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Thanks for formulating this. It seems to me that there are two very diffent kind of programmer mindsets that are heavily in conflict with each other. Some pro
by Fannon 7y ago
Thanks for formulating this.
It seems to me that there are two very diffent kind of programmer mindsets that are heavily in conflict with each other.
Some programmers want to write sophisticated (and sometimes very concise) code that requires deep understanding of the programming and sometimes reads like a "programming puzzle game" / Interview trick question.
Then there are the pragmatic types, which prefer simple code with a reductionalist approach. The code is easy to read but it is often not very generic and tends to get longer / repeated.
I can also see why Kyle Simpson doesn't like TypeScript, because it fits more the latter mindset. I've also seen competent and productive programmers of both types.
Has anyone experiences how those different approaches go together in a single team? To me it seems very difficult to come to a compromise or agreement here.
- vikingcaffiene 7y agoI have. Worked with a person who is one of the most talented developers I’ve ever worked with. His code was very much to the former “puzzle” approach you mention (versus my pragmatic approach). He used all the JS features and his code was very clever. Sadly, no one else on the team could make heads or tails of it and he ended up being a bottleneck since he was the only one who could work on stuff he wrote. We ended up ripping it all out and rewriting it. The pragmatic approach that I championed ended up being what the team based their style guide on and the developer I mentioned came around to that point of view after seeing its benefits. It is simply easier to collaborate when you work on a cross functional team of varying competencies to make your intent clear even at the expense of conciseness.