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The opposite is actually true. The enterprise programmer thinks nothing of deploying some J2EE monstrosity with "simple" setup scripts and "just change this Wi

by toyg 5y ago

The opposite is actually true. The enterprise programmer thinks nothing of deploying some J2EE monstrosity with "simple" setup scripts and "just change this Windows parameter in registry" and "run this command to create a service to start and stop from Services.msc". That's what they live and breath, that's the bar they are happy to clear. The hobbyist enthusiast, on the other hand, will only have knowledge of actual consumer-grade software that "just works", so he will be at pains to make installation and execution simple and straightforward. He will take pride in every slick "just works" capability he can add, every tiny bit of OS integration he can squeeze, every line of setup-requirements documentation that can be removed. One of the problems in the development of modern programming is that half the hobbyists are eventually horrified by the amount of effort it takes to develop on "modern" platforms and principles, and just give up; while the other half fall in love with such complexity, and happily proceed to add more, making the situation worse for the next generation. So development practices get harder and harder for no real reason.

chaxor 5y ago
This is probably the most accurate summary of the problems in modern development I have ever read. You're spot on. Thank you.
JoshuaDavid 5y ago
> So development practices get harder and harder for no real reason. I think it's even worse than that. I think that any time there is a widely adopted platform which is easy to customize without requiring any significant level of skill, there is some subset of people which churns out very simple tools to do popular things well enough, and stuffs those tools with adware / malware / spyware to make money. The platform vendor responds to this flood of crapware by adding new checks and processes to ensure software quality and security, and keeps doing so as long as quality and security is a problem. At a certain point, the platform in question is no longer the easiest target, and the people creating the crapware switch to the next platform, and the formerly-easy-to-deploy-to platform is now a complicated mess to write anything for.

by toyg 5y ago

chaxor 5y ago

This is probably the most accurate summary of the problems in modern development I have ever read. You're spot on. Thank you.

JoshuaDavid 5y ago

> So development practices get harder and harder for no real reason. I think it's even worse than that. I think that any time there is a widely adopted platform which is easy to customize without requiring any significant level of skill, there is some subset of people which churns out very simple tools to do popular things well enough, and stuffs those tools with adware / malware / spyware to make money. The platform vendor responds to this flood of crapware by adding new checks and processes to ensure software quality and security, and keeps doing so as long as quality and security is a problem. At a certain point, the platform in question is no longer the easiest target, and the people creating the crapware switch to the next platform, and the formerly-easy-to-deploy-to platform is now a complicated mess to write anything for.