How many of you are Extreme Programmers?

[Christopher Blunck]

Steven Taschuk <staschuk at telusplanet.net> wrote in message news:<mailman.1050606271.32628.python-list at python.org>...
> Quoth Christopher Blunck:

> There is another point:  Although there are indeed lots of
> programmers who do not deserve this trust and will betray it every
> time, the feeling among Pythonistas is, I think, that (a) this is
> not sufficient justification for hamstringing the competent, and
> (b) no language feature will make an appreciable dent in the
> incompetent's ability to screw everything up.
> 
> Dealing with incompetent programmers is an organizational problem,
> not a language design problem.


I completely agree with you!

Incompetence is a human problem, requiring a human solution
(termination being a good candidate).  Management is difficult because
it often involves confrontation, which usually ends in emotional
turmoil and discord on the team.  As a result, some managers may feel
more comfortable trying to lasso an incompetent programmer (or team)
by creating coding standards, forcing the use of one particular
language, or by some form of a community review (code review).  In
doing so, the manager hopes that these "process improvements" will fix
the human problem.  Frequently it does not, and (as you so elegantly
pointed out) what ends up happening is hamstringing of the stars on
team.  That's when it's time to look for a new job.  In the end
everyone loses:  the team looses star players and the star players
have to look for a new job, which usually is not a fun process.


-c