5 ms·

The State of Developer Ecosystem in 2017

45 points by mihau 9y ago

AJRF 9y ago
44% of developers surveyed said they don't contribute to open source code, but are willing too. I assume that some people say they are willing but when push comes to shove they don't actually want too, but still seems like a gap in the market. Someone could try and build a tool to arbitrage for the two communities.
- alexanderdmitri 9y ago
  What's the definition for contributing to open source code here? Is it publishing code (ie pushing to a public repo on GitHub), putting in the effort to maintain/market it, identifying reproducible issues in other open source projects, submitting patches/features to existing open source?
- vosper 9y ago
  I think a lot of those people are probably in the "I would do it, but I have enough / too much work already" or "I have other stuff to do in my life" category.
- TheAceOfHearts 9y ago
  There needs to be community pressure on companies to allocate resources and time for employees to contribute back to whatever projects they use. It's not unreasonable for someone to have hobbies other than coding outside of work. Many people that contribute to open source end up doing so during their free time, but I'd guess that a fair share of those 44% of developers have different priorities.
  - krapp 9y ago
    > There needs to be community pressure on companies to allocate resources and time for employees to contribute back to whatever projects they use. Companies don't allocate resources and time to employees without expecting a return on investment. Any contributions made on company time would have to managed by the company with the intent that they serve its needs first and foremost, or else be considered theft of company resources and time. It sounds like a good idea but I can't see it turning into anything but an opportunity for companies to leverage control over open source projects.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- ty_a 9y ago
  Most places I've worked at had policies against contributing to open source projects.
  - slackingoff2017 9y ago
    Was about to say the same. My company explicitly forbids it for some stupid reason. One of the main drivers for my current job search.
- wolco 9y ago
  For some its hard because they want to help somehow but don't understand the structure. If you can get to the point of creating a patch in the right format someone needs to accept the pull request. The barrier is too high for most so most work on there own stuff and publish to github.
twobyfour 9y ago
Note that these results are likely a bit skewed towards Jetbrains' customers. The stat that surprised me most was how many people never used an issue tracker. 28%? That's insane!
- staofbur 9y ago
  About 50% of the companies I consulted for between 2004-2013 had no issue tracker. Most emailed and/or emailed spreadsheets around. What's even more shocking is about 25% of them didn't even use a VCS, most relying on some poor guy to sit there with a diff tool and merge everyone's shit into something cohesive. One company used a wooden spoon as an ownership lock.
  - twobyfour 9y ago
    That's just depressing. WHYYYYYY?
    - staofbur 9y ago
      A lot of the companies, software was a function of the business, not the business itself. There was no motivation for the staff to do anything other than minimal effort or even research what their job was about. There was no pride, no ingenuity or creativity. Inevitably this descended into chaos and then I got hired to unfuck the places. Some places you couldn't fix because they were too cheap, too lazy and didn't want to make a change because they were in denial that the poo was actually already over the fan blades. It was depressing and if I'm honest it made me physically ill and I folded the company and got a permanent job with a company that wielded the clue stick. Feel much better now :)
      - twobyfour 9y ago
        You would think they would set up version control just to make their own minimal effort jobs less painful.
        9y ago
aphextron 9y ago
Am I alone in finding Go's syntax atrocious? It just seems so needlessly obtuse, and puts me off to an otherwise great ecosystem.
- Svenskunganka 9y ago
  What do you find obtuse with it? I don't care that much for syntax when looking at a language, because it is something you can get used to fairly quickly. The error checking is quite repetetive though.
  - aphextron 9y ago
    > I don't care that much for syntax when looking at a language, because it is something you can get used to fairly quickly. The error checking is quite repetetive though I agree, it's entirely an aesthetic issue. Just choices like using "func" instead of just writing out "function" or using an actual shorthand like "fn" really bother me. Also the seemingly arbitrary choices that run against the grain of C inspired languages like using "[]<type>" instead of "<type>[]" to initialize an array.
    - amw-zero 9y ago
      Those examples both seem a little like nitpicking. The argument that something is not like C is particularly interesting to me, because C has arguably the most obtuse and unintuitive syntax out there. We just accept it as normal because we've seen it so much. I encourage you to look back and think about how you felt when reading your first C for loop.
- anotherbrownguy 9y ago
  Try rust for a while and you'll love Go.
snomad 9y ago
21% target Windows mobile OS? That seems especially high since most Windows developers would start visual studio by default.
vinceguidry 9y ago
I didn't get very far reading this until I realized that because Java developers skewed the results pretty hard, there really weren't going to be any takeaways from it that aren't also only relevant to the Java ecosystem. It's why I don't pay much attention to statistics in general. Nobody's constraints are going to match how I would do it.
petraeus 9y ago
For some people writing clever clean code is much more important than making $10 million profit a year. What type of person are you?

