Top all-time · #1555
Steve McConnell
Personal blog · stevemcconnell.comprogrammingcareer
Steve McConnell's personal blog at stevemcconnell.com covers programming and career. Since 2008, 49 different Hacker News readers have linked it 72 times, most often “Classic Mistakes Enumerated”. The last post was in 2020, but the archive is still widely read.
Home page for Steve McConnell, author of Code Complete, Rapid Development, Software Estimation, and several other best selling software books.
Most-linked posts?
- Classic Mistakes Enumerated8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2008-07-21
- /est.htm5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2009-04-09
- Classic mistakes in the software industry (1996)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-05-14
- /books/4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-11-01
- Software Engineering vs. Computer Science3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-07-29
- Cargo Cult Software Engineering (2000)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-11-18
- Cargo Cult Software Engineering (2000)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-11-04
- /ccgoto.htm2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-03-04
- Software Quality at Top Speed2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-01-16
- For every hour of defect prevention, you save 3 to 10 hours of repair time2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-12-29
What Hacker News says?
Steve Mcconnell has a great book on software estimation, but it's about enterprise software, where there are requirements and goals. [ http://www.stevemcconnell.com/est.htm ] The biggest problem with making games is the fact that there's no end goal of "Done." It's just a vague point in time, really. Is it done when you've made 10 levels or 11? Is it done when you've added 10 power-ups or 11, or 15? In a movie, you…
Comment linking /est.htm
on ““It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed””Submitted Cargo Cult Software Engineering (2000) as a story · 213 points
HN discussionIn short, it's not a bad practice in all cases and, like most issues, it depends. The "goto considered harmful" article by Dijkstra is more nuanced (and that wasn't even its intended title) and doesn't really address the way the goto you are seeing are used. They are a very common pattern in C, for error checking and cleanup in case of error. It's much more readable than to nest conditional statements. if (some_para…
Comment linking /ccgoto.htm
on “ Critical crypto bug leaves Linux, hundreds of apps open to eavesdropping”Submitted Classic Mistakes Enumerated as a story · 6 points
HN discussionI remember going to a conference in the 1980s (MacHack), and attending a "Software Project Estimation" workshop. The guy basically listed excuses for padding the estimate. Steve McConnell wrote a book about it, using a much more rigorous scientific methodology[0]. He has also written some other stuff about it[1]. This one is really the big one: "9. Both estimation and control are needed to achieve predictability. "…
Comment linking /17-theses-software-estimation/
on “Software estimation is hard – do it anyway”Submitted Classic Tech Management Anti-Patterns as a story · 4 points
HN discussionNo mention of firing offenses... Perhaps you're misremembering Steve's description of project management mistakes, one of which is to "place politics over substance" [1], where the project manager tries to convince stakeholders that the project is progressing well, when the data says otherwise. [1] "Classic Mistakes Enumerated" http://www.stevemcconnell.com/rdenum.htm
Comment linking /rdenum.htm
on “A Plan to Turn Engineers into Managers”Submitted Spin-Free Data on Covid-19 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionCode Complete, Steve McConnell. http://www.stevemcconnell.com/cc.htm One of the best books on programming style and function, backed up with actual research for the recommendations.
Comment linking /cc.htm
on “Ask HN: What books had the greatest effect on how you structure your code?”Submitted How to defend an unpopular schedule (1996) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI haven't been super thrilled with a lot of stuff, but I have found that I've enjoyed Joel Spolky's stuff[0], in general. I don't think he's that popular, hereabouts. For example, his book Smart and Gets Things Done [1] is great. Although not management , per se , Steve McConnell's stuff[2] has been of invaluable assistance, in my career. He talks about Quality Process, and that's the kind of stuff that managers sho…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?”Submitted Software Quality at Top Speed as a story · 3 points
HN discussionCodified Software Best Practices have been around for decades. Steve McConnell ( Code Complete, Rapid Development, etc.)[0] used to be the Best Practices Editor for the IEEE. It’s just as the author mentioned; no teeth. Companies are happy to pay for slapdash work (thus, undermining the drive to do good work), and employment tests often don’t really have much bearing on real-world engineering. I’ve spent decades ref…
Comment linking /
on “Are software engineering “best practices” just developer preferences?”Submitted Classic Mistakes Enumerated as a story · 3 points
HN discussionHe wrote several more books (including a sequel/second edition of Code Complete). None of them had the same impact, though: https://stevemcconnell.com/books/
Comment linking /books/
on “Software essays that shaped me”Submitted Classic Mistakes in Software (1996) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI used to take classes from his Construx University school. I think he made a pile of money, somehow, and does what he wants. He did a whole bunch of data-mining around COVID: https://stevemcconnell.com/cdc-covid-19-forecast-evaluations...
Comment linking /cdc-covid-19-forecast-evaluations/
on “Software essays that shaped me”Submitted Classic mistakes in the software industry (1996) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis was a watershed for me: https://stevemcconnell.com/articles/software-quality-at-top-... McConnell isn't especially popular, hereabouts, though.
Comment linking /articles/software-quality-at-top-speed/
on “Software essays that shaped me”Submitted Rapid Development Classic Mistakes as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is true, but it’s not a new concept, at all. Steve McConnell wrote about this, a quarter-century ago, in Software Quality at Top Speed [0]. Also, I’ve found that, even if you do a great job of gathering requirements, no one likes it, when you give them exactly what they asked for. I’ve taken to using what I call “Evolutionary Design”[1]; where the entire design “morphs,” during development. [0] https://stevemcc…
Comment linking /articles/software-quality-at-top-speed/
on “The hardest thing about engineering is requirements”Submitted Cargo Cult Software Engineering (2000) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe issues we have with any code development; whether through on-site employees, offsite employees, contract shops, or integrated contractors, would also apply to AI. Those of us that have been doing it a while, know that the single biggest issue in any commercial code project is bad input to the process; otherwise known as Requirements. No one knows what they want, or, even worse, they know what they want, and what…
Comment linking /articles/software-quality-at-top-speed/
on “Is a trillion dollars’ worth of programming lying on the ground?”Submitted Software Quality at Top Speed (1996) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionReminds me of Windows deliberately recreating bugs in their software, because applications had been developed that relied on the buggy implementation. I'm really big on testing, and fixing bugs as close to their point of creation as possible. I first read about that, over a quarter-century ago[0]. “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose “ –Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr [0] https://stevemcconnell.com/articles/softwar…
Comment linking /articles/software-quality-at-top-speed/
on “You will never “fix it later””Submitted Software Engineering vs. Computer Science as a story · 2 points
HN discussionRead "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art" by Steve McConnell [1]. [1] http://www.stevemcconnell.com/est.htm
Comment linking /est.htm
on “Coding, Fast and Slow: Developers and the Psychology of Overconfidence”Submitted For every hour of defect prevention, you save 3 to 10 hours of repair time as a story · 2 points
HN discussionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_method > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26368011 https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/yes-you-should-estimate/ > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27006853 https://josephmate.github.io/PowersOf2/ Complexity Estimator https://earthly.dev/blog/thought-leaders/ > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27467999 https://jacobian.org/2021/may/20/estimation/ > https://news.ycombina…
Comment linking /17-theses-software-estimation-expanded/
on “Estimates are difficult for developers and product owners”Submitted Classic Mistakes (1996) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
