[Sheflug] Shooting programmers ;)

[Al Hudson <nospam [at] york.ac.uk>]

On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> Al> Just as an aside, anyone using asserts in their code ought to
> Al> be shot.  They're horrific.
> ?  Dunno about projects you work on, but asserts in XEmacs generally
> (1) guarantee a bug report (sure, this depends on pissing users off,
> (2) assure a bare minimum of useful information in that report.  Even

I'm generally talking about a lower calibre of programmer ;) People tend
to use assert() as some sort of half-arsed pre/post condition in the code,
and don't generally understand what they're there for. They're usually
used as some post-condition, and are unmaintained, so you get some person
who writes algorithm A and pops in some asserts. Algorithm A is found
wanting for some edge case B, but the asserts aren't updated to reflect
this. Thus, software barfs for no good reason. I've *never* seen assert()
used properly, by anyone.

> True most of those instances were with beta versions of the
> installers, but a few were with release versions.

Hmmm .... :)

>     Al> Flexibility for powerfreaks begins and ends with setting up a
>     Al> shell, for normal people it means putting more features in
>     Al> easy-to-reach places ;)
> 
> But what I objected to was "reassuring."  Flexibility for me is a
> means to an end == reassurance.

I would state, though, that you're not the norm ;)

> All I ask is that you don't get me wrong; it is precisely the
> convenience and efficiency of installers that leaves me with the free
> time to flame you.  I just find that more buttons tends to mean more
> things to break, and more policy decisions made behind my back that I
> have to search out and check.  That's not "reassuring."

Not for you, no, I understand ;)

Cheers,

Alex.


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