TITLE: Your Programming Language is Your Raw Material, Too AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: December 10, 2013 3:33 PM DESC: ----- BODY: Recently someone I know retweeted this familiar sentiment:
If carpenters were hired like programmers:This meme travels around the world in various forms all the time, and every so often it shows up in one of my inboxes. And every time I think, "There is more to the story." In one sense, the meme reflects a real problem in the software world. Job ads often use lists of programming languages and technologies as requirements, when what the company presumably really wants is a competent developer. I may not know the particular technologies on your list, or be expert in them, but if I am an experienced developer I will be able to learn them and become an expert. Understanding and skill run deeper than a surface list of tools. But. A programming language is not just a tool. It is a building material, too. Suppose that a carpenter uses a Dewalt 18V 165mm circular saw to add a room to your house. When he finishes the project and leaves your employ, you won't have any trace of the Dewalt in his work product. You will have a new room. He might have used another brand of circular saw. He may not have used a power tool at all, preferring the fine craftsmanship of a handsaw. Maybe he used no saw of any kind. (What a magician!) You will still have the same new room regardless, and your life will proceed in the very same way. Now suppose that a programmer uses the Java programming language to add a software module to your accounting system. When she finishes the project and leaves your employ, you will have the results of running her code, for sure. But you will have a trace of Java in her work product. You will have a new Java program. If you intend to use the program again, to generate a new report from new input data, you will need an instance of the JVM to run it. If want to modify the program to work differently, then you will also need a Java compiler to create the byte codes that run in the JVM. If you want to extend the program to do more, then you again will need a Java compiler and interpreter. Programs are themselves tools, and we use programming languages to build them. So, while the language itself is surely a tool at one level, at another level it is the raw material out of which we create other things. To use a particular language is to introduce a slew of other dependencies to the overall process: compilers, interpreters, libraries, and sometimes even machine architectures. In the general case, to use a particular language is to commit at least some part of the company's future attention to both the language and its attendant tooling. So, while I am sympathetic to sentiment behind our recurring meme, I think it's important to remember that a programming language is more than just a particular brand of power tool. It is the stuff programs are made of. -----
"Must have at least 5 years experience with the Dewalt 18V 165mm Circular Saw"