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Blah. Yet another "new-fangled technologies have no place" post. Granted, there's a grain of truth to the core thought. As I've become more experienced, I've se

by j_baker 11y ago

Blah. Yet another "new-fangled technologies have no place" post. Granted, there's a grain of truth to the core thought. As I've become more experienced, I've seen more frameworks and libraries that re-invent the wheel and solve problems that have already been solved long ago, albeit in a trendier manner. But at the end of the day, software engineers are technologists. Our job is to create and consume technology. Being afraid of new technology is counter-productive.

phil248 11y ago
"This is the technology industry, we don't have time for new technology!"
- krapp 11y ago
  The industry that still argues about which text editor from the 1970s is the best tool to code in has a problem with rapid paradigm shifts? I'm shocked.
  - 0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
    The people commenting here are not those people for the most part.
  - michaelochurch 11y ago
    The industry that still argues about which text editor from the 1970s is the best tool to code in has a problem with rapid paradigm shifts? I use emacs and avoid IDEs. That said, I have no interest in the emacs vs. vi debate. I don't care what tools you use, as long as you don't do things in a way that force me to use specific tools (e.g. enterprise environments that becomes IDE-dependent). As for me, I don't like mindless churn. This industry desperately needs to improve. It's running at about 5% (if that) of its real potential. But the constant fire drilling that comes with moving from one well-sold crappy technology to another well-sold crappy technology is really irritating, and it's part of why so many good programmers tend to move up into management.
JustSomeNobody 11y ago
I didn't read that in the article. Being a technologist means know when NOT to use a technology as much as knowing when to use it. There're way too many developers who read links from HN and try and push the javascript framework of the weak on everyone at their job without fully comprehending the consequences of their decision. That's not being a technologits, that's being stupid.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
  > and push the javascript framework of the weak (emphasis added)
  - ericson578 11y ago
    freudian typo, is there such a thing?
    - JustSomeNobody 11y ago
      Haha, maybe... That was bad. Normally I try not to have such typos, but it is Monday.
      - 0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
        It was brilliant!
- atinoda-kestrel 11y ago
  > There're way too many developers who read links from HN and try and push the javascript framework of the weak on everyone at their job without fully comprehending the consequences of their decision. One good question to ask yourself when evaluating a framework is this: If the project/company dies out tomorrow, and we're tied to this thing, can we take it in-house and pick up maintenance? If the answer to that is no, not even long enough to migrate to something else, then boy, you'd better be damn sure that the team that develops it isn't going to go away or lose interest. Hence my skepticism with many, many Javascript "framework of the week" projects. There's just far too many out there that have died out after a year or two for me to blithely accept whatever the new hotness is.
rimantas 11y ago
Reinventing the wheel is only a part of the problem. The other is that the wheel is spinning in the same place. And I even suspect that the cart is no longer there.
thebfed 11y ago
New != bad && New != good Analyse critically and deliberately. Be conscious of decisions.

by j_baker 11y ago

phil248 11y ago

"This is the technology industry, we don't have time for new technology!"

krapp 11y ago
The industry that still argues about which text editor from the 1970s is the best tool to code in has a problem with rapid paradigm shifts? I'm shocked.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
  The people commenting here are not those people for the most part.
- michaelochurch 11y ago
  The industry that still argues about which text editor from the 1970s is the best tool to code in has a problem with rapid paradigm shifts? I use emacs and avoid IDEs. That said, I have no interest in the emacs vs. vi debate. I don't care what tools you use, as long as you don't do things in a way that force me to use specific tools (e.g. enterprise environments that becomes IDE-dependent). As for me, I don't like mindless churn. This industry desperately needs to improve. It's running at about 5% (if that) of its real potential. But the constant fire drilling that comes with moving from one well-sold crappy technology to another well-sold crappy technology is really irritating, and it's part of why so many good programmers tend to move up into management.

JustSomeNobody 11y ago

I didn't read that in the article. Being a technologist means know when NOT to use a technology as much as knowing when to use it. There're way too many developers who read links from HN and try and push the javascript framework of the weak on everyone at their job without fully comprehending the consequences of their decision. That's not being a technologits, that's being stupid.

0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
> and push the javascript framework of the weak (emphasis added)
- ericson578 11y ago
  freudian typo, is there such a thing?
  - JustSomeNobody 11y ago
    Haha, maybe... That was bad. Normally I try not to have such typos, but it is Monday.
    - 0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
      It was brilliant!
atinoda-kestrel 11y ago
> There're way too many developers who read links from HN and try and push the javascript framework of the weak on everyone at their job without fully comprehending the consequences of their decision. One good question to ask yourself when evaluating a framework is this: If the project/company dies out tomorrow, and we're tied to this thing, can we take it in-house and pick up maintenance? If the answer to that is no, not even long enough to migrate to something else, then boy, you'd better be damn sure that the team that develops it isn't going to go away or lose interest. Hence my skepticism with many, many Javascript "framework of the week" projects. There's just far too many out there that have died out after a year or two for me to blithely accept whatever the new hotness is.

rimantas 11y ago

Reinventing the wheel is only a part of the problem. The other is that the wheel is spinning in the same place. And I even suspect that the cart is no longer there.

thebfed 11y ago

New != bad && New != good Analyse critically and deliberately. Be conscious of decisions.