Comments on: How Microsoft is changing the programming world

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:54:59 +0000

Aymeric, not all Microsoft developers are happy with what Microsoft is doing. Alt.Net is a perfect example of this. I also believe (although it is likely I’m wrong) ASP.Net MVC started life as an open source project that was picked up by Microsoft

By: George

George — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:28:37 +0000

You are talking about “learning” Lisp etc. In my school (I graduated 30 years ago), Lisp was mandatory – exam in year 4. Probably nowadays they teach Haskell.

So I assume a good programmer should know functional programming from school. Or am I wrong?

By: Antonio Cangiano

Antonio Cangiano — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:56:28 +0000

So to put it all together, the point would be that Microsoft is making the programming community better by bringing concepts like functional programming to the “average” Joe. Something that would otherwise be quite unlikely.

Correct.

Which also means, an average Microsoft programmer is better off than an average non-MS programmer because he has a big daddy taking care of him. After all, what are the chances that an AVERAGE non-Microsoft programmer would ever discover and work on Haskel?

For the most part, yes. This is why I praise Microsoft for exposing innovative programming concepts to millions of developers.

By: Preets

Preets — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:45:40 +0000

Fair enough.

So to put it all together, the point would be that Microsoft is making the programming community better by bringing concepts like functional programming to the “average” Joe. Something that would otherwise be quite unlikely.

Which also means, an average Microsoft programmer is better off than an average non-MS programmer because he has a big daddy taking care of him. After all, what are the chances that an AVERAGE non-Microsoft programmer would ever discover and work on Haskel?

By: Antonio Cangiano

Antonio Cangiano — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 20:50:20 +0000

Hi Preets,

thanks for stopping by. By answering your question, I hope to clarify something for everybody.

So you’re saying most average Joe’s “lack intellectual curiosity”? If Joe knew EVERYTHING in his “Microsoft world” then surely he was curious about
something

something! May be he was curious about how to get this project out of the door and make a huge profit.

Many people commenting are under the impression that Joe was a master of his (.NET) trade and I’m dismissing his abilities on the basis of his ignorance of tools and techniques that are not strictly needed for his job. In reality he lacked both breadth and depth, with many holes in fundamental programming concepts. Above all he was not interested in expanding his knowledge one iota, unless his job was in jeopardy. He reluctantly studied .NET because he was more or less forced to.

He was not a focused .NET master. Just “an average Joe” with not much passion for the craft of programming.

By: Preets

Preets — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:07:14 +0000

@Antonio

You said >> due to a strict adherence to the Microsoft view of the programming world – and perhaps a lack of intellectual curiosity

So you’re saying most average Joe’s “lack intellectual curiosity”? If Joe knew EVERYTHING in his “Microsoft world” then surely he was curious about something! May be he was curious about how to get this project out of the door and make a huge profit. Why would you play down his character by suggesting he lacks curiosity? How does this attribute in any way help you in proving MS is doing a good thing by bringing F# to the .NET world?

You said >> the guy did manage to be somewhat adequate at his job. Not spectacular by any stretch of the imagination

I would like to know why Joe is only adequate at his “Microsoft ONLY” job. Didn’t he know everything there was to know around Microsoft? Why then is this typical “Joe” only average?

That being said, I do agree Microsoft allows for a lot of average programmers to make it into the programming world. Microsoft has turned programming into a “regular” profession which some people might find hard to digest.

Not all taxi drivers are practicing for the Grand Prix.

By: RAVI

RAVI — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:05:01 +0000

The matter of the fact is Microsoft introduces bike with easy to ride features when compared to other bike providers who removes all the fun of bike riding and make it a hell to ride

By: Jon Phenow

Jon Phenow — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 02:03:15 +0000

It’s a pitty programmers don’t all attend colleges that teach using basic concepts such as REFACTORING and REVISION CONTROL. I don’t understand how Micro$oft has gotten away with keeping people away from such basic tools. That’s why I’m happy I’ve been attending a college that teaches using Open tools and tries to go over all of the topics, like refactoring and revision control. I’m an intern for a small company doing some programming and I look like some sort of prophet when i bring up Subversion or Git.

By: mario

mario — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:46:38 +0000

Believe I’ve worked with enough .NET monkeys who only drink from the MSDN well that your story applies to *many* .NET developers. There are a few like Rob Conery of Subsonic fame who do not wear blinders.

By: Daryl de Reus

Daryl de Reus — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:30:57 +0000

I’m new to the functional programming languages, but are there specific advantages of F# as compared to C# for example? If there are, can they be mixed like it’s possible to mix vb and c#?