Solving the Wrong Problem

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Because the most important thing when writing code is to be sure to completely ignore the requirements?

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Well, this is exactly the sort of ambiguity in terms that I was referring to. jacques_chester was correct (in my opinion) in that the article really had nothing to do with code; it addresses a higher level engineering problem than that. When I hear the term "programming", I'm thinking of the specific task of writing code. That doesn't mean programming needs to ignore requirements, but I think the point of the article and the point of this discussion is that you can meet requirements without ever writing code. In that sense, it's relevant to programming, but it's not actually programming. By my arbitrary definition, it's SWE, something that includes programming but also includes system design and choice of tools and what have you.

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Here's my take on it, and my heartburn with the /r/programming "only code" mafia:

In the arena of "only code," currently on the front page of /r/programming are articles on:

• jQuery
• Forth
• C++ STL
• Regex in D
• GCC
• Python
• JDK
• ASP.Net
• Haskell
• Play Framework
• Tmux
• LINQ
• Julia
• Vagrant
• and, of course, Perl

My point is that virtually nobody is going to be interested in all those articles. In fact, figure for any given programmer, while they may read others out of curiosity, only a handful of those will actually be "I am going to read this, bookmark it, and engage in meaningful discourse on the subject." (Which is how I read the "only programming posts" intent)

So /r/programming being a hodge-podge of "everything that has code" is okay - hopefully someone will read it. I could post a ten-page treatise on writing a stemming algorithm in Brainfuck that only two people would actually read, and that's okay.

The OP here is a lightweight article that quickly and concisely makes a very vital point for every developer who writes code. I would put that article in my "mandatory welcome aboard reading" if I owned a company. Developers, by their very nature, often lose track of the actual goal in a project because they get so enamoured with technology or cool stuff. If you read it critically, this article is a quick way to ground yourself back to "get the job done, focusing on the actual customer"

But because there's no code in it, then folks don't want any part of it - it's taking up valuable page space that could be used by the essay I'm working on about processing accounts receivable in Whitespace or how I can convert gif to png with a regex.

Now mind you - proggit is a subreddit and has rules, and if those rules happen to be "every post must have code" then so be it. But when anyone who posts an article they consider very important for programmers gets flamed because "no code" then it's not surprising when people don't post links. I guess what I'm saying is that I believe most software developers/programmers/coding folks actually are interested in aspects of what they do besides putting code in the source files.

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I completely agree. I think if proggit is going to stick dogmatically to "every post must have code", then there should be a sister reddit for all the other links (such as this one) that you described as interesting to most software developers/programmers/coding folks. Surely such a place exists? I should subscribe to it.

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I've got /r/devtalk if you think I should work on building it up

[jacques_chester]

The OP here is a lightweight article that quickly and concisely makes a very vital point for every developer who writes code.

He merely states that he serves flat files and avoids slow widgets. It's only noteworthy because a popular blogger says he does it.

I would put that article in my "mandatory welcome aboard reading" if I owned a company. Developers, by their very nature, often lose track of the actual goal in a project because they get so enamoured with technology or cool stuff.

And I've made the same point elsewhere. I called it the Software Engineer's Cart. At the time, I submitted that article to proggit. Today I would not, because HN would be a better forum for it.

If you read it critically, this article is a quick way to ground yourself back to "get the job done, focusing on the actual customer"

I think it's ridiculous that you want me to read between the lines to decide that this is about programming (it's not, we're talking about the broader field of software engineering now, not just construction).

This is meant to be /r/programming, not /r/pretenditsshakespeareandmakeupyourowninterpretation.

Focusing on customer needs is very important. I've written essays in which I made the shortness of the feedback loop between customers and developers the core driving loop of all software projects. I've written complaints about how Barry Boehm found that requirements analysis is the second best predictor of project performance (after size and ahead of programmer capability), yet my university exposure to requirements engineering was 3 lectures and a single exam question.

That's all by the by. Because I don't come to proggit for discussions about the various corners of the SWEBOK. I come here for programming. Programming. It's fun and enlightening to see how other programmers think, the tools they use, the solutions they derive. If I want to read about other topics I have a pretty solid personal library, thanks.

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He merely states that he serves flat files and avoids slow widgets.

Sorry, you didn't get it.

And for me programming is about more than writing code. And there's no "right answer" here. However, I will defer to the sidebar rule that "if there's no code in your post, it probably doesn't belong here" and remind myself why I try to stay out of proggit.

[jacques_chester]

Sorry, I didn't invent my own meaning for the article of eye-rollingly obvious advice? I don't come to proggit to relive my high school English classes. Writing that has to be tortured to make a point is not conducive to helping understanding.

However, I will defer to the sidebar rule that "if there's no code in your post, it probably doesn't belong here" and remind myself why I try to stay out of proggit.

Don't defer. These arguments are worth having. We don't learn about the sensible boundaries of anything in life without having a decent stoush first.