Comments on: eXtreme Programming http://www.magpiebrain.com/blog/2003/08/22/extreme-programming/ Sam Newman's blog Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:41:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Sam Newman http://www.magpiebrain.com/blog/2003/08/22/extreme-programming/#comment-23 Sam Newman Tue, 26 Aug 2003 10:13:24 +0000 http://www.magpiebrain.com/2003/08/22/extreme-programming/#comment-23 One of the main sticks used to bash XP with seems to be the idea that it promotes lazy programming - it doesn't promote the idea of code reviews. Personally I think if pair programming does work (and to be honest I've yet to see any large scale studies to prove this either way) the need for code reviews beyond the use of automated code conformance tools such as checkstyle can legitimately be removed altogether. I've always hated code reviews - its the task that has to be carried out by a competent programmer but can be mind-numbingly boring. Design reviews are certainly required - but it would be nice if we could believe the hype surrounding XP as it would remove a lot of the tedium associated with programming! One of the main sticks used to bash XP with seems to be the idea that it promotes lazy programming – it doesn’t promote the idea of code reviews. Personally I think if pair programming does work (and to be honest I’ve yet to see any large scale studies to prove this either way) the need for code reviews beyond the use of automated code conformance tools such as checkstyle can legitimately be removed altogether. I’ve always hated code reviews – its the task that has to be carried out by a competent programmer but can be mind-numbingly boring. Design reviews are certainly required – but it would be nice if we could believe the hype surrounding XP as it would remove a lot of the tedium associated with programming!

]]> By: Dave http://www.magpiebrain.com/blog/2003/08/22/extreme-programming/#comment-22 Dave Fri, 22 Aug 2003 18:20:31 +0000 http://www.magpiebrain.com/2003/08/22/extreme-programming/#comment-22 Yes, pair programming is one of those things that has such a high probability of being horrendous. And really, it's just unrealistic to use it 100% of the time. Some times, you need a good hour or two of silent concentration to get something done, and it's usually easier to just do it, and then have a code review than to belabour every semicolon. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to get your ideas down in code with someone interrupting you with variable name misspellings or other syntax problems. I think it's a useful tool when you have a particular tricky problem to solve, but I think that code reviews can work just as well (and have been shown to work well in 100s of studies), and pair programming really can't work 8 hours a day. Yes, pair programming is one of those things that has such a high probability of being horrendous. And really, it’s just unrealistic to use it 100% of the time. Some times, you need a good hour or two of silent concentration to get something done, and it’s usually easier to just do it, and then have a code review than to belabour every semicolon.

There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to get your ideas down in code with someone interrupting you with variable name misspellings or other syntax problems. I think it’s a useful tool when you have a particular tricky problem to solve, but I think that code reviews can work just as well (and have been shown to work well in 100s of studies), and pair programming really can’t work 8 hours a day.

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