CompuServe Messages

Mike, You're probably aware that software development is so much an ART than a SCIENCE it's unbelievable. Let me play devil's advocate and suggest some other possibilities for what you see. I'm not defending a poor developer's behavior at all, just offering some possible explanations (and excuses :-). For starters, you're making a fundamental assumption about the programmer's motivation. Is it the desire to solve a USER'S problem or a TECHNICAL one? It's not always the former, as you'd hope. While I haven't written Amiga programs (I've done mainframe software), software design, and *especially* the user interface associated with it, is incredibly subjective and the subject of many "religious" arguments, many in the ambiguous names of "consistency" and "ease of use". Putting myself in the developer's shoes, if someone wants to argue my interface is bad for some reason, I may not listen because: (1) I'm not interested in user interfaces, I like to solve different programming problems, like complex equations or animation; or (2) I don't have time to explain to the person that I've spent much time and energy desiging it and have already rejected the tester's proposed alternative for very complex reasons. I'm not trying to give *all* programmers a bad name, but the first argument is probably more true than anything (unfortunately). A programmer isn't always interested in the challenges of software design, much less the fact that software design isn't the same thing as the design of the user interface. Large companies have recognized this and have "human factors" engineers who develop the interface, and ensure consistency and usability among different products. I've seen many mainframe programmers who have NO interest in design at all. Another problem is that many have not learned the meaning of "egoless" programming, to avoid taking criticism of a design personally and focus on producing the best possible product, acknowledging that one person may not [ MORE ]