Can a coder have too high of standards? I overheard someone say they dislike someone with too high of coding standards. As if this is a major problem! The reasoning behind this thought process was this: They usually aren't pragmatic enough to be goal oriented to meet deadlines and are more concerned with technology. I say, "Bullshit"! These are not mutually exclusive.

• Well written code can help meet deadlines.
• Code that is easier to read always takes less time to add features to.
• Code that is well designed saves time modifying and/or adding features
• Fixing bugs is always easier in well designed code

I'll concede that the first time something is developed, writing it to be modular and not one off takes a good programmer a little longer. The second time around though that time is made up and then some. Of course this is not an issue if you never have any changes, scope creep, or a boss/client that knows exactly what he wants and specs it out perfectly the first time. I've been in many projects that are rushed and shortcuts were taken. The code is unbearable by all but the original coder. Even he takes awhile to get things done. Not that it's ever my job, but I always spend the time rewriting reusable, elegant code then documenting it. I always spend more time than I would have if I had just patched it, but I save time for me next time and anyone who must maintain it. Sometimes the rewriting is pieces at a time. This means making everything backward compatible with what is currently written and being used at the time of being written. As I replace parts of the code, I go back and remove the code that was made backward compatible for the pieces being replaced. Eventually the old unmaintainable code is replaced by lean, easy to read, documented code.