The idea itself sounds good and recognizes what tends to happen especially later in a project. There a number of challenges though:
- The name - as already has been raised by others implies that you have done something wrong.
- Adding to the file requires a degree of confidence and maturity among your team and a level of trust among the group.
- The existence of such a file might reduce effort on the part of some. After all if "shameful" hacks are OK, why bother with real solutions?
- Internal refactoring as an separate independent initiative is sometimes difficult to justify from a financial or political perspective.
In a group with self-aware, well educated, and motivated developers, these concerns might be rather small. But in many larger organizations (with practices that sometimes make Dilbert comics appear tame), this would not work as well for these and other related reasons.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea. And since css code is relatively "free" to be included in an arbitrary file, calling out questionable code in this way does seem to have its merits. Perhaps its the use of the term shame that tips me off, but that is a concept that is understood very differently by different people and different cultures. So - like many suggestions - it might work well depending on your group, but is unlikely to be adopted as a universal best practice.
Comments
The idea itself sounds good and recognizes what tends to happen especially later in a project. There a number of challenges though:
- The name - as already has been raised by others implies that you have done something wrong.
- Adding to the file requires a degree of confidence and maturity among your team and a level of trust among the group.
- The existence of such a file might reduce effort on the part of some. After all if "shameful" hacks are OK, why bother with real solutions?
- Internal refactoring as an separate independent initiative is sometimes difficult to justify from a financial or political perspective.
In a group with self-aware, well educated, and motivated developers, these concerns might be rather small. But in many larger organizations (with practices that sometimes make Dilbert comics appear tame), this would not work as well for these and other related reasons.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea. And since css code is relatively "free" to be included in an arbitrary file, calling out questionable code in this way does seem to have its merits. Perhaps its the use of the term shame that tips me off, but that is a concept that is understood very differently by different people and different cultures. So - like many suggestions - it might work well depending on your group, but is unlikely to be adopted as a universal best practice.