Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Software Engineering Has Its Own Political Axis From Conservative To Liberal

Posted by Soulskill on from the another-thing-for-pudge-and-jamie-to-argue-about dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Steve Yegge is back at it again. This essay is on the notion that software engineers range from conservative to liberal in their notion of software and how it should be built. He says, 'Just as in real-world politics, software conservatism and liberalism are radically different world views. Make no mistake: they are at odds. They have opposing value systems, priorities, core beliefs and motivations. These value systems clash at design time, at implementation time, at diagnostic time, at recovery time. They get along like green eggs and ham. I think it is important for us to recognize and understand the conservative/liberal distinction in our industry. It probably won't help us agree on anything, pretty much by definition. Any particular issue only makes it onto the political axis if there is a fundamental, irreconcilable difference of opinion about it. Programmers probably won't — or maybe even can't — change their core value systems. But the political-axis framework gives us a familiar set of ideas and terms for identifying areas of fundamental disagreement. This can lead to faster problem resolution.'"

7 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. "They get along like green eggs and ham" by Cornwallis · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean they sit on a plate waiting to get eaten?

    1. Re:"They get along like green eggs and ham" by Dunbal · · Score: 2, Funny

      Me, I keep coming back because there's a rare chance of seeing an actual sentient commenter, and then wondering how long until he gets hate-modded to -3.

      You would probably be better off reading only negatively modded comments. There would be a lot less to filter out.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  2. just come out and say it by slashmydots · · Score: 3, Funny

    What he really means is, when it gets done, 1 group wants to give it out for free and the other wants to charge lots of money and DRM it lol.

  3. Re:A is like B, except where it is not: news at 11 by noh8rz6 · · Score: 0, Funny

    (cue left-wingers saying "that's the right wing" and right-wingers saying "that's the right wing")

    Inser ftfy meme here.

    --
    Don't be a h8r.
  4. Re:We need to politicize software development by tnk1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because, you know, there are like only two ways to code: Liberal and Conservative. There certainly can't be a THIRD way like Funny or Informative or Surprise and Fear. Damn! Or Ruthless Efficiency!

    I'm definitely a Surprise programmer. I'm surprised when it works.

  5. Re:You Say "Steve Yegge" Like I Would Know... by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, I never heard of him, but he does have a wikipedia entry so he can't be that obscure.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
  6. Why... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why are there people who try to create binary conflicts when there really aren't any?