After I had published my paper, some people asked me to share the software that I developed. At first, I was very happy that my paper attracted some attention, and I was happy to share not only the binary but also the source code, case studies etc. But looking at my software, I feel very embarrassed.
My software is just horrible: the source code is just a mess, containing several of my unsuccessful attempts; I have never used design patterns, so duplicate code is everywhere; for simplicity and quick implementation, I often prefer recursions to loops etc etc.
I'm always under pressure to produce new results, and cleaning those code would cost me significant effort.
My question is if sharing this horrible software will give people a very negative impression of me? Would it do harm to my career if the people I share are prospect collaborators, employers, as they work in the same field.
Answer
Yes, you should.
First, most scientific software is terrible. I'd be very surprised if yours is worse than average: the mere fact you know design patterns and the difference between recursion and loops suggests it's better.
Second, it's unlikely you'll have the incentive or motivation to make it better unless, or until, it's needed by someone else (or you in 6 months). Making it open gives you that incentive.
Potential upsides: possible new collaborators, bugfixes, extensions, publications.
Potential downsides: timesink (maintaining code or fixing problems for other people), getting scooped. I'll be clear: I don't take either of these downsides very seriously.
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