Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot Asks: What Are Some Insults No Developer Wants To Hear? (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: Flame wars in the bug tracker might be exactly the right (harsh) feedback your code needs, writes Peter Wayner in his run-down of the insults no programmer wants to hear about their code or coding skills. "The technology world is a bit different than the pretty, coiffed world of suits and salesdroids where everyone is polite, even when they hate your guts and think you're an idiot. Suit-clad managers may smile and hide their real message by the way they say you're doing "great, real great pal," but programmers often speak their minds, and when that mind has something unpleasant to say, look-out, feelings." Instead of posting this story in a click-bait fashion as presented from InfoWorld, we thought we'd ask the developers of Slashdot: What are some insults no developer wants to hear? Some of the classic insults include: N00b, /dev/null, Eye Candy, Fanboi, and [Nothing]. Are there any insults you are familiar with that aren't mentioned in the list?
I'm a strong advocate of constructive code reviews that provide useful feedback, while leaving the egos and personal stuff out. It's important for everyone to participate, to both give and receive feedback. First, you help your team improve your product. Second, you learn about the new sections of code; how the new functionality was implemented. That's important on a large product.
And then there's the one that many of the old guys overlook: nobody knows it all, so everyone can learn from anyone, including the new kid on the team. We can all see how technology and computers have evolved dramatically over the decades; it's a mistake to believe that software design and engineering hasn't been simultaneously evolving for the better.
John
In the 15 years of my professional career, there's only been one day when I didn't want to come to work.
That was the day after the IT department accused me of intentionally crashing their network, and my Director didn't back me up.
That loss of confidence in my integrity was far worse than any spoken word.
They never pass bit on. It's always "I got a 'Software Fatal Error', what do I do?" "Oh, could you tell me what it said?" "Uh, 'Software Fatal Error'", "No, underneath, where it said something like "Error code 1234", "Oh, I didn't see that bit, I just clicked 'Close Program' and called you".
At one point my then employer and I had a great idea, which we never implemented, that we should show pictures with each error message, so the call would go "Hey, I just used your product, and it showed me a picture of a tree and said 'Software Error'", "A tree? Ah, that means you're out of memory. Might mean a memory leak. Can you tell me what you were doing before you saw the tree..."
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I agree with most of your user interface principles, except for the the "fifth grade reading level" one. You might have a point, but I really don't like talking down to grown-ass adults.
Speaking as a professional writer, I don't think you quite grasp the principle.
A while ago, I saw a bunch of conservative commentators mocking the President because his speeches scored (via various accepted algorithms) at an eighth grade reading level. Their take was that he was either an idiot himself or that he thought everybody else was stupid and was condescending to them. On the contrary; his speeches score at an eighth grade level because he has some of the best speechwriters in the business.
Look at it this way, and imagine you're writing copy for a dialog box:
"Touching the active heating element is extremely dangerous and can result in burns." -- Score: Grade 10.4
"Don't put your hand on the stove." -- Score: -0.7
The second version literally scores as sub-zero grade level, meaning ANYONE who can read can understand it. So you tell me. If you used the second version in your dialog box, would you be "talking down to people"?
Breakfast served all day!