[plt-scheme] Perplexed Programmers

From: Geoffrey S. Knauth (geoff at knauth.org)
Date: Sat Aug 25 23:47:25 EDT 2007

On Aug 25, 2007, at 23:24, Richard Cleis wrote:
> I fully admit that I work in an environment that is less job- 
> threatening than others.  Hopefully, that doesn't disqualify me  
> from asking: Do you work in your described scenario?  How many  
> people do you know of that do?

I worked at a place where meeting deadlines was considered far more  
important than writing good code.  If the code was a mess but somehow  
things worked and delivery was on time, that was OK, especially since  
the code was likely to evolve or be discarded within a couple of  
years anyway.  To suggest that something should really take longer  
initially so that it could be done carefully did nothing to enhance  
one's career.  Copy/paste was encouraged.

Happily I've worked at other places too where I had real programmers  
and scientists I could look up to.  Those are the memories I cherish.



Posted on the users mailing list.