> But I'm really referring to the idea that at some point you should more or less create a solution in a spec, and then code should just be an implementation of the spec
This sentence is a little ambiguous, so I might be reading it wrong. But if you're literally referring to the idea of a spec so detailed it's virtually coded in a natural language, then I find this idea baffling. We have a specialized tool for this job - programming languages, which I enjoy quite a bit, btw. Are these somehow beneath a true software engineer, who's supposed to program in English?
Anyway, let's do a bit of napkin math here.
- So, a real Senior Software Engineer spends 95% of their time producing specs.
- Say, coming up with this particular spec took 16 hours, then the time dedicated to implementation works out to approx. 51 minute.
- Assuming their typing speed is 350 characters per minute (nothing to scoff at, especially considering typing is such a minor part of their job.)
- Now, their style guide sets the cutoff for a line of code at 120 chars (they aren't some 80-char cavemen, are they?)
Putting it all together, banging out code non-stop for 51 minutes, they'd end up with O(150) lines of code to show for 16 hours of planning and speccing... I say someone is coasting as if it were the last day of their life. Curious to hear your take!
This sentence is a little ambiguous, so I might be reading it wrong. But if you're literally referring to the idea of a spec so detailed it's virtually coded in a natural language, then I find this idea baffling. We have a specialized tool for this job - programming languages, which I enjoy quite a bit, btw. Are these somehow beneath a true software engineer, who's supposed to program in English?
Anyway, let's do a bit of napkin math here.
- So, a real Senior Software Engineer spends 95% of their time producing specs.
- Say, coming up with this particular spec took 16 hours, then the time dedicated to implementation works out to approx. 51 minute.
- Assuming their typing speed is 350 characters per minute (nothing to scoff at, especially considering typing is such a minor part of their job.)
- Now, their style guide sets the cutoff for a line of code at 120 chars (they aren't some 80-char cavemen, are they?)
Putting it all together, banging out code non-stop for 51 minutes, they'd end up with O(150) lines of code to show for 16 hours of planning and speccing... I say someone is coasting as if it were the last day of their life. Curious to hear your take!