Re: [Q] HOWTO redirect a i/o-port in Unix??

[Leo Razoumov <lrazoumov@qualcomm.com>]

Hi Matthias,
thank you very much for sharing your insights into software process. I really
appreciate your time and comments on these matters.

>>>>> "MF" == Matthias Felleisen <matthias@cs.rice.edu> writes:
    MF> For history: I used to oppose all comments in code and suggest that if a
    MF> program is worth writing, you write a "paper" on it -- i.e. internal docs
    MF> are models plus papers. Code should be so easy to read that you don't need
    MF> this "here I increase x by 1" stuff you get in many other things. (Been in 
    MF> industry and seen this.)

The problem with this approach is that it is pretty hard to keep code and
separate documentation in sync. One powerful improvement would be to have
documentation-file and source-code-file use hypertext links to cross-referenced
each other, thus making browsing, updating and synchronization much easier
*without* cluttering source code with comments and documentation with lengthy
code pieces.

    MF> I changed my mind when I started teaching lower level courses and when I
    MF> started conducting code walks. Why? While many of us are really really good
    MF> at keeping code properties in our heads and/or deriving them from code,
    MF> most people are not. And the idea of them maintaining my code or me taking
    MF> over their code was a horror. So HtDP developed as a reaction. 

    MF> Did I insist with the people who write code here? Keep poking around and
    MF> you will see that some of the code is written that way. 

In my 7+ years of writing industry software I have gotton some strong (might be
arguable and very subjective) views, one of them being "code is written by a
human for a human". Thinking this way your requirements sound very natural and
do not constitute "limitations of programmer's freedom":-). 
Seriously, well thought comments (which do not repeat code) are very valuable!

Once Don Knuth explained why it is so hard to find good code with good
documentation: There is only a small fraction of world's population which can
write good code, there is another (almost uncorrelated with the first group)
small fraction of world's population which is capable of writing good
documentation -- the joint probability of both is even smaller!


    MF> M own experience: I used to use the Chez Scheme debugger. Once I started
    MF> following my own guidelines, I have hardly ever needed to think about
    MF> debugging. Seriously. So I have become a beliefer in my own guidelines :-)

A good debugger never hurts! Will DrScheme-v102 allow to step through a code in
"Full Scheme" mode??

Thank you once again for your time and very interesting discussion.
-- Leo

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