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October 05, 2005
Melting the Polar Ice Caps
Despite the current lack of involvement in the PHP project, I still follow a lot of the development discussion closely. Mostly by reading php-internals. Occasionally I'll make an opinion known to a poster directly, or possibly even to the list. Of recent interest is the debate over Derick's attempt to correct the functionality of PHP's date interface versus the already established user base interface. It's a tough issue with both sides making a valid point (or 5). The point isn't to opin a support of one or the other. Frankly, I don't believe using a technically incorrect implementation is the best idea, but if the user base doesn't care nor do I.
What this does remind me of is another "make programmers happy" event... training.
Between the programming worlds of academia and corporate exists a shift in thinking. The most recent language specific knowledge gained in academia seems to no longer apply as legacy projects are handed down, and stale developers are being tasked to continue their current track.
While a project may currently be maintained by a very good developer, this developer may not be current in the standards of said language. The most common one I've found has been in the realm of C++, with a large number of people claiming C++ proficency but continuing to use pre-ANSI C++ methodologies. This can be further exacerbated by the fact that they refuse to update development environments (if it ain't broke why fix it?).
Are there currently any training classes in "how it was before..." where before can be any time frame of significance for the technology?
Posted by Dan at October 5, 2005 04:15 PM