Tue, Feb 26, 2008
Java Rant
Posted to Code category
When I started working as a programmer, I used assembly language. (Uphill. In the snow. Both ways.) And much of my work when I was an actual programmer, not a CM/Build geek, was in C. I've debugged C++ builds, and VB and most everything else, but not really programmed in them.
Lately I've been working on Java builds generated through an IDE tool called WSAD, and googling for solutions to some situations I'm encountering, and all I can say is, "Good God. if the future is java and java programmers, nobody needs to worry about the Singularity happening in our lifetime." The level of publicly acceptable practice in Java programming is just appalling.
And it isn't the fault of the IDE: they don't bother to use it to set things up properly even by Java and WSAD standards. They just do whatever half-assed trick will more or less make it work. And you can forget about clean builds...
Took me a couple of hours to refactor a build in a way the developers claimed wasn't possible, and I don't even claim to be a Java programmer.
Mutter. Mutter. Whippersnappers. At least I know what a pointer is. And how to use an include path or classpath.
A related article by Joel Spolsky addresses some related problems with Java. The article is from 2005, but I saw it referenced recently somewhere.
Now I need to write a polite email explaining what I've done to their configuration so far by way of proof of concept.