Starting Over (Again)

Posted on May 31, 2008 | Filed Under Work, Programming

Starting a new job at a new company is always a tad bit stressful. And, in my current position I’ll be working as a contractor which I’ve never done. Right now I think that it’s working just fine except for not getting the best digs within the company. (I prefer to have my own desk…but that’s just me. :-) )

Anyway, one of the things that I’ve noticed about my current and previous employer is the very strange enterprise architecture they choose. Or, maybe I should say, the architecture they stumble upon. I’m always left with the feeling that it’s all a little haphazard.

I mean, I love writing software in Perl. And I love having job security due to dozens of core, middleware services that all do similar things. But, come on, couldn’t things be designed and thought out thoroughly before plunking down tons of dollars and time to create these monstrosities? And shouldn’t different technologies be investigated before writing a many-many-thousand-line prototype? And why does everyone have to settle on XML as a message format, and then stack that on top of something else that provides its own communications format (like XML-RPC and TIBCO’s RV messaging) that also uses XML? That’s sort of like trying to do VOIP over an old-style modem connection.

Sigh. Oh, well. I guess we as software developers get to create our own job security instead of trying to do things the best way.

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SD West 2007

Posted on March 24, 2007 | Filed Under Programming

Wow, an entire week in Santa Clara, CA attending geek programming tutorials and classes. Overall, it seems like SoA, AoP, and TDD are the big, recurring themes. SoA seems like something that’s getting way too much publicity for a concept that, to me, doesn’t seem new. AoP is very neat, but also feels like something that could get someone in very hot water very quickly if done improperly–I guess that could be said about a lot of things. And TDD has been around for a while, and I assumed it was something everyone already knew how to do.

Here’s the chronological list of everything I attended:

  • Introduction to Developing Web services with Apache/Axis2 Java
  • Patterns of Refactoring
  • Keynote: Software Development at Microsoft: An Inside Look At Building Visual Studio 2005
  • Building an ASP.NET Application from Beginning to End
  • Keynote: Craftsmanship and the Problem of Productivity: Secrets for Going Fast Without Making a Mess
  • In the MOOD: Modern Object-Oriented Design in C++
  • Effective Java Reloaded - This Time it’s for Real
  • Forgotten Algorithms II
  • Clean Code
  • Programming Windows Communication Foundation a Developer’s Primer
  • Keynote: Why Software Sucks
  • Ruby and .NET: Together at Last
  • .NET Unit Testing
  • ASP.NET AJAX
  • The Hacker’s Goldmine
  • Aspect-Oriented Programming in Ruby

I’ve bolded the classes that I thought were really informative. I’m mildly disturbed that I have an infatuation with many of the Microsoft tools. They look so much more polished and complete compared to what the open source world offers. I love the OSS world, but there’s just some things that Microsoft does better.

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Old Dogs, New Tricks

Posted on March 23, 2007 | Filed Under Work, Programming

So after attending a conference with three co-workers, two of whom each have more experience in the industry than I have in years on earth, I’ve become highly concerned about what I’ll be like in 20-30 years. From everything I gathered from these old dogs, many of the “new” concepts, programming languages, and techniques aren’t new at all. They were doing these things in FORTRAN, RPG, Assembly, and C many, many moons ago.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the historical perspective. These two “old dogs” are very intelligent, very nice, and incredible guys to talk to and “hang” with–to use today’s vernacular. However, being able to accept and embrace useful new concepts is critical. According to these two, Ruby is “a toy language” that’s “too slow” and “doesn’t do anything new.” Oh, and C++ is too complicated and has weird syntax, and Microsoft’s WCF (Windows Communication Framework) is copying ideas that have been around for years.

Yes, many of those things may be true on the surface, but those are red herrings. Without taking the benefits of these not-so-new concepts and tools into account you can essentially dismiss any new technology. And to quote a former co-worker, “It’s all input-process-output.” If we all succumb to this frame of thought, then we might as well ditch all technology and go back to sticks, rocks, and sand.

I’ve decided that if I fall into this static pit of professional growth then I should be taken out back and shot. Or maybe I could move into a management role. Hmm..no, I think I’d rather be shot. :-)

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