This is what happens when you think that a programmer's job is to create code - you type and type and type and just get buried in the complexity and things get worse and worse.
A programmer's job is to understand problems. A programmer's job is to think clearly. The code is incidental. If you think clearly about the problems, you will need less code, and gradually things will get simpler - I've seen code-bases that actually shrink as they gain functionality.
The only good thing about programmers who spew code all day without thinking is that they create jobs for good programmers to come and clean up their messes later.
There are still far too many companies that use LOC as the benchmark. It's similar to basing productivity based on the number of browser tabs you have open.
I agree, I've never seen a maintenance nightmare that fits on a screen or two of text. Overly complex systems, in my mind, always create more long term problems than overly simple systems - even if the simple system requires a hack or two to work.
Comments
This is what happens when you think that a programmer's job is to create code - you type and type and type and just get buried in the complexity and things get worse and worse.
A programmer's job is to understand problems. A programmer's job is to think clearly. The code is incidental. If you think clearly about the problems, you will need less code, and gradually things will get simpler - I've seen code-bases that actually shrink as they gain functionality.
The only good thing about programmers who spew code all day without thinking is that they create jobs for good programmers to come and clean up their messes later.
There are still far too many companies that use LOC as the benchmark. It's similar to basing productivity based on the number of browser tabs you have open.
I agree, I've never seen a maintenance nightmare that fits on a screen or two of text. Overly complex systems, in my mind, always create more long term problems than overly simple systems - even if the simple system requires a hack or two to work.