Re: PG: Hackers and Painters

[Avi Bryant <address@hidden>]

On 14 May 2003, Paul Graham wrote:

> I've heard of this agile programming thing.  (Surely "agile" isn't
> the best word, btw; surely one hacker is at least more *agile*
> than two.)

I think people on this thread are confusing "agile development" (which is
a fairly broad term) with "extreme programming" (a particular "agile
methodology" that advocates pair programming and shared code ownership,
amoung other things).

The "agile manifesto" (http://www.agilemanifesto.org) says this:

 We are uncovering better ways of developing
 software by doing it and helping others do it.
 Through this work we have come to value:

 - Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
 - Working software             over comprehensive documentation
 - Customer collaboration       over contract negotiation
 - Responding to change         over following a plan

 That is, while there is value in the items on
 the right, we value the items on the left more.

I think that "agile" is indeed an appropiate word to describe this value
system.