Subj : Re: baja.c / unbaja.c
To   : Tracker1
From : Angus McLeod
Date : Sat Sep 10 2005 11:38 pm

  Re: Re: baja.c / unbaja.c
  By: Tracker1 to Digital Man on Sat Sep 10 2005 13:57:00

 > >> I have never looked back on any non-trivial code I ever wrote without
 > >> experiencing the disturbing thought that I could have done better.
 > >
 > > Me too! I wrote some programs that looked and worked great on the surface
 > > but under the hood were horrendous examples of programming. <shrug>
 > 
 > In my own opinion, anyone that can say otherwise isn't growing as a
 > programmer... Even the demi-god system programmers will usually say the
 > same.

Not to say that I've never looked back at some *crufty* old code and still 
felt proud to have written it!  I've found myself congratulating myself 
for having sone such a great job -- given how little I understood of the 
task I was working to solve, how limited my resources, and how poorly I 
then knew how to use them.....

I once had to implement an algorithm that was specified by law.  The 
Central Bank provided me with the algorithm written out on a piece of 
paper.  Only, the algorithm was actually flawed and unworkable, despite 
being the law of the land.  I coded the closest thing I could, and hoped 
not to go to jail.  My implementation of the unworkable algorithm worked 
so much better than everyone *elses* implementation, that the Central Bank 
started sending people to *me* to find out how to do it.  Still, EVERY 
year I'd get some self-important auditor come in so I could explain it to 
him.  Just imagine trying to explain it to a guy who thinks the real names 
dor 'addition' and 'subtraction' are 'credit' and 'debit', only he can 
never make up his mind which is which, and to whom the terms 'division' 
and 'multiplication' mean nothing at all!



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