Doug Moen
08/20/2019, 6:33 PMKartik Agaram
Kartik Agaram
ogadaki
08/20/2019, 7:33 PMKartik Agaram
ogadaki
08/22/2019, 7:53 AMogadaki
08/22/2019, 7:53 AMStefan
08/22/2019, 8:46 AMgit is a collaborative toolContent warning: Unpopular opinion. π Isn't git a tool that allows multiple developers to not have to collaborate with other developers directly, by carving out a part of a codebase where they can make changes with lower probability of affecting others? Instead of coordinating with others, we find it more efficient to separate us from them and let a merge algorithm do the cooperation for us. And when conflicts emerge, it's a problem, an exception we have to deal with, and we focus β consciously or subconsciously β on the negative connotations. Maybe our industry has a bias against collaboration? How many people here reading this are (a) working on their own project, and (b) how many of you here are working together on the same project? Or what's the first thing you think when you look at code from a different person? Is it more like "Oh wow, that's interesting β I wonder why they did it like that!" or more like "What a mess. I would do this differently." I had an interesting conversation with a film director last week and he was comparing our industry with his. He noticed how collaboration "isn't much of a thing for most developers". He is working on some software that's being developed for him, which is why he has lots of interaction with developers lately. He observed: when asked for help, they tend to give quick feedback and opinions, often without showing any empathy for the person seeking help by asking clarifying questions for the situation they're in. Compared to a film set, every person on that set needs to know what the movie is about and what everyone else is doing and it doesn't matter if you're the director, the sound person, in catering, or whatever β you'll frequently collaborate with other people outside your domain because everything is tightly connected to everything else. In software development, we're trying to untangle everything and ideally only have loose coupling everywhere β maybe the most important benefit of that has nothing to do with architecture, but with our desire to focus and work alone? Can't wait to see what such people come up with in terms of collaborative tools thenβ¦ π I know that's a dark perspective on our industry and collaboration, and I've been deliberately pushing it a little further than I really mean it to make a point.
Kartik Agaram
what's the first thing you think when you look at code from a different person? Is it more like "Oh wow, that's interesting β I wonder why they did it like that!" or more like "What a mess. I would do this differently."Based on my browser history, here are some links to projects I spent time reading code for in the past few days: β’ https://idea.junglecoder.com/view/idea/274 β’ http://minimal.linux-bg.org (I spent 2 weeks understanding this to distill it down to https://github.com/akkartik/mu/blob/master/gen_iso) β’ https://nurpax.github.io/posts/2019-08-18-dirty-tricks-6502-programmers-use.html β’ https://people.kernel.org/mcgrof/kdevops-a-devops-framework-for-linux-kernel-development I still think your question is valid. I'm fairly unconventional in my interest in reading code, and I think the world would be a better place if more people were like me πΌ My project basically got started by frustrations in reading other people's code. Every codebase is like its own language, and it's too hard to copy/steal code from others. It doesn't help that people worry about IP law. I had someone tell me recently that they don't want to look at code without a license because of contagion worries for copyright. That's either insane or reinforces my determination to learn as little about IP law as possible. Anyways, I'll stop rambling here π Thanks for a great comment @Stefan.
Doug Moen
08/24/2019, 7:36 PMDoug Moen
08/24/2019, 7:43 PMKartik Agaram
Doug Moen
08/24/2019, 9:13 PMKartik Agaram
Doug Moen
08/26/2019, 12:18 PMGarth Goldwater
08/26/2019, 8:26 PMNiko Autio
08/26/2019, 8:37 PM