An anonymous reader writes "I am downright embarrassed by the quality of my code. It is buggy, slow, fragile, and a nightmare to maintain. Do you feel the same way? If so, then what is holding you back from realizing your full potential? More importantly, what if anything are you planning to do about it? I enjoy programming and have from a young age (cut my teeth on BASIC on an Apple IIe). I have worked for companies large and small in a variety of languages and platforms. Sadly the one constant in my career is that I am assigned to projects that drift, seemingly aimlessly, from inception to a point where the client runs out of funding. Have any developers here successfully lobbied their company to stop or cut back on 'cowboy coding' and adopt best practices? Has anyone convinced their superiors that the customer isn't always right and saying no once in awhile is the best course of action?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Originally Posted by TNT Bot

An anonymous reader writes "I am downright embarrassed by the quality of my code. It is buggy, slow, fragile, and a nightmare to maintain. Do you feel the same way?

@ First, many times? YES!

(And, when I look @ code I wrote YEARS to DECADES ago, I often say "boy, I could have done that MUCH better & NOW, I know that" or "That needs work & I have learned BETTER ways of doing that particular routine" etc. et al)

Originally Posted by TNT Bot

If so, then what is holding you back from realizing your full potential?

Time, & know-how I gain over time (on personal code I have done for freeware/shareware MOSTLY, sometimes on the job too - you learn more & better ways of doing things, either by first-hand experiences, OR, by just reading others' stuff too - thank goodness for the internet in THAT capacity (when I started writing wares online for instance, circa 1994-1996? You did NOT have the "wealth of available code" you have now online, this is sure)).

Certainly NOT in Delphi, most of all, my fav language/tool - it did not 'come out' until 1995, & that was only for 16-bit Windows... 1996-1997 saw Delphi 2.0 & 32-bit, & around 1997 is when more & more code came out for it (still, nothing like there is out there, today/nowadays)

Originally Posted by TNT Bot

More importantly, what if anything are you planning to do about it?

Learn, learn, learn... & DO! The ONLY way... practice makes perfect.

Originally Posted by TNT Bot

I enjoy programming and have from a young age (cut my teeth on BASIC on an Apple IIe). I have worked for companies large and small in a variety of languages and platforms. Sadly the one constant in my career is that I am assigned to projects that drift, seemingly aimlessly, from inception to a point where the client runs out of funding.

THAT, happens, on occasion to the "best of us" (not saying I am 'one of the best', my estimation of myself is "I can get the job done" (usually))...

Originally Posted by TNT Bot

Have any developers here successfully lobbied their company to stop or cut back on 'cowboy coding' and adopt best practices?

YES...

Originally Posted by TNT Bot

Has anyone convinced their superiors that the customer isn't always right and saying no once in awhile is the best course of action?

Heh, two times it has gotten me fired, believe it or not... for 'doing the right thing' & pointing out problems (be it in code, OR in the network topology or software problems (like Antivirus etc. being setup wrong for LAN client-server setups for it))...

You have to "watch it" here... many mgt. figures STILL in this field are nowhere NEAR as good as you the coder OR network engineer are & have some "b.s." MCSE or CCNA etc. & THAT IS ALL... but, no real "earned in the school of hard-knocks" experience in the trenches.

You expose them for that (even IF meaning well, & doing it privately)? They will get you fired... it's happened to me.

I was told, literally "Pick your battles more wisely next time" & it WAS NEVER A BATTLE, but intended for the good of the company itself (where I was hired to secure code AND network stuff too).

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OVERALL THOUGH?

Yes, I am proud of it... but, ONLY AFTER I REALLY FINE-TUNE IT!

Then, I take the time to OPTIMIZE (by hand, not just compiler, & sepulchre a member here:

http://www.thenewtech.com/forums/viewpost15670.html

has even SEEN me go thru it) & PROFILE it, so it is fast, and commented FULLY, so it is clean + easy to maintain!

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* You learn that, over time, to HELP YOURSELF mostly... code you wrote years ago? It's NOT going to "stay in your head" perfectly, especially as to its 'algorithm & exact idiosyncracies' in its detailed mechanics!

APK

P.S.=> For personal code I wrote/write such as freeware-shareware? I take the time for that... my name's on it, across the planet, so I try my best...

However, for business related code? Man, sometimes, they promise such INSANE deadlines, you CAN'T take that kind of time & do that stuff... PLUS, you're often TOLD not to! apk