Software principles that last don't come from architects in glass offices.

[raiderrobert@mastodon.social]

Software principles that last don't come from architects in glass offices. They come from practitioners who noticed what kept working.

These principles arose from doing the work. They did not descend from on high from those far removed from the work.

This, I feel is the most fundamental truth about doing work: those without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.

[filobus@sociale.network]

@raiderrobert I think this works also in life

[mikestok@mstdn.ca]

@raiderrobert from my experience there’s a large nugget of truth in your generalization, but I’d comment that a lot of practitioners with dirty hands seem to hew to dogma and become well versed in doing the wrong thing righter.

There is value in having thoughtful lived experience of doing the work, but after nearly 50 years of software development I’d hold myself up as a refutation of “Doing something makes you right.“ — I hope I’m a bit less wrong and more open to coaching and alternative ideas than I used to be, but “right” I am not.

[jimthewhyguy@techfieldday.net]

@raiderrobert Hoo, boy, do I agree with this!

After writing code in quite a few different languages - COBOL, PL/1, SAS, FOCUS, Powerbuilder, myriad versions of SQL depending on the database (MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, Informix) plus Java and JavaScript as needed, I have a lot of technical dirt under my fingernails.

The reason we have standards & design patterns is because, as Captain Kirk likes to say, "You have to know WHY a starship works the way it does" and "We learn by doing." 🖖