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Extreme Programming Defined. Ahem. ;-)

User comment (by Cycon) on review of True Xtreme Programming (from http://slashdot.org/books/00/12/29/1653211.shtml)

Extreme programming is when you are pushed out of an airplane, strapped to an AS/400 which controls the parachute mechanism. You have nothing but vi and gcc installed on an iPaq, and have to code up IR device drivers to communicate with the AS/400 before you hit the ground.

If you survive, you'll have an army of Mountain-Dew mulletheads worshipping the ground that you walk on, and a lifetime supply of postage stamps.

Now that is extreme programming. Who's first? TJQ

Well there's not really much to reply to - I don't understand the analogy. Why is it like being strapped to an AS/400? We use much more sophisticated tools than those described - and if the tests were written like we advocate (using the described tools) you would certainly have a far better chance of surviving than those tryng to sort out their UML diagrams, or those burnt out souls madly trying to hack out a solution under the pressure of imminent death.

Its also worth noticing that the author of that comment (Cycon) never contributed anything more to the slashdot debate. If your trying to have a decent argument you will need to come up with something more concrete. -- TimM

Need to work on your tests for the ol' 'humour detection' algorithms a bit more, Tim - seems a false negative has crept though here. Alternatively, I need to work on the tests for my 'mock seriousness detection'... :-) TJQ

Hmmm, this is sad. I've started to see people write in terms of unit test analogies on the xp yahoo/egroup too. I guess its a sign of XP maturity (or practitioners immaturity ?!) when we start talking in terms of one of twelve practices. Sigh. PaulS³host³³date³April 21, 2001³agent³Mozilla/4.76 en? (Windows NT 5.0; U)³InterestingDebates