Wired: "‘Real’ Programming Is an Elitist Myth"
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I can "weld" in the sense that I can use a welder to join two pieces of metal together that would require a number of direct whacks with a hammer to break apart, but I would be laughed out of a 6G pipe welding certification test that would allow me to take a job welding together sections of natural gas pipeline. And I would never tell someone who did that I too was a "welder", because that's belittling their skills and experience.
When a non-programmer uses Excel to do some complex piece of automation, I may be glad they are expanding their skillset to do some unique piece of automation that helps them solve a problem they have, but I'd prefer it if they didn't act under the illusion that because they were able to use Excel to perform some task that somehow my job is "easy" and that they could do it.
Unfortunately that attitude seems common, which prompts the "not real programming" response. Interestingly I've seen a similar type of response in welding forums I visit, where a hobbyist will say something like "my welds don't look pretty but they work" and some old salt will respond with "would you stand 200 feet above the ground on scaffolding you welded together yourself like I have done multiple times?"
It's a signal that maybe if you're an amateur on someone else's professional turf you should be a bit more respectful of that professional's skills.
but the amateur isnt trying to make scaffolding 200 ft above the ground.
That excel programmer is probably a domain expert and so his hacked up excel code is probably far more useful than one produced by a coder with no domain knowledge. time and time again ive seen "real programmers" take months/years to finish a half arsed product whereas some person with domain knowledge and a little coding skill will produce something equivalent but actualy useable and deliverable to customer in a few weeks
Yes, that is one of the reasons why I don't have a problem with someone using Excel to do some complex piece of automation: it may take them less time to learn the automation aspect than it would take a professional programmer to learn the domain well enough to start the project. Matlab serves a similar purpose in the scientific community. It's also why I'll weld basic shit around the house instead of hiring a professional.
The problem is when people (like this author) equate someone banging out a spreadsheet for a specific purpose with someone whose job it is to program, declare them all "programmers", and try to use this expanded definition for their own socio-political purposes. Just like how anyone who ever played a game on their cell phone while waiting for the bus was all of a sudden a "gamer" so certain people could declare "half of all 'gamers' are women" and push for "diverse and inclusive" games.
No doubt this expanded definition of "programmer" will be used to beat the professionals over the head with similar initiatives with the goal of making the industry feel "inclusive" to the Excel warriors.
No it isn't. HTML is just a static markup language. Programming is when you write ASP, PHP or JavaScript code and they output the data to be interpreted as HTML.
us C++ programmers piss on anyone who thinks javascript is programming
I remember reading a similar story where an optimizing compiler was able to evaluate the output of some popular CPU benchmarking software at compile-time. All I can say is I'd love to know who's making these optimizing compilers, because I've never used one that clever.
But there is nothing wrong with being an elitist.
I like elites that acknowledge what they are instead of pretending to grow up oppressed on the streets of Oakland.
I can't wait for BLM to come out with their next hit single "Gay Outta Adams Point"
Unless your an elitist who doesnt actually produce anything if worth and I know a lot of them. Give me a creative amateur anytime.
I'm more offended that one of the related articles at the bottom is a non-ironic take on "digital blackface". You know, the idea that if a white person posts an animated GIF of a black person, that's racist?
I made my peace with elitism some time back. As for a myth... eh, whatever. All this stuff will be come and gone, and C will still be around. As will full-fledged databases. Nothing really wrong with these special-purpose applications. But they are applications; you're using them, not programming them.
"Real" programming, BTW, is an ancient inside joke..
As far as real programmers go, I like the Story of Mel.
Hey guys! Look at me! I'm PROGRAMMING!
The programmers are concerned that this will end up on their lap after a half assed job is passed off to them because it doesn't work right anymore. Since it wasn't done using a proper language or documented they will have to go through several meetings to get procedures in order and rebuild it from scratch. Bonus points if a single employee does the design work and when they leave no one has a clue what was done or how anything works.
asm or gtfo
as a programmer with 30 yrs experience of c/c++, assembler and dozens of other langs I actually think the writers got a valid point buried under most of the bs in that article.
I cant and Ive never had to . I have written the code for drones and boeing 787s (not the shit version ) does that mean i still dont count as a real programmer because I cant write a merge sort algo?
If i needed to I would just use a library function.