97 Things Every Programmer Should Know

Chapter 58. A Message to the Future

Linda Rising

MAYBE IT’S BECAUSE MOST OF THEM ARE SMART PEOPLE, but in all the years I’ve taught and worked side by side with programmers, it seems that most of them thought that since the problems they were struggling with were difficult, the solutions should be just as difficult for everyone (maybe even for themselves a few months after the code was written) to understand and maintain.

I remember one incident with Joe, a student in my data structures class, who had to come in to show me what he’d written. “Betcha can’t guess what it does!” he crowed.

“You’re right,” I agreed, without spending too much time on his example and wondering how to get an important message across. “I’m sure you’ve been working hard on this. I wonder, though, if you haven’t forgotten something important. Say, Joe, don’t you have a younger brother?”

“Yep. Sure do! Phil! He’s in your Intro class. He’s learning to program, too!” Joe announced proudly.

“That’s great,” I replied. “I wonder if he could read this code.”

“No way!” said Joe. “This is hard stuff!”

“Just suppose,” I suggested, “that this was real, working code, and that in a few years, Phil was hired to make a maintenance update. What have you done for him?” Joe just stared at me, blinking. “We know that Phil is really smart, right?” Joe nodded. “And I hate to say it, but I’m pretty smart, too!” Joe grinned. “So if I can’t ...