Forum Quote Of The Day

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Forum Quote Of The Day

From an ASP.NET discussion:

"Real men don't write code, they regenerate it."

Use the comments to discuss the technological, grammatical, and sociological aspects of this statement.

Print | posted @ Wednesday, September 20, 2006 2:55 AM

Comments on this entry:

# re: Forum Quote Of The Day

by AC at 9/20/2006 5:51 AM

There is only one program and it is still being written.

# re: Forum Quote Of The Day

by Doug at 9/20/2006 5:56 AM

I believe this wasn't true in the past, when we all spent so much time doing things like inventing the wheel. But it seems to be becoming true today.

Coincidentally, I posted a very similar sentiment on my blog a few days ago:

Programming has changed since the days when I was punching cards for an IBM 370 at Boeing. In related developments, researchers say that watching NFL games can make you tough, and having a porn collection may someday be considered sexy.

# re: Forum Quote Of The Day

by Keyvan Nayyeri at 9/20/2006 6:15 AM

So:
1- Only and only developers can be "man" ?! And for instance a dentist isn't "man" (in this case) :-D
2- Also, those who create a code for first time aren't "man"!
3- And also! Those who create a technology to let others to write code aren't "man"!
God bless :-P

# re: Forum Quote Of The Day

by Gokhan at 9/20/2006 7:44 AM

According to Google, regenerate means:
"re-establish on a new, usually improved, basis or make new or like new".
My brain highlights "improved" and "like new" automatically, and correlates to Picasso's "Good artists copy, great artists steal".

More Googling, and I found this on Picasso's quote:
“Picasso hardly meant that great artists steal popular designs whose original source is known to everyone,” says Wes George, writer for The Mac Observer and financial Mac nut.

“What Picasso did mean was that great artists rummage through the great junk heap of lost, bypassed, and forgotten ideas to find the rare jewels, and then incorporate such languishing gems into their own personal artistic legacy… Picasso implied that great artists don't get caught stealing because what they appropriate they transform so thoroughly into their own persona, that everyone ends up thinking the great idea was theirs in the first place.”
(from www.sitepoint.com/.../2)

In software development, ideas usually don't get lost but there are so many of them and implementing some bad practices is so easier at the beginning that, just writing code without research/knowledge cannot be identified by the guilty himself.

# re: Forum Quote Of The Day

by Real Programmer at 9/20/2006 2:58 PM

I have to disagree with the quote as written.

Real Programmers:
1. know how to write code
2. know how to reuse code (theirs or others)
3. know how to use code generators
4. (most importantly) know when to write, when to reuse, and when to regenerate

Programmer Losers:
1. write bad code
2. don't know how to reuse code
3. rely exclusively on wizards and code generators
4. (most importantly) have no idea when to write, reuse or generate their code

# re: Forum Quote Of The Day

by yipyip at 9/20/2006 6:44 PM

And what do they regenerate it from? Pixie dust?

Judging by statements like this, and by the recent mass Internet hysteria over Joel Spolsky's digs at Ruby and disclosure that he uses an in-house programming language, I think a great many working "programmers" need to be beaten about the head with a sturdy copy of Essentials of Programming Languages, and sent to re-education camps where they will learn just what a programming language is, and just what a compiler is.

Anyway...

# re: Forum Quote Of The Day

by scott at 9/20/2006 7:47 PM

:) Great comments.