NYCPHP Meetup

[David Krings]

Urb LeJeune wrote:
>         It all depends upon you philosophy of programming. To most
> people a good program is one that works. To me a good program
> has three important characteristics:
> 
> 1. It does what the specifications require under all circumstances.
> 2. It is efficient in the use of resources, both computer and human.
> 3. It is easily maintained by someone other than the original programmer.
> 
>         Keep in mind that the creation cost of a production program (it's
> actually being used) is a small fraction of the original cost.

Number 1 is a tricky one. You are saying that your program is a "good program" 
even when it does exactly what the crappy and misguided specs demand? The 
simple requirement of "program that works" may be closer to the anticipated 
goal than one that follows the specs to the t. Good specs are hard to come by 
and writing good specs ina pain the behind. I've done it and failed blatantly.

David