Bacon Driven Coding FAQ
Q: Should I eat all my bacon at once, or should I space it out during the day?
A: Different programmers have different reactions; Some people require quite a lot of bacon to get the initial bacon rush, but once they get it, it lasts all day. Others get a short rush from a few bites of bacon. Experiment to see what works best for you.
Q: I’m a vegetarian. Can I use vegetarian bacon?
A: No. Bacon driven coding only works on real bacon. It’s not called tofu driven coding.
Q: What about sausage?
A: Some people are experimenting with sausage to see if they can produce similar results. If you have any success with this, let us know.
Q: Don’t the two answers above kind of contradict eachother?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you use bacon driven coding in a non-object oriented framework?
A: Yes! Unlike so many competing methodologies, which only work with a single software development paradigm, bacon driven coding can be used with any kind of technology: From ajax javascript to mainframe cobol and even assembly language, bacon driven coding will help any technology.
Q: Can I use bacon driven coding with legacy code?
A: Yes! Unlike other strategies, you can gain the benefits of bacon driven coding on your existing code base. No more clunky test retrofits and refactoring, or building UML Models to match the existing system — Just add bacon and go.
Q: What about the health risks?
A: Eating large quantities of bacon can pose health risks. Weight gain is the most likely, but other problems have been reported. Overall, however, we believe that the stress reduction gained by all the time saved through bacon driven coding should mitigate the risk for most people. After all, when you finish a week’s worth of work on Monday afternoon, you have lots of time left in the week to spend exercising to reduce your health risks.
Q: Does bacon driven coding work well with pancake driven design, orange juice driven requirements, or toast driven testing?
A: Some practitioners have reported success with this combination, leading them to laud the virtues of a whole-lifecycle process of “breakfast-driven development”. While we are excited about the possibilities of this development, we don’t want to overpromise, so we stick to the reliable formula that so many have had success with: bacon leads to better code.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I’ve been doing this for years. I didn’t realize that it was a methodology.
Couple a half pound of bacon with a 2-liter of coke and I get a 3-5 times productivity boost that last until happy hour.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Is there a conference? If so, I’m wondering if there is an early bird three plate special?
Just to be sure, is there going to be toast at this conference?
April 1st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Dear Mr. Bacon Driven Coding,
I’m leaving this message for you, because I don’t know who else to turn to. I’ve taken to the bacon lifestyle.. but I love hash browns too. Can the 2 lifestyles/portals live in harmonic (coding) existence, or does that cheapen me?
Your’s truly,
DesperatelySeekingHashbrowns
April 1st, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I’m proud to say that I worked on the first team to adopt bacon driven methods, way, way, way back in 2007. I’ve even posted a few short comments here:
http://xndev.blogspot.com/2008/04/bacon-driven-development.html
I’m glad to see you finally put up the website, Sean. Rock on.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:33 pm
As a vegetarian of 20+ years, I’m morally opposed to this whole concept. I’m going to try substituting bofu (bacon tofu) slices.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Can bacon bits be used in place of fried bacon? What about bacon wrapped steak or shrimp?
April 1st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
This seems like a western culture context sensitive topic. We will need to flavor it for India. But then diets differ so much in India, we would need much more context.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Mmmmmm… bacon.
About every decade or so someone comes along and rediscovers the old ways that have worked since the dawn of computing, nay, since the dawn of time.
Ever since man had a cave/cube to cloister in, the same tried-and-true recipe has worked:
1. Insert slab-o-meat
2. Out comes code
It’s as reliable and rhythmic as the rising and the setting of the sun, the turn of the seasons, and the waxing and waning of the glacial sheets.
May your code and your meat be bug-free.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Is there a kosher version of this methodology??
April 1st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Dave, you can always go for ultra-refined vegetables, which may have a similar effect. Lay people use common names for these products like “beef” and “mutton.”
I wonder if anybody makes bacon-flavored coffee stirrers ….
April 4th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Scott: Just like all programming methodologies, I didn’t invent it, I only gave it a name so we could talk about it.
Dave, Jeff: There’s lots of room for experimentation. Bacon drivin coding is young. We don’t know its limits yet.
Vikrama: Good Point. I don’t know how well this wil translate to India. It’s probably worth experimenting with varying spiced meats. But I figure, if someone can invent curry pizza, there’s bound to be a way to bring the power of bacon to Indian programmers.
Joel: An excellent point. I had not previously tied the bacon-code-repeat cycle to the ancient mammoth-scratch marks in clay-repeat cycle, but they clearly are related.
Eliezer: You may be able to find a non-pork bacon substitute that will work for you. The Kosher preparation requirements may be difficult to obtain in practice, but probably no harder than targeting Oracle 7 stored procedures.
Tobert: I’m very wary of the idea of mixing bacon and coffee together. Adding a caffeine rush to the productivity rush of bacon driven coding may be too much for a human being to survive. Dangerous territory here.