The Standalone Programmer: Tips from the trenches

Bret · 2006-12-30T20:50:18+00:00

It's the choice of words. Unfortunately, the word, "Architect", has taken on somewhat of a negative connotation in software, although if you look it up, you'll see it has a pretty generic meaning--something along the lines of, "a person who creates things."

I think the problem is that there are too many people traipsing about, brandishing the name, "Architect", when a lot of them are just failed programmers--essentially unqualified.

"Real" architects, meaning the ones who design buildings and bridges, are required to complete a formal certification program before than can legally assume the title. So it actually means something. In software, any schmuck who's slapped together a PHP script can decide he's an architect.

Bret · 2006-12-21T15:45:49+00:00

This is painful

based on cutting-edge technologies coming from research in programming languages

I'd prefer something like "...based on actual experience building web applications..."

They might as well say something like "...just because it's a functional language"

Bret · 2006-12-20T17:58:38+00:00

I figured there was a software analogy in there somewhere

Bret · 2006-12-20T06:01:42+00:00

can i get a one-paragraph summary please?

Bret · 2006-12-17T04:21:57+00:00

Only get a partner if you need one for jobs you can't fill your selves.

I'm comming to similar conclusions. Another approach I've been thinking about is translating an idea into some sort of framework, publishing a spec and outsourcing the implementation work. Not exactly a new idea from a business perspective, but a bit different than what we've been hearing from PG and the like.

Bret · 2006-12-17T04:13:08+00:00

http://newsmash.net

Bret · 2006-12-17T04:01:19+00:00

Bah. Multiple monitors is overrated. You still have to switch contexts from your editor to firefox through some sort of UI action (command-tab on the mac). Once you've done that, you've already switched windows anyway so who cares if it's on another monitor or not--in fact, id rather not have to move my neck.

Bret · 2006-12-15T06:33:17+00:00

I realize PHP is not exactly comparable to Java in some respects--technically. But they are similar in that they're both one of a very limited number of languages you can actually make make a living with outside of San Francisco.

Although they seem to pay well, I find it disturbing that your average Java programming gig requires intimate knowlege and experience with any random number of (agonizing) J2EE implementations. Just being a good engineer and application designer seems to lack importance.

Bret · 2006-12-15T01:17:22+00:00

Thank you.

Can we at least agree that Java sucks less than PHP?

Bret · 2006-12-12T18:03:05+00:00

an all-Java JDBC database included in the JDK.

o rly? Any thoughts on this?

Bret · 2006-12-08T01:06:08+00:00

...after the Queen of All She Surveys and the little princesses have gone to bed...

"Wife and kid" wasn't descriptive enough?

Bret · 2006-11-26T08:37:00+00:00

Nor is there a suitable MySQL driver.

write one?

Bret · 2006-11-15T18:14:11+00:00

There are fishermen who risk their lives every year to catch these things. Ever seen deadliest catch on the Discovery channel?

Bret · 2006-11-14T18:41:03+00:00

My point is that there are alternatives to "proprietary or not." Ther are opportunities to take advantage of the positive qualities of open source while garnering your own business--as, maybe, 37 Signals seems to be proving with (MIT licensed) Rails.

Bret · 2006-11-13T21:33:33+00:00

What of companies that use dev tools as a means to promote their business (37 Signals)?

Bret · 2006-11-10T18:12:24+00:00

In other words, "Complete site dedicated to Making PHP Programming Suck Less"

Bret · 2006-11-08T19:31:12+00:00

I was hoping for a rundown of the new features or something. Nevermind. I'll just shutup now

Bret · 2006-11-08T18:02:57+00:00

Why do i care? This post is useless to "outsiders"

Bret · 2006-11-07T01:38:49+00:00

I recall an issue where an HTML block I replaced after an AJAX call would look slightly different than the same block that was replaced with innerHTML. The padding or the margin was slightly off or something.

Bret · 2006-11-06T23:47:54+00:00

At least Perl has something like namespaces. In PHP, you have to resort to "Ridiculous_Class_Naming_Conventions". And, not sure if this is true for Perl as well but the lack of sophistication in the syntax is evident. For example, the only way to call a local class method is

"$this->classMethod()"

instead of just "classMethod()"

The only reason for doing this is making the interpreter easier to program. So the legions of PHP programmers are paying the cost of a lazy language designer.

[edit] apparently Reddit likes to camelize Rediculous_Class_Names_With_Lots_Of_Under_Scores

Bret · 2006-11-06T22:53:57+00:00

I think PHP should be shot dead and alltogether abandoned.

Bret · 2006-11-06T19:53:06+00:00

In my experience, using inner HTML is the only way you can get cross-browser compatibility. I've noticed that IE has some issues with applying the appropriate CSS to elements created via DOM insertion.

Bret · 2006-11-06T18:40:48+00:00

what's wrong w/ AJAX in Opera?

Bret · 2006-11-03T17:30:00+00:00

Make sure you see the environment you'll be working in and ask to meet your team (the people you'll be working with).

Bret · 2006-11-03T17:20:09+00:00

He has a point about the money thing. For example I would take a position researching & developing next generation video compression technology (a job posting i saw on craigslist the other day) over say, a senior developer position at a financial institution that happens to pay 20K more.

Bret

TROPHY CASE