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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Writing readable code
Message-ID: <1728@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Jul-87 21:08:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: kontron.1728
Posted: Fri Jul 17 21:08:05 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 19:47:53 EDT
References: <598@nonvon.UUCP> <2365@bunker.UUCP> <368@cos.COM>
Organization: Kontron Electronics, Mt. View, CA
Lines: 44

> In article <2365@bunker.UUCP> garys@bunker.UUCP (Gary M. Samuelson) writes:
> 
> >...  Some of us are actually not permitted
> >to "do it right."
> > ...
> >"Yes, documentation is important, but so-and-so customer is screaming
> >for such-and-such a feature, so we can't schedule time to write anything
> >but code."

My least pleasant experience in this vein was sometime back -- I won't
name any names -- but it's a painful example.

A company I worked for had been run by some less than scrupulous sorts
(or perhaps incompetents).  The California division had been saying,
"Yes, we have X people writing design documents for the new product.
We're making great progress."  The management team from corporate
headquarters flies out to California, and finds out that basically,
the steaming pile of badly written, pie-in-the-sky documentation for
the product was so vague and meaningless as to be useless.  The
California management runs to the startup they've been putting 
together in the meantime (on company time, I understand), and me
the peon ends up a supervisor.

Corporate's management asks, "How long will it take to build the
product?"  I say, "Well, the current design documents really don't
say anything.  I figure in about six to nine months we should have a 
functional specification and design document.  Then we'll get everyone 
to look it over, sign off, and start detail design and coding."

They look at me as though I'm pulling a fast one on them.  (Remember,
they've already invested a year and half of several people's time
writing a functional spec which is nonsense.)  They say, "You will
have to design and code in parallel."

Can you blame them?  They were already taken for a ride once -- and
put out huge chunks of money, with no real return -- at least for the
people paying the bills.  They wanted proof the engineering department
that hadn't jumped ship weren't just a bunch of Newport Beach 
slimebuckets ripping them off.

It worked better than I would have guessed -- but I guess it's just
my strong leadership and project management skills that made it work. :-)

Clayton E. Cramer