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I don't think you understand how that metaphor works... are you trying to say that every problem is the same and developers choose wildly different tools for th

I don't think you understand how that metaphor works... are you trying to say that every problem is the same and developers choose wildly different tools for the job?

gagege 13y ago
I think it's about the perspective that every problem can be solved with a hammer-like-thing, however inefficiently.
oso2k 13y ago
Sounds to me like he is commenting on two things: many developers only see only type of problem; and many developers have a hard time picking the most appropriate tool any given problem. He's paraphrasing and expanding on the original metaphor by acknowledging our field's desire for standardization as an optimization strategy while introducing irony in the misuse/non-standard use of tools to complete the same function.
Iftheshoefits 13y ago
I think the commenter is taking a dig at the result of Atwood's Law in application here. Maybe somebody should coin a new "Law". Something like, "The fact that something can (and apparently therefore will) be programmed in JavaScript doesn't mean that it will be (useful|performant|efficient|high-quality)." I happen to agree with him. Just because something can be written in JavaScript doesn't make it a "good idea" for certain domains.
gnarbarian 13y ago
I think he's trying to say that we enjoy trying out new tools in interesting and unintended ways even when it can be pretty obvious a more boring traditional approach would be better. It's a pretty core hacker trait. "when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail" vs "Look, everything looks like a nail! Let's use that screwdriver over there as a hammer." So despite having multiple tools, everything still looks like a nail. Think of your typical boring webapp development that most of us have done a thousand times. Rather than use the same tools you always have and are familiar/bored to death with it's often quite tempting to use something else to help keep things interesting while hoping that it might actually end up being better than what you've used in the past. Chances are it's not. but that's what learning is all about.

I don't think you understand how that metaphor works... are you trying to say that every problem is the same and developers choose wildly different tools for the job?

gagege 13y ago

I think it's about the perspective that every problem can be solved with a hammer-like-thing, however inefficiently.

oso2k 13y ago

Sounds to me like he is commenting on two things: many developers only see only type of problem; and many developers have a hard time picking the most appropriate tool any given problem. He's paraphrasing and expanding on the original metaphor by acknowledging our field's desire for standardization as an optimization strategy while introducing irony in the misuse/non-standard use of tools to complete the same function.

Iftheshoefits 13y ago

I think the commenter is taking a dig at the result of Atwood's Law in application here. Maybe somebody should coin a new "Law". Something like, "The fact that something can (and apparently therefore will) be programmed in JavaScript doesn't mean that it will be (useful|performant|efficient|high-quality)." I happen to agree with him. Just because something can be written in JavaScript doesn't make it a "good idea" for certain domains.

gnarbarian 13y ago

I think he's trying to say that we enjoy trying out new tools in interesting and unintended ways even when it can be pretty obvious a more boring traditional approach would be better. It's a pretty core hacker trait. "when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail" vs "Look, everything looks like a nail! Let's use that screwdriver over there as a hammer." So despite having multiple tools, everything still looks like a nail. Think of your typical boring webapp development that most of us have done a thousand times. Rather than use the same tools you always have and are familiar/bored to death with it's often quite tempting to use something else to help keep things interesting while hoping that it might actually end up being better than what you've used in the past. Chances are it's not. but that's what learning is all about.