Lazy coding is fun
- by Anthony Trudeau
Every once in awhile I get the opportunity to write an application that is important enough to do, but not important enough to do the right way -- meaning standards, best practices, good architecture, et al. I call it lazy coding. The industry calls it RAD (rapid application development).
I started on the conversion tool at the end of last week. It will convert our legacy data to a completely new system which I'm working on piece by piece. It will be used in the future, but only the new parts because it'll only be necessary to convert the individual pieces of the data once. It was the perfect opportunity to just whip something together, but it was still functional unlike a prototype or proof of concept. Although I would never write an application like this for a customer (internal or external) this methodology (if you can call it that) works great for something like this.
I wouldn't be surprised if I get flamed for equating RAD to lazy coding or lacking standards, best practice, or good architecture. Unfortunately, it fits in the current usage. Although, it's possible to create a good, maintainable application using the RAD methodology, it's just too ripe for abuse and requires too much discipline for someone let alone a team to do right.
Sometimes it's just fun to throw caution to the wind and start slamming code.
