|
| galathaea wrote:
> xp _does_ promote the use of common coding style guidelines
For the code the team writes, and as an emergent property of team
interactions.
> i apologise if i attribute this wrongly to communications
One "controversy" among agilists is what ideals should be imposed from
top-down.
Some agilists live in a fantasy world where the team always does the right
thing, and some believe that the best way to motivate them is to have their
boss - their official motivator - tell them what to do instead of magically
wait for it to happen.
The best compromise is top-down motivation for certain hard things, such as
pushing all the desks together to, make a programming pit. After the
programmers are mostly pairing, then a common style guideline should emerge.
So the guideline itself should not be imposed top-down.
> most of the books and articles on xp that i have read
> though
> do state this practice supports the communications value
> and this is where my disagreement lies
In turn, a common style guideline helps you feel familiar with code that you
have not worked with before.
Shared code ownership is mutual.
> an entire team shouldn't be asked to follow one style
> this
> i believe
> can be a hinderance to agility in the long run
I should not be able to tell who wrote what code. Psychologically, that
makes me feel more ownership. Technically, I will know what to write, and
how to edit, sooner. All this helps agility.
If programmers don't pair, don't share code ownership, and don't frequently
integrate, then imposing a common style requirement will indeed slow them
down more. One major ideal to learn "agile" is seeing how weaknesses can
turn into strengths.
--
Phlip
[url]http://www.greencheese.us/Z Land[/url] <-- NOT a blog!!!
|
|