Make It Work Make It Right Make It Fast

Make It Work Make It Right Make It Fast

See ButlerLampson's "Hints for Computer System Design" (1983) http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/blampson/33-hints/webpage.html and Stephen C. Johnson and Brian W. Kernighan's "The C Language and Models for Systems Programming" in Byte magazine (August 1983) ("the strategy is definitely: first make it work, then make it right, and, finally, make it fast.")

The second half of this (making it right before making it fast) is really just a reformulation of the RulesOfOptimization.

---

If it doesn't work right, in what sense does it work at all?

Here's my interpretation. First crank out code that handles one common case (MakeItWork). Then fix all of the special cases, error handling, etc. so all tests pass (MakeItRight?).

Another interpretation, "Make it right" means make the code more clear, i.e., refactor. "Make it work" is the part about getting the code to operate correctly. A rephrase might be, "Make it work correctly, make the source code clear, make it run quickly."

Read full article from Make It Work Make It Right Make It Fast