On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 7:59 AM, M.L. wrote: > On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 9:20 AM, William Couture wrote: > >> A followup to my experience. >> >> We hired a contract programmer. >> >> What we got was a contract coder. >> >> He is no longer working here. >> >> FYI: >> A coder can take a detailed specification and write code that >> conforms to it. If you don't give them enough details, you will >> not get code that does what you want. >> >> A programmer understands the system, and can take fuzzy >> instructions and give you code that does what you want. >> >> The problem is, chances are that if you have enough time and >> resources to write a detailed enough specification, it would be >> just as easy to write the code yourself at the same time. > > If you want someone to spend 500 hours on something versus 50, then yes, > just give a vague explanation of what you want. I really don't buy the > psychic programmer argument. He doesn't know what you want unless you > explain it. If you don't care how it works (comm. protocol, etc.) then fine, > but don't give a 1 page description of a 50 page problem and expect anything > good, anytime soon. We got to the point that I took 2 days out of an important project (why I was not writing this code myself) to write detailed specifications. He still could not write decent code with any speed (heck, he couldn't even write bad code with any speed). It got to the point where I was spending more time trying to manage him than it would take me to write it. So he's gone. Bill -- Psst... Hey, you... Buddy... Want a kitten? straycatblues.petfinder.org -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist