Shaking out the Innovation

re: Shaking out the Innovation

Sam Gentile — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:41:53 GMT

> almost like a repeating cycle where there are highly skilled developers moaning about the lesser skilled developers around them. I think it's a fact of life that there will always be people with different skill sets in the technology field. We'd all like to think of ourselves as 'alpha-geeks', but at the end of the day the reality is that the majority of folks in the world are not. Those so-called 'alphas' need to get over themselves.

That's NOT at all what we are saying.

re: Shaking out the Innovation

peterlau — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 01:28:34 GMT

@ Sam – My suggestion that ‘alphas’ need to get over themselves may have been a bit over the top. :) You’re right. I don’t think anyone is outright complaining about the people. The comments are directed at Microsoft. However, when I read something like:

>"There's a growing sense that Microsoft's vision is armies of Morts in command-and-control organizations. There often seems to be outright discouragement of tools to enable talented enterprise developers, or of agile development processes."

I can’t help but think it goes along with the theme of what I said on some level. However, I do realize that Martin’s commentary was directed at Microsoft itself, not actual developers.

My point with the post is that I acknowledge that Microsoft’s tools cater to novices. But novices make up a much greater percentage of the user base. In defense of Microsoft, I think it’s to be expected that the tools cater to those folks.

However, that being said, my interpretation of the community’s feedback is that Microsoft ought to incorporate agile functionality into its tools (or learn to work well alongside of the community tools) so that it benefits all of the users, including the novices. And I agree with that too. I’m just saying it’s going to take time and feedback to steer the ship. And for that feedback, I say thanks to you and the others in the community!

Martin Fowler wants to see Ruby on Microsoft to save the alpha geek

Inside Architecture — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 07:52:00 GMT

I like Martin Fowler. As a veritable lighthouse of the patterns and agile communities, he's both a resource

re: Shaking out the Innovation

Travis Laborde — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:06:17 GMT

I like (respect) Martin Fowler as well, but... There isn't a Fowler, a Hanselman, a Gunderloy, or a Gentile that is going to convince me that there is a "better place" than where I am today.

.NET, including and especially ASP.NET, have been and will continue to be my platform of choice, most likely until MS moves on.

I don't use wizards. I don't even use the designers in most cases. I'm a code/framework kind of guy. And yes I use MBunit, TestDriven.NET, and other "ALT.NET" things every day. But those are complimentary to my main tool: Visual Studio.NET.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - the worst part of .NET is Visual Studio. But it's getting better.

I may not be an alpha-geek, but I am an alpha-dad. And I build great software that my employer and clients love. And I do it with MS technology, and it pays the bills quite nicely.

re: Shaking out the Innovation

Keith J. Farmer — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:27:13 GMT

I've seen Ruby. I've seen Ruby on Rails. I'm honestly not all that impressed. My sole reason for supporting IronRuby is that it helps strengthen the work going on with the DLR.

As far as novices go, I don't think Microsoft caters to them -- there are technologies in .NET that are definitely *not* for the weak at heart, and which provide substantial power. But frankly, I did my time with hard code, and have been working in arguably harder code. What I want is stuff to make my hard problems much easier to solve -- and that's what Microsoft's been producing.

I'd be happy if the Open Sores fascists would get over the delusion that just because some guy wrote some unittest framework, or some persistence engine, or some scripting library, that it *must* be embraced by Microsoft. What's there to lose aside from an ego?

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: How to Achieve Balance?

JrzyShr Dev Guy — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:56:11 GMT

The discussion over whether Microsoft "gets" agile development in the Microsoft community has carried

re: Shaking out the Innovation

Sam Gentile — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:02:15 GMT

> I don't use wizards. I don't even use the designers in most cases. I'm a code/framework kind of guy. And yes I use MBunit, TestDriven.NET, and other "ALT.NET" things every day. But those are complimentary to my main tool: Visual Studio.NET.

Then we are in perfect alignment. I am talking about the people that use wizards exculsively and have no idea of the code thety produce, that write that is neither tested or maitainable and who drag together an app with no thought. You have not a single thing to change. I also use Visual Studio every day plus all the tools you list. That is NOT a Mort, unlike what Nick Mallik wrote in his last post which totally shows he doesn't understand