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Real World Code Sucks

Posted by Soulskill on from the so-does-real-world-math-and-real-world-cooking dept.

An anonymous reader tips an article at El Reg about the disparity between the code you learn at school and the code you see at work. Quoting: "There is a kind of cognitive dissonance in most people who've moved from the academic study of computer science to a job as a real-world software developer. The conflict lies in the fact that, whereas nearly every sample program in every textbook is a perfect and well-thought-out specimen, virtually no software out in the wild is, and this is rarely acknowledged. To be precise: a tremendous amount of source code written for real applications is not merely less perfect than the simple examples seen in school — it's outright terrible by any number of measures."

5 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. must read: "worse is better" by Polo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It might be interesting to read The Rise of "Worse is Better"

    1. Re:must read: "worse is better" by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      academic examples aren't bad in and of themselves. They are specifically teaching you how to do 'X'.

      In production you have to know how to apply X, Y, Z, B, E, and G. But you don't start by trying to learn all of them at once. You learn simplistic examples that hopefully teach you the theories and best concepts for 'X'.

      --
      People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  2. I think he's mostly correct by Chirs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I work in enterprise embedded stuff where the systems are five nines reliable, and even there we've got problems. We recently ran into a day-one bug that suddenly turned and bit us because we switched to a different brand of hard drive.

  3. Re:Captain Obvious? by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's even worse than that.

    These folks learn the classics, but then go out and are forced to make a living by making new editions of Twilight, Hunger Games, etc. As a bonus, they're not allowed (by edict and budget) to change more than 25% of the nouns (in aggregate, not as categories).

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  4. Re:Captain Obvious? by jimshatt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Reminded me of a comic by the oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell