7 ms·

I agree with you that it's sometimes good to focus on getting things out the door fast instead of the code quality behind it. But surly there must be a point wh

by polack 10y ago

I agree with you that it's sometimes good to focus on getting things out the door fast instead of the code quality behind it. But surly there must be a point when the pendulum swings back and you should switch focus to quality. I would argue that Facebook have definitely reached the point where they own so much of the market and with their infinite resources they should be able to ship things with good code quality. Sooner or later the costs of supporting all that crappy software will make a dent even in Facebooks chest of gold.

K0SM0S 10y ago
> Sooner or later the costs of supporting all that crappy software will make a dent even in Facebooks chest of gold. I would think that's most engineers gut feeling, at least that's mine too. But reality is vastly different, because market shares are not won solely on quality (it matters, but rarely is the penultimate factor), and software itself isn't always the core product (i.e. it's a medium). We tend to think that success for big tech requires quality code, like Apple and Google produce, but think about Microsoft's history... what a pure software company could get away with. The major reason in that case is probably its quasi-monopoly on several key markets; and that's I wager exactly what plays in favor of Facebook's apps, regardless of the quality of their code we emphasize so much around here: there is no getting access to Facebook without using their apps (webapp included of course). Period. So the question never was "oh, is Fb(the app) good enough?", the question is "do I want to use facebook or not?", and if yes, proceed to use app. Ultimately that's because Fb is providing a service, a social network, and software is just the means, the medium, the tool. It never was about the app, the code, it's about what these enable in the real world --from super-secret groups to circlejerking around fake news and what-have-you-with-your-cats-lulz. We just have to look at a slew of industries that just like Facebook provide a service through software ranging from OK to abysmally painful (like, 80% of set top boxes and TV menus and VHS/DVD UIs... car electronics... ATMs...) I always find the same two culprits: a purely functional design (does the job, sometimes buggily, period) or a situation of monopoly (deal with it, customer!). Or both. Quality-of-life features and user experience are vastly alien to some otherwise pretty tasteful industries, design-wise (the joy of powering up a $10K receiver in the late 90's, hook it up to the TV to be greeted with giant white fonts on a 64x64 blue grid --and that thing does 7.1 DVD yada yada?). So while I tend to agree with you at first and would love to live in a world where that's true (yay engineers all over), I think that's not the way markets operate. Do we enjoy setting the time on most LCD clocks? No. Because that never was the intent, it was purely meant to do the job of letting you set the time correctly, if frustratingly. In much the same way I use software every day that fights against me, but I get to win the function that I seek. There are games like that too, where the reward is part mastering the content and part besting the UI. On a side related note, I don't think the service that would (will, given enough time...) eventually best Facebook would do so on quality or performance or anything of the sort; I think it will be based on a paradigm shift (another way, era of doing 'social stuff'). Otherwise it's pretty locked for this cycle, even if Fb's apps were really bad to use. There's just no alternative present or in sight, and 1.something billion users is a pretty tough lock on a market.
collyw 10y ago
They have written their own PHP interpreter haven't they? Thats a pretty good indication that they left some things too late. Saying that, if they have the resources where that sort of decision makes sense, then its probably not going to be too much of a dent in their pot of gold.

by polack 10y ago

K0SM0S 10y ago

> Sooner or later the costs of supporting all that crappy software will make a dent even in Facebooks chest of gold. I would think that's most engineers gut feeling, at least that's mine too. But reality is vastly different, because market shares are not won solely on quality (it matters, but rarely is the penultimate factor), and software itself isn't always the core product (i.e. it's a medium). We tend to think that success for big tech requires quality code, like Apple and Google produce, but think about Microsoft's history... what a pure software company could get away with. The major reason in that case is probably its quasi-monopoly on several key markets; and that's I wager exactly what plays in favor of Facebook's apps, regardless of the quality of their code we emphasize so much around here: there is no getting access to Facebook without using their apps (webapp included of course). Period. So the question never was "oh, is Fb(the app) good enough?", the question is "do I want to use facebook or not?", and if yes, proceed to use app. Ultimately that's because Fb is providing a service, a social network, and software is just the means, the medium, the tool. It never was about the app, the code, it's about what these enable in the real world --from super-secret groups to circlejerking around fake news and what-have-you-with-your-cats-lulz. We just have to look at a slew of industries that just like Facebook provide a service through software ranging from OK to abysmally painful (like, 80% of set top boxes and TV menus and VHS/DVD UIs... car electronics... ATMs...) I always find the same two culprits: a purely functional design (does the job, sometimes buggily, period) or a situation of monopoly (deal with it, customer!). Or both. Quality-of-life features and user experience are vastly alien to some otherwise pretty tasteful industries, design-wise (the joy of powering up a $10K receiver in the late 90's, hook it up to the TV to be greeted with giant white fonts on a 64x64 blue grid --and that thing does 7.1 DVD yada yada?). So while I tend to agree with you at first and would love to live in a world where that's true (yay engineers all over), I think that's not the way markets operate. Do we enjoy setting the time on most LCD clocks? No. Because that never was the intent, it was purely meant to do the job of letting you set the time correctly, if frustratingly. In much the same way I use software every day that fights against me, but I get to win the function that I seek. There are games like that too, where the reward is part mastering the content and part besting the UI. On a side related note, I don't think the service that would (will, given enough time...) eventually best Facebook would do so on quality or performance or anything of the sort; I think it will be based on a paradigm shift (another way, era of doing 'social stuff'). Otherwise it's pretty locked for this cycle, even if Fb's apps were really bad to use. There's just no alternative present or in sight, and 1.something billion users is a pretty tough lock on a market.

collyw 10y ago

They have written their own PHP interpreter haven't they? Thats a pretty good indication that they left some things too late. Saying that, if they have the resources where that sort of decision makes sense, then its probably not going to be too much of a dent in their pot of gold.