Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 21:04:30 -0800 (PST)
From: "Dr. Kelsey Hudson" <kernel@blackhole.compendium-tech.com>
To: "Michael H. Warfield" <mhw@wittsend.com>
cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: GPLONLY kernel symbols???
In-Reply-To: <20011128193520.A1535@alcove.wittsend.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0111282054140.23481-100000@sol.compendium-tech.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org

On Wed, 28 Nov 2001, Michael H. Warfield wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 28, 2001 at 02:41:23PM -0800, Dr. Kelsey Hudson wrote:
> > On Mon, 12 Nov 2001, John Alvord wrote:
> 
> > > The best programmer I ever knew told me that if you couldn't fake and
> > > utilize another programmer's style... you were only an amateur.
> 
> > I don't see how coding style has anything to do with the abilities of a 
> > programmer whatsoever.
> 
> 	It doesn't and he didn't say it did.  He said the ability to
> ultilize another's style...  That is fundamentally different.

amateur, n, One lacking the skill of a professional, as in an art.
(thanks to dictionary.com for exact definition)

Now, if being able to utilize someone's style gives me the skill of a 
professional programmer, then I'm the best programmer there is, because, 
by god, I can imitate anyone's style there is. Granted, I am a skilled
professional programmer, but I've been able to do that for years. I'd go 
as far as to say that when I was learning to program, I could do it. That 
didn't make me any better at it.

I still don't see how coding style and effectiveness/correctness/usefulness
of code are related; non sequitur (it does not follow).

> 	I've been in this business since the mid '70s, on the Internet
> since the mid '80s, and involved with Linux since the 0.98 and SLS days.
> I've long recognized that you could often recognize who wrote something
> by their "style".  It's like brush strokes on a painting.  If you can
> utilize someone else's style to the extent that someone skilled would
> look at that an think it was done by the other.  That is skill and that
> is both ability and adaptibility.  Both admirable.

Anybody in my company can (and does) do that. In fact, it's a 
*requirement* here. We're required to use the same style as the author did 
in their code. In fact, there are times where I have looked at a source I 
wrote several years back, and glance over parts of it, not remembering 
that I wrote it, but nonetheless it's in my (obscure but highly readable) 
coding style. 

all goes to say that code is just another type of art form, but as with 
any art form, it can be imitated, and is imitated frequently. I still 
don't see how ability goes with coding style.

 Kelsey Hudson                                           khudson@ctica.com 
 Software Engineer
 Compendium Technologies, Inc                               (619) 725-0771
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