Cargo Cult Programming

Re:Cargo Cult Programming by drpixie on Monday April 17, 2023 @05:37AM (#35598531)

Sounds like using Pilot or ChatGPT for coding - no understanding of the situation/problem, just add some code that makes the error message go away :(

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Re:Cargo Cult Programming by qikInNdOutReply on Monday April 17, 2023 @05:54AM (#35598666)

When the error messages are caused, by a test suite with a mathematical rigourous spec and edge case geared tests, this eventually results in correct code.

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Re:Cargo Cult Programming by drpixie on Monday April 17, 2023 @09:25AM (#35600299)

Agreed - given a complete and correct test suite! But even so, "correct" code is not necessarily efficient or readable code.

And note that writing the complete and correct test suite is likely to be a task of similar difficulty to designing and writing good code! I'm not saying don't test, but I am saying that non-trivial testing is difficult.

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