[Gllug] OT: Anyone know Jquery & JSON ?

[Walter Stanish]

> database schema and too little separation between M, V and C.

Fair enough ... IMHO MVC is not always a suitable structure for
web code, it's far too over-emphasised vs. maintainability and
modularity on many projects today.  However, while the bespoke
web-based systems market remains predominantly 'build and
forget', this will not change.  IMHO this is why web programmers
are often less experienced than some other types of coders....
in short, they usually don't have to deal with maintaining code.

Once they do, and they're rewriting for a second, or a third
time, then they start to realise the wisdom...

The fact that most open source frameworks also suck in many
respects, or that 'new' concepts such as code generation with
railsesque frameworks or the use of a *gasp* library for JS UI
stuff regularly appear with great bravado and many screencasts,
doesn't exactly encourage a change in thinking, either.

People gawk and buy-in or opt-out, and that's that.  They never
seem to twig to the wisdom.

On that topic, I actually heard a conversation yesterday between
some chick and a guy in a bar last night in Hollywood.
The chick tells the following story with great passion, "I work for
(fruit-company-that-also-happens-to-make-computers), and this
employee actually goes 'What's a widget?' ... I mean, if you
don't know what a desktop widget is, I mean, how come you are
working in this industry?".

Real honest last-night-overheard case in point.

On a roll on lofty subjects (let me pull out my DSL book ...)

Things that are really hard to learn as a programmer*:
 - Value of good documentation
 - Value of source control
 - Value of good requirements specification and analysis**
 - Value of communication between teams***

* You can guarantee that at least one of these is lacking at every
  single workplace you ever hit, unless you run it yourself, in
  which case it's still lacking but you're too pig-headed to realise.
**  Because what someone says is not what they mean,
    and even if it is: the goal will change before, during, AND
    after implementation.
*** Usually the programmer's fault.  Always everyone else's.

- Walter
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