

Do hackathons promote spaghetti code? - aligajani

Discuss.
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taprun
Hackathons promote the fact that your coding style should change depending
upon the constraints of the programmer.

Having spent most of my career in R&D, I am constantly amazed by the fact that
most folks keep the very same methodology no matter the budget, deadline, risk
or importance of a project. Such people are one trick ponies that can only
survive in a narrow set of environments.

Hackathons promote adaptation of approach. Spaghetti code is simply one
possible result.

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jyu
Hackathon winners are dominated by polished design and clever presentations.
Working code is often an afterthought let alone readable, maintainable,
scalable code with proper test coverage.

I highly doubt you'd find Linus Torvalds, DHH, Guido van Rossum or any other
highly productive programmers competing in a hackathon. Maybe they have good
reasons.

Also this is worth reading: [http://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/why-
hackathons-suc...](http://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/why-hackathons-
suck)

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aligajani
A nice read.

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MalcolmDiggs
If you launch your hackathon project and never touch it again, then maybe...

But I think a better way to frame it is that hackathons promote streamlined
MVPs which _must_ be iterated-on and refactored at a later date to be
sustainable projects. Some would argue that this is a fine business model,
inside or outside of a hackathon setting.

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coralreef
Anything produced by multiple people in a restrictive time period will be
spaghetti code. Hackathon's aren't about producing quality code.

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aligajani
My observation is, the younger generation is being treated to believe that
spaghetti code is all it takes to make something work, and this means the true
art of software development such as design patterns, architecture etc. might
be forgotten. A reason I personally don't attend hackathons is because they
push me towards 'writing a lot of crap' code. I am wondering if other people
have had the same thoughts about hackathons and the hackathon movement in all.

~~~
coralreef
Again, I think you miss the point of a hackathon. Hackathons are suppose to be
for fun. Rarely do you see anything professionally ship from a hackathon, but
occasionally a few good ideas actually get started at hackathons.

If you're personally offended by bad code, that's fine, but hackathons are not
shops on professional software development practices.

~~~
sarciszewski
Exactly. A hackathon is for prototyping and MAYBE going "hey look, you should
hire us if you want our idea so we can do it the right way".

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Plough_Jogger
HACKathon

