Software anti-formalism
The single most interesting critique of the domain of "software engineering" that I've read in quite a while can be found here.
The whole field is currently rife with recurring arguments that fall under the aegis of what is discussed in this article: whether static or dynamic typing is better, whether software engineering is really engineering, whether detailed specifications and requirements are an important first step in the whole process of answering a problem, and what the terms "hacker" and "exploratory" connote anyway.
Some other links for and against here and here, the first is a critique and the second is a PDF of the slides from the OOPSLA talk that inspired the article in the first place.
EDIT: I don't know, maybe it's not that interesting, or what have you, after all. I might have had my expectations lowered by an excruciatingly boring and micro-managed day at work.
EDIT: Well, perhaps it is interesting, but only once you delve a little. The foundational idea of "modernist" software practices discovering "post-modernist" software practices is hackneyed in advance. A pluralism of perspectives on design, and a discourse to describe the betterment of systems-in-progress seem better.
The whole field is currently rife with recurring arguments that fall under the aegis of what is discussed in this article: whether static or dynamic typing is better, whether software engineering is really engineering, whether detailed specifications and requirements are an important first step in the whole process of answering a problem, and what the terms "hacker" and "exploratory" connote anyway.
Some other links for and against here and here, the first is a critique and the second is a PDF of the slides from the OOPSLA talk that inspired the article in the first place.
EDIT: I don't know, maybe it's not that interesting, or what have you, after all. I might have had my expectations lowered by an excruciatingly boring and micro-managed day at work.
EDIT: Well, perhaps it is interesting, but only once you delve a little. The foundational idea of "modernist" software practices discovering "post-modernist" software practices is hackneyed in advance. A pluralism of perspectives on design, and a discourse to describe the betterment of systems-in-progress seem better.