On science, religion and actually shipping code

re: On science, religion and actually shipping code

Jeff — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:27:56 GMT

Science discussions have nothing to do with understanding how something works. I agree that, for example, a lot of people don't even understand the app/page/control lifecycle and how it works and why it exists. But that's not the same as having pissing matches over methodologies and obscure design patterns infrequently used in practice.

re: On science, religion and actually shipping code

robertwharvey — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:57:25 GMT

The problem with science discussions is not that they are not valuable, it is that nobody is interested (well, almost nobody). Many new programmers think they can hack together a website by dropping some controls on a web form, without knowing the first thing about how these controls work underneath. Then they call themselves experts. Is it any wonder that the level of discourse in these newsgroups is so low?

re: On science, religion and actually shipping code

Joe Brinkman — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:47:40 GMT

Jeff... I didn't get the feeling that Frans was advocating everyone should be experts in the academic pursuits of computer science, but rather that we should at least know why a particular pattern or tool is useful. What are its advantages and disadvantages compared to other alternatives. When should one pattern be applied versus another and if I need to alter a pattern to accomplish some task, what are the implications. I have come across a large number of programmers who use a tool or pattern because of some "rule of thumb" but could not explain with any clarity why it is the "correct" choice for any situation.