Re: Cargo Cult Membership


Augray wrote:
On Sat, 1 Jul 2006 22:28:00 -0500, "bullpup" <bullpup@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote in <f3Hpg.28440$gv2.25415@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> :

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=73181

I would suggest that this essay is, well, flawed. For instance, the
writer states that

Cargo Cult thinking is very much alive today, and particularly
susceptible to it are computer programmers.

However, his knowledge of programming seems suspect:

Those who write Cargo cult programs explain their useless code as
a way of working around a certain computer bug, whose origins
they know nothing about. A classic example are programmers who
think that using commenting code is good, and then produce every
line with comments such as "increment i by 1". The result is a
lot of bad, problematic computer coding that can screw up a lot
of things.

However, commenting code has no influence on the final program. The
comments are there to explain your programming rationale to yourself,
or any other programmer, five years from now when the code has to be
modified or debugged.

No, the author is correct. Useless comments, like:

// increment i by one
i++;

are a /symptom/ of cargo cult programming. They are there because the
programmer believes you have to have comments, but does not understand
why.

Cargo cult programming can be as innocent as copying a code sample from
MSDN and including it in your program. You know what it's supposed to
do (because the MSDN page tells you) but not how it works. A non-cargo
cult programmer will soon learn which of the copied lines are not
required for his or her program, and remove them. The cargo-cult
programmer will rarely change anything that works.

http://www.dailywtf.com/ frequently has examples of cargo cult
programming.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Revisiting an old friend: Set oRS = Nothing
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  • Re: Cargo Cult Membership
    ... his knowledge of programming seems suspect: ... Those who write Cargo cult programs explain their useless code as ... line with comments such as "increment i by 1". ... commenting code has no influence on the final program. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Cargo Cult Membership
    ... his knowledge of programming seems suspect: ... Those who write Cargo cult programs explain their useless code as ... line with comments such as "increment i by 1". ... commenting code has no influence on the final program. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Cargo Cult Membership
    ... his knowledge of programming seems suspect: ... Those who write Cargo cult programs explain their useless code as ... commenting code has no influence on the final program. ... "Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of ...
    (talk.origins)
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