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Do Women Write Better Code?

JCWDenton writes "The senior vice-president of engineering for computer-database company Ingres-and one of Silicon Valley's highest-ranking female programmers-insists that men and women write code differently. Women are more touchy-feely and considerate of those who will use the code later, she says. They'll intersperse their code ... with helpful comments and directions, explaining why they wrote the lines the way they did and exactly how they did it. The code becomes a type of 'roadmap' for others who might want to alter it or add to it later, says McGrattan, a native of Ireland who has been with Ingres since 1992. Men, on the other hand, have no such pretenses. Often, 'they try to show how clever they are by writing very cryptic code,' she tells the Business Technology Blog. 'They try to obfuscate things in the code,' and don't leave clear directions for people using it later. "

4 of 847 comments (clear)

  1. Re:yeah yeah... by Thangodin · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Uh, huh... and good luck figuring out what they hell you've done when you have to fix or extend it months later. Comments aren't just for other people, they're for you too.

    But you need some experience in the field to actually know that...

  2. Re:Do women write better code? by JeepFanatic · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I work for a small software company (about 45 people total) and we have 3 female programmers (including the lead programmer) and a female QA analyst. Our Pres/CEO is also a woman.

  3. Re:Do women write better code? by JeepFanatic · · Score: 1, Redundant

    So ... the guys who insinuate that there's no such thing as female programmers get modded +5 funny whereas I mention that there are indeed female programmers and that you can even find a software company that's run by a woman and I get modded redundant.

  4. Duh by R3N3G4D3 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Men, on the other hand, have no such pretenses. Often, "they try to show how clever they are by writing very cryptic code

    It's called job security, bitch