Whatever Happened to Programming?

Mike Taylor wrote two insightful essays about programming a few days ago. Are we stuck in a tedious loop of gluing APIs together? What happened to the creative aspects of programming?

Whatever happened to programming part 1 talks about how the most enjoyable part of a new project occurs early on, when things are just taking shape and the most creative effort takes place. Whatever happened to programming redux is a response to many comments he received so far, with more insightful commentary.

I don’t think libraries or frameworks are boring to use. Actually I find some of them quite insightful and fun to use. Comparing to the old days (for me that was early 1990’s) when I had to spend time writing our own C libraries to implement data structures or do network communications, now I have heaps more than what I will ever need built-in in JRE or .NET or even ActionScript. The upside of these libraries are quality and productivity. The main complaint I have about frameworks is that it can limit your choice – see my gripe about GAE.

I have said before that the IT industry is modelled after real engineering disciplines like built environment. In built environment, when you want to build a house you will have different people with different expertise in their own area to be involved from concept to design to build and test. When an engineer looks at a design, he/she will choose the materials and the trades people will actually ‘glue’ them together. As a builder, you will not expect to make your own glass, bake your own bricks and tiles, grow your own grass, etc. All are readily available for you to pick and choose and ‘glue’ together.

Sure, if you are stranded on a deserted island you will have to start from raw materials to make tools and build simple structures assuming you know (or can teach yourself) how. But that does not have the quality and productivity that are required in a normal environment. Another big driving factor is that  for most of us who write commercial applications (not tool smith) we need to serve a business need. IT does not exist without a business diver. In some cases, I felt bored about the frameworks that have been chosen by the company. That is why I do a lot of playing after work