15 Sep
2017
15 Sep
'17
7:39 a.m.
Quoting Dan Cross <crossd(a)gmail.com>:
On Thu, Sep 14, 2017 at 5:15 PM, Bakul Shah
<bakul(a)bitblocks.com>
wrote:
We
I agree with that. To write a story or an article, you have to know where you are going
with it. You need
to know how to make the best use of your resources - the language, the register of
language eg chatty
versus formal versus jargon versus whatever - which implies you have to know those
resources, you
need to know how everything fits together in their contexts unless you are writing satire
or comedy or
such in which case you are deliberately aiming for the resulting absurdity. Etc, etc.
And you don't get that from being told about it. You have to do it. And you have to
revise it. And you
have to be humble about it, too. Taking criticism on board in on of the hardest things
from any writer.
But that's how it works.
Wesley Parish
On Sep 14, 2017, at 1:46 PM, Clem Cole
<clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
I think you are actually touching on an idea that has been around
humanity for a
long time that is independent of the computer field. call it "good taste." Part of acquiring
good taste is learning what is
in
bad taste, a heavy dose of experience and frankly
the ability to
evaluate
your own flaws.
More to do with a sense for quality. Often developed through
experience
(but not just that). I think what we need is a
guild system for
programmers/engineers. Being an apprentice of a master craftsman is
essential for learning this "good taste" as you call it.
No, please; not this old saw again.
This guild system for software keeps coming up but I don't see how it
cannot but be abused. I remember reading one of those self-help books
by
one of the agile types (I forget which one) and there was a vignette
about
one of the self-styled agile gurus (Robert C Martin, I think) coming
into
some room where people were undergoing "apprenticeships" an, seeing an
overflowing trashcan and taking out the trash. The person telling the
story
went one and one about being so embarrassed because s/he was "just" a
lowly
intern and this "master software craftsman" had taken out the trash.
I pretty much stopped reading after that. Sorry, but I cleaned enough
heads
and squad bays when I was in the Marines; Robert C Martin can take out
his
own trash, thank you very much. Also, I read one of his books once and
he
misspelled "Lieutenant" in the chapter about quality and attention to
detail (a minor detail I was acutely aware of because I was a Lieutenant
at
the time).
I think a better system than putting us into this rigid hierarchy system
is
to think of programming as somewhat analogous to writing; it requires
proofreading and good editing. Some authors are better than others;
practice helps a lot, writers workshops can help, seeking out advise
and
mentorship from more accomplished writers similarly, etc.
But the guild/craftsmanship metaphor just doesn't work for me.
- Dan C.
"I have supposed that he who buys a Method means to learn it." - Ferdinand Sor,
Method for Guitar
"A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on." -- Samuel
Goldwyn