caitp / oath Goto Github PK

#OATH

##The Hippocratic Oath for Software Development

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those engineers in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the user and maintainer, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of premature optimization and poor code coverage.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh my own selfish need to defend code I hacked together hours before.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for fixing a difficult bug.

I will respect the privacy of my users, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of security, finance, and interpersonal matters. If it is given me to save a user from being compromised, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to hand over a user's information to authorities; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a stack overflow, or a slow application, but a human being, whose broken software may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for my users.

I will prevent bugs whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to fixing.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm. Being a hacker does not mean I must be a jerk to anyone, nor to be insecure and weak.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of creating, teaching, and fixing bugs for those who seek my help.

So, this little piece is kind of lame, I'm not as poetic as Hippocrates and whoever translated his writing to english. But hey, feel free to send pull requests improving the language and making a stronger statement about the responsibility to users, maintainers, embedders, and the importance of good behaviour. This project is licensed under the public domain. Do whatever you like with it, or nothing. It's all good, man.