
> programmers, kicked upstairs because they were in the way, and
> secondly
> because they're hopelessly incompentent as managers of software
> development,
> possibly both.
Richard, you talk like someone who has been "suitified" for far
too long. There was a big push in the 1970s to over-formalize
software development, which is where this obsession with "specs" came
from. It died in the 1980s. Go write some code!
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge
Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes
Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world
http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/
_______________________________________________
Sdcc-user mailing list
Sdcc-user@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sdcc-user
