Assess Your Software Process Ignorance Quotient
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Infoworld publishes a new article about developers going back to the basics and choosing text editors over IDEs. If this article were posted about 2-3 years ago, then the issue would still be debatable. However, considering the massive advances afforded by Eclipse and IDEA, this issue is not worthy of debate. If you're programming in Java and you're still using VIM, TextPad or even Emacs then you're a plain ignoramus.
However, what's even more astonishing about the article, is the mention of IDEs with pluggable modules. Hello?! Has the author been living under a rock all these years? Almost every modern IDE has an extension mechanism. The fact that some of them only seem to have vendor supported features is more of a lack of third party support than the lack of extensibility.
This article however reveals humongous ignorance prevailing in the industry. The most obvious reason for this is that a majority of developers simply don't take the time to update their awareness of best practices. Eclipse has been around for a little over two years, however, most developers have never heard of it! So when a guy tells infoworld that "textpad" is good enough, then he is just plain ignorant.
So, I figure, maybe it's time for a test to assess your current ignorance quotient. Answer these questions in the context of Java development:
Tally up your answers by adding 1 point for every yes answer. If you scored a perfect 10 then it's time to consider a career change!
- Do programmers still use a text editor as their primary tool for programming?
- Do managers walk around tracking progress using a spreadsheet or microsoft project?
- Is your sole means of file coordination a shared drive?
- Do you need a specialist to perform a build?
- Is System.out.println the sole mechanism for monitoring code?
- Is all automated testing developed by a separate "test" team?
- Does your coding standards require Hungarian notation?
- Do you use your own homegrown database persistence layer?
- Is email the primary means of tracking bugs?
- Is "the number of design patterns used" a quality metric?
Yesterday's best practices don't necessarily apply for today.
[UPDATE] - Looks like people are getting off all too easily! So, here's a new graduated scale:
1 to 5 - Get with the program and stomp out those bits of ignorance.
6 to 8 - Consider a Career Change.
9 to 10 - Consider joining Microsoft, your presence there would benefit the world as a whole.