45 points by mihau 9y ago

AJRF 9y ago

44% of developers surveyed said they don't contribute to open source code, but are willing too. I assume that some people say they are willing but when push comes to shove they don't actually want too, but still seems like a gap in the market. Someone could try and build a tool to arbitrage for the two communities.

alexanderdmitri 9y ago
What's the definition for contributing to open source code here? Is it publishing code (ie pushing to a public repo on GitHub), putting in the effort to maintain/market it, identifying reproducible issues in other open source projects, submitting patches/features to existing open source?
vosper 9y ago
I think a lot of those people are probably in the "I would do it, but I have enough / too much work already" or "I have other stuff to do in my life" category.
TheAceOfHearts 9y ago
There needs to be community pressure on companies to allocate resources and time for employees to contribute back to whatever projects they use. It's not unreasonable for someone to have hobbies other than coding outside of work. Many people that contribute to open source end up doing so during their free time, but I'd guess that a fair share of those 44% of developers have different priorities.
- krapp 9y ago
  > There needs to be community pressure on companies to allocate resources and time for employees to contribute back to whatever projects they use. Companies don't allocate resources and time to employees without expecting a return on investment. Any contributions made on company time would have to managed by the company with the intent that they serve its needs first and foremost, or else be considered theft of company resources and time. It sounds like a good idea but I can't see it turning into anything but an opportunity for companies to leverage control over open source projects.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
ty_a 9y ago
Most places I've worked at had policies against contributing to open source projects.
- slackingoff2017 9y ago
  Was about to say the same. My company explicitly forbids it for some stupid reason. One of the main drivers for my current job search.
wolco 9y ago
For some its hard because they want to help somehow but don't understand the structure. If you can get to the point of creating a patch in the right format someone needs to accept the pull request. The barrier is too high for most so most work on there own stuff and publish to github.

twobyfour 9y ago

Note that these results are likely a bit skewed towards Jetbrains' customers. The stat that surprised me most was how many people never used an issue tracker. 28%? That's insane!

staofbur 9y ago
About 50% of the companies I consulted for between 2004-2013 had no issue tracker. Most emailed and/or emailed spreadsheets around. What's even more shocking is about 25% of them didn't even use a VCS, most relying on some poor guy to sit there with a diff tool and merge everyone's shit into something cohesive. One company used a wooden spoon as an ownership lock.
- twobyfour 9y ago
  That's just depressing. WHYYYYYY?
  - staofbur 9y ago
    A lot of the companies, software was a function of the business, not the business itself. There was no motivation for the staff to do anything other than minimal effort or even research what their job was about. There was no pride, no ingenuity or creativity. Inevitably this descended into chaos and then I got hired to unfuck the places. Some places you couldn't fix because they were too cheap, too lazy and didn't want to make a change because they were in denial that the poo was actually already over the fan blades. It was depressing and if I'm honest it made me physically ill and I folded the company and got a permanent job with a company that wielded the clue stick. Feel much better now :)
    - twobyfour 9y ago
      You would think they would set up version control just to make their own minimal effort jobs less painful.
      - 9y ago

aphextron 9y ago

Am I alone in finding Go's syntax atrocious? It just seems so needlessly obtuse, and puts me off to an otherwise great ecosystem.

Svenskunganka 9y ago
What do you find obtuse with it? I don't care that much for syntax when looking at a language, because it is something you can get used to fairly quickly. The error checking is quite repetetive though.
- aphextron 9y ago
  > I don't care that much for syntax when looking at a language, because it is something you can get used to fairly quickly. The error checking is quite repetetive though I agree, it's entirely an aesthetic issue. Just choices like using "func" instead of just writing out "function" or using an actual shorthand like "fn" really bother me. Also the seemingly arbitrary choices that run against the grain of C inspired languages like using "[]<type>" instead of "<type>[]" to initialize an array.
  - amw-zero 9y ago
    Those examples both seem a little like nitpicking. The argument that something is not like C is particularly interesting to me, because C has arguably the most obtuse and unintuitive syntax out there. We just accept it as normal because we've seen it so much. I encourage you to look back and think about how you felt when reading your first C for loop.
anotherbrownguy 9y ago
Try rust for a while and you'll love Go.

snomad 9y ago

21% target Windows mobile OS? That seems especially high since most Windows developers would start visual studio by default.

vinceguidry 9y ago

I didn't get very far reading this until I realized that because Java developers skewed the results pretty hard, there really weren't going to be any takeaways from it that aren't also only relevant to the Java ecosystem. It's why I don't pay much attention to statistics in general. Nobody's constraints are going to match how I would do it.

petraeus 9y ago

For some people writing clever clean code is much more important than making $10 million profit a year. What type of person are you?