[Tfug] good enough is good enough (long)

[Zack Williams]

On Fri, Jul 12, 2013 at 12:49 PM, Bexley Hall <bexley401 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> YMMV, of course.

Both opinions are right.  It's the circumstances that are different.

People frequently don't know what they want, and program their way to
a solution which may be slightly or frequently substantially different
than what was originally envisioned.   I can't remember the last time
I didn't add or remove a feature that I came up with midway through a
programming project for one reason or another.

Other engineering tasks are much better defined, and in some ways
subtractive - you know the hard goal at the outset, work to that goal.
 There are example in software of this - cryptography is incredibly
hard to get right and breaks badly when it's not done correctly:
http://pilif.github.io/2013/07/why-I-dont-touch-crypto/

It's the difference between building a bridge and writing a book.  If
the bridge falls down, it's a failure.  If the book has a few typos or
plot holes, it isn't the end of the world.

Different goals, different methods.

- Zack