While the people interviewed do point important matters, their view on how to solve the problem is not, IMHO, adequate.
Also, putting guilt on programmers' shoulders reveals a lack of understanding on the matter. Many programmers are already aware that "YOUR.USER.IS.NOT.YOU." (stupid motto). The fellow just missed the mark. By miles.
Programmers study their whole lives to NOT think like users. They do so to learn how computers "think". To ask someone to understand both the users and the inner idiosyncrasies of the machine is just not reasonable.
What we lack in the software development industry is the role of interaction designers, and, of course, the willingness of the software development companies to PAY so they produce better and more "friendly" software. That does not come without a cost.
WARNING: SLIGHTLY OFFTOPIC AHEAD
For us, specifically, PostgreSQL and MySQL are not nearly powerful enough anyway. We really do need the beast.
That's because the software in your company is poorly designed. Don't shoot me yet, please read on. All software I've seen, including the ones I work/worked on, are poorly designed. Ideally, every software should be implemented in a way to make such changes, if not trivial, at least possible, regarding time and cost constraints.
The problem is that what we learn in academia is not what we face in every day software development, when we are employed by companies. Companies are very good at squeezing cost out in short term, but they don't realize the consequences in the long run. To be aware of such consequences requires at least a CS degree, or overly well-informed managers.
The problem is that (AFAIK), most managers don't come from a CS background and are always poorly informed of at least half the business of a software development company (the half which is actually developing the software).
The bottom line is: decision makers in the IT industry are almost always under-qualified and fail to seek relevant advice. The mess we see in said industry is, mainly, of their making.
Hey, if Stroustrup suffers a little bit of "stinging" for the thousands of man-years of pain he's caused to a generation of developers, I'm not going to shed a tear for him. Oh, you refer to the developers which did not program in C++? I guess they must have been in great pain...
Were this post a piece of code, it should be in the daily wtf for so many reasons.
Seriously, do you even *care* about how patents/IP/contracts affect OSS? Why, because OSS is not affected by such in any significant way. Proven offending code was added to an OSS project, it would be straight out removed. It can range from an annoyance to a broken project in the short term, because of the loss of functionality, but in the mid term that resumes to nothing, as the blank left by the offending code is filled in by new code. And that's it. Nothing to see here, move along and just don't worry about it unless you have to.
... IMHO, should be C++. After you've become acquainted with it, all the rest is candy. What I mean here is that it is a lot easier for someone from the C++ world to migrate into Java, C#, and such then the other way around.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd rather install pr0n Linux: #> pr0n-get install '*sylvia-saint*'
Hey, didn't ya understand? Attorneys should be disbarred. Period.
Two words: Interaction Design.
P roducts/dp/0672316498/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction_design/
For those interested in it, you can grab a copy of Alan Cooper's "The Inmates are Running the Asylum"
http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-
While the people interviewed do point important matters, their view on how to solve the problem is not, IMHO, adequate.
Also, putting guilt on programmers' shoulders reveals a lack of understanding on the matter. Many programmers are already aware that "YOUR.USER.IS.NOT.YOU." (stupid motto). The fellow just missed the mark. By miles.
Programmers study their whole lives to NOT think like users. They do so to learn how computers "think". To ask someone to understand both the users and the inner idiosyncrasies of the machine is just not reasonable.
What we lack in the software development industry is the role of interaction designers, and, of course, the willingness of the software development companies to PAY so they produce better and more "friendly" software. That does not come without a cost.
That's because the software in your company is poorly designed. Don't shoot me yet, please read on. All software I've seen, including the ones I work/worked on, are poorly designed. Ideally, every software should be implemented in a way to make such changes, if not trivial, at least possible, regarding time and cost constraints.
The problem is that what we learn in academia is not what we face in every day software development, when we are employed by companies. Companies are very good at squeezing cost out in short term, but they don't realize the consequences in the long run. To be aware of such consequences requires at least a CS degree, or overly well-informed managers.
The problem is that (AFAIK), most managers don't come from a CS background and are always poorly informed of at least half the business of a software development company (the half which is actually developing the software).
The bottom line is: decision makers in the IT industry are almost always under-qualified and fail to seek relevant advice. The mess we see in said industry is, mainly, of their making.
Were this post a piece of code, it should be in the daily wtf for so many reasons. Seriously, do you even *care* about how patents/IP/contracts affect OSS? Why, because OSS is not affected by such in any significant way. Proven offending code was added to an OSS project, it would be straight out removed. It can range from an annoyance to a broken project in the short term, because of the loss of functionality, but in the mid term that resumes to nothing, as the blank left by the offending code is filled in by new code. And that's it. Nothing to see here, move along and just don't worry about it unless you have to.
... IMHO, should be C++. After you've become acquainted with it, all the rest is candy. What I mean here is that it is a lot easier for someone from the C++ world to migrate into Java, C#, and such then the other way around.
Nor the penguins.