Comment The Pragmatic Program Inverse Theory (Score 2, Insightful) 1782
During the last 20 years that I've been a professional programmer I've developed a theory that says, the more practical an application will be to the larger masses, the less cool it is to programmers. A corollary being that the tools to create uncool applications will also be uncool.
Consider the coolest programming jobs: game developer, theoretical research and embedded missile guidance systems, etc...
Now consider: accounting applications, banking applications and word processors - arguably the most used, most common, most practical of applications - and low down on the programming pole.
And then there are the tools used to build those applications: at the top of the pole assembly, C, Perl; at the bottom: Java, Basic, C#. Again the uncool languages are associated with building uncool apps.
It's a simple as that.
Finally, the exception that proves the rule is operating systems. Linux being a perfect example of a cool thing to work on and eminently practical. I would argue however, that the OS is unseen by the masses. The translucent background against which applications are run, thereby exempting them from the theory.
Consider the coolest programming jobs: game developer, theoretical research and embedded missile guidance systems, etc...
Now consider: accounting applications, banking applications and word processors - arguably the most used, most common, most practical of applications - and low down on the programming pole.
And then there are the tools used to build those applications: at the top of the pole assembly, C, Perl; at the bottom: Java, Basic, C#. Again the uncool languages are associated with building uncool apps.
It's a simple as that.
Finally, the exception that proves the rule is operating systems. Linux being a perfect example of a cool thing to work on and eminently practical. I would argue however, that the OS is unseen by the masses. The translucent background against which applications are run, thereby exempting them from the theory.
