Hendy's Blog

What makes a better programmer

When reading The Insanity Defense at Worse Than Failure (formerly known as TheDailyWTF, gosh I hate the new name..), I found one interesting comment.



That's exactly what I've been pondering. For me, that's the difference between the good and bad programmer:

"It never occurs to them to think 'there *has* to be a better way than this.'?"

A good programmer will think that he/she is doing either stupid or too difficult things. One long line of condition is stupid and difficult to understand. There HAS to be a better way to do it. Deeply nested if statements are just wrong, it's hard to comprehend. There HAS to be a better way to do it. And then the search for greatness begins.

And talking about the bad programmer, I sometimes think: this people, either they are stupidly genius or just plain average Joe, at which the latter is more possible. Understanding a crazy code is really beyond my ability. I simply hate it.

But these bad programmers, if they are such a genius that they're able to understand it with ease, they're stupid for not being able to see the simpler form. If they're just average, well, too bad, being average in programming world equals to being bad programmer.

There is just a vast divide between those who can, those who can't. And for me, another vast divide between those who are good and those who are bad. And for the good programmer, he/she will always think when stumbling upon stupid or repetitive task: there has to be a better way than this.

And by the way, I'm not implying that I'm good myself. I'm just someone learning to be better.

Labels: programming

posted by Hendy Tanata @ 19:54