The ceo of stack overflow, joel spolsky, laid out some of the reasons programmers prefer their own space in an interview at the geekwire. In this talk full of humor, joel spolsky captivates and entertains the audience by talking about how how he built and grew stack overflow, and more broadly on the software industry today. Avram joel spolsky born 1965 is a software engineer and writer. Ceo, stack exchange network cofounder, stack overflow, fog creek software and trello. Its bad enough that javaschools fail to weed out the kids who are never going to be great programmers, which the schools could justifiably say is not their. Its certainly much less disciplined than other forms of engineering, but thats simply a costbenefit tradeoff that seems reasonably close to optimal. The three things i would tell people to learn are economics, writing and c programming. Mar 25, 2010 i agree that joel totally threw the baby out with the bathwater in the ducttape programmer defense, but lets not disparage the state of software engineering. This is joel on software, where ive been ranting about software development, management, business, and the. Its pretty clear to me that just because youre hiring the top 0. I cant help wondering if we are missing some basic rights that most workers take for granted. Joel described it as useful for anything where you.
Joel spolsky needs no introduction in technology startup world. Joel tears apart the tropes and renders his own creed for programming, managing, and successfully. Stupid arrogant programmers redux bored bystander 15. Someone once said that the task of a writer is to make the famil. In this book, spolsky distills his technical knowledge, wit, and years of experience. Lessons from 6 software rewrite stories herb caudill medium. The joel test is just an informal baseline check to quickly judge whether a place has good working conditions for programmers.
Joel on software by joel spolsky nook book ebook barnes. And on diverse and occasionally related matters that will prove of interest to software developers, designers, and managers, and to those who, whether by good fortune or ill luck, work with them in some capacity by avram joel spolsky. Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place flat and build something grand. His web site joel on software is popular with software. With a software company, the first priority of management needs to be creating that abstraction for the programmers.
Many of these articles have been collected into four books, available at your favorite bookstore. The cultural schism is so sharp that unix has never really made any inroads on the desktop. The ceo of stack overflow, joel spolsky, laid out some of the reasons programmers prefer their own space in an interview at the. Benchmark yourself as a programmer with the simple. He is the guy you want on your team building gocarts, because he has two favorite tools.
Mit set the bar very high for these courses, creating a required course 6. The joel test isnt about how good the software is, its about how effective the production process is. A weblog by joel spolsky, a programmer working in new york city, about software and software companies. User interface design for programmers apress, 2001 and joel on software apress, 2004. Even if it scores a perfect 10, it can still be a hellhole that is going to go bankrupt six months down the road. Joel recently posted an update questioning the commonly held belief that were only hiring the top 0. Programmers, of course, saw the utility of trello right away. For new programmers, knowing which languages and skills to learn can be overwhelming.
All programmers, all people who want to enhance their knowledge of programmers, and all who are trying to manage programmers will surely relate to joels musings. Joel spolsky is a globally recognized expert on the software development process. I am passionate about people, i love scalability, great user experience, thoughtful security, and elegant design patterns. Stupid arrogant programmers redux bored bystander 15 embed the one youre with simon. Mar 16, 2015 12 most influential books every software engineer needs to read this is a question that i get a lot, especially from coworkers or friends that are just beginning their journey as a software craftsman. Part 2 of 5 this is an old, archived forum, no longer open for new posts. Feb 19, 2019 programmers, of course, saw the utility of trello right away. Joel on software covers every conceivable aspect of software programmingfrom the best way to write code, to the best way to design an office in which to write code.
A team that fails the joel test may still make good products, but chances are itll. In november 2011, the respondents of the rprogramming study put joel s list of questions to the empirical test. User interface design for programmers by joel spolsky. On the plus side we would be able to bargain for things like fair salaries, 40 hour weeks, and overtime payment. Looking to hire smart programmers who get things done. This is not a particularly highlevel book, and is a very quick read. He is the kind of programmer who is hard at work building the future, and making useful things so that people can do stuff. And competent programmers love and understand elegant. Oct 06, 2016 joel spolsky needs no introduction in technology startup world. Jan 11, 2017 joel spolsky is a software engineer, writer and entrepreneur. Jun 25, 2001 joel spolsky joel on software has a great writing style, and some keen insights into how user interfaces work or dont work. Lessons from 6 software rewrite stories herb caudill. And on diverse and occasionally related matters that will prove of interest to software developers, designers, and managers, and to those. Joel holds a bachelors of science degree in computer science from yale.
