Re: Computer programmers' habits in electronics

Ignoramus10397 wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 11:06:07 -0800, Tim Wescott <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Don't spend time documenting = man-years of work wasted down the road
> > fixing stupid problems and soothing pissed off customers.
> >
> > Do spend time documenting = no product at that vital trade show, no
> > customers, company goes down the tubes, end of story.
> >
> > The excuse that the requirements change has been answered by Extreme
> > Programming. Shoddy work remains shoddy work.
> >
>
> Would you agree if I replaced "lack of documentation" with "not
> understandable software"? I agree that stuff that is written in a
> manner that is hard to understand, needs at least documentation,
> although I feel that it is better to rewrite it.

I would not agree, honestly. I just did 3 fairly trivial CPLD designs
(all related) that need their own spec document so everyone can agree
(you / I will not be the only ones in the code) what the thing is
supposed to do. Apart from that, I (like many designers) juggle
multiple designs - when I go back to something, it's nice to be able to
read the spec document to remind myself of just what I am trying to
achieve in the minimum possible time.

>
> In many, if not most, instances, there is a way to write code that is
> basically very self explanatory or needs just a fewe comments on top
> and some sprinkled in.
>
> i
There's a difference between self documenting code (a good thing[tm])
that specifies what and how the code is achieving something and a spec
document that specifies what the code is supposed to achieve in the
first place.

Cheers

PeteS

.

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