R Hayes wrote:
On Apr 17, 2007, at 4:46 PM, David Brown wrote:
R Hayes wrote:
They *enjoy* debugging ...
I have to say this is one of the best things I've found for catching bad programmers during interviews, no matter what kind of system it is for. I learned this the hard way after watching someone who never really understood her program, but just kept thwacking at it with a debugger until it at least partially worked.
I've seen this too, but I would not use the word debugging to describe it. I don't think I agree that enjoying debugging is a sufficient symptom for diagnosing this condition. There are many people that love the puzzle-box aspect of debugging. Some of them are very talented developers.
R Hayes rfhayes<>@reillyhayes.com
Dave
I agree with the latter sentiment. I call the "thwacking at it" approach "random programming" or "shotgun programming", the latter suggesting that it's like shooting at the problem randomly until it dies. I prefer not having to debug, but when I do have to I find it fun (up to a point). Mike