5 ms·

It's not a joke. Notch is good at thinking of fun game ideas and implementing them, but he's not a very skilled software developer. I'd never hire him. He belo

It's not a joke. Notch is good at thinking of fun game ideas and implementing them, but he's not a very skilled software developer. I'd never hire him. He belongs right where he is, as an indie game developer - kickstarting a fun game, alone, from scratch, proving that it is popular and that people love it, and then letting more skillful programmers take over developing it and fixing all the bugs that he created.

scotty79 15y ago
Do you know any more skillful programers who do livecasts?
- bonch 15y ago
  Are you implying that doing a livecast makes you a skillfull programmer? Minecraft is riddled with shockingly bad code.
thoradam 15y ago
Have you worked with him or do you know him? I'd have to guess that he is in fact a very skilled software developer. Minecraft is a fairly complex project, as is emulating a 16-bit CPU within the constraints of a game environment. And I'm curious, what wouldn't you hire him for?
- AndyKelley 15y ago
  I created mineflayer[0] - software which implements the minecraft client/server protocol and provides an API so that you can create minecraft bots in javascript. So I followed minecraft development for a while, decompiled and analyzed the code, had to deal with the shitty protocol, and observed the way bugs are introduced and solved. I've seen his posts about how git is too hard to learn[1] so he's going to stick with svn. I've seen him post that "we've started to bring in bug fixing into the development method"[2], and then the very next release is a "bug fix" release which causes more new bugs than it solves.[3] I wouldn't hire him for a software development job that required any level of maintenance. He's good at creating original fun concepts but not at making it nice for people to read, modify, or maintain his code. Also, I would argue that emulating a 16-bit CPU within the constraints of a game environment is easy and straightforward. For one, it's ridiculously simple to do test driven development without any overhead. And second, have you seen all the emulators that have cropped up after the specs were posted? There is already an emulator for almost every popular programming language. [0]: https://github.com/superjoe30/mineflayer https://github.com/superjoe30/mineflayer [1]: http://notch.tumblr.com/post/2623477410/strategy-meeting-day-results http://notch.tumblr.com/post/2623477410/strategy-meeting-day... [2]: http://notch.tumblr.com/post/4423138657/11-11-11 http://notch.tumblr.com/post/4423138657/11-11-11 [3]: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Version_history http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Version_history (might have to view history)
  - kami8845 15y ago
    next time include these references in the original post, so people know you're not just some envious grouch :)
    - AndyKelley 15y ago
      Fair enough.
  - marshray 15y ago
    You're a braver man than I for reversing that protocol. :-) I agree that git is hard to learn and also that emulating a 16-bit CPU is straightforward.
  - brianobush 15y ago
    svn vs git? really? svn works fine for me, thus the learning curve for a new vcs doesn't justify the time to invest in learning git.
    - AndyKelley 15y ago
      If you read his blog post, it portrays a lack of skill rather than a rational decision: "Oh, and I’ve finally committed the Music Blocks to the repository. (Oh, wait, no, I didn’t.. Doing so broke git, so we’re changing to svn because git is horrible and evil)"
batista 15y ago
Yes, looking at your projects page, I can totally see how you are in a position to judge him.
- AndyKelley 15y ago
  sigh I really should get around to updating my home page with something respectable. Feel free to check out my github page or resume before judging.
- kirchhoff 15y ago
  Although I don't agree with his opinion, he's surely entitled to one. It doesn't take a chicken to judge an egg.
  - batista 15y ago
    >Although I don't agree with his opinion, he's surely entitled to one. Everybody's entitled to have one. Did I try to suppress him expressing his opinion? No, I just piled mine on top. > It doesn't take a chicken to judge an egg. "Goes to credibility, your honor", as they say in legal tv series. I don't know about chickens and eggs, but I believe that it sure takes a good programmer to be able to judge another. It's a technical field, it's not something really subjective. So you have to know your stuff in order to judge what someone else does --if anything, we have too many misinformed opinions.
jiggy2011 15y ago
What's so bad about his programming? Bear in mind that he is doing everything pretty much himself. I have never thought of minecraft as an especially buggy game after the 1.0 release.
- Morcane 15y ago
  You're on YCombinator, everyone here is teh bestest programmer in the world with l33t skilzz.

