| A couple of points here: > Quality matters, but there are other things that also matter, such as actually getting working code written. "Working code written" is setting a quality bar. Really. I've seen enough code that has omitted the "working" qualifier that I think it is worth making that point. Many developers spend far too much time erring on the side of too little quality. Not developers here, mind you; I suspect that we care enough to tend to err the other direction. I mean the type that Jeff and Joel repeatedly point out who will never visit sites like this or StackOverflow. > Joel focuses on dogmatic adherence to development methodologies/principles as an example, specifically testing. And I think Bob is focusing on people with a complete lack of methodologies and principles. The problem is that they are both talking in greater extremes than are necessary for the sake of emphasizing their point. For what it is worth, I think they are both right, and are violently agreeing on the same gray area. FWIW, Jeff and Joel strike me as intelligent enough developers that they likely keep their code sufficiently clean without having to consciously remind themselves, or have someone else remind them. Their subconscious quality bar is sufficiently high that they don't have to consciously think about that either. They both seem to have a sense of design that most developers just don't. So does Bob. I suspect that Bob has worked with or heard of enough developers who don't that he feels compelled to advocate his position with a little more gusto. But both took the other's position as an attack against their own ability or philosophies; this wasn't the point. I think Joel/Jeff were addressing the people who have the tendency to care about what they do, perhaps a little too much at times, and convince them to let go a little bit; Bob is address the people who don't give a crap, and trying to give them a least somewhat of a mental framework to make things that at least kind of work most of the time. The problem is that these people need things told to them dogmatically, to get them out of their comfort zone. That kind of dogmatic advice tends to rub those who think about what we do to begin with the wrong way. |