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Whatever Happened To Programming?
Mirk writes "In a recent interview, Don Knuth wrote: 'The way a lot of programming goes today isn't any fun because it's just plugging in magic incantations — combine somebody else's software and start it up.' The Reinvigorated Programmer laments how much of our 'programming' time is spent pasting not-quite-compatible libraries together and patching around the edges." This 3-day-old article has sparked lively discussions at Reddit and at Hacker News, and the author has responded with a followup and summation.
I'm already at the gunpowder stage. My code has been blowing up for years.
slashdot. where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
Car analogy:...
What you are attempting to do is very difficult. Please leave it to the professionals.
Some things may be over-engineered. But in my experience, more often it is the case, that people rather re-invent the wheel,
than they bother to try to understand, what someone else has done, and how it is supposed to work.
And over time, it will bite. Usually not the one who wrote the code, because that person is gone, but the project in whole.
And no, I don't see a difference in "own code" and foreign libraries, from a "long" term perspective, it is the same.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
You, need, to, add, more, commas,.
excellent programmers steal excellent code."
I stole this, and I don't know where it is stolen from!
One generation plants a tree...The next one gets the shade.
Then the squirrels show up and try to mine the bird feeders for freebies. Meanwhile the birds are ducking the guys who are learning to use blowguns.
Try reading it as William Shatner would.
You need, to boldly add, more commas [where no commas, have been placed, before!]
A factor of 12 improvement is, in my experience, fairly typical. And, yes, you can maintain 100 computers for the price of a single competent programmer. So, while it's not the best solution, it is certainly a very economical one.
A factor of 1400 improvement, as you claim, is simply ridiculous.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
You know Programming is in trouble when being "the goto guy" has become a compliment, rather than an insult.
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
Do you mean the cretans that pass for programmers ...
What do you have against people from Crete?
... I'll leave peacefully.
Okay, okay
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
You want to troll on slashdot? Write original strawmen first!
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)