Making It Work Is Only Part of the Project
I’ve been slowly working my way through Coders At Work the last few weeks. So far, it’s been a great read. Seibel did an excellent job leading the conversations, and the peek into the minds of high profile coders and the evolution they’ve undergone has been beyond intriguing. This quote from Joshua Bloch really struck a chord with me tonight:
The older I get, the more I realize it isn’t just about making it work; it’s about producing an artifact that is readable, maintainable, and efficient.
I couldn’t agree more. Except for the ‘older’ part. I’m not that old yet.
My experience with software development in the wild thus far points to the same sentiment. Personal projects tend to be thrown together quite often. Mine are certainly no exception. What I’ve found interesting, however, is that the projects (even small ones going back to my college days) where I’ve put in a little extra effort to better organize my code have proven much, much quicker to change down the road.
Of course, there has to be a balance. Code is worthless if it’s never shipped. The flip side is that it’s not worth a whole heck of a lot if it easily change over time to change with the business requirements.
Here’s a test: Find some code written by someone else in a module that you aren’t familiar with. How long does it take you to understand the purpose of that code? If it’s more than a couple minutes, take that into consideration the next time you’re hacking away on a project, even if just to write better comments. *Guaranteed* someone will appreciate the extra effort down the road.