buzzwords out of control
2003-04-10 21:37:11.432242+02 by
Dan Lyke
2 comments
Okay, one software engineering comment. I remember being really excited about discovering Finite State Machines. It was while coding up an "is this a valid MS-DOS filename" application, and a table driven solution reduced the problem to a tight loop and an easily modified and understood array. But do we have to give them a new buzzword name to sell them? The mostly content-free /. review of Practical Statecharts in C/C++ seems to indicate that not only has computer science teaching not improved much since I quit (and we'll leave off the number of alleged "software developers" who think that systems analysis is superfluous), people find it necessary to wrap up old ideas in new buzzwords to keep their consulting businesses going.
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comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment made: 2003-04-11 15:32:43.665407+02 by:
meuon
The new paradigm of software philosophy is to free yourself of the restraints of actual code and the dirty little practical level understanding that mechanics like me are capable of. Buzzwords are important: XML is more than 'nicely formatted ascii text'.. Statecharts are more than 'finite state machines'.. or even nicely done code with various modes.. Obviously there are much deeper meanings to these things than I can possibly fathom and a new vernacular of the priesthood is required in order to be of the inner circle.
#Comment made: 2003-04-13 01:52:03.833912+02 by:
Shawn
I'd have to agree with meuon on the changing state of the... priesthood (I like that ;-). The primary instructor for my Internet Application degree grades us, partly, on the attractiveness of our code. Yes, he is also an XML zealot. Okay, maybe not a zealot but the pitch of his voice goes up and his eyes widen when he talks about it - specifically, how cool it is. He will listen to what I have to say about its downside but he waves them away in light of the overwhelming benefits.
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