Are We Worrying About The Wrong Things?

Frank Kelly has written an excellent article entitled:"Are we worrying about the wrong things?" It's mainly aimed at the Java community, but it has relevance to all of us. The points he makes are problems in any programming language (minus the closure and language debate ones). It's great reading.

I agree whole-heartily with him. After awhile, I get tired of the same old language wars (pick your tools, know them well, and kick booty). We all need to know our tools better.

The core of the article is the message: Get better at your craft and mentor others on what you learn. It's up to us to make our community better. The time of being smug is over. We're in the same boat, let's help each other out.

I love Smalltalk, but I'm not afraid to use other tools. And I really don't mind Java that much (most of my rants come looking at poorly written Java). Good design is good design no matter what language. Yet, I see under-abundance of talk on design. I'm still shocked at meeting people who have never read Rebecca Wirfs-Brock's excellent "Object Oriented Design" or "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programming". Both excellent books on design that transcend language. If you don't have them, buy them now and get "Code Complete" as well.

Anyway, the article is awesome and is a good wake-up call to us to look at the bigger picture.