Hacknot - Developers are from Mars, Programmers are from Venus
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Saved by 15 people (-3 private), first by anonymouse user on 2006-10-09
- Vitule on 2006-11-08 - Tags programming
- Jamiemills on 2006-10-29 - Tags development , programming , software
- Fernaco on 2006-10-13 - Tags development , programming
- Citizensagainst on 2006-10-12 - Tags coding , developers , essay , hacknot , opinion , programming , work
- Muaddib on 2006-10-12 - Tags Article , career , code , coding , comparison , consulting , criticism , culture , dev , developer , development , engineering , essay , essays , Geek , hack , hiring , interesting , job , Methodology , philosophy , productivity , programmer , programmers , programming , project , read , reading , resources , So
Public Sticky notes
A modern programmer loves cutting code - and only cutting code.
Highlighted by harbertc
Developers like to code as well, but they see it as being only a part of their job function.
Highlighted by harbertc
The dominant factors influencing the quality of your application, and ultimately its success or otherwise, are the quality of the people doing the development and the work methods that they follow.
Highlighted by harbertc
It is characteristic of the programmer mentality that every problem they encounter is perceived as an opportunity to write more code. A typical manifestation is the presence of a "tools guy" on a development team. This is the guy who is continually writing new scripts and utilities to facilitate the development process, even if the process he is automating is only performed once in a blue moon, meaning that there is more effort expended in writing the tool than the resulting automation will ever save.
Highlighted by harbertc
Developers continually seek the simplest possible resolution to all the design forces impinging on their project, regardless of how cool or trendy the technology path it takes them down. If the project's best interests are served by implementing in Visual Basic, then VB is what you use, even though VB isn't cool and may not be something you really want to see on your CV.
Highlighted by harbertc
Developers don't consider users beneath them, but recognize and respect that they just serve the organization in a different capacity. Their contribution is no less important for that. When speaking with users, they try to eliminate unnecessary technical jargon from their speech, and instead adopt terminology more familiar to the user.
Highlighted by harbertc
Programmers tend to rush headlong into tasks, spending little time considering boundary conditions, low-level details, integration issues and so on. They are keen to get typing as soon as possible, and convince themselves that the details can be sorted out later on.
Highlighted by harbertc
Developers know that the exacting nature of programming means that "more haste" often leads to "less speed."
Highlighted by harbertc
The term "programmer" has historically referred to a menial, manual input task conducted by an unskilled worker. Predecessors of the computer, such as the Hollerith machine, would be fed encoded instructions by operators called "programmers". Early electro-mechanical, valve and relay-based computers were huge and expensive machines, operated within an institutional environment whose hierarchical division of labor involved, at the lowest level, a "button pusher" whose task was to laboriously program the device according to instructions developed by those higher up the technical ladder. So the programmer role is traditionally concerned only with the input of data in machine-compatible form, and not with the relevance or adequacy of those instructions when executed.
Highlighted by joel
Developers like to code as well, but they see it as being only a part of their job function. They focus more on delivering value than delivering program text, and know that they can't create value without having an awareness of the business context into which they will deploy their application, and the organizational factors that impact upon its success once delivered.
Highlighted by joel
Programmers like to stay as ignorant as possible of the business within which they work. They consider the problem domain to be the realm of the non-technical, and neither their problem or concern. You'll hear programmers express their indifference to the business within which they operate - they don't care if it's finance, health or telecommunications. For them, the domain is just an excuse to exercise a set of programming technologies.
Highlighted by joel
Developers view the business domain as their "second job." They work to develop a solid understanding of those aspects of it that impact upon their software, then use that knowledge to determine what the real business problems are that the application is meant to be solving. They make an effort get inside the heads of their user base - to see the software as the users will see it. This perspective enables them to anticipate requirements that may not have occurred to the users, and to discover opportunities to add business value that the users may have been unaware was technically possible.
Highlighted by joel
Developers are from Mars, Programmers are from Venus
Highlighted by moosbruxxer
Developers are from Mars, Programmers are from Venus
Highlighted by moosbruxxer
Public Comment
on 2006-10-09 by harbertc
on 2006-10-09 by harbertc