Pithy Advice for programmers
Of course, the original "Pithias" were stoned out of their minds on the methane gas that seeped up out of the caves at Delphi ...
There is no "they"
If you don't do it, it won't get done. (See this.)
There is no "later"
Schedules get tighter as time goes by.
It's kind of like entropy, but not nearly as much fun to watch.
All luck is bad!
Good luck gives you the false impression that you were doing something right.
Mediocrity is its own reward
You get what you give.
If you can't explain it, you aren't ready to write it
Interviewer's corollary: If a candiate can't explain
his last job, he probably can't do this job either.
Anal retentiveness is the programmer's best friend
If you don't have the energy to document your code
properly, at least have the decency to be CONSISTENT!
The devil you know is to be preferred
Since nobody ... ever ... has a proper requirements list,
the existing code at least has the virtue of
actually doing what your customer's have condescended
to ask you for.
You don't actually think that anyone
understands the code do you?
"Starting from scratch" is seductive but disease ridden
If you are too lazy to figure out the code that we've already got,
why should we trust you to create it all from scratch --
with no better documentation than we had the last time.
Cutting corners just makes more corners
Perfect software isn't the goal -- customer service is
As much fun as this is, we really only get to do it because
someone pays our salaries.
Paying the piper. Calling the
tune. Get it?
The codebase is not a playground -- do that in your home directory
Ok, so you hate Microsoft and want to write your own
operating system -- fine, just don't drag us into
it!
How many Java or Python projects got started because some
programmer thought that it would be cool to learn the language?
Before refactoring the code, try finishing the documentation
Yes, God can make a rock bigger than even He can lift!
And you can write more code than you can understand!
You don't actually think that anyone understands the code do you?
Paying the piper. Calling the tune. Get it?
How many Java or Python projects got started because some programmer thought that it would be cool to learn the language?