R. Clayton (rclayton@monmouth.edu)
(no date)
See the 28 January entry (Binary Search Debugging) at www.joelonsoftware.com
for a typical tale from the software mines. Although it contains much good
advice (for example, use the binary-chop pattern to winnow through lots of
decisions, measure before you cut, and use source code-control), I call your
attention to the entry because, for all the good advice dispensed, the author
failed to diagnose the source of the problem: duplicate code is bad code, a
topic I promised to harp on throughout the semester.
Good programmers need to know about the wizbang tools and techniques available
to help diagnose, find, and repair coding errors. However, great programmers
understand the conditions from which coding errors arise, and make sure these
conditions are never present in their code.
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