5 ms·

Software engineers are typically good at building things meant for other engineers. That's why some of the most robust, rock-solid, reliable pieces of software

by mojuba 13y ago

Software engineers are typically good at building things meant for other engineers. That's why some of the most robust, rock-solid, reliable pieces of software engineering are, e.g. OS kernels and language compilers. So Tim Bray is right in saying that we needn't worry about the server side. The server side is in good hands. Also true that the client side sucks, and I see only one way of fixing it: engineers have to work in a highly disciplined, tyranical kind of an environment. For example, the reason you don't see a lot of technical error messages on iOS (and you do see them a lot on Android) is just that: someone has to constantly remind the engineers that software they are making is meant for humans, not engineers.

rejschaap 13y ago
"... is meant for humans, not engineers" Engineers are humans... most of them anyway... I think. "Software engineers are typically good at building things meant for other engineers." You're not capturing the essence though, software engineers use Android as well as Linux on their desktops. I think it's more the way they approach user-interfaces. Engineers tend to reason from the bottom-up, but for good product design you also need to reason top-down. You can't just have a look at all the features you have engineered and then create some haphazard user-interface to expose them to the user and along the way pass along any error message that comes from any random subsystem directly to the user. There is no abstraction as leaky as a user-interface, I think that bothers engineers more than they are willing to admit. "engineers have to work in a highly disciplined, tyranical kind of an environment" That is not enough though, you also need someone who has the top-down perspective and product vision. Apple probably lacks both of these conditions right now, the usability of my iPhone is deteriorating so fast that I might as well switch to Android.
- pikachu_is_cool 13y ago
  > Apple probably lacks both of these conditions right now, the usability of my iPhone is deteriorating so fast that I might as well switch to Android. Can you elaborate on this?
  - pilsetnieks 13y ago
    There were some changes in iOS7 that he didn't like. Hence, Apple is doomed.

by mojuba 13y ago

rejschaap 13y ago

"... is meant for humans, not engineers" Engineers are humans... most of them anyway... I think. "Software engineers are typically good at building things meant for other engineers." You're not capturing the essence though, software engineers use Android as well as Linux on their desktops. I think it's more the way they approach user-interfaces. Engineers tend to reason from the bottom-up, but for good product design you also need to reason top-down. You can't just have a look at all the features you have engineered and then create some haphazard user-interface to expose them to the user and along the way pass along any error message that comes from any random subsystem directly to the user. There is no abstraction as leaky as a user-interface, I think that bothers engineers more than they are willing to admit. "engineers have to work in a highly disciplined, tyranical kind of an environment" That is not enough though, you also need someone who has the top-down perspective and product vision. Apple probably lacks both of these conditions right now, the usability of my iPhone is deteriorating so fast that I might as well switch to Android.

pikachu_is_cool 13y ago
> Apple probably lacks both of these conditions right now, the usability of my iPhone is deteriorating so fast that I might as well switch to Android. Can you elaborate on this?
- pilsetnieks 13y ago
  There were some changes in iOS7 that he didn't like. Hence, Apple is doomed.