Re: Taught or self taught

Jacqui Caren <jacqui.carenntlworld.com> writes:

> Daniel Barlow wrote:
>> Sometimes it's only after you've done the first
attempt that it's
>> obvious what you /should/ have written.
>
> I have done it but it often smells of hackery.

I prefer to call it "prototyping".

> On a fixed price project, having to re-do
> can mean the diff between "profit" and
"loss".

Running out of budget before you translate the painstaking
paper
design into code has very similar implications.

If I have limited resources and I'm not sure what I should
be doing,
I'll use every tool available that helps me find out faster,
whether
that's drawing on paper, writing a throwaway prototype or
screwing
around in the debugger.  If any tool with a one-day
turnaround between
request and result (e.g. the proposed card punch) is going
to help in
this endeavour, the available alternatives must have been
truly
horrific.


-dan