[split] One Student's view of the industry.

[timetraveller92]

Yes you can. But going from a useful, good coding practice that makes further development easy to hardcoded, poor coding practice that makes further development hard does not sound like a good idea. Any reason why you would recommend such a move?

It's because sometimes you do exactly what the industry wants. You don't see good coding practice or best practices! Only nerds do that, and they never do more than just coding! The industry needs people who will do the task given to them. Not more than that! Your time is limited and you can't live forever. So instead of looking at best practices its better to finish the task and move on! Besides, this program is not going to win you a Nobel prize so you might as well call it useless. Knowing how to program and how to write algorithms is the essence of programming. You code for a purpose... not for giving boring lectures to your friends or making lame 3/2=1 jokes that make no sense whatsoever. In case, you didn't notice.. all software comes with bugs and fixes are done later (sometimes by users).. especially today we live in open source highway. You code and just distribute it. Only others develop your code to something better but still you maintain that you were the one who made it. There was never a single version of majority of the software in the market, that's because people who see ideas know its not worth wasting more time at it making it perfect. They find bugs later and send patches. That's how the web works. And now cloud computing is gaining pace. Patching and updates will become part of the information highway. So, to have growth you can figure out how things work and describe them as abstractions rather than making something absolute and perfect! If you stick to becoming perfect, then you'll never know what comes next

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius!!

[Adak]

That depends on what the program does:

If it's running the auto pilot of the jet I'm on, I'd like it to work exactly correctly, thank you. ;)

Even when safety isn't an issue, just imagine the waste from having printing software that goofs up 50000 copies of a book that is being printed up, or metal that is being cut and formed, etc.

You might see it as efficient, but as an employer, I'd see it most efficient to show such a programmer, their pink slip, and the door out. Having a reputation as a poor quality software house, is not good for your business.

[WaltP]

Moved because it was completely unhelpful to the thread posted in, and really needs to be seen by as many people as we can manage -- esp. those that hire programmers.

[N1GHTS]

Explained is the standard in the industry. It is also the general philosophy of successful application programmers.

As a perfectionist, I have a loyal customer base due to them knowing that I don't follow that philosophy. Being a perfectionist also makes you older faster and less financially successful in the short term. A perfectionist will always break deadline, but it is almost always accepted. Being a perfectionist is a disorder; as elegant and efficient as the code is, no one who matters may ever see it. Most of all of the code I have ever written lives and dies in my own world. Perfectionists are never satisfied with their "old" work, and old can be a week ago. Rewriting code from scratch is the standard cycle of a perfectionist.

Perfectionist code is what drives military, space, and medical applications: nothing less is acceptable as the consequences of inexperience and sloppy code can have serious financial and real world impact. As a perfectionist, I fit right in my current job of writting firmware, circuitry, and driver programming for systems that run 24/7/365.

Described in the original post is a student's perspective, and it is indeed the industry standard. It's great for people like me to have students live up to successful mediocrity as that makes competition quite easy for perfectionists. iPOD and iPAD are great examples of perfectionists doing what they do best. Notice how the competition seems to have a hard time dealing with this situation. This is because it's unusual. In my own industry of competition, I have clearly designed the dominant product, and I can say this without bias because non-customers even tell me so.

In conclusion, I would like all aspiring programmers to listen to what this wise student professed about programming as it will help people like me greatly. Chances are that perfectionists are not interested in commercial software as they have the capacity to drive people to Mars. Regardless, with hundreds of thousands of new programmers entering the programming profession every year, every little bit of help can go a long way, especially if there is a bag of money at the end of the fish line.

[WaltP]

In conclusion, I would like all aspiring programmers to listen to what this wise student professed about programming as it will help people like me greatly.

You bet. Fewer people that know what they're doing makes it easy for us that do. I love your reverse psychology!

[timetraveller92]

excuse me, but your crossing the line. What gives you the right to break the thread without my permission and give it your own title? My post comes first here right? then it should be my thread! You have misused power. Thats what you do. I've noticed!

[timetraveller92]

never mind. I get it! Your showing your maturity here. ok uncle. I get the whole picture. Funny thing is your creating fights with a younger guy. Shows how much you've grown up! Get a life *snip*

[N1GHTS]

excuse me, but your crossing the line. What gives you the right to break the thread without my permission and give it your own title? My post comes first here right? then it should be my thread! You have misused power. Thats what you do. I've noticed!

If this is true, then I completely agree with you. I was not a party to your original post so my own apologies if I was responding to your post out of context. WaltP should have provided the original post link for the sake of fairness.

[WaltP]

excuse me, but your crossing the line. What gives you the right to break the thread without my permission and give it your own title? My post comes first here right? then it should be my thread!

1. As a moderator I have that right.
2. The original poster klimburt started the thread (sort of). S/he hijacked another thread and Narue split it as a violation. timetraveller92's first post in the thread post was a response. He can claim no ownership at all.
3. The first post in this thread had nothing to do with the question being asked before being split. The post itself was a rant based on my objecting to a suggestion and had nothing to do with
   1. the rest of the thread
   2. the original poster's problem

If you wish to see the original thread, it is here. The first post here came immediately after the 5th post (mine) in the other thread.

[N1GHTS]

If you wish to see the original thread, it is here. The first post here came immediately after the 5th post (mine) in the other thread.

I see. This is why I don't think I would make a good moderator. I simply would not feel right modifying or cutting out messages in a thread. I find thread context to be just as important as the words in the message itself. Even if the message is deserving of its own thread, it should technically be untouched to preserve the big picture for all to see.

On the other hand, while I generally disagree with censorship of any form, I feel it is well within the right of the administration to censor or remove content that is far outside acceptable limits. If it breaks a rule, that offending message or thread should be removed outright. I believe this should be the the primary role of forum administration.

[WaltP]

excuse me, but your crossing the line. What gives you the right to break the thread without my permission and give it your own title? My post comes first here right? then it should be my thread! You have misused power. Thats what you do. I've noticed!

never mind. I get it! Your showing your maturity here. ok uncle. I get the whole picture. Funny thing is your creating fights with a younger guy. Shows how much you've grown up! Get a life *snip*

If you really think so, PM Happygeek, Narue, or CscGal. Voice your displeasure. Try a couple other Mods, too.

I can't be any fairer or less *snip*ish than that.