Re:Professors’ unprofessional programs have created a new pr...
by vanderZwan on Tuesday August 22, 2017 @08:06AM
(#15071534)
> So, lots of low hanging fruit.
Well, yes and no. Speaking as someone who has done this as well: if it's UI stuff, or gluing processes together, it's fine. But sometimes they want you to fix up a custom algorithm they implemented. Which can be one of those cutting-edge scientific things that actually require a PhD-level of knowledge and insight into the topic. So you can only get half-way with untangling the spaghetti mess without sincerely not knowing for sure if you broke something or fixed a bug, because you don't know what the correct output should be.
Well, yes and no. Speaking as someone who has done this as well: if it's UI stuff, or gluing processes together, it's fine. But sometimes they want you to fix up a custom algorithm they implemented. Which can be one of those cutting-edge scientific things that actually require a PhD-level of knowledge and insight into the topic. So you can only get half-way with untangling the spaghetti mess without sincerely not knowing for sure if you broke something or fixed a bug, because you don't know what the correct output should be.