Coding For Violent Psychopaths

Jeff Atwood

17 Jun 2008 — 1 min read — Comments

Today's rumination is not for the weak of heart. It's from the venerable C2 Wiki page Code For The Maintainer:

Always code as if the person who ends up maintaining your code is a violent psychopath who knows where you live.

Perhaps a little over the top, but maybe that shock to the system is what we need to get this important point across to our fellow developers.

If scare tactics don't work, hopefully you can develop a grudging respect for the noble art of maintenance programming over time. It may not be glamorous, but it's 99% of the coding work in this world.

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