A certain monk had been recruited into the Spider Clan and
assigned to maintain a large legacy system. Upon setting up
his development environment, the monk was horrified to
discover the non-standard coding conventions used throughout
the application. Constants were not uppercase, but
mixed-case with a leading ‘k’. Instance variables were named
with a trailing ‘_fld’. The list went on.
Knowing that it was every monk’s duty to follow the best
practices of the day—and astonished that his fellows had
chosen not to do so—the monk coded each of his small
assigned changes according to the standards he had long
used. All could tell at a glance where he had introduced a
new constant or a few lines in the middle of an ancient
method.
After a week he was approached by the head monk, who said:
master Suku is most impressed by your work. She has invited
you to dine with her and the other masters tonight.
The monk arrived at Suku’s chambers at the appointed hour
and nervously seated himself at the long table among the
great persons there. Before each was a plate of rice with a
whole raw cod laid across it. No one spoke or ate; all sat
bowed in quiet contemplation.
When the last guest sat down, master Suku gave the assembly
a slight nod. Without a word every master stood on their
left foot, picked up their fish, and placed it on top of
their head.
All eyes were now on the monk, who sat bewildered before
this display. Realizing his ignorance in the table manners
of the temple, he promptly stood on his left foot, picked up
his fish, and placed it on top of his head. In that instant
the monk was enlightened.