The absolute minimum every software developer absolutely. According to the book, this study was done at cornell in the 1960s, and involved two groups of computer science. Even if it scores a perfect 10, it can still be a hellhole that is going to go. Well, he does cite a study and refers to the book in which this study is described, peopleware. Why joel spolsky was wrong about duct tape programmers. The joel test is great for software development shops and for programmers that are interested in quickly evaluating a companys software development environment, but what about a joel test for actual programmers. Architecture astronauts and duct tape programmers are fictional characters. Ease of use for nonprogrammers was the only way to get on every desk and in every home and thus usability uber alles became the cultural norm.
The three skills every software developer should learn techrepublic. Joel gives college advice for programmers slashdot. There are only competent and incompetent programmers. What the hell is joel spolsky going on about his essay is an incoherent rambling of multiple and largely unrelated issues. The questions are roughly based on the joel test, joel spolskys 12 questions organizations can use to find areas they need to work on and programmers use to evaluate a potential employer. What do programmers care about joel spolsky, stack. In 2000 i cofounded fog creek software, where we created lots. But in addition to this he is able of leading people even a small group of. Joel on software and on diverse and occasionally related. The comments here, on digg, and on reddit nearly a thousand in total are filled with hastily coded solutions to fizzbuzz. I would argue that a software developer is pretty the same so he takes care of testing, software design, implementing and so on.
Further thoughts on diverse and occasionally related matters that will prove of interest to software developers, designers, and managers, and to those who, whether by good. His blog joel on software is an excellent collection of articles for programmers, managers, startups and ceos. I cant help wondering if we are missing some basic rights. In 2000, joel spolsky published his own, highly irresponsible, sloppy test to rate the quality of a software team. Computer programmers union for a thought experiment today i was wondering what it would be like if we had a union for computer programmers. He is the author of joel on software, a blog on software development, and the creator of the project. User interface design for programmers joel on software. Programmers, as an audience, were an extreme afterthought.
What do programmers care about joel spolsky, stack overflow. There is no real limit on the number of letters that unicode can define and in fact they have gone beyond 65,536 so not every unicode letter can really be squeezed into two bytes, but that was a myth anyway. And competent programmers love and understand elegant architecture, but also know when to go into duct tape mode on order to get the job done and ship the damn product. Evidently writing about the fizzbuzz problem on a programming blog results in a nighirresistible urge to code up a solution. The joel test for programmers the simple programmer test. Joel spolsky is a software engineer, writer and entrepreneur. For new programmers, knowing which languages and skills to learn can be. Im joel spolsky, a software developer in new york city. Its bad enough that javaschools fail to weed out the kids who are never going to be great programmers, which the schools could justifiably say is not their problem. Xsplit for recording streams and overlaying images and videos vinesauce rom corruptor. Hes also the name behind the joel on software blog, which consistently ranks top or top ten on software mustread lists. Joel holds a bachelors of science degree in computer science from yale university.
Industry, or, at least, the recruiterswhousegrep, are surely clamoring for java to be taught. I agree that joel totally threw the baby out with the bathwater in the ducttape programmer defense, but lets not disparage the state of software engineering. He praises pragmatism, aka duct tape programming, by presenting a caricature of the opposite complex, buggy systems built on the latest fad. All entries should already have associated articles. And on diverse and occasionally related matters that will prove of interest to software developers, designers, and managers, and to those who, whether by good fortune or ill. Joel on software excerpt from things you should never. Its an excellent way to read the site in the bath, or throw it at your boss. Jul 04, 2018 in this talk full of humor, joel spolsky captivates and entertains the audience by talking about how how he built and grew stack overflow, and more broadly on the software industry today.
In this talk full of humor, joel spolsky captivates and entertains the audience by talking. He later founded fog creek software in 2000 and launched the joel on. Joel spolsky on how the developer role has changed. Oct 12, 2016 the problem is, programmers hate open floor plans. He was a program manager on the microsoft excel team between 1991 and 1994. Siemens tia portal v11, v12, v, v14, v15, v16 programmers based in the uk. Daniel shefer writes joel on software is a collection of essays from the joel spolskys joel on software web log. First of all, there is no need for a software developer today to be steeped in. This is a list of programmers notable for their contributions to software, either as original author or architect, or for later additions.
Here is a growing list of all the software and tools that joel has ever used on stream. Joel on software android app is an attempt to help fellow community members to access these articles on their android phone, even when they do not have an internet connection. Joel spolsky, our cofounder at fog creek software, whos now the ceo of stack overflow, wrote a very influential post on interviewing candidates for his joel on software blog back in 2000. A team that fails the joel test may still make good products, but chances are itll take much longer and the workers will be miserable. First of all, there is no need for a software developer today to be steeped in the entire curriculum of a university cs e. The programming language would have been very frustrating for real programmers, because the graphical nature didnt really give you a way to implement loops or conditionals, but would not have really helped non programmers, who, i think, are just not used to thinking in algorithms and wouldnt have understood macroman in the first place.
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