Thursday, January 09, 2003

Technoelite

A little control "On a side note, remember that flap just before the holidays about the Coders-Only Club? Well, look at it this way: some people have strong opinions about the way computers should work. Other people have strong opinions about the way computers should work, and back them up with code. It seems obvious to me which people deserve more attention. Maybe that’s just me."

Hopefully it's just you. The implementation and the specification should be completely different. Controlling ideas has shown to have very little historic success. There's little reason to see why this will work now. In fact, the opposite has consistently been shown to be true in recent information technology history. From assembly, to compiled code, to scripting languages, to markup, all have shown that increasing the number of people who can use and modify the technology is an advantage.

Although, I can imagine how seductive this might be. It would be good if users gave programmers offerings in the hope that the technology gods smile more favourably on them and provide them with more stable and appropriate applications.

Update 9th January 2003: Shelley noticed the same thing. From the comments: "I[n] my opinion, well-thought arguments carry more weight than stand-alone code...", ""Shut up and write some code" strikes me as about the least productive thing a developer can say. Being proud of that attitude strikes me as outright bizarre.". Also, it's more correct to say this is about controlling ideas than centralising power.

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