Programmers and Society

Chad Osgood continued a long-running discussion about programmers. Here are my 2 cents.

I agree 100%. As a tool developer, I try to fight overempowering those that shouldn't be, as much as possible. Most developers still use their poor ASP coding techniques in .NET. I've seen it too many times.

Did someone really ask you if VB.NET supports the DataSet? Man, that's really sad.

I use VS.NET, I won't deny it. VS.NET is an outstanding tool. I don't let it write code for me. Correction. I do let it change properties for me. I let it help me manage remote sites. I use IntelliSense when I come across something I haven't done before. You will NEVER catch me dragging and dropping a table from the server explorer onto the designer.

I enjoyed the commentary about Lazy Programmers. Laziness created and empowers the entire computing industry. If Ingenuity is the mother of all invention, then Lazieness sure is the underachieving father. What you still have to deal with, however, is Man's tendancy towards sloth. The pursuit of the status quo is engrained in the minds or people beginning in elementary school. It's the grand pursuit of the "average". It affects more than just programmers, and won't go away any time soon.

2 Comments

  • Yes, I was indeed asked that just the other day. This person has gone through Guerilla.NET, works with a whole team of .NET developers, and works on a large-scale well-known production web application. The reason I was so flabbergasted by such a seemingly simple question is because it indicates a profound misunderstanding of (basic) .NET in general.





    He's an intelligent individual, but he simply doesn't care about delving into details or learning more than he needs to. It's unfortunate, but I find this to be the resonating norm among developers I encounter. This is why I feel user groups are such a positive thing...

  • Yes, Eli, but Ambrose in your comments made a very distinct point. Laziness + Intelligence + Enthusiasm = Great Developer. Laziness + Enthusiasm = Most developers. #2 is a very dangerous combination., and illustrates Chad's point very well. We've got developers out there who don't understand the basic elements of .NET, and are writing software. I've inherited several projects that have spaghetti code in one place or another. As I said, laziness can help breed invention, but it can just as easily breed more problems.

Comments have been disabled for this content.