Is there anything like code taste?

Question

I believe there is, but I can't put the right words to it...bear with me

I have worked with a lot of developers and I think there is basically a few personalities and they will produce very different things.

• Cowboy - a loner, often good but hard to get on track
• Follower - lacks ideas
• Anarchist - NIHS
• Orthodox - doing everything by the(ir) book, always complex
• etc

In different situations I get the feeling I'm in one of them and when that happens I try to either switch to a better state or stay in it. As a consultant it's most important for me to get the task done than enforcing any beliefs I might have for solving any ie design problems.

So, taste? I think one of the ways the personalities is manifested is in the actual code.

• What styles are there? (teams+)
• Can the different styles be identified? (commentator+)
• Can they be taught? (player+)

(+sport metaphor)

Answer 1

No. No there isn't.

Answer 2

Probably the best description of personalities I've seen (not from a programmer / team perspective) is the Enneagram (e.g. See the book "Wisdom of the Enneagram", although many of Wikipedia's entries on Enneagram types are taken from that book). It has some great stuff on how people interact, and what kinds of ruts they can get stuck into, and even maturity/psychological health levels.

Answer 3

I think you could easily label people and their "style" in a way or another, but we (should) grow and change everyday.

The environment is evolving fast, and we have to cope with many different techniques and ideas, so one day I feel "conservative" and stick to my well-known patterns (you might call me "orthodox" if you like), one day I try new stuff and want to waste some time w/o moving the progress bar (a "cowboy", an "anarchist"?), some times I lack the will to fight (and prove someone else wrong) and just bide my time ("the follower")...

In the end, to quote Mrs. (Meredith) Brooks, "I'm a little bit of everything all rolled into one"... and you know the score... ;)

Answer 4

The Holland test breaks it down to the basic 5 working styles. Interesting concepts.

Answer 5

Following on from Manrico's comment I've seen that an individual's style changes depending on the particulars of the project that they're working on. For example the style that you would normally use for a project (or chunk of code) where the price of a bug is high (eg. due to the prospect of equipment damage) is quite different to the style of code that they might use in a proof of concept "spike".

And as for changing personalities it has been shown in studies on team interaction that members of the team will change their behavior to fill a vacuum of a particular trait within their team.

A simple case as an example - if you have a team of people with no designated leader you will find that over time that someone will start to play that role and fill that vacuum.

I see no reason why that shouldn't be the case for software styles as well (at least for a small team, all other things being equal). If you're working with a cowboy then it's natural that someone takes on the role of pessimist to be more critical of their output.