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"Programmers do not need to write much code anymore; all they need to do in most cases is wire together already available components." As a general statement,
by calahad 8y ago
"Programmers do not need to write much code anymore; all they need to do in most cases is wire together already available components."
As a general statement, I feel like this is objectively false. Just look at how much code gets added to Github daily.
- wilsonnb3 8y agoI'm sure a lot of code gets added to GitHub every day, but the amount that's necessary (not a reimplementation of something that already exists) and not just glue code wiring other components together is probably pretty small.
- paulie_a 8y agoI'll take it a step further, the author is an idiot. I am a huge proponent of using existing libraries and plugins but it actually takes real code to make it function. Again this person is an idiot and clearly shouldn't be writing code or articles.
- needlepont 8y agoHe is pointing to a phenomenon I have witnessed which is copy-pasta and a mediocre understanding of the domain is enough to pass as a programmer these days.
- P_I_Staker 8y agoYikes, harsh. I mostly agree though. I thought this article was silly and couldn't even finish it. I'm not really sure what his point was. Since the conception of software engineering as a discipline, maintainability and code reuse has been highly desirable. It's just taken a while for it to sink in for some people. Re-using code simply means you write different code instead of wasting your time; but you're still writing code.
- dang 8y agoPersonal attacks aren't ok regardless of how wrong someone is, so please don't post them to HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- needlepont 8y agoHow much of that (Github) code is based on du jour languages and only a casual attempt (if any) to reuse or adapt an existing codebase? I'd say at least 40% but I may be pessimistic.
- jcelerier 8y ago> "Programmers do not need to write much code anymore; all they need to do in most cases is wire together already available components." there are a lot of programmers which develop purely in visual environments such as LabVIEW, Max/MSP, PureData, vvvv, and others - you just don't hear them complaining on hn :p
- l_t 8y agoI would argue that it's also theoretically misguided. After all, it's not like programmers in the past didn't use libraries and pre-built components. If anything, I'd argue the LOC it takes to accomplish many tasks is actually increasing because applications are held to higher standards of quality, scalability, availability, scope, etc.
- Volt 8y agoYou're ignoring the operative word, which is need. You can't say much about that point without actually doing some analysis. For instance, how much of that code is wiring? How much of that code is rewriting existing solutions for educational purposes? And so on.
- AstralStorm 8y agoEasy enough to figure out. Count dependencies in given selection of software, compare to older software in the same area. I'm certain someone did such surveys. Software isn't entirely driven by need, sometimes politics or licensing preclude the use of libraries. Sometimes libraries are not specific for your area and cannot be used - typical when handling hard real time applications or when otherwise microseconds matter.
- Volt 8y ago>I'm certain someone did such surveys. Sure, it's easy enough. But until you can actually point to the surveys, we can't say anything about the code on Github relating to the point being made.