use Perl

• Balance (Score:2)

  by Juerd (1796)

  Of course, the paycheck (or in my case, having clients pay my invoices) is incredibly important.
  
  However, the world is not black and white, and there's much gray in between. The gradient isn't linear either, and in fact, many shades of gray turn out to have a very different hue.
  
  While the customer (boss or client) is the one you're serving directly, you're also serving other people. People who do not pay you, or will ever know that you worked on that particular part of code. They are all the people that are i
  • Re:Balance (Score:2)

    by Ovid (2709) on 2006.03.09 17:52 (#46537) Homepage Journal

    It's our moral obligation to deliver quality even if our customers specifically state that they do not need it. If they refuse to pay for it, then it is our responsibility to say "no".

    Really? Define "quality" in such an unambiguous way that everyone will agree on it.

    When I'm asked about this in interviews, the thing I make clear is that if I'm told to make a button pink and have it purr like a kitten when clicked, I'll do it (even though I might ask 'em why). However, if I'm told to do something illegal I'll refuse. Unethical? I'll probably refuse (I say "probably refuse" because I might be mistaken about the unethical nature of something). Insecure? I'll balk like mad but, if they insist and it's clear that they voluntarily bear the substantial burden of the risk, I'll agree (in other words, if I put unsuspecting customers at risk, I won't agree).

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    • Re:Balance (Score:2)

      by Juerd (1796)

      Defining quality is impossible because a definition cannot have the required balance, as that differs per institution, per situation.
      
      As for your second paragraph, that's more or less what I do too. (Although most of the time, it is my *job* to avoid pink buttons.)
    • Re:Balance (Score:1)

      by Aristotle (5147)

      See The Crooked Timber Of Software Development [hacknot.info] and the awesome response Tye wrote at PerlMonks [perlmonks.org] when I posted that link.
      • Re:Balance (Score:1)

        by btilly (5037)

        I'd love to read that link. Your recommends are usually good.

        Unfortunately I can't because the site has an internal error.

        Furthermore the internal error shows me that they present a full stack backtrace on internal errors. Which you shouldn't do in production because it allows people to debug their attacks against your site.

        If they're recommending shortchanging program quality for business considerations, the current state of the site suggests that they may wish to re-prioritize...
        • Re:Balance (Score:1)

          by Aristotle (5147)

          It’s still available from the Google cache [google.com], thankfully. I also have a local copy in my aggregator, should that too fail.