pmprog
DNF (Did Not Finish)
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2011
- Messages
- 4,150
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/22/frank_fisher_creative_class/
Thought everybody should read this
Thought everybody should read this
Some thoughts about the article:
Meh, who gives a damn.But are coders considered creatives? Nope.
Bullshit. Movies, music and books are pirated in equal measure. People pirate because it's cheap and they can get away with it.Well, in practical terms, I believe it explains the eagerness with which even the most law-abiding will pirate software – they simply don’t grasp that any effort goes into it, so why should the builders be rewarded?
IT is poorly understood, but the same holds for the technical details in any field. What makes IT hard is the lack of a tangible product. It's all virtual and abstract. Especially software tools, libraries and frameworks (i.e. with developers as customer) suffer from this as they don't even have a visual end-product.When the public does engage with IT, it’s generally in conflict – and then they’ll cast around for help from those they consider expert.
Solution: communicate once and for all that you don't do support or have them pay by the hour. Problem solved. Haven't done family software support in years.I’m sure I’m not the only developer who dreads family Christmases for the inevitable slew of requests for help with wireless niggles and errant popups.
The sad thing is that developers have a better feeling for how software ticks and a problem solving mentality. Even when assisting with software they have never seen before they tend to track the problem quickly in comparison to your average joe user. Naturally, this reinforces the idea that people "doing something with computers" can fix any computer related problem.Why ask a developer to configure a network? Because outside the coding cabal, all they know is that we do something with computers. But are graphic designers asked to help with the decorating?
It's marginally better than a touch-screen, but tactile feedback is important. I wish people would stop moving away from tactile feedback. This rant springs to mind.I bore anyone who’ll listen with my prediction for the ‘next big thing’ - the application of a Kinect-style interface to a smartphone.
In the early days of using cars you needed to understand the inner workings at quite some more detail than you do today. Is that bad? No it's progress. Software should not need to reveal its inner workings.We tell the end consumer: "Look what it does" and because it does it so well, they don't ask: "How does it work?"
HahahahaGirls in bars are not charmed by explanations of object oriented programming – believe me I’ve tried.
When are the poor saps doing the work ever credited for the end-product? A cry for attention indeed. If I get paid, enjoy my work and people enjoy my software then that is enough of a reward for me. It sounds like the author has...some issues.I can see only one possible route out, a way to alert end users to the poor saps doing all the work... Get sloppy. Bubble up some static. Introduce a few cracks, and the façade will fade. It’s not a bug, it’s a cry for attention.
Don't disagree with any of it really. Except that I nearly always ask "How does it work?". Don't get me wrong, depending on the subject I won't even understand the explaination, but I'm a curious fellow, and a developer
There's no such profession - Afterall, the sewer systems were always there, right?Making a fuss about source code not receiving the same public attention as various paintings or works of music is petty and demeaning to the vast majority of other professions that also don't generate such attention. Not least of all other engineers.
Did you think? - ah, there's two bits on graphic designers. I thought this bit was quite amusingThe quips against graphics designers sounds particularly insulting..
I wonder if they are? If not, maybe they should beBut are graphic designers asked to help with the decorating?
It's quite funny, a few people where I work often ask for "magic" buttons, that do a number of functions automatically for themThat said, I don't know why he thinks that the common public perceives software as spontaneously existing out of thin air.
This line rattled me a bit. I'll admit, my code isn't spotless, I think my record for software releases in a single day at work is about 7 (not all bug related, I'll add though), but I will *never* intentionally do a bad job. I don't care how unloved you may be, releasing crap is not going to improve that fact... In fact, you'd probably become more hated, because everything you do is trashGet sloppy. Bubble up some static. Introduce a few cracks, and the façade will fade.
On the other hand, I've seen people post on these forums complaining that an application was poorly made and not ready to be uploaded yet. A simple case is "It doesn't automatically load fullscreen? Don't upload things that aren't ready" (not quoting anyone or anything, just a hypothetical situation). So the user sees something that could easily use five more minutes of dev work to make it go, why wouldn't a dev put five more minutes in something? A dev sees hours/days of work, it's time to show some results and gets ripped into cause it's not perfect.Honestly, when I do work on any piece of software, there's only one thing I want: for the software to be useful (or, in the case of games, enjoyable) to some people. Why should I care if the users understand the work that went into it?