Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Code Sucks

Most code sucks. Mine included... especially mine... but other people's too. Despite the best of intentions and planning and playing with paper sketches and squiggly lines, all code eventually turns into an impenetrable mess.

You can follow all the rules about writing code and organizing modules and whatnot, but you end up in the same place. The problem is that we don't know the rules to writing software yet. The rules we do have a contradictory. We work with people that don't know the rules and/or don't know about them.

It drives me insane.

Sometimes you can fix parts of the code. Line by line, class by class, you can refactor and test as you go. Or, at least, that's what I thought. Sometimes there's just too much inertia. Your best code doesn't work in the presence of the existing code. Sometimes the code, the project, and the team are just too far gone.

It's a sinking ship... and there's no honor in going down with her. Man the lifeboats and wait to get picked up by another ship.

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