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I think todays programmers is doing everything back ways. First they think about what language they want to use, then what libraries do they need, and then fina

by _sabe_ 13y ago

I think todays programmers is doing everything back ways. First they think about what language they want to use, then what libraries do they need, and then finally on what platform will it run and how will it be deployed. In the old days everything was much easier. First you chose a platform, depending on budget, support and so on. When you decided what platform to use, that then dictated what libraries you had at hands, and what package manager you needed for deployment. That maybe sounds very limiting, but on the other hand you don't always have to come up with new solutions how to bundle and deploy stuff all the time...

FooBarWidget 13y ago
Programmers "today"? Maybe I'm not old enough but I cannot remember a time when programmers would choose a platform based on their target userbase, unless they are forced to do so (e.g. iOS). Even back in 2000, given the choice, programmers would always choose to use their favorite language if they can. I remember that back in the days I was very much concerned about distribution. If I write an app in Java, users needed to download a 20 MB runtime (mind you, circa 2000 dialup was common). Visual Basic, Visual C++, etc all required some form of runtime. .NET was in its infancy and not widely distributed. I chose to write as much as possible in Delphi so that users only had 1 executable to worry about, even when Delphi wasn't the most productive platform. I asked questions on various developer forums, and I was being ridiculed for thinking so much about user distribution; the consensus from the community was: pick a language they like, and the user will just have to put up with whatever additional multi-megabyte runtime it requires.
- _sabe_ 13y ago
  Back in 2000? Good tools like Make where built in the 70s that's utilized by Autotools and other great build systems to bridge the gap between different platforms, so that you don't have to distribute as the author of the article we're discussing, a whole runtime with all dependencies.
  - TeMPOraL 13y ago
    But the main point of the article was (which I strongly agree with) that running stuff like Autotools, gems, or package manager kind of sucks when you just want to install a console tool. At least back in the "old times" we were distributing program + additional runtime, and not requiring a random unexpected runtime in proper version + whole supporting infrastructure + program source code to build. The former option greatly simplified installation.

by _sabe_ 13y ago

FooBarWidget 13y ago

Programmers "today"? Maybe I'm not old enough but I cannot remember a time when programmers would choose a platform based on their target userbase, unless they are forced to do so (e.g. iOS). Even back in 2000, given the choice, programmers would always choose to use their favorite language if they can. I remember that back in the days I was very much concerned about distribution. If I write an app in Java, users needed to download a 20 MB runtime (mind you, circa 2000 dialup was common). Visual Basic, Visual C++, etc all required some form of runtime. .NET was in its infancy and not widely distributed. I chose to write as much as possible in Delphi so that users only had 1 executable to worry about, even when Delphi wasn't the most productive platform. I asked questions on various developer forums, and I was being ridiculed for thinking so much about user distribution; the consensus from the community was: pick a language they like, and the user will just have to put up with whatever additional multi-megabyte runtime it requires.

_sabe_ 13y ago
Back in 2000? Good tools like Make where built in the 70s that's utilized by Autotools and other great build systems to bridge the gap between different platforms, so that you don't have to distribute as the author of the article we're discussing, a whole runtime with all dependencies.
- TeMPOraL 13y ago
  But the main point of the article was (which I strongly agree with) that running stuff like Autotools, gems, or package manager kind of sucks when you just want to install a console tool. At least back in the "old times" we were distributing program + additional runtime, and not requiring a random unexpected runtime in proper version + whole supporting infrastructure + program source code to build. The former option greatly simplified installation.