Keith Pleas Blog

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Encouraging Bad Coding?

A recent office-cleaning turned up a quote I'd kept from an automotive magazine from 20 years ago:

"Protecting drivers from the consequences of bad driving encourages bad driving"

Well, that seems reasonable to me. If you didn't have bumpers, seatbelts, airbags, and whatever...you'd probably be encouraged to drive more carefully, right? And the Darwinian aspect would help cleanse the pool of bad drivers. So, how well would this translate to software development?

"Protecting developers from the consequences of bad coding encourages bad coding"

Of course, it's not just coding - you could substitute architecture or pretty much any other activity and the statement might still be true - and relevant.

Posted: Feb 01 2008, 01:05 PM by keithpleas | with 3 comment(s) |
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Comments

AndrewSeven said:

Wouldn't bad coding be more like poor construction of the car rather than bad driving ;)

I've definitely seen discussion before about the effect of certain languages because of the details that they hide.

# February 1, 2008 2:43 PM

The Other Steve said:

This is why developers should work support.

# February 1, 2008 6:02 PM

YongGang Meng's Weblog said:

A recent office-cleaning turned up a quote I'd kept from an automotive magazine from 20 years ago: "Protecting

# February 1, 2008 11:01 PM
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