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On Developer Fetishes

David Wickes on July 15, 2019

Caveat Lector What follows is more of a stream of consciousneess that fell out a few nights ago pretty much unedited and very unpolished...
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ListNUX

I don't disagree with your views re: language and framework, and I do find a bit funny the "JS Frontend wars", the "editor wars", etc. On the other hand, I think many of us spend time customising our terminals, our editors or learning the quirks and discovering the cool shortcuts or limitations of a language for a few good reasons.

A more comfortable, for yourself, coding environment makes work less of a chore. The same way you choose your chair, or lighting, the same way you choose your terminal prompt and colourscheme, the editor that you know the best and sit to work with the language you are better at. Using the colourscheme that is easier on my eyes makes sense, and using syntax highlighting makes me work faster. Of course a text editor or a terminal or a framework does not define me, but setting it up the way I prefer, does help me.

I do understand that, especially those new to development, will find excitement in setting up the simple things and might get overjealous, but it usually fades out and most will eventually settle with the configurations they like the most.

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Antonio Radovcic

It‘s a proven fact that only laptop-stickers define you.

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Drew Town

I definitely agree. One needs to ask themselves whether they are being productive or using arguments about frameworks, editors or languages to procrastinate.

Yes passion is good but it is necessary to direct your passion at your projects. Rather than trying to convince other people the "right" way to do something. Or spending 3 hours customizing your editor/terminal/build process that will save your 15 seconds a week...when you can actually remember the command.

Chasing productivity by customization or hoping frameworks/languages is a fool's game. Instead focus on problems your users are facing, new features, learning concepts or thinking about the architecture.

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Harvey Thompson

Mostly agree!

Balance "Be Curious" with "Get Things Done". When held in tension these increase skill/productivity, but they can easily become ditches one can get stuck in.

Learn lots of different languages and frameworks, but spend more time learning more about how the ones you're using now work, learn new features added (eg. I'm surprised at myself and colleagues lack of knowledge of the latest C++ versions: I know most of C++11, some of C++14, hardly any of C++17 and had no idea C++20 is nearing completion).

As for editors, it's the same thing, though personally I've opted for the "learn one editor and continually add new (and remove old) extensions and packages carefully to increase productivity, and definitely write your own". First thing I install wherever I go is my programming environment (bash, git, emacs, Jira, Structure, etc.) using an automated script that's been honed over the years.

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Phil Ashby

:D So many excellent one-liners, thank you David!

Can I borrow some and play meeting bingo with them please?

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David Wickes

Can I borrow some and play meeting bingo with them please?

Certainly. Although I'd hate to be in that meeting...