Re: [xml-dev] Philosophy or logic?

[Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>]

Interesting, yes, but I absolutely don't agree with it. I firmly believe that you only get a good product by obsessing over the internal detail. 

I guess I have several reasons for believing that.

Firstly, if you're casual about the internals then you're going to be casual about the externals. People who don't fix spelling mistakes in comments aren't going to fix spelling mistakes in error messages either.

Secondly, I think that achieving reliable (bug-free) code requires obsessive attention to detail at the coding level, including apparent trivia such as choosing meaningful variable names.

Thirdly, effective software engineering is all about building in potential for change, and potential for change depends largely on internal properties of the code base that are not externally visible in the delivered "product".

Having said that, attention to internal detail is of course necessary, but not sufficient.

Michael Kay
Saxonica

> On 29 Aug 2021, at 10:47, Dave Pawson <dave.pawson@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> https://thezbook.com/code-first-vs-product-first/
> 
> An interesting read.
> 
> regards
> 
> -- 
> Dave Pawson
> XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
> Docbook FAQ.
> 
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