Re: [tlug] Giving a program priority briefly

[<burlingk@example.com>]

> Message: 8
> Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:49:03 +0900 (JST)
> From: Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>
> Subject: Re: [tlug] Giving a program priority briefly
> To: Tokyo Linux Users Group <tlug@example.com>
> Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0706121210280.3511@example.com>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
> 
> On Tue, 12 Jun 2007, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> 
> > Nonsense.  Some optimizations are obvious and costless in 
> readability, 
> > as are some refactorings.
<snip>
> 
> My usual "formal documentation" is a pile of index cards with 
> roughly sketched out ideas on them ("stories"), and a lot of 
> conversation with the client, every day.
> 
> I don't expect anybody to be convinced by this post, BTW. In 
> my experience, it's the sort of thing that's very hard to 
> believe until you've participated in it yourself and seen it 
> be successful. There are also a small number of relatively 
> obvious examples of situations where you want to be rather 
> less carefree than this, and people tend to hold up those few 
> examples as proof that the whole concept could never work, anywhere.
> 
> cjs
> -- 
> Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974
> Mobile sites and software consulting: http://www.starling-software.com

Actually, I have no problem believing this.  I know that Wikipedia is 
not everyone's favorite source of information, but I was doing some
research on refactoring (just a little so that I would know what you
were all talking about), and I came across the concept of Extreme
Programming.

The workflow model they described was exactly what you were talking
about.
Start coding the project a chunk at a time, test it, refractor if
needed,
test some more, and move on.  The "specification" is the stack of notes
from
the conversation with the customer and other devs (if any).

Speaking of which, what are some good ways to test program performance?
What sort of test applications are out there?
:-)