[Gllug] Open source == 'Popular Computing'

[James Laver]

On 20 Apr 2009, at 18:50, tid wrote:

> 2009/4/20 Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk>:
>
>> It isn't that hard, but it does require that the programmer realise  
>> that there do exist other
>> people in the world - then people can't see the inside of his head.
>
> This is a fundamental axiom which I've encountered a lot in the
> software industry, and
> there are many lame excuses which poor [programmers/departments/ 
> companies] use
> to avoid documenting their code & applications.
>
> Top of my list is "Agile mandates documentation as unnecessary". I
> quickly extracted
> myself from *that* particular organisation.

It's really common to hear that. As a result, if a company talks about  
agile, I ask about documentation, release frequency, refactoring,  
coding standards and testing.

If the answers don't satisfy me, I conclude the interview there and  
then. It's a guarantee that otherwise the job is going to become hell.

I interviewed at a social network thingummyjig last year in central  
london and asked them about release frequency. They told me they  
release to live 4 times a day. I left shortly after.

> Another was "It's too complex to explain or document - the users won't
> understand it."

Excellent. Good job they won't have to use it then.

--James
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