Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!
I propose that the next classic blunder is the holy war called Language Standardization. I am on a committee at work to evaluate programming languages, Libraries, and Development platforms to determine which get the official stamp of approval for our team to use. I agree there is great merit in having a limited number of software tools to support. The alternative is a morass of unmaintainable widgets written with whatever utility or language struck the individual's fancy at the time. The ensuing spaghetti code becomes what is often referred to as "Write only" code because it is impossible to figure out how it works by reading it.
That said the effort of creating said standard is a philosophical landmine that rivals The Crusades in its fanatical implications. Just try getting a Ruby programmer in the same room as a C# programmer and you will see the fireworks start flying. Nothing is sacred in these battles as Cross-platform compatibility, centralized support, flexibility or efficiency of expression, or even the personal quirks of the original designers are bandied about as evidence of our chosen tool's superiority. Nowhere can a team of intelligent, experienced engineers descend into kindergarten bickering so fast as when their pet language is on the chopping block.
I must admit a certain morbid fascination with the whole process. I have always been a bit of a generalist in regards to IT and Software Engineering, so I have no especial attachment to any particular option. I like the ease with which Visual Studio allows C# and Windows development to happen. I like the ease with which my Perl, Python, or Java code runs on Windows, Linux, or Mac. I curse Microsoft and Postgres equally depending on which asinine implementation I must work with at the moment.
Unfortunately this means I don't have a lot of in depth information to add to the discussion. I think it uniquely places me in a position to fairly weigh the arguments of my colleagues as they present the best about their personal bias.
What will we decide?
I don't know, but I plan to enjoy the debate much more than anything the presidential candidates or WWF can come up with.
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4 comments:
90% of this flew right over my head. But I'm glad you wrote something.
That's ok. I have to keep some amount of esoteric geekspeek in my content or they'll take back my membership card.
Bruce doesn't envy you. I adore your writing style in this entry it's clever and insightful. Even when I didn't get all the geeky references I understood enough and know enough about human nature to find it highly amusing.
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