Programming Ethics

This page is a loose collection of notes, vaguely based on Robert C. Martin's talks about software craftmanship (there also a book about it). The idea is that we find some common ethichs that are industry-wide, and can help us reinforce software quality into being the norm instead of being as rare as it is today. The typical metaphor is drawn to doctors who needless to say have to wash their hands between in and out of surgery (here are ten medical commandments as an example). The same should apply to programmers testing their code between commits, for instance.

Note that we try avoiding duplicating The Agile Manifesto, agile practices and the architecture:Agile and Software Architecture pages.

In general.. - Do not create code that is hard to change. - Keep your code clean.

Before you start.. - Do not code without proper experience, training and/or education, or make sure you are being supervised. - Do not code without sufficient architecture.

Before checking in.. - Always leave the code cleaner than when you found it. - Sign your code. - Seek a second opinion and get your code reviewed.

Before delivering functionality.. - Do not release code that you are not proud of. - Do not release code that is not tested.