December 30, 2007
MarkBernstein.org
 

Not a ghetto

Rail programmer Zed Shaw has lost patience with management and, for our New Year's entertainment, has burned his bridges in a blazing indictment nailed to the wall of the Web 2.0 industrial complex.

He calls it, "Rails is a Ghetto." This is wrong: he's not arguing that Rails is a place where the authorities confine people like him, walling them off from the rest of the populace. He's arguing that the Rails neighborhood is turning into a slum. That's a different thing.

But it's sobering to read that a consultant/hired gun, working in a very hot technology, could write that

"During 2006 I was effectively homeless for about 4-6 months out of the year and made no monnever code again.

"Please especially Four-line methods used to be deplorable but lots of people now consider them respectable and even desirable, especially if the object is going to have lots of clients or lots of variation. Short methods can require less documentation — that's the point of “the source is the doc” — and sometimes short methods can let you scrimp on unit tests as well.

A good new year's resolution for all: tech flames are not necessarily good for your inner light.

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