January, 16, 2004 archives

jeremy’s thoughts on developers who build from scratch vs. those that bring their own toolkits misses what i think is one big issue: how does each type of programmer fit into a larger team?

i would have serious qualms about hiring someone who had their pet framework that they used for building things. i think part of that comes from seeing so many half-witted frameworks. (anyone who has written a library or class to generate HTML with function, method, or object names like p and br deserves to be shunned.)

but perhaps i’m seeing three categorizations where jeremy sees two. i see people who build from scratch, those who seek out and use common frameworks and libraries from resources like PEAR and CPAN, and those who have built their own toolkits and frameworks. it’s the people at both ends that i worry about. of those three categorizations, i tend to wobble between the first and second.

who really invented the french dip, and who does it better now, is the question about these two downtown restaurants. i haven’t tried either yet, although a number of people have told me to check out philippe’s. because it is over by union station, it is a little more out of the way for me. cole’s is just a couple of blocks away.