Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's Top Devs Don't Seem To Like Own Tools
ericatcw writes "Through tools such as Visual Basic and Visual Studio, Microsoft may have done more than any other vendor to make drag and drop-style programming mainstream. But its superstar developers seem to prefer old-school modes of crafting code. During the panel at the Professional Developers Conference earlier this month, the devs also revealed why they think writing tight, bare-metal code will come back into fashion, and why parallel programming hasn't caught up with the processors yet." These guys are senior enough that they don't seem to need to watch what they say and how it aligns with Microsoft's product roadmap. They are also dead funny. Here's Jeffrey Snover on managed code (being pushed by Microsoft through its Common Language Runtime tech): "Managed code is like antilock brakes. You used to have to be a good driver on ice or you would die. Now you don't have to pump your brakes anymore." Snover also joked that programming is getting so abstract, developers will soon have to use Natal to "write programs through interpretative dance."
Agreed. Using visual studio is a pleasure. I develop on Qt Creator almost exclusively now in windows and it really is a pleasure.
I hate that Qt Creator relies on GDB though. The mingw port of GDB is horrifically slow, even on modern hardware. It also pales in comparison to MSVC debugger as far as integration and usability.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
It's the only example I can think of where MS beat a strong competitor the old fashioned way (ie: with a better product).
Excel would be another one.