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An outrageous, insightful, and sadly accurate commentary on programming. I found this an extremely entertaining read and agree with most of it. It doesn't offer solutions, but certainly highlights a lot of the problems.
"Double you tee eff?" you say, and start hunting for the problem. You discover that one day, some idiot decided that since another idiot decided that 1/0 should equal infinity, they could just use that as a shorthand for "Infinity" when simplifying their code. Then a non-idiot rightly decided that this was idiotic, which is what the original idiot should have decided, but since he didn't, the non-idiot decided to be a dick and make this a failing error in his new compiler. Then he decided he wasn't going to tell anyone that this was an error, because he's a dick, and now all your snowflakes are urine and you can't even find the cat.
Personally, I think things will only get better (including salaries) when software development is treated like other engineering disciplines.
(Score: 2) by dublet on Thursday May 01 2014, @02:40PM
I don't think software engineering as a whole will ever be treated the same as many other engineering disciplines, as generally the building of software is cheap compared to say building a sky scraper, a bridge, etc. Obviously there are exceptions such as automotive and space. NASA's way of working [ed.ac.uk] outlines the "sacrifices" that have to be made in those sorts of environments.
"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome. [dublet.org]"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TheLink on Thursday May 01 2014, @03:09PM
Civil Engineering:
Design Phase costs about 10% of Build Phase
Build Phase involves tons of construction workers and heavy machinery.
The blueprints and plastic models are way cheaper to make than the Real Thing.
Management often doesn't mind spending a bit extra to get the design better, because the budget only allows for one big Build.
Software Engineering:
Design Phase costs more than 1000 times the Build Phase.
Build Phase involves the programmer typing "make all" and going to read SoylentNews or fetch a coffee or do some sword-fighting.
The "plastic" models cost as much to make as the Real Thing.
Management often sells the blueprints/plastic models as v1.0 because they compile and "kinda run" and the budget only allows for one big Design...
It should be no surprise then that the "plastic" models regularly fail.
In the case of NASA they are willing to spend more time and resources on the Design.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by githaron on Thursday May 01 2014, @03:21PM
You are forgetting that software development tends to have constantly moving target. Building a bridge does not.