scotty79 15y ago

Do you know any more skillful programers who do livecasts?

bonch 15y ago
Are you implying that doing a livecast makes you a skillfull programmer? Minecraft is riddled with shockingly bad code.

thoradam 15y ago

Have you worked with him or do you know him? I'd have to guess that he is in fact a very skilled software developer. Minecraft is a fairly complex project, as is emulating a 16-bit CPU within the constraints of a game environment. And I'm curious, what wouldn't you hire him for?

AndyKelley 15y ago
I created mineflayer[0] - software which implements the minecraft client/server protocol and provides an API so that you can create minecraft bots in javascript. So I followed minecraft development for a while, decompiled and analyzed the code, had to deal with the shitty protocol, and observed the way bugs are introduced and solved. I've seen his posts about how git is too hard to learn[1] so he's going to stick with svn. I've seen him post that "we've started to bring in bug fixing into the development method"[2], and then the very next release is a "bug fix" release which causes more new bugs than it solves.[3] I wouldn't hire him for a software development job that required any level of maintenance. He's good at creating original fun concepts but not at making it nice for people to read, modify, or maintain his code. Also, I would argue that emulating a 16-bit CPU within the constraints of a game environment is easy and straightforward. For one, it's ridiculously simple to do test driven development without any overhead. And second, have you seen all the emulators that have cropped up after the specs were posted? There is already an emulator for almost every popular programming language. [0]: https://github.com/superjoe30/mineflayer https://github.com/superjoe30/mineflayer [1]: http://notch.tumblr.com/post/2623477410/strategy-meeting-day-results http://notch.tumblr.com/post/2623477410/strategy-meeting-day... [2]: http://notch.tumblr.com/post/4423138657/11-11-11 http://notch.tumblr.com/post/4423138657/11-11-11 [3]: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Version_history http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Version_history (might have to view history)
- kami8845 15y ago
  next time include these references in the original post, so people know you're not just some envious grouch :)
  - AndyKelley 15y ago
    Fair enough.
- marshray 15y ago
  You're a braver man than I for reversing that protocol. :-) I agree that git is hard to learn and also that emulating a 16-bit CPU is straightforward.
- brianobush 15y ago
  svn vs git? really? svn works fine for me, thus the learning curve for a new vcs doesn't justify the time to invest in learning git.
  - AndyKelley 15y ago
    If you read his blog post, it portrays a lack of skill rather than a rational decision: "Oh, and I’ve finally committed the Music Blocks to the repository. (Oh, wait, no, I didn’t.. Doing so broke git, so we’re changing to svn because git is horrible and evil)"

batista 15y ago

Yes, looking at your projects page, I can totally see how you are in a position to judge him.

AndyKelley 15y ago
sigh I really should get around to updating my home page with something respectable. Feel free to check out my github page or resume before judging.
kirchhoff 15y ago
Although I don't agree with his opinion, he's surely entitled to one. It doesn't take a chicken to judge an egg.
- batista 15y ago
  >Although I don't agree with his opinion, he's surely entitled to one. Everybody's entitled to have one. Did I try to suppress him expressing his opinion? No, I just piled mine on top. > It doesn't take a chicken to judge an egg. "Goes to credibility, your honor", as they say in legal tv series. I don't know about chickens and eggs, but I believe that it sure takes a good programmer to be able to judge another. It's a technical field, it's not something really subjective. So you have to know your stuff in order to judge what someone else does --if anything, we have too many misinformed opinions.

jiggy2011 15y ago

What's so bad about his programming? Bear in mind that he is doing everything pretty much himself. I have never thought of minecraft as an especially buggy game after the 1.0 release.

Morcane 15y ago
You're on YCombinator, everyone here is teh bestest programmer in the world with l33t skilzz.