GUI tools are not the enemy

Joe Stump, the lead architect for Digg, makes a comment that really bugs me, while another is positive, in a recent "my life as a programmer post" (that's the Google cached version... ironically Digg has overwhelmed his own server):

More practical advice is that you should learn to know and love design patterns and avoid GUI’s. I have a real problem with people who say they know SQL because they’re well versed with an ORM or a DB’s GUI. Go back and read up on relational algebra and SQL92 before you say you know SQL okay?I’ll probably get flamed for this, but I think people should learn a single environment in and out and stick with it. This might mean you learn Microsoft’s technologies in and out or Cocoa or LAMP. You simply can’t be an expert in an area of computers without picking a single environment and sticking with it.

On one hand, I give him credit for his comment that you should get to know a particular platform inside and out. Extra +1 for not flaming Microsoft's platform.

I do not, on the other hand, agree with the notion that GUI tools are bad. I thought this stigma went away with VB6 (which I suppose is largely responsible for it), but come on man... there are some tight tools out there and they make it a lot more fun and efficient to write code. Using them does not equate to not understanding what's going on under the covers.

5 Comments

  • Don't you think he has a point? I have on occasion interviewed a developer that was paralyzed if he did not have SQL Enterprise manager because he was unable to write a join

  • well, he didn't say that GUI is bad. He just said that there are people that think they know some tool just because they can use it via GUI - which is not exactly the same. I think he's right.

  • He said "avoid." I've met people like that as well, but I think they're more the exception than the rule.

  • It pretty simple, you need to know both.

    The GUI will get you places pretty fast, but you need to know what's going on in the background, and occasionally program some stuff yourself. I never liked using the GUI for writing SELECT statements, but I do use design mode when creating new tables.

    "Knowing" SQL is pretty useless if you don't know how to use the tools that use it, and knowing the tools without knowing any SQL will get you stuck in no-time.

  • He also said: "Go back and read up on relational algebra and SQL92 before you say you know SQL okay?". Clearly his point is more on the learn low level before you say you know it than in the never use a GUI at all.

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