Re: [xml-dev] Philosophy or logic?

[Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>]

> On 29 Aug 2021, at 12:32, Dave Pawson <dave.pawson@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 29 Aug 2021 at 12:26, Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 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.
> 
> All of which (though sound) miss the point of 'why'?
> Good code should aim towards an outcome.
> IMHO the article focuses on the outcome, the customer i/f if you like.
> Not the style/appearance/layout of the code?
> 

I've had managers who were focused on the outcome: no, you're not allowed to spend a week combining two similar chunks of code into one to eliminate the internal redundancy, or to take advantage of the latest feature in the programming language. The result was always a worse outcome: the differences and inconsistencies multiplied, the code decayed and became buggy, it was harder to port to a new platform, it was a less suitable foundation for the next new feature. 

Beauty comes from within, as my grandmother used to say.

Michael Kay
Saxonica