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But once we engage in writing software purely targeted at other programmers, we're in the tool business and I think any plumber will agree that there can only b

But once we engage in writing software purely targeted at other programmers, we're in the tool business and I think any plumber will agree that there can only be so many companies producing monkeywrenches. And no customer cares if your monkeywrench is the latest version or 5 years old, or even if it works. They care about getting their water running, their toilet flushing or their washing machine washing.

stonemetal 16y ago
They care about getting their water running, their toilet flushing or their washing machine washing. What part of doing that job quickly and robustly doesn't speak to the quality of the job done? The client may not be down there looking at the plumbing every day but the reliability, and ease of future repair is directly related to the quality of the job done and is something the client most certainly cares about.
billybob 16y ago
"...no customer cares if your monkeywrench is the latest version or 5 years old, or even if it works." ...aaaand, if you have a crappy monkey wrench, you won't get the pipes tight enough and something will leak. I don't want to see my plumber tightening pipes with his hands because even I know that it's not going to work well. The customer just wants a working piece of software, yes. But great tools - OS, editor, language, development framework, design patterns, UI principles, etc - help you to fulfill that requirement. The user doesn't know about them, but indirectly, they do care. Example: our company had an internal app written in 100% custom PHP. It had taken a year to create. The developer left and a new one took over. He rewrote the whole thing in Rails in a week and quickly started making big improvements. (Yes, a lot of the time difference was due to work ethic and talent of the new programmer, but still, the tools were a factor.) Did the customer - his boss - care about the tool set? Heck yes, he did! Getting drastic productivity gains and many more iterations of development convinced him to care. He's now on board with Rails development and willing to send developers to RailsConf. He has seen that because results matter, tools matter.

stonemetal 16y ago

They care about getting their water running, their toilet flushing or their washing machine washing. What part of doing that job quickly and robustly doesn't speak to the quality of the job done? The client may not be down there looking at the plumbing every day but the reliability, and ease of future repair is directly related to the quality of the job done and is something the client most certainly cares about.

billybob 16y ago

"...no customer cares if your monkeywrench is the latest version or 5 years old, or even if it works." ...aaaand, if you have a crappy monkey wrench, you won't get the pipes tight enough and something will leak. I don't want to see my plumber tightening pipes with his hands because even I know that it's not going to work well. The customer just wants a working piece of software, yes. But great tools - OS, editor, language, development framework, design patterns, UI principles, etc - help you to fulfill that requirement. The user doesn't know about them, but indirectly, they do care. Example: our company had an internal app written in 100% custom PHP. It had taken a year to create. The developer left and a new one took over. He rewrote the whole thing in Rails in a week and quickly started making big improvements. (Yes, a lot of the time difference was due to work ethic and talent of the new programmer, but still, the tools were a factor.) Did the customer - his boss - care about the tool set? Heck yes, he did! Getting drastic productivity gains and many more iterations of development convinced him to care. He's now on board with Rails development and willing to send developers to RailsConf. He has seen that because results matter, tools matter